Longhorns' Quiet Offense Forces 'Bitter Ending' at MCWS

The Texas Longhorns' baseball season came to an end Tuesday night at the Men's College World Series.

One win away from the semifinals, Texas fell 2-0 to the Georgia Bulldogs, who first knocked the Horns into the losers' bracket at the start of play in Omaha.

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The Bulldogs prevailed in the pitching duel with an RBI double in the fifth inning, and a fortunate break as a base runner reached on an overturned catch call in a chaotic seventh frame. The runner came around to score on a tag-up at third, where the Longhorns fielders collided in the outfield and couldn't gun him down at home in time.

The frustrating sequence dropped Texas to 46-15 on the season, ending head coach Jim Schlossnagle's second season overall in Austin, and first bringing Texas back to the MCWS.

Despite a phenomenal start by Longhorns lefty Luke Harrison, Schlossnagle noted how the Texas offense also couldn't produce against Georgia's pitching.

"Bounces just didn't go our way tonight," the coach said. "Proud of our team and the season we had finishing in Omaha, and look forward to being back."

Harrison struck out eight of first 10 Georgia at-bats, and reached double-digit punch-outs by the end of the fourth inning. He completed 5.2 innings allowing two hits and one run while striking out 11 overall. He was relieved by Sam Cozart in a bases loaded jam in the sixth, but the freshman and national Stopper of the Year got one of his six strikeouts to stop the threat. Cozart finished with 3.1 innings, allowed three hits, and gave up Georgia's second run that proved costly for the Longhorns' chances.

The base runner barely slid under catcher Carson Tinney's tag on the tag-up from third.

"I think that I did what I was trying to do," Tinney said when asked about whether he meant to place the tag where he did. "Get the ball, put it on him as quick as I possibly could. I think there are different ways I coulda gone about that, but I think I did what I was trying to do."

One day removed from eliminating Alabama with a 14-run offensive outburst, the Longhorns were held to just four hits against the Bulldogs. Georgia's Dylan Vigue and Justin Byrd combined to allow two hits apiece and strike out 12 Texas batters.

The No. 5 thru 9 spots in the Texas lineup went 1-15 at the plate in the do-or-die game.

The Longhorns only had seven instances all season where the offense was held to four or less hits. Two of those times came in the two matchups with Georgia in Omaha.

"[Vigue] just did a good job of using his pitches to his advantage," Tinney said about Tuesday's game. "I thought we swung at some pitches we shouldn't have, and made him have a successful night."

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"I'm glad that we made it and were able to come and compete here," Harrison, a senior, said about the Longhorns reaching the MCWS for the first time in four years.

"You get here, and you get a bunch of good teams playing baseball together and you kinda just go let the chips fall where they may. Couple things didn't go our way, but very proud of this team and how far we've come to get here ... bitter ending, but I'll remember this time with a smile forever."