June 5, 2007

COMMENTARY: KIRK BOHLS
In the end, Horns couldn't handle the pressure
End of season due to too much UC Irvine, too little UT pitching

ROUND ROCK — It's official. Even with the downpour that hit Dell Diamond an hour after Texas' loss to UC Irvine on Monday, the Longhorns are experiencing what an extended drought — relatively speaking — feels like.

Two consecutive years without a trip to the College World Series, for a program that keeps house in Omaha, certainly qualifies. Texas has made more visits there (32) than any other college baseball team, but won't return there this year because of shrinkage under the massive expectations facing its players and coaches.

Too much water will do that.

So will too much UC Irvine.

Mostly, the Longhorns lost because UCI played better and Texas played as if it had everything to lose, which eventually it did.

"We never got the edge that makes this game look easy," Texas coach Augie Garrido said, noting his team's seven errors in four games. "The fundamentals got away from us. It all came from the spirit that we were trying too hard."

For some reason that not even the UT coaching staff can explain, the Big 12 regular-season champs lost all the momentum of sweeping a three-game series against Texas A&M two weeks ago, and never came close to recapturing the unmistakable swagger that defines Texas.

As Garrido tells it, the players struggled with the harsh glare they perform under and the heavy responsibility of playing for a program of this pedigree. Besides not having a dominant ace to match UCI's Scott Gorgen, the Longhorns weren't up to the pressure.

To put it into perspective, Texas lost to the Anteaters, a team without a single postseason win in program history before Friday. On paper, that's like Glenn Close getting beat out of an acting role by Nicole Ritchie. But UCI is more than worthy, a team Garrido called "the best 2 seed in America" and one that can definitely win it all.

Garrido even saw his own image in UCI. And why not? Anteaters coach Dave Serrano patterns his program after Garrido's Cal State Fullerton, where Serrano played.

"They're fighting their (rear ends) off for an identity," Garrido said. "We have our own demons. Our demon is expectations. We'd like to be the underdog."

That ain't happening. Quite simply, Texas underperformed.

But Texas will get no sympathy. Most teams, if not all, would trade for the Longhorns' resources, facilities, tradition and wherewithal.

Any number of excuses would do. Because of stadium renovation, the Longhorns weren't playing on their friendly carpet at Disch-Falk Field that so befuddles opponents. They lost two key regulars in the lineup to injury, and their replacements had three hits in 25 at-bats. Their pitching was thinned by surgery to two key players — one who had won 13 games over two seasons — and Texas ran into one of the college game's superior pitchers, Gorgen.

All those factors are valid, as was Garrido's decision to lift dangerous all-tournament DH Russell Moldenhauer for a pinch hitter with three hits all year.

The staff failed to stick with its starting pitchers long enough and went to the bullpen at the oddest of times.

Asked if he regretted any moves, Garrido quipped, "Yeah, I'd bring in (Roger) Clemens."

Garrido never loses his sense of humor, just regionals, lately, and he knows his is a what-have-you-done-lately business.

"I don't think we played that poorly," Texas assistant Tommy Harmon said. "And Joseph Krebs had the most courageous effort I've seen in all my years at Texas."

Any fallout will be minimal, although the team stands to lose as many as six position players, starting pitchers Adrian Alaniz and James Russell, and relievers Krebs and Randy Boone to graduation or the draft.

Alaniz and Russell would be wise to return, as should catcher Preston Clark. But fans can likely say goodbye to sophomore-eligible third baseman Bradley Suttle and Kyle Russell, the team's best major-league prospects.

No coach should be fired. Insiders rave about pitching coach Skip Johnson's organizational skills, but even he admits he's had to learn how to cope better with sudden momentum changes during games. And should San Jac recruit Garrett Clyde (David Clyde's nephew) materialize as a closer and shortstop Bobby Buckner (Bill's son) produce instantly, Texas could be as good as ever in 2008.

It needs to be. They're Texas.

Don't for a second think next year will be a rebuilding season. Texas doesn't rebuild. It reminds why it's still the best program in the nation. Louisiana State and Southern Cal — new and old money, in college baseball terms — didn't even make the NCAA field.

"College baseball is 70 percent better than it was 10 years ago," Harmon said. "In a four-team regional then, the top seeds breezed through. College baseball is just on the upswing."

And Texas is worse for it.