How about a little Red River drama on the diamond? The No. 9 Longhorns (16-6, 3-1) and rival Oklahoma Sooners (12-9, 0-1) traded strong bullpen performances and zeroes deep into a gorgeous night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. But the burnt orange and white would be the group jubilantly celebrating. Thanks to an excellent, competitive at-bat by Douglas Hodo, the Longhorns beat Oklahoma 4-3 in 11 innings.
“I just thought it was a great Friday night baseball game. Two really good teams going at it. What do you say? I mean, great pitching from both teams,” said David Pierce. “They made one mistake, one error, and we made one and ours costs us. But what I loved about our team is, you know, we got flat for about 30 seconds, and they just kind of bowed their neck and kept playing. Just a great job.”
Following Mitchell Daly’s two-out walk, Hodo put together his most impressive at-bat of the season. Down in the count 0-2, the starting outfielder was determined not to be beat. He took a ball, fouled off two pitches and then received a mistake he could hammer.
“I got myself down with two strikes swinging at a bad pitch, but just kept fouling off pitches trying to fight, stay in there and wait for a mistake. And he kind of left the slider where I could do some damage with it,” said Hodo about his game-winning at-bat.
A slider left up in the zone met Hodo’s barrel, and he sent a hard liner into the left-center gap. Daly, who doesn’t lack speed, was able to get a good break on contact with two outs, was waved around third and scored easily. The Longhorn team met Daly near home plate and then sprinted out towards second base and chased the game’s hero into center field.
“Made good contact with it and ended up in center field with my shirt off,” said Hodo about the moments after the big knock.
