Omaha – Texas is back on top with another College World Series championship.
Kyle McCulloch pitched 6 2/3 strong innings in 93-degree heat and David Maroul and Chance Wheeless homered Sunday to lead the Longhorns past Florida 6-2 to win the school’s sixth CWS title.
“It’s pretty sweet all the time. Honey’s honey,” said Texas coach Augie Garrido, who has won two titles with the Longhorns after three at Cal State Fullerton.
Strengthened by a gutsy run through the regional and super regional rounds, when they had to win five elimination games just to get to Omaha, the Longhorns (56-16) completed the sweep of the Gators in the best-of-three championship series. They won the first game 4-2 on Saturday, and were unbeaten in five games at the CWS.
“We got hot at the right time. It was hard to stop us. It all came together at the end for us,” reliever J. Brent Cox said. “It definitely wasn’t easy. It was tough.”
Florida (48-23) was making its first appearance in the championship round, and the Gators couldn’t get their offense going until they were behind 6-0.
Florida coach Pat McMahon acknowledged that Texas’ experience was a plus.
“When your players have been here it is a help, an asset, because you know the expectations,” McMahon said. “I do think it was a factor, but we were ready to play.”
Cox got the final five outs, including the clincher with a strikeout, and Texas raced to the field and piled on one another in celebration.
Texas’ six College World Series titles are second only to Southern California, which has 12. The Longhorns’ run of success is extensive and impressive: They have made more CWS appearances (32) and won more games there (78) than any other school.
The Longhorns most recently won the championship in 2002 and were runners-up a year ago to Cal State Fullerton.
Maroul, who was 3-for-4 with four RBIs on Sunday, was chosen the outstanding player of the series.
“It’s a lot better than last year’s outcome, of course. A great way to end a season,” Maroul said. “To come out and help your team out as much as you can feels good. I just didn’t think as much. I relaxed more.”
Florida 000 000 200 – 2 6 1
Texas 010 104 00x – 6 10 0
Ball, Falkenbach (6), O’Day (6) and Jeroloman; McCulloch, Boone (7), Cox (8) and Teagarden.
W – McCulloch 12-4. L – Ball 7-6. Sv – Cox (19). HRs – Florida, Leclerc (15). Texas, Wheeless (6), Maroul (11).
