There is no good way to lose a trip to the College World Series, but Texas baseball found one of the worst ways on Monday.
With their best-of-3 Super Regional series against Stanford tied at 1-1, the Longhorns found themselves on the verge of a walk-off loss in the ninth inning of the winner-take-all Game 3. After opening the frame with two straight outs, Texas pitcher Lucas Gordon allowed a double to Stanford’s Alberto Rios and walked Malcolm Moore.
Fortunately, Gordon got what he needed to get out of the inning with an easy fly ball from Drew Bowser. Unfortunately, Texas right field Dylan Campbell lost the ball in the lights.
After a couple seconds of helpless looking, Campbell watched the very catchable ball land several feet away from him to give Stanford the 6-5 walk-off win. As the Stanford players celebrated, multiple Texas players doubled over in disbelief, while Campbell put in his heads in his hands.
Because balls lost in the lights are traditionally scored a hit, the play was recorded as an RBI single and not an error on Campbell.
Stanford, which saw controversy in the previous game when starting pitcher Quinn Matthews threw 156 pitches, will advance to face No. 1 ranked Wake Forest in Omaha, with games scheduled to begin on Friday.
Dylan Campbell’s huge season ends with a nightmare
Texas, meanwhile, will end a season on a bad play from arguably its best player.
Campbell finished the season hitting .339/.436/.603 with 13 homers, 65 runs, 49 RBI and 25 stolen bases, with a 38-game hit streak, standout defense in right field and the local paper saying he “may be the best right fielder in school history.”
In fact, he was a huge reason why the Longhorns saw the bottom of the ninth inning in the first place. One inning earlier, Campbell tied the game with a two-out single.
In the bottom of the inning, Campbell made maybe the throw of the year to get Stanford’s Saborn Campbell at third base and end the frame.
It is always tempting to judge an athlete based on what happened last, but anyone saying Campbell is the reason why Texas lost will be ignoring so much of what happened earlier in the game, not to mention the rest of the season.
