 "Photo: Paul Chouy/The Daily Texan")
OMAHA, Neb. — It ended with a whimper.
There was no last stand, no ovation from the crowd as one last swing of the bat threatened to rewrite this story one more time. Instead, there was only the inevitable heartbreak, slowly closing its grasp around the dream season and pulling it down to reality.
Then there were tears. Choked back and hidden away under sweat-stained, burnt orange hats, wiped away on dirt-covered sleeves. They looked on, hopeless and helpless, as Louis Coleman threw one last disappearing slider. They looked on as gold and purple streamers covered the infield and Louisiana State University was crowned the new king of college baseball.
In a season filled with impossible comebacks and heroic performances, the Longhorns finally ran out of magic, one game short. With slumped shoulders and reddening eyes, they battled against the odds one last time, but found only zeros littered on the scoreboard that finally read: LSU 11, Texas 4.
All along, their run to a national championship seemed impossible, propelled by a pitching staff full of sophomores and freshmen and an offense that couldn’t score with the big boys of college baseball.
Yet when the dust and confetti settled, the Longhorns held the title in their sights, only to see it slip away.
“I don’t think we lost this tournament,” said Texas head coach Augie Garrido, fighting back tears of his own after the game. “LSU won it. They did everything they needed to beat us, twice. They deserve to be champions.”
Indeed, the Tigers took Texas’ best punch but stood tall. They roughed up Texas closer Austin Wood twice. They came back to claim a win in game one after allowing five homers and trailing by two with one out left. They overcame two poor starts from aces Coleman and Anthony Ranaudo, seeing Texas’ best rally and coming up with a little bit of their own magic.
Along the way, there were mistakes. The normally sure-handed Horns made an error in every game of the championship series. Garrido’s gambles — the engine that pushed Texas to Omaha — backfired, with pitchers being pulled for ineffective relievers and pinch hitters failing to produce in vital spots.
“I’m not going to be willing to pick our team apart,” Garrido said. “I don’t like to take credit for the good things players do, and I’m not going to take the blame. They beat us.”
So as the eyes of Texas shift to next year, the Longhorns are left to deal with today. For senior stalwarts Travis Tucker, Michael Torres, Preston Clark and Wood, there are no more tomorrows. With tears welling in their eyes, they exchanged hugs and goodbyes in the dugout with their now former teammates.
“We’re here for each other,” Tucker said. “It’s been amazing, everyone pulls for each other, we love one another.”
It was a fun ride while it lasted, but after a while, all good things must come to an end.
