Sporting a banged-up hand and a new nickname, Cameron "four-finger" Rupp still was able to provide the pop that pushed Texas to its fourth Big 12 baseball title.
Playing with his right ring finger bandaged up, Rupp hit a grand slam during an 11-run outburst in the fourth inning as the top-seeded Longhorns beat Missouri 12-7 Sunday to repeat as conference champions.
"It felt a lot better today than it did yesterday, that's for sure," said Rupp, who split his finger open a day earlier when he smashed against a Kansas State player's bat while trying to throw out a baserunner from behind the plate.
Rupp moved from catcher to designated hitter and had the big hit in an inning filled with free passes from the Tigers. He earned a hearty pat on the back from his coach, who called him "four-finger Rupp" in his postgame news conference.
It took four relievers to get out of the fourth after Missouri starter Scooter Hicks (5-3) let the first two hitters reach base. Texas' big inning was fueled by four walks and two batters who were hit by pitches.
Rupp then delivered the exclamation point with a line drive that cleared the 400-foot mark in center field at the Bricktown Ballpark to make it 11-1.
"I didn't think it was going to get out of the ballpark," Rupp said. "I knew I hit it good off the bat. I wasn't sure if it was going to be high enough."
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
The Longhorns (41-13-1) became the first team to win back-to-back titles since they pulled off the feat in 2002 and 2003. They also matched Nebraska with a league-high four conference crowns.
"I think it's a feel-good tournament," said Texas coach Augie Garrido, whose team scored 34 runs in four games after coming in with the nation's top ERA. "I think it was a tournament where the hitters could take a lot of confidence from their performances. They were steady. They were good.
"We've been criticized for being a weak-hitting team, and we responded. We're hitting the ball hard, we're hitting it often and we're hitting it far."
During the inning, Texas learned that it would host an NCAA tournament regional at Disch-Falk Field for the first time since 2006. The Longhorns also hosted a regional in 2007, but at a minor-league ballpark in Round Rock, Texas.
Texas has been eliminated in regional play each of the past three years after wining the College World Series in 2005.
"Even though we've hosted, we haven't hosted on a field where we have the home-field advantage," Garrido said.
Missouri (34-25) ran out of pitching depth in only its second appearance in the Big 12 championship game, following a 13-inning loss to Oklahoma State in 2004. Led by strong starts from pro prospect Kyle Gibson and Adam Tepesch, the third-seeded Tigers had advanced to the title game despite having the fewest hits in the eight-team field during pool play.
Mizzou still became the first team in conference history to play in the football, men's basketball and baseball championship games in the same academic year. And it seemed like the Tigers had karma in their favor after the men's basketball and softball teams had both won Big 12 titles in Oklahoma City this year.
School administrators even gave coach Tim Jamieson a fresh reminder as the team left campus.
That all fell apart when Hicks ran out of steam in the fourth. He had never thrown more than 4 2-3 innings in a college game and said he was trying to get over an illness on top of that.
"That was probably my biggest opponent," Hicks said. "I just tried to go out there and give it everything I had today and try to win this game. I just came up a little bit short."
Hicks issued a leadoff walk to Brandon Belt and then gave up a single to Michael Torres, who had been trying to sacrifice before swinging away with a full count.
Ian Berger replaced Hicks and didn't retire any of the three batters he faced, sandwiching walks around a two-run single by Brandon Loy. It snowballed from there as left-fielder Aaron Senne misplayed Preston Clark's fly ball into a single and relievers Ryan Clubb and Phil McCormick beaned consecutive batters.
"We gave them eight base-runners. One was a bunt they tried to give us and we couldn't capitalize on that, and then the dropped fly ball. It wasn't an error, but it should have been an out. You add those two to the walks and hit-by-pitches, that's tough to overcome," Jamieson said.
The Tigers came back with three runs off of reliever Austin Dicharry (7-2) in the top of the fifth, but the rally fizzled after center fielder Connor Rowe made a diving catch on a sacrifice fly by Greg Folgia that made it 12-4. Missouri added another three runs in the ninth without getting a hit.
Garrido said the sloppy finish, featuring the last of the Longhorns' 10 walks and four errors in the game, would give the team some areas to focus on heading into NCAA regional play.
"We need to put the wheels back on the car," Garrido said. "It was a rough race. And we've got to tune up the engine again and get everything straightened out."
Notes:@ Jamieson had held out hope that Missouri's appearance in the title game, combined with geography, would land the Tigers an NCAA regional site for only the second time since 1965. But he was more disappointed the Big 12 got only two regional sites, Texas and Oklahoma. "I think the conference, whether it be us or Kansas State or somebody else, certainly earned a third site," Jamieson said. "People are on us about, `You need to get a team to Omaha.' Well, you know what? Reward the conference for the regular season and make it easier for us to get a team to Omaha." ... With Clark replacing Rupp behind the plate, the Longhorns gave up three stolen bases -- including two when Clark threw wildly into center field. ... Missouri is holding out hope catcher Travis Coleman, who has missed the past month with a broken right hand, can return for NCAA tournament. "I'm confident he'll be back," Jamieson said. "But the question is how good can he be?"
