Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY -- 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 it 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."
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."
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.
That all fell apart when Hicks ran out of steam in the fourth. He had never thrown more than 42/3 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.
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Posted by: On: 6/8/2009
Comment Title: OH WELL
OH WELL...A&M WILL WIN THE BIG12 SOUTH FOOTBALL THEN THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!
Posted by: On: 6/1/2009
Comment Title: re:pablo
"out of the hat huh?" eat your own words. so happened to forth worth? @ least we are headed to the super. so much for preseason #1.
Posted by: Pablo On: 5/27/2009
Comment Title: Real season just getting started
OK, so the 'horns pulled a rabbit out of the hat??. Means diddly if they don't make it to the CWS, don't you think?
Posted by: Real Baseball Intelligence On: 5/25/2009
Comment Title: MLB Draft
Real Baseball Intelligence (RBI), a leading resource in the evaluation of amateur baseball talent and draft coverage, offers its 2009 Baseball Draft Guide. The Guide includes RBI's Top 400 draft prospects (including Kyle Gibson), scouting reports of the top ten players at each position, a mock draft and more. It is available at withthefirstpick.net/guide
Posted by: miller58 On: 5/25/2009
Comment Title: WILL THE CHILDRESS STRAIN, TURGEON STRAIN OR SHERMAN STRAIN OF LOSING1/RECRUITING1 FLU BE CONTAGIOUS TO WOMENS SPORTS NOW?
My personal opinions:____With baseball, football and basketball on life support and critical, the good ol' boys simply must go!_____We can't stand any more horrible coaching hire decisions?_____miller58
Posted by: On: 5/25/2009
Comment Title: IT WASN'T MEANT TO BE
UT ONCE AGAIN PROVED ITSELF. JUST LIKE THE FOOTBALL OF '08. THEY WERE UNDERRATED DURING PRESEASON. INFACT, THEY ARE NOT EVEN THAT. BUT MAN, HERE THEY GO AGAIN. THEY ARE SO USED OF BEING UNDER THE RADAR. PLUS, THEY HAVE AN ALCOHOLIC COACH. MAN! WHAT IS GOIN' ON?
Posted by: On: 5/25/2009
Comment Title: Double-double
reg. & post championships: UT 8, Nebraska 7, A&M 4, Tech 2, **A look at the regular-season champion and the Big 12 tournament champion since the inception of the Big 12. Texas became the fourth team to double up. Texas (2002 and 2009) and Nebraska (2001 and 2005) have each done it twice Year Reg. season Tourney 1997 Texas Tech Oklahoma 1998 Texas A&M Texas Tech 1999 Texas A&M Nebraska 2000 Baylor Nebraska 2001 Nebraska Nebraska 2002 Texas Texas 2003 Nebraska Texas 2004 Texas Oklahoma State 2005 Nebraska Nebraska 2006 Texas Kansas 2007 Texas Texas A&M 2008 Texas A&M Texas 2009 Texas Texas Citation: big12sports.com