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Published Saturday June 25, 2005 Texas powers past Florida BY STEVEN PIVOVAR
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

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		PHOTO GALLERY
		»	Texas 4, Florida 2 - June 25, 2005

There is something about pitching in Nebraska that brings out the best in Texas right-hander Adrian Alaniz.

Will Crouch high-fives his teammates after hitting a solo home run in the top of the third inning.

The redshirt freshman won his third, and most important, game of the season in the Cornhusker state Saturday night to put the Longhorns within one win of their sixth national championship. Alaniz stymied Florida for seven innings, then sweated out a gut-wrenching finish as Texas posted a 4-2 win over the Gators in the opening game of the College World Series championship round.

Texas can lock up the title today with a victory in the 2 p.m. second game of the best-of-three series. A Florida win at Rosenblatt Stadium would force a third game Monday night.

"We don't like the outcome but we battled our hearts out to the very end," Florida coach Pat McMahon said. "We'll continue to do that."

The stellar pitching of Alaniz, combined with home runs by Will Crouch and David Maroul, appeared to settle Saturday's outcome early. The Longhorns built a 4-0 advantage after four innings, and the steely-nerved Alaniz protected the lead by holding the Gators to two hits through the first seven innings.

Things finally got interesting for the turnout of 25,958 in the eighth when 48-22 Florida used a bunt single by Justin Tordi and a walk to Stephen Barton to get Alaniz out of the game. Texas called on J. Brent Cox for the 105th time in his three-season career, and college baseball's top closer put his teammates through some anxious moments before sealing the win.

Cox struck out Jeff Corsaletti and Adam Davis but a passed ball moved Florida's runners into scoring position. That brought up Matt LaPorta, the national leader in home runs with 26, to face Cox.

LaPorta bounced a 1-1 pitch up the middle to score Tordi and Barton. Cox then walked Brian Jeroloman and Matt Gaski to load the bases, and the nerves that hadn't fazed Alaniz finally bubbled up.

"There definitely was a lot of nervousness going through my body in the eighth inning," Alaniz said. "A double down the line or a base hit there, and it's a different ballgame. A lot of things went through my mind right there."

The one reassuring thought was that the 55-16 Longhorns had Cox on the mound.

"J. Brent's our guy, and he's out there for a reason," Alaniz said. "Any of those guys in the bullpen, in that situation, want to have the ball and be the guy to do the job for us. Fortunately, J. Brent's been doing that for us all year."

Cox extracted the Longhorns from the jam by blowing a 2-2 pitch past Brian Leclerc. The Texas right-hander then smoked the Gators in the ninth, striking out pinch-hitter Chris Woods, Tordi and Barton to finish off his nation-leading 18th save of the season.

"J. Brent reached down inside of himself to get that final out of the (eighth) inning," Texas coach Augie Garrido said. "He did a remarkable job of coming out ready to pitch the next inning. To come out and be as aggressive and pitch as effectively as he did in the ninth was the most remarkable thing of the night to me.

"That doesn't happen very often, and there's something special about that."

There's undoubtedly something special about Alaniz, who posted a 48-1 record as a high school pitcher in Sinton, Texas. He also was an all-state quarterback as a junior and led his team to the state finals as a senior.

After redshirting last season, Alaniz worked his way into the Longhorns' 2005 rotation. He posted his second win of the season April 9 at Nebraska. He picked up victory No. 7 in pitching the Longhorns past Baylor eight days ago in Texas' opening game of the CWS.

He irritated a blister on his pitching hand in that game but said that proved to be no factor against Florida. Nor did he suffer from any jitters as the hours wound down to his biggest start of the season.

"It was kind of weird that I wasn't nervous going into either of these two games here," said Alaniz, who improved to 8-3. "There were huge crowds out there, and usually people get nervous. But I was zoned in and so into the ballgame that I had tunnel vision.

"In both games, our hitters did a great job of getting me that one run early to give me some confidence. That set the tone for us."

The Longhorns put Alaniz ahead before he took the mound, thanks to a misplay by Florida center fielder Jeff Corsaletti. Nick Peoples had opened the game with a walk, and a sacrifice and infield grounder advanced him to third with two outs.

Crouch rocketed a pitch from losing pitcher Stephen Locke to center field that momentarily froze Corsaletti. By the time he turned to retreat, the ball sailed over his head for a double.

Florida also committed three errors, although none figured into the scoring. Texas had two errors but used a pair of double plays in the first two innings to keep Alaniz's comfort level high.

"I thought both teams showed their nerves early on defense," Garrido said. "Then we capitalized on some pitches in the zone."

Crouch made it 2-0 in the third with seventh homer of the season. Maroul, who joined Crouch with three hits against the Gators, hiked the lead to 4-0 when he launched a two-run homer, his 10th of the season, into the left-field bleachers with one out in the fourth.

With the way Alaniz was pitching, Texas' four-run cushion might have well have been 40. He allowed a second-inning single to Jeroloman and a sixth-inning, bloop double to LaPorta while not allowing Florida to advance a man past second in the first seven innings.

He struck out five and pitched around four walks as well as the first-inning error.

"He came out and did his job tonight," LaPorta said. "Our approach could have been better. I, for one, probably was trying to do too much with one swing of the bat. You can't do that."

The Gators will need to remember that today, or their season could be over. Texas, too, must stay focused.

"Whenever I've tried to personalize the game and I've wanted to win for my reasons, we stink," Garrido said. "We'll go play, and whatever happens happens. We have a great opportunity, and we're excited about it."

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