Adrian Rodriguez hit for the cycle with five hits and seven RBIs to lift Texas to a 14-2 win over Alabama in a College World Series elimination game Monday afternoon in Omaha, Neb.
The sixth-seeded Longhorns jumped ahead early, scoring three in the first off Alabama starter Zane Adams on a trio of doubles. The only late-game drama came courtesy of a scoring change that awarded Rodriguez a triple, overturning an error call made innings earlier.
Ethan Mendoza drove in the first run with a double down the left-field line before Rodriguez followed with a two-run double to right.
After the seventh-seeded Crimson Tide answered with one in the second, Texas poured it on in the bottom half with four more runs to blow the game open.
All of the Longhorns’ runs in the inning came with two outs.
Anthony Pack Jr. made it 4-1 with an RBI single before Mendoza drove in another with a single through the right side.
Mendoza looped a hit into left center, racing around to third as two runs came across. The ball dropped between Alabama left fielder Eric Hines and center fielder Bryce Fowler.
Hines was initially charged with an error, limiting Mendoza to a single. Late in the game – after Mendoza had added a single and a home run – the error was rescinded and Mendoza’s hit was scored a triple to complete the cycle and a 5-for-5 day at the plate.
The cycle was the third in Men’s College World Series history and the first since Tennessee’s Christian Moore in 2024.
Rodriguez led off the fifth with a single, then blasted a two-run home run to right in the sixth inning.
Earlier in the sixth, Pack delivered a two-run homer of his own.
Alabama (42-21) scored its second run on John Lemm’s solo home run in the fourth.
Texas starter Ruger Riojas (6-2) held the Crimson Tide to two runs on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in six innings.
The Longhorns added three more in the eighth, including another RBI double from Rodriguez.
Mendoza finished 3 for 4 with two runs and two RBIs while Pack was 3 for 5 with three runs and four RBIs.
Rodriguez, whose seven RBIs tied a MCWS record, is 7 for 8 in the MCWS.
Texas (46-14) will take on the loser of Monday’s late game between Georgia and Oklahoma in an elimination game Tuesday.
Monday’s win was the Longhorns’ first in the MCWS since 2021.
–Field Level Media
