Dylan Campbell saves Texas' season with walk-off winner in East Carolina super regional

GREENVILLE, N.C. — Texas' Dylan Campbell discovered a way to twice silence a record crowd Saturday at Clark-LeClair Stadium.

The right fielder led the Longhorns to a 9-8 victory over East Carolina in a must-win game at the Greenville Super Regional. Campbell hit a solo home run to complete an improbable rally and give Texas a short-lived lead in the eighth inning, then won the game with a walk-off RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

Texas (46-20) trailed by as many as five runs, but its late rally sets up a decisive Game 3 on Sunday. The winner will advance to the College World Series.

"That just goes to say who we are as a team," Campbell said. "No matter what the score is or how late in the game it is, we just know that we're never out of it. We just keep fighting till the end, and it happened to come out in our favor today."

More: Texas falls into early super regional hole with late collapse at East Carolina

Texas, just as it did in Friday's 13-7 loss in the best-of-three series opener, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. On Friday, Murphy Stehly hit a two-run homer in the beginning frame. On Saturday, he contributed an RBI single in the bottom of the first and later scored.

That 2-0 lead remained intact until ECU's Bryson Worrell homered to lead off the fourth inning. Then, in the fifth, Worrell's two-run double and Jacob Jenkins-Cowart's three-run home run put East Carolina (46-20) back in control. The Pirates added an insurance run in the top of the seventh to make it 7-2.

But as East Carolina inched closer to its first CWS trip, Texas showed some fight. Three UT home runs — Douglas Hodo III's two-run blast in the seventh followed by Skyler Messinger's three-run shot and Campbell's solo homer in the eighth — stunned the announced crowd of 5,807 and gave the Longhorns the lead again.

But down to its final out in the top of the ninth, East Carolina tied it again 8-8 on Jacob Starling's solo homer.

Not long after he served up that game-tying swing, UT reliever Andre Duplantier II was met by Campbell in the dugout.

"DC was the first person to come up to me and was like, ‘We got you; we got you right here,’” Duplantier said. "I was confident in the team."

To open the bottom of the ninth, Ivan Melendez singled. He eventually wound up at third as Texas loaded the bases with two outs.

That set up Campbell for a heroic moment. The second-year sophomore worked a 1-2 count against Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman before smacking a ball that sailed to the fence in right field. Melendez easily scored.

"I just knew that it was going to be a lot of people on their feet, a lot of noise and stuff," Campbell said. "You got to want to be in that situation, and I wanted it, and I was ready for it."

More: Sidelined in 2021, Texas pitcher Andre Duplantier II is working his way back on the mound

Campbell's hit made a winner of Duplantier, who allowed two hits over 2⅔ innings of relief. Duplantier missed the 2021 season with an elbow injury and entered Saturday with a 5.60 ERA.

"I'm really proud of Dre for stepping up," Texas coach David Pierce said. "I know he gave up a solo, but him stepping up and giving us 2⅔ was big for us and big for Dre."

Notable number: 7. The home runs hit by Hodo and Campbell were their 10th of the season. They became the sixth and seventh Longhorns to record double-digit homers in 2022.

Melendez leads the country with his school-record 31 homers. Stehly (19), Trey Faltine (14), Silas Ardoin (11) and Messinger (11) also have posted impressive power numbers.

"It's been a great offensive surge for this team," Pierce said. "Again, it's not dependent of Ivan, and Ivan's the best player in the country, but guys around him make him better as well."

Key play: Duplantier twice kept East Carolina from extending its lead. After entering the game in the seventh inning, Duplantier's first pitch resulted in an inning-ending double play. He stranded a runner on third base in the eighth by getting a groundout from Jenkins-Cowart.

Up next: In the postgame press conferences, neither Texas nor East Carolina announced a starter for Sunday's showdown. Pierce said that all of his pitchers — including Duplantier and staff ace Pete Hansen — will be available.

Greenville Super Regional

No. 9 Texas at No. 8 East Carolina, ESPN2, 104.9

Friday — East Carolina 13, Texas 7; Saturday — Texas 9, East Carolina 8; Sunday — 3 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas, East Carolina to play Sunday for spot in College World Series