Air Force makes touching gesture following regional final loss vs Texas
The Texas Longhorns successfully defended their home field by beating Air Force and winning the Austin regional of the NCAA Baseball Tournament. Meaning they’ll be heading to the super-regional round.
The final game of their regional brought some positive non-baseball stories. Texas faced Air Force to secure the regional victory. Air Force had actually beaten Texas earlier in the season pretty handily, but the Longhorns returned the favor in postseason play by defeating the Falcons 10-1.
After the game, both teams met in the middle of the diamond to exchange pleasantries and stand together to listen to “God Bless America.”
Look at those kids in Texas. Teaching everybody what good sportsmanship really is.
Comments on twitter from Texas fans in attendance raved about the respect and admiration that was shown by the players and coaches between the two teams throughout the weekend. Just a nice and friendly game of America’s pastime between two respectful programs. Although I wonder if Texas fans would find the sportsmanship as sappy if their team was on the other end of a 10-1 elimination loss. Either way, a very patriotic gesture from both teams.
Air Force honors lieutenants after loss
Off-field patriotism didn’t end there. With Air Force’s season ending that night, the team decided to honor some of its distinguished members. The Falcons brought out all of their lieutenants to sit for the postgame press conference. These guys’ final time strapping on the blue and white on the baseball diamond.
An awesome move by Air Force coaches and management to give these guys a sort of spotlight in their final game of the year. A disappointing end to a very solid season for Air Force baseball. But at least they went out with total class, celebrating the values their school stands for.
As for Texas, they move on to the super-regional. Their opponent is still undecided as of Monday morning. no. 8 national seed East Carolina faces Coastal Carolina Monday afternoon with the winner moving on to face Texas. If ECU wins, they’ll host the super-regional and Texas will travel to them. However, if Coastal takes the victory, the Chanticleers will migrate south for a series in Austin.