C.J. Hinojosa broke the College World Series’ long home run drought in the seventh inning and Texas beat UC Irvine 1-0 in an elimination game Wednesday night.
Hinojosa became the first player to homer at the CWS in 115 innings, since Mississippi State’s Hunter Renfroe did it against Oregon State on June 21, 2013. It was Hinojosa’s second homer of the season.
The Longhorns (45-20) advance to meet Vanderbilt on Friday. They would need to beat the Commodores (48-19) twice to reach next week’s best-of-three finals.
UC Irvine (41-25) went 1-2 in its surprise CWS appearance that came about after it upset No. 1 national seed Oregon State as a No. 3 regional seed and swept Oklahoma State on the road in super regionals.
Thursday’s elimination game will pit TCU against Mississippi.
