Texas jumped on NC State starter Gib Hobson for two runs in the first. Hobson, who started Friday against Stanford but didn’t make it through the 2nd inning, gave up singles to Jordan Danks and Nick Peoples to leadoff the game. Both runners advanced a base on a throwing error and later scored on a ground out and a sac fly.

In the top of the second, Wolfpack DH Jon Still became just the 30th player since 1975 to hit a ball over the 20-foot-high centerfield wall.

The Texas Longhorns’ hopes of staying alive in this first game will rest heavily on starting pitcher Adrian Alaniz. Fortunately, this is hardly the first time that Alaniz has shouldered a ton of responsibility in a big game.

Even before Alaniz put on a Longhorn uniform, he was well known in the state of Texas. Texans love high school sports, and numerous kids have become legends in this state before they’re old enough to vote, from Sugar Land’s Kenneth Hall to Brenham’s Jon Peters to… well, to Sinton’s Adrian Alaniz.

Alaniz’s athletic career at 3A Sinton High School sounds like an over-done Disney script. He lettered four years in both baseball and football. Actually, he didn’t just letter, he dominated. He quarterbacked the Sinton Pirates for four years, leading undefeated teams to the state final his junior year and to the regional semi-finals his senior year. Prior to his senior season, one recruiting service ranked him as the #7 quarterback prospect in the state. But he shunned overtures from schools such as UCLA and Nebraska to concentrate on baseball. Not surprising, because as hard as it is to believe, he was even more accomplished on the diamond.

Early in the 2000 baseball season, the Sinton Pirates sent a skinny freshman to the mound to pitch his first game. He lost. That turned out to be the only loss of Alaniz’s high school pitching career. He ended his freshman season with a 12-1 record and a 0.79 ERA and was named to the All-State team for chipping in a .468 batting average while playing first base. His “sophomore slump” resulted in an 8-0 record with a 0.35 ERA. He really busted out the next year, going 17-0, batting .475, and leading the Pirates to a state championship. His team lost in the state championship game to end his senior year, but he couldn't have done much more -- he recorded an 11-0 record and .430 batting average, and in the state semi-finals he pitched nine shutout innings and drove in the winning run in the 10th inning with a double. In case you’ve lost count, that’s a career mound record of 48-1.

Alaniz actually took a redshirt year in 2004 to rest his arm, but his storybook career continued last year. He began the year in the bullpen, but was quickly given the role of Sunday starter and pitched well enough to be named to the Freshman All-America team. Along the way, he threw a no-hitter against Oklahoma, made the Austin Regional All-Tourney team by throwing a complete game victory in an elimination game, had a great start (6.2 innings, 1 run) at Ole Miss with his team facing elimination in the Supers, and well, he did pretty decent in Omaha, too. Alaniz got the ball for the Longhorns’ opening CWS game against a Baylor team that had swept Texas earlier in the season and held the Bears to one run in seven innings as Texas won 5-1. This seemingly over-done Disney sports movie of a season ended with a best-of-three series against heavy-hitting Florida for the CWS title. Alaniz started game one and limited the Gators to three hits in seven innings in a 4-2 win. The next day, he was in a dogpile with his teammates and wearing a national championship hat.

You didn’t expect a sad ending from a Disney sports movie did you? Neither do Texas fans today…