CORAL GABLES, Fla. — After Friday's 4-2 win over Louisiana, Texas baseball players Lucas Gordon, Dylan Campbell and Eric Kennedy appeared at the postgame press conference.

To be honest, Mitchell Daly also deserved to be seen in the media room at Mark Light Field. Texas could have brought Porter Brown or Zane Morehouse as well. But the NCAA permits only three players to accompany the head coach.

Behind a team effort, Texas recorded the opening win in the Coral Gables Regional. With a little bit of hitting (Daly), a lot of defense (Campbell and Kennedy) and a standout pitching performance (Gordon), Texas advanced to Saturday's second-round winners' bracket game against Miami, which beat Maine 9-1 in Friday's second game.

Texas (39-20) outhit Louisiana (40-23) by an 8-7 margin, but early on, the game was defined by plays in the UT outfield.

With one out in the fourth inning and Carson Roccaforte on second base, Conor Higgs singled to right. That set up a possible showdown between the speed of Roccaforte, who had 22 steals, and the arm of Campbell, who came into the game with seven outfield assists. Louisiana played it safe, holding Roccaforte at third base. He was eventually stranded there as Gordon got a strikeout and Kennedy made a leaping catch at the wall in center field to rob John Taylor of a three-run homer, ending the inning.

“After the first game at West Virginia (on May 18), we made an adjustment playing a step or two deeper," Kennedy said. "Off the bat, I didn’t think it was gone, but I just kept going back and noticed I was right against the wall. I just jumped up. It wasn’t too hard. It was just a routine jump-up."

Two innings later, Campbell matched Kennedy's highlight catch with a diving snag of a line drive into right field. Right after that play, the NCAA logged on to Twitter to ask on its baseball account if that was the catch of the year.

“It was hit pretty hard off the bat, and I kind of felt like I got a late read," Campbell said. "I just kind of hauled to it and didn’t think I could get there standing up, so I just had to lay out for it."

After the game, Gordon said he couldn't pick a favorite among the two catches. "I think I asked both of them how they'd do that," he said.

"It was cool. To have those guys work that hard for me was special," Gordon added.

Despite Campbell's catch, Louisiana rallied and eventually plated the game's first run in the sixth on Heath Hood's double and Higgs' single. But Daly led off UT's half of the inning with a solo shot to left field, and Brown later drove in the go-ahead run with a single.

Thanks to a two-run double off of Campbell's bat, Texas held a 4-1 lead after the seventh. That effort made a winner of Gordon, who allowed five hits over seven innings. He threw 83 pitches, struck out eight and walked no one.

Texas is 11-2 this season when its starting pitcher works through the sixth inning.

"The Gordon kid's a handful. He can really pitch," Louisiana coach Matt Deggs said. "There's a reason he's the Big 12 pitcher of the year. He can really locate a fastball; he's got a really good change-up, competes well."

Morehouse worked the final two innings. He surrendered a solo homer to Roccaforte in the eighth but retired the side in the final frame for his sixth save.

Mitchell Daly stands tall at short

Key play: Daly's homer. Texas collected just three hits over the first five innings against Louisiana right-hander Jackson Nezuh. But to lead off the sixth, Daly got the better of Nezuh on an 0-2 count.

The homer was the sixth of the season for Daly, who is hitting just .229. He lost his job as UT's starting shortstop last month but was reinserted into the lineup at the Big 12 Tournament after an injury to Peyton Powell forced Texas to shift Jalin Flores to third base.

On Friday, Powell returned to third, and Texas used Flores as its designated hitter and Daly at shortstop. Daly, who had been a starting second baseman over UT's last two tournament runs, went 1-for-2 with a walk.

"You never know in June what can happen, but that was a big swing for him and for the team," UT coach David Pierce said. "I'm just proud of him. I'm proud of him because he has had some struggles and he hasn't given in. To me, that's what it's about — dealing with adversity."

Another game, another hit for Campbell

Notable number: 36. With one out in the sixth inning, Campbell smacked a single into left, extending his hitting streak to 36 games. He now owns the Big 12's record outright. His record has been the school standard at Texas since its 26th game.

On deck for Texas: Bring on Miami

Up next: Texas right-handed pitcher Lebarron Johnson Jr. (7-3, 2.82 ERA) is in line for the start Saturday at 5 p.m. Texas holds a slight edge in its all-time series with Miami, but the Longhorns last played the Hurricanes at the 2003 College World Series.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Longhorns beat Louisiana in opener of NCAA baseball tournament