The younger brother of Jacksonville Jaguars first-round pick Blake Bortles continues to find himself in the center of the Ole Miss baseball team's impressive postseason run.
On Tuesday, Colby Bortles drew a one-out walk as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the ninth inning against Texas Tech to spark a 2-1 win in the College World Series. With the score tied 1-1, Bortles set up the game-winning run before John Gatlin singled to right field over a five-man infield, bringing home a pinch-runner from third base who had entered for Bortles. It was an elimination game for Ole Miss (47-20), which will face yet another elimination game Thursday against either Virginia or TCU.
But it's not the first time Bortles has responded to postseason pressure.
Bortles also came up with key hits that forged Ole Miss victories in the NCAA Regional and Super Regional postseason rounds. If the older Bortles has any of the moxie in pressure situations that Colby has shown this spring, the Jaguars will be awfully pleased to have him under center in the two-minute drill with the game on the line.
If the Jaguars' blueprint for Bortles holds true, that won't be until 2015. But if NFL Media analyst Charles Davis is right, Blake Bortles will be fire-tested much sooner than that.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread.*
