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Thursday - February 9, 2006

Game 4: UT-Pan American at Texas

Quick note: I wrote this yesterday but my web hosting service picked yesterday to migrate my web page to a new server. So, I didn't have access to my blog software until this afternoon. So, on with the post...

The Horns came out swinging this afternoon and beat UT-Pan American 15-2. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it out to the park (things are busy at work) but I made it. The weather was gorgeous: 73 deg F with no wind and a nice sunny sky.

A few random thoughts (as I watched the 2006 Horns for the first time):

• Jordan Danks is a big kid. 'Seems like he might strike a bit of fear in opposing pitchers whenever he steps up to the plate. According to the roster, Chance Wheeless is actually bigger (by four...count 'em, 4!...pounds; same height, though) but he doesn't look as big. At least, not from my seat.
• It was fun being at Disch-Falk. I almost didn't go because we're so busy at work but I doubt very seriously that I'll be able to make it next week (plus, today was opening day!) so I made it happen. 'Glad I did.
• I noticed at the end of the 4th inning that almost everyone had at least one hit and had scored a run. Entertainingly, Drew Stubbs was 0-for-1 but had scored three times. Heh.
• Bradley Suttle, the only starter who failed to score a run, would've scored if he hadn't been caught stealing in the first. That happened right before Preston Clark got his first hit of the year...a triple. Bad timing on that whole "caught stealing" thing, eh?
• There was a very decent-sized crowd at the park...much bigger than the usual February mid-week afternoon crowd. Actually, I think it was bigger than your average mid-week afternoon crowd for any month of the year. But, really, the weather was so great, how could people not go?
• The new scoreboard still sucks. It's a shame they spent so much money on the thing but can't be bothered to give us decent info during the game. Why do they just put "1-3" instead of "1-3: 1B, K, 43"? They've got a huge screen...use it! The line score read "Visitor" and "Home" for the entire game. Since they really only had access to the full thing for the last few weeks of play, I thought they might spend a bit of time during the off-season tweaking things but apparently not. Well, they did put up two new ads. Woo hoo. You still can't see the orange lights against the orange paint on the lower part of the score board during the day. They really need to paint the lower part black. Or, at the very least, switch to white lights. For the visiting team, they were using white lettering with a bit of a drop shadow on top of a white background in the video screen part of the scoreboard. White on white?? Hello???? And, oh my...I went to say hi to a friend during the 9th and found that it's almost completely unreadable if you're looking at it through the net behind home plate. It's amazing. [Begin sarcasm.] 'Really makes me look forward to the rest of the renovations they've got planned. [End sarcasm.]

A couple of comments from Coach Garrido in the post-game show (as best I could catch them, and completely paraphrased):

• This game showed the difference environment and attitude can have on a team.
• He didn't think San Diego's pitching was much better than UT-PA's...the Texas hitters just weren't in the right frame of mind last weekend.

I wrote an extended game report if you want more details. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 5:01 PM