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Monday - March 13, 2006

Game 22: Long Beach State at Texas

'Twas a great day at the ball park. Sorry I didn't post about it sooner. After the game, I went grocery shopping. Then, I fixed a big pot of soup. Then, I took some of the soup to my best freind's folks' house. Then, I sat around playing Canasta until after 10. By the time I got home, I was too tired to write about the game. But, I've got a few minutes during my lunch break today so...here's the report!

Texas came back from the sadness that was Saturday's game to win (both the game and the series). The line:

																			R	H	E
LBSU			0	0	1			0	1	0			0	1	0		-		3	8	1
Texas			0	0	0			1	5	0			1	0	x		-		7	13	0

Kenn Kasparek went 6 innings for the win. He gave up 2 earned runs on 5 hits with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. Kyle Walker pitched the next 1.1 innings, giving up an earned run on 2 hits with a walk and a strikeout. Joseph Krebs (in his second appearance as a Longhorn) pitched the final 1.2 innings to earn his 1st career save at UT. He gave up only one hit, walked none, and struck out one. That one strikeout was the final out of the game. I always like watching our pitchers end a game that way. Especially when it follows a ground-rule double. Heh.

It was really nice watching the team figure a pitcher out. You could just see them getting better as the game went along. By that 5th inning, they were all in a groove. Vance Worley started for LBSU, went 5 innings, gave up 6 of the runs (all earned) and took the loss.

Highlights:

• Long Beach State scored first in the 3rd:
• Allen Woods (lf) hit a ground-rule double over the rf fence.
• Robert Perry (cf) grounded out to 1b. Woods moved to 3b.
• Matt Cline (2b) grounded out to ss. RBI.
• Danny Espinosa (ss) grounded out to 2b.
• Texas tied things up in the 4th and threatened to do more:
• Nick Peoples (still at 3b and doing a fantastic job there) grounded out to 3b.
• Chance Wheeless hit a line drive homer over the rf fence. It was one of the hardest hit balls I'd seen in quite some time. It was so low to the ground we weren't sure it would make it over. But it did. Cool.
• Drew Stubbs grounded out to ss.
• Carson Kainer singled to lf.
• Kyle Russell walked.
• Bradley Suttle walked.
• Preston Pehrson ended the threat by striking out for the second time in a row. But, you could tell that the team was figuring Worley out.
• LBSU went up again in the 5th:
• Jordan Struble (making his first appearance in the series at rf) singled up the middle.
• Woods reached on a bunt single moving Struble to 2b.
• Perry singled to rf. Weird play. The runners from 1st and 2nd took off but the lead runner (Struble) stumbled and fell going around 3b. He scrambled back to 3b and Woods went back to 2b. Perry didn't see that Struble had fallen and was almost to 2b when he was started to find Woods standing on the base. By that time, Russell had thrown the ball back in and Perry was caught in no-man's land. He was tagged out easily by Wheeless. So, one out, runners at 2b and 3b.
• Cline grounded out to ss. RBI.
• Espinosa struck out looking.
• Texas had a big inning in the 5th:
• Preston Clark singled to rf and tried to stretch it into a double. Alas, he did not beat the throw. 1 out.
• Chais Fuller (his first start since being re-instated) singled up the middle. First pitch.
• Nick Peoples singled up the middle. First pitch. Chais stopped at 2b.
• Chance Wheeless singled up the middle. First pitch. Chais scored and Nick advanced to 2b.
• Drew Stubbs tripled. First pitch. Wow. Four pitches. Four hits. On the play, the LBSU cf hit the wall hard and had to come out of the game. It looked like he hurt his right hip. According to the LBSU web page, his status is day-to-day. Ouch. By the way, if Chance hadn't had to hold up to see if the ball would be caught in cf, Drew likely would've had an in-the-park home run. But, Drew had to wait on Chance. He almost ran him over between 2b and 3b. It would've been funny. Except for the injured player out in cf.
• Carson Kainer singled up the middle. Fourth pitch this time. Heh. RBI.
• Kyle Russell struck out.
• On the 5th pitch to Bradley Suttle, Carson moved to 2b on a wild pitch. Bradley singled to rf a couple of pitches later. RBI.
• Hunter Harris (pinch hitting for Preston Pehrson) reached on a fielder's choice to end the inning.
• Texas tacked on some insurance in the 7th:
• Chance Wheeless walked on 5 pitches.
• Drew Stubbs lined out to cf.
• Carson Kainer singled to lf. Chance moved to 2b.
• LBSU sent in their 4th pitcher of the game (Shane Peterson who'd been in the lineup as dh).
• Kyle Russell flew out to lf. During his at-bat, Chance had moved to 3b on a wild pitch. By the way, I think the official scorer ruled it a passed ball. But, it looked more like a wp to me. They don't seem to be posting that stuff to the scoreboard anymore, though, so I'm not sure. That was just what was reported on the radio.
• Bradley Suttle singled to rf. RBI.
• Brett Lewis (pinch hitting) reached on a fielder's choice to end the inning.
• LBSU scored and threatened more in the 8th:
• Kyle Walker was pitching for Texas. He came in at the top of the 7th.
• Jose Fernandez (who'd replaced Perry in cf) grounded out to 2b on a very nice play by Bradley Suttle.
• Matt Cline was hit by a pitch. I commented yesterday that you can't usually hear that up in my seats. But, we all heard that one. Ouch.
• Danny Espinosa singled to 3b. Runners at 1b and 2b.
• Evan Longoria reached on a bunt single. Bases loaded.
• Kip Masuda came in to pinch hit and walked on four pitches. RBI. I wonder if Kyle Walker wasn't feeling a little frustrated about the two infield singles? They were both tough plays for Nick and were ruled hits but it still could've been a bit frustrating for Kyle. At any rate, after that walk, Joseph Krebs came in to pitch.
• A home run would've tied things up. Instead, Joseph got Tito Cruz to hit into a 53 double play. He hit the ball right at Nick at 3b. Nick quickly stepped on the 3b bag for the first out and threw a rocket to Chance for the dp. Great play.

All-in-all, it was a great game. Nick Peoples continues to amaze with his abilities at 3b. The offensive tear he was on last weekend didn't last into this weekend, sadly. He still hit and scored...but he wasn't ripping the cover off the ball the way he did last weekend. It was great to see Chance Wheeless and Drew Stubbs hit the ball hard, though. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 12:58 PM