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Sunday - March 5, 2006

Games 14 & 15: Villanova at Texas

Despite my cold, I made it out to the Villanova games last weekend. Texas looked good as they completed their sweep over Villanova.

A few notes about Saturday's game:

• Texas won 4-1.
• Kyle McCulloch had a very nice outing. He threw 7 innings, faced 27 batters, gave up one earned run on 4 hits, with 4 strikeouts, and 2 walks. And, he threw 102 pitches by my count.
• Kenn Kasparek pitched the last two innings. He faced the minimum 6 batters while striking out two.
• Kenn had some nice help defensively. Kyle Russell (who'd struggled at first base in the Texas State game) made an outstanding diving catch in rf in the 8th. And, Nick Peoples, making his debut at 3b, made a great play as he went to his left, dove to rob Gus Guida of a single to lf, and threw from his knees across the diamond to 1b to get the last out of the game. Amazing.
• There were another couple of nice defensive plays earlier in the game. In the 5th, Jim Gillin walked to start things off. He moved to 2b on a sac bunt by Joe Cotter. Kris Molloy then grounded out to 3b (the first really nice play we got to see Nick make from his new position)...keeping Cotter at 2b. Ryan Arcadia came up with two outs and hit a single to rf. Gillin was off at the crack of the bat and Kyle Russell threw a rocket to Preston Clark to get Gillin out by a mile (okay...maybe, not quite) to end the threat.
• The offensive highlights: Nick Peoples went 3-for-4 with a strikeout, 2 doubles, a triple, and 2 runs scored. Jordon Danks drove Nick in for the first Texas run on a single; he then scored on a sac fly by Kyle Russell. Drew Stubbs went 1-for-1 wih a bunt single, 3 walks, and a run scored. Drew was intentionally walked in the 8th with Nick on at 2b and an out. He moved to 2b when Carson Kainer walked and scored on a 2-run double by Bradley Suttle.

And, Sunday's game:

• Texas won 9-2.
• Randy Boone pitched the first 5 innings. He faced 18 batters, gave up 2 earned runs, 2 hits (a double and a homer), with 5 strikeouts, 1 hit batter, and 1 wild pitch. Austin Wood, Joey Parigi, Kyle Walker, and Riley Boening each pitched an inning of scoreless relief.
• Lots of offense: Peoples went 1-for-4 with a single, 2 walks, and 2 runs scored; Danks went 2-for-4 with 2 singles, 2 walks, and 3 runs scored; Stubbs went 2-for-5 with 2 singles, 1 walks, and 2 runs scored; Kainer went 2-for-5 with 2 doubles, 3 runs batted in, and 1 run scored; Russell went 3-for-3 with 2 singles and a double, 4 runs batted in, 1 run scored, and reached on a hit by pitch; Suttle went 2 for 4 with 2 singles and a walk; Lewis, sadly, went 0-for-5; Pehrson went 1-for-3 with a single, a run batted in, and a walk; and Clark went 0-for-4 with a walk. In pinch hitting appearances, Herrera walked and Gilfillan flew out to lf.

General comments:

• Despite all the scoring, Texas managed to strand 7 (6 in scoring position) in Saturday's game and 15 (7 in scoring position) in Sunday's game. That's a lot of wasted opportunity.
• Villanova's lf (Joe Cotter) and ss (Ryan Arcadia) were really on their games defensively. Neither of them did much offensively but they robbed Texas of several hits. Cotter made two catches in particular (one on each day) that I'm sure made Carson Kainer wonder if his luck was particularly bad that weekend. Why Carson's hits? Heh.
• All in all, it was a good series for Texas. Too bad it didn't hold up on the trip to Nevada. At least, not so far...

Posted by Joanna at 2:13 PM