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Saturday - April 29, 2006

Game 45: Texas at Texas A&M

Whew. After the Aggies jumped out to a 3-run lead in the 4th, things were looking a bit bad. But, Drew Stubbs hit a 3-run homer to tie things up in the 5th. The team added single runs in the 6th and 9th to win 5-3. Hook 'em!

Kyle McCulloch started and threw 7 innings for the win. He gave up 3 runs (1 unearned) on 5 hits (3 doubles) with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk. By my count, he threw 115 pitches. Randy Boone came in for the 8th. He struck out the first batter, got the next to fly out to lf, and gave up a 6-pitch (2-2 count) double to the third. Joseph Krebs then came in and struck the 4th batter out looking to end the inning. Austin Wood had a 1-2-3 ninth (ground out to 1b, pop fly to 2b, and fly ball to cf) to get his 6th save of the season. All-in-all, a very good outing by the pitching staff.

Texas in the field. In the first, Kyle walked the 2nd batter who then stole 2b where he was stranded. In the second, Boggs reached on a 1-out single up the middle. Josh Stinson then popped out to 3b (foul). On the play, Boggs took off on a hit-and-run. He didn't catch the 3b coach signaling that he should return to 1b in time and, on a very alert play by Nick Peoples, was thrown out by barely a foot or two at 1b to complete the double play. In the third, the Aggies went down in order. The fourth was not pretty. Salazar struck out to start things off. Colligan then doubled down the 3b line. Hale followed that with a double down the 1b line. From the replay, the ball looked foul but the camera angle sucked. And, there was no umpire on the 1b line because of the ridiculous fact that the Big 12 uses 3-umpire crews for conference games so it was ruled fair by the home plate ump. Colligan scored. Jackson then grounded out to 3b (Hale had to stay at 2b). A great play by Nick to get to the ball. Chance Wheeless had to go up the line to catch the throw from Nick but tagged the batter out. Boggs then came up and doubled down the 1b line (Hale scored). Three hits in the inning...all of them just down the lines (and, frankly, I think one of them was foul). Pretty amazing. Alas, with two runs in, the defense fell apart. Josh Stinson worked the count full and sort of half-heartedly swung at the 7th pitch of the at-bat but tried to hold up. However, it hit the edge of Preston Clark's glove and made it all the way to the wall. Preston chased down the ball and threw to 1b, trying to get Stinson out after he took off on the passed 3rd strike. The throw was off, though, and Boggs made a play for home while Bradley Suttle caught up with the errant ball and threw home. Kyle didn't cover the plate on the passed ball and Preston couldn't get back in time. The run scored all the way from 2b. It was not pretty. Kyle then got Stouffer to fly out to cf.

The Aggies only got two more runners aboard in the final 5 innings of the game.

Offensively, the Horns responded well to their poor play in the fourth and scored 3 in the fifth. Although, they did need a bit of help from the Aggies to get the opportunity. Kyle Russell singled up the middle. Chais Fuller then reached on an error (and fielder's choice) by the Aggie starter (Jason Meyer, who ended up with the loss). Chais tried to bunt Kyle over but hit the ball a bit too hard. Meyer fielded quickly and tried to get the lead runner rather than the sure out at 1b. His throw pulled the ss off the bag. Or so ruled the official. It was a close play. Error charged to the pitcher. Nick sac bunted the runners over (very nice bunt down the 3b line). Chance hit a come-backer to the pitcher who made a great play to stop the ball. He dropped it but recovered quickly and threw to the catcher who held on to get Kyle out as he tried to slide into home. On the play, Kyle held up when he saw the pitcher stop the ball and then broke hard for the plate when he saw the ball fall to the ground. But, a perfect throw from the pitcher to the catcher was the 2nd out of the inning. Kyle should've returned to 3b after he hesitated. Drew Stubbs came up, though, and hit a monster shot over the rf fence to tie things up. Carson Kainer and Preston Clark reached on back-to-back singles but were unable to score as Brett Lewis hit into a fielder's choice to end the Texas half of the inning.

UT scored one in the sixth: Kyle reached on a 1-out single and stole 2b. On the steal, the Aggies had him picked off (he left 1b at the pitcher's first movement but the pitcher threw to 1b instead of to the plate). The first baseman threw high to the ss covering 2b and Kyle reached safely. Chais then struck out. Nick doubled to the lf corner (rbi) but was stranded there when Chance grounded out to 2b.

The Horns scored an insurance run in the 9th: Chance singled through the right side (I thought it was an error by the second baseman but the announcers said it was ruled a single). Carson reached on an error by 3b. The third baseman was probably thinking about turning the double play. Instead, he booted the ball and both runners were safe. Preston singled to the cf/rf gap (rbi). Brett flew out to rf and Bradley grounded out to 2b to end the scoring for Texas.

Preston did a great job at the plate today, going 4-for-5 with 1 run batted in. Drew went 2-for-5 with the 3-run homer. On his last at-bat in the 9th, he just missed hitting an in-the-park homer. The left fielder (Infante) charged hard on a ball that Drew lined to lf. Infante dove forward and just made the catch. If he'd missed it, the ball would've rolled to the wall and Drew might well have scored. Alas, it did not happen. Everyone in the lineup had at least one hit today as the team combined for 14 hits.

Coach Garrido spoke with the team for at least 30 minutes after the game ended. He never made it out to have his normal post-game conversation with the radio guys. Despite the fact that the Horns won the game, it did not appear to Craig Way that the coach was happy with the team's performance. Interesting. It's definitely true that that 3rd A&M run absolutely should not have scored. But, other than that, frankly, the Horns actually looked pretty good. It's very odd that the coach didn't come out...or send one of the other coaches out to do the interview. Strange.

Ah well...here's to another win tomorrow. Hook 'em!

UPDATE. According to the box score on the TexasSports.com site, the single by Chance in the 9th was, in fact, ruled an error. So, that means everyone but Chance had at least one hit as the team combined for 13 hits. Chance did reach and score in the 5th, though.

Posted by Joanna at 8:15 PM