Joanna's Longhorn Baseball Page: Game 24: Baylor at Texas

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Friday - March 16, 2007

Game 24: Baylor at Texas

As I noted earlier, Texas won today. They beat Baylor 3-2. Things did not start well for the Horns. The first Baylor batter reached on an error by Josh Prince at ss. Josh threw off-line, drawing Chance Wheeless off the 1b bag. The next batter then hit a bloop single into the no-man's land over 1b near the rf line. Kyle Russell made a nice throw to 3b in an attempt to get the runner from 1b but the throw was a tiny bit late. The batter advanced to 2b on the throw to 3b. The next batter grounded out to 2b (rbi). And, the fourth hit a sac fly to rf. The final batter flew out to lf. So, two unearned runs across. Yikes!

Luckily, a combination of great pitching and superb defense kept Baylor from scoring again. The Bears went down in order in 5 innings (the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 8th, and 9th). In the 6th, Kyle Russell made a great diving catch to make the first out of the inning. In the 7th, with two out and a runner at 1b, the Baylor batter hit a hard shot toward the lf corner. I don't know how but Jordan Danks managed to run the ball down and cut it off before the runner from 1b could score. He definitely saved a run on the play.

On the pitching side of things, James Russell got the start and win. He went 6.2 innings and gave up the 2 unearned runs on 4 hits while throwing 4 strikeouts and walking 2. Pat McCrory went into the game after Jordan Danks made that great stop in lf in the 7th and got the final batter to ground out to 1b. Keith Shinaberry pitched the 8th. He struck out the 1st and 3rd batters. The 2nd grounded out to 1b. Randy Boone closed things out in the 9th. The 1st batter he faced grounded out to 3b and the next two struck out. Pretty stuff for Texas fans.

The Horns got runners into scoring position in the 1st and 3rd but could not get them home. In the 4th, Kyle Russell hit a monster shot (boom!!!) over the rf fence to draw the Horns within 1 run. In the 5th, Travis Tucker hit a 1-out single. He moved to 3b on an errant pick-off throw from the pitcher to 1b that went all the way to the fence near the visitor's bullpen. Oddly, the error was charged to the first baseman. I guess the thinking was that the throw wasn't far enough off-line that the first baseman should've caught it. Chance Wheeless then hit a sac fly to rf to bring Travis home. Jordan Danks then hit a home run over the rf fence...to move the Horns ahead by 1 run. Whew. The Horns actually got runners to 3b in the next three innings but Baylor got out of trouble each time.

Overall, it was a nice win for the Horns. I would've like to see a little more offense. But, still...a win's a win. And, honestly, any come-from-behind win is a great win in my book. Especially when it puts 1,600 wins in Coach Garrido's book!

How 'bout a few photos?

One of the thing that simply fascinates me is Keith Shinaberry's pitching style. He and James Russell are both listed at 6-4 on the team roster. And, they're both lefties. So, when they walk out to the mound, you might expect them to be kind of similar on the mound, right? Well, except for the fact that James doesn't want anyone to know what color his socks are and Keith is a proud member of the high socks brigade. But, look at these photos. Here's James:

[James Russell]