« Game 31: Rice at Texas | Main | Game 33: Oklahoma at Texas »

Saturday - March 31, 2007

Game 32: Oklahoma at Texas

The Horns started the weekend off well last night. They beat the Sooners 4-3. It was a rather back-and-forth affair. Texas scored one in the 2nd and OU answered in the 3rd. Texas scored another in the 3rd. OU answered again. Yikes! Texas scored in the 4th and OU was unable to match that run. The Horns scored another in the 7th which was answered by OU in the 8th! Double yikes. Luckily, there was no more scoring. So, Texas won the game. Whew. It was fun.

James Russell got the start and the win. He went 5.2 innings and gave up 2 runs on 6 hits with no walks and 7 strikeouts! We noticed that he got up 0-2 on lots of the batters. I counted 'em up. He got ahead 0-2 to 13 of the 23 batters he faced! Amazing. 4 of those batters eventually got hits to reach base. One of them scored: Joseph Hughes battled the heck out of an 0-2 hole and hit a full-count 9-pitch ball into the Texas bullpen in the 3rd to score the first OU run. In the 6th, the first batter hit a lead-off single up the middle. He stole 2b during the next at-bat (the batter struck out) and then moved to 3b on a wild pitch on the following at-bat (that batter struck out as well). With a runner at 3b and 2 outs, Pat McCrory went in. He got the first batter he faced to fly out to cf to end the threat. Pat threw 1.2 innings and gave up one earned run on 1 hit with 1 walk and 1 strikeout. In the 8th, the first batter he faced grounded out to ss. The next reached on a single to lf. His first pitch to the next was a ball and the coaches decided to make a change. They sent Keith Shinaberry in to face the lefty at the plate. Keith struck him out on 3 pitches and left the game! Heh. Randy Boone then went in. He allowed the runner at 1b to advance to 2b on a wild pitch and then gave up a single to rf (rbi, charged to Pat). The next batter grounded out to 1b. Randy ended the game with a 3-up/3-down 9th. The final two batters of the game struck out. Very nice.

And, how did Texas score their runs? The first was a beaut. Russell Moldenhauer was hit by a pitch to start the Texas half of the 2nd. He was thrown out as Preston Clark reached on a 1-6 fielder's choice (not a great bunt by Preston). Josh Prince then singled to rf. Preston took a wide turn at 2b and was caught off the bag. Luckily, he managed to avoid a tag at 3b on a poor (high) throw from ss to 3b and ended up safe at 3b. Josh moved to 2b on the throw. Nick Peoples then popped out to 1b (foul). Travis Tucker was hit by a pitch (the starter for OU hit 3 batters in the game) to load the bases with 2 outs. Chance Wheeless then hit a beautiful bunt (1st pitch) down the 3b line. The third baseman fielded the ball but was too late to get a throw off. Everybody safe, run scores. It was purrrrrty. In the 3rd, Bradley Suttle led things off with a double to the cf/rf gap. Kyle Russell hit a single to rf. Runners at the corners. Russell Moldenhauer walked to load the bases. Preston Clark reached on a 6-4 fielder's choice (rbi). Josh Prince then hit into a double play (6-4-3) to end the threat. In the 5th, with one out, Kyle Russell hit a blast of a home run over the Green Monster. I thought it was gonna hit the top of the wall and he'd end up with a triple. But no...it cleared the Monster! Wow. Texas scored their last run in the 7th. Jordan Danks led off with a single to rf. He stole 2b during Bradley Suttle's at-bat and moved to 3b when Bradley ended up grounding out to ss. He then scored on a balk call. Yikes!

It was a fun game. And, now I'm off to watch the second game of the series. 'Looks like the weather's gonna be great. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 12:22 PM