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Friday - April 13, 2007

Game 39: Texas Tech at Texas

That was exciting! As I post this, the game is suspended in the top of the 9th. Texas leads Texas Tech 7-2.

The line (so far):

																			R	H	E
Texas Tech			0	0	1			0	1	0			0	0	0		-		2	10	1
Texas			1	3	1			0	2	0			0	0	.		-		7	11	1

How'd they get to this point? Well, James Russell started for the Horns and did a good job. He started off fantastically. He threw 12 pitches in the 1st, 10 of them for strikes. He struck out the side. Very very pretty. The Horns scored one in their half of the inning. With two outs, Kyle Russell hit a single to cf. He stole 2b during Bradley Suttle's at-bat and scored when Bradley hit a single to lf.

In the second, James gave up a 1-run single but the runner was stranded at 1b. Texas scored 3. Nick Peoples started things off with a 4-pitch walk. Preston Clark doubled to the fence near the Texas bullpen. Nick scored. Travis Tucker walked. Josh Prince hit a sac-bunt down the 3b line to put the runners at 2b and 3b. Jordan Danks hit a sac fly to cf. Preston scored and Travis advanced to 3b. Chance Wheeless then hit an infield single to 1b to score Travis. Kyle flew out to rf for the final out.

The third started with back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners. The next batter struck out and the following hit an infield single to Bradley behind 3b to score the runner from 3b. The next batter struck out. That was the 6th strikeout of the game for James. Wow. With the 6th batter at the plate and runners at 1b and 2b, Preston threw a rocket from home to Travis covering 2b to pick the runner off at 2b for the 3rd out. Yes! I think it was at about this point that the Public Address Announcer warned us that bad weather was on its way and they'd keep us updated. People started leaving. And, there was a pretty steady stream out of the stadium for the rest of the game. The bad weather stayed away for almost long enough to the the whole game in, though. It was muggy and you could practically see the air...it was so thick with moisture. But, it was mostly decent baseball weather. Anyway. Bradley started off the Texas half of the 3rd with a very high homerun over the rf fence. It was so high I didn't think it could possibly make its way over the fence but it did. Yes! Russell Moldenhauer, Nick Peoples, and Preston Clark went down in order after that.

Tech loaded the bases in the 4th on an error and a couple of singles (one of which could've been ruled the 2nd error of the inning on Josh Prince). But, James kept his cool, struck out two more and got the 3rd out of the inning on a fly ball hit to rf. The Horns went down in order. That was the only 1-2-3 inning for Tech pitching.

The lead-off hitter started the 5th for Tech with a swinging strikeout (his 3rd K in as many chances). Heh. The next batter grounded out to 2b. Roger Kieschnick, with 2 strikeouts under his belt, went up to bat next. With a 2-2 count, James threw what everyone in the stadium except the home plate umpire thought was the 3rd strike. Preston and James started trotting off the field. But, as I noted, the home plate umpire ("Six-Shooter" Bob Homolka...have you ever seen a more ridiculous bunch of hand motions when an umpire called a strike?...and, oh my, I worry he's going to fall down and get a concussion on called third strikes!) called it a ball. Roger fouled off the 6th pitch and then hit the 7th over the lf wall. Sigh. The next batter grounded out to 3b. Chance Wheeless started the 5th off with a double over the 1st baseman's head. Kyle Russell followed that with a single to rf to put runners at the corners. Bradley Suttle singled to rf. Chance scored and Kyle advanced to 3b. Bradley tried to stretch his single into a double but was thrown out pretty easily at 2b. Russell Moldenhauer doubled off the cf fence. Kyle scored. And, Tech sent Cloud in to pitch. He got Nick to ground out and struck Preston out to end the inning.

Tech started off the 6th with a double but the runner was stranded at 2b. In the bottom of the inning, Josh Prince was hit by a pitch and Jordan Danks walked but they were stranded at 1b and 2b.

James, having thrown 106 pitches by my count, was still in the game as the 7th started. The first batter flew out to cf and the next, a pinch-hitter, struck out looking. The 3rd batter reached on an infield single. He hit a soft ground ball past the pitching mound toward 1b. James was falling off hard toward 3b. Chance Wheeless fielded the ball but was way off the 1b bag. James, trying to recover from being so far off toward 3b, ran toward 1b. Travis Tucker also made a dash for the bag. They arrived at the bag at about the same time as the batter. Chance, very oddly, just sort of lobbed the ball up for grabs and toward the bag. Nobody caught the ball but they all three sort of ran into each other. It's a wonder nobody was hurt. At that point, with Kieschnick due up again, Keith Shinaberry went in for James. Alas, Keith threw a strike and then hit Kieschnick with his 2nd pitch. So, in went Pat McCrory. The first batter he faced reached on a fielder's choice. On the play, Travis Tucker fielded a ball behind 2b and tried to get the runner from 1b out at 2b. But, Josh could not handle the toss and all runners were safe. The throw from Travis was not quick enough to guarantee an out so no error was called. Josh really seemed to be struggling to get his glove on the ball today. Poor guy. With the bases loaded, the next batter grounded out to 3b to end the threat. In the bottom of the inning, with 2 outs, Nick singled to rf and then stole 2b. He was stranded there when Preston struck out looking, though.

In the 8th, the Red Raiders went down in order on 3 pop-ups. That was the second 1-2-3 inning for Texas pitching. Travis Tucker started the 8th off with a single to rf. Clint Stubbs, pinch-hitting for Josh Prince, drew a full-count walk. Sadly, the next three batters went down in order.

As the 9th was about the start, the Public Address Announcer said that the bad weather should be reaching the Austin Metro area in about 20 minutes. Apparently, he did not mean the Metro area. Nope, he meant that the storm would be reaching Disch-Falk within the next 20 minutes. Tech started off the 9th with a walk and a single. With runners at 1b and 2b, and Kieschnick at the plate, the wind actually hit us. Very suddenly. The wind was blowing to the north for most of the game. But when the front hit, strong gusts from the west kicked up all kinds of debris and construction dust. It was kinda creepy. I put my scorebook away and got ready to high-tail it out of Disch-Falk. Kieschnick struck out swinging. Whew. And, woo hoo! The Horns mostly kept him in check all evening. Matt Smith was at the plate with a 2-1 count when the main light standards all went out. Whoosh! The lights mounted on the roof stayed on. Eerie. The coaches and umpires quickly decided to suspend the game. And, we started leaving. The rain hit just as we got to the entry gate and we were pretty soaked by the time we made it to my car. Sigh. The storm couldn't wait another couple of pitches?

The game will be resumed tomorrow at 2. Hopefully, it will be over quickly.

UPDATE. Not surprisingly, the Horns went on to win the game. I expected Adrian Alaniz to get the nod, throw to the last batter or two in the first game, and then start the 2nd. That did not happen, however. Instead, Randy Boone went out to the mound. He ended up throwing a ball, a strike, and then another ball to walk Smith and load the bases. He then struck Byrns out looking to end the game. Yes! Texas wins 7-2.

Posted by Joanna at 11:09 PM