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Sunday - April 15, 2007

Game 41: Texas Tech at Texas

Question for those of you that attended today's game. Remember, in the top of the 8th inning, when Kyle Russell made that lonnnnnnng run and just caught the ball and ran into the fence and then kinda limped back into position? And, it looked like maybe he kinda twisted his ankle when he ran into the chain link fence out there in the corner? But, then, he trotted in a couple of pitches later and seemed none the worse for wear? Well, I do believe he transferred his injury to me. 'Cause out of nowhere, my ankle is very very sore as though I'd kinda twisted it. But, to the best of my recollection, I did not twist it today. Although. Wait. I did sort of trip for no good reason on my way up the stairs to my seat at Disch-Falk this afternoon. Maybe I did wrench it a bit then. It didn't hurt until about 8 hours later, though. Hmmm... Oh well. I'm gonna blame it on Kyle.

By the way: speaking of tripping on my way up the stairs. Do y'all suppose the powers that be are ever gonna install some hand rails for the folks that need assistance going up and down the stairs? I watch some of the older folks struggle with those steps and just want to scream. Is it gonna take someone falling and hurting themselves badly before UT does the right thing? I sure hope not.

Anyway...

Texas won! Sweet sweep! Texas scored first...a run in the 3rd. Michael Demperio singled and stole 2b. Jordan Danks then doubled him home. The Red Raiders answered in the 4th. Thennis reached on an uncharacteristic error by Travis Tucker at 2b. The ball scooted past Travis' glove, through his legs, careened off his foot, and rolled into shallow cf. Kieschnick moved Thennis to 2b on a gound out. Smith then singled him home. They scored a go-ahead run in the 5th. Baker walked and moved to 2b on a sac bunt by Seefeld. Marin then singled him home. Jordan Danks got on in the bottom of the 5th but then the next 6 Horns went down in order. Things turned around nicely in the 7th. Travis started things of with a walk. He then stole 2b and then 3b on the 2nd and 4th pitches to Michael Demperio who, sadly, ended up grounding out to 3b. Jordan Danks singled to cf, though, to bring Travis home. Kyle Russell then doubled to the wall in the lf/cf gap to score Jordan. That prompted the first pitching change of the day for the Red Raiders. Kyle moved to 3b on a wild pitch and was then brought home on a sac fly to rf by Chance Wheeless. And that proved enough to win the game.

On the pitching side of things, Joseph Krebs got the nod and did a good job. He held the Red Raiders to 2 runs (1 unearned) through 6 innings on 5 hits (1 double) while throwing 6 strikeouts and walking 1. He did not figure in the decision, however, since the Horns were trailing when he left. Randy Boone pitched the final 3 innings for the win. None of the 9 batters he faced reached base. He had one strikeout and induced 4 fly outs and 4 ground outs. He threw 22 pitches. Very pretty.

Something I've never seen before happened today. During the bottom of the 7th inning, after the runs had been scored, the Tech center fielder (Ashby) started making motions that seemed to indicate that something "bad" had happened in the outfield. At first, I thought that maybe the folks on the busses over the rf fence had thrown something at him or were harrassing him. But, he was pointing more toward cf and one of the umpires went out to talk to him. Then, one of the Tech coaches started out. And, I pulled out my trusty binoculars. And, Ashby kept pointing toward straight-away center field. And, he was smiling. So, I took a look out there and noticed, after a bit, that there was a huge swarm of bees out there! There were hundreds, if not thousands, of bees swarming around near the base of the center field fence. It was bizarre! After a few minutes, the swarm started dissipating. And, play resumed. The next batter hit a fly ball to cf for the final out and Ashby could not have been happier to get off the field! There were still a few bees milling about but nothing like the scary swarm from a few minutes earlier. Yikes! Very odd.

Anyway. Texas won 4-2. This was their 3rd series sweep of the year...their 2nd in Big 12 play. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 11:17 PM