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Saturday - May 26, 2007

Game 59: Texas at Nebraska (Big 12 Tournament)

The Horns ended up out of the running for the Big 12 Tournament Championship as they headed into today's game against Nebraska. By virtue of the fact that the Aggies beat the Wildcats earlier today. So, play spoiler to the Aggies by losing the game? Or just win the game and get on with things? I voted for the latter.

Texas was the visiting team in today's game and started well. Jordan Danks led things off with a single. He stole 2b and then scored on a single by Chance Wheeless. Sadly, Nebraska answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the 1st off starter Adrian Alaniz. Belfonte reached on an error (Chais Fuller lost a high pop-up in the sun), advanced to 2b (next batter hit by pitch), and then scored (unearned) on a single by Brown. Preston Clark started off the 2nd with a solo shot over the fence in the lf corner. The Horns went down in order behind him. The Cornhuskers went 3-up/3-down in the bottom. In the top of the 3rd, Jordan Danks and Kyle Russell started things off with back-to-back walks. Jordan scored on a single by Chance Wheeless and Kyle scored on a sac fly by Bradley Suttle. Chance Wheeless was caught stealing before Kyle scored and Russell Moldenhauer popped out to shallow lf for the final out of the top-half of the inning. In the bottom of the 3rd, Lanning and Belfonte reached on back-to-back singles and both scored (sac bunt, walk, single, fly out to rf, strikeout) to get back to within one.

Both teams changed pitchers in the 4th. Wertz gave up a 2-out single to Chais Fuller in the top of the inning but Chais was stranded at 1b. Austin Wood went to the mound for the Horns and threw a quick 1-2-3 inning. In the 5th, Chance Wheeless reached on a 2-out single (his 3rd single of the game) but was stranded at 1b. Nebraska went down in order in the bottom of the inning. And, the Horns did the same in the top of the 6th. In the bottom, Austin put the Cornhuskers down in order for the 3rd inning in a row. Nice.

Travis Tucker reached in the top of the 7th (1-out single) and stole 2b but was stranded there. In the bottom of the inning, Austin got a couple of quick outs before Lanning reached on the second error of the game by Chais Fuller. The ball rolled under his glove and into lf. Belfonte reached on an infield single. Travis made a great play to stop the ball headed into cf. He whirled and threw to Chais covering 2b but the ball was just a tiny bit late. Nice play by Travis. Randy Boone went to the mound for the Horns and got Corriston to fly out to cf for the final out of the inning.

Chance Wheeless led the 8th off with his 4th single to rf of the day. Wow. He moved to 2b on a sac bunt by Bradley Suttle. Russell Moldenhauer was intentionally walked. Weird. Michael Demperio went in to pinch run for Russell. Preston Clark worked the count full but then struck out. Nick Peoples was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Chais Fuller singled nicely up the middle to score Chance. Michael was tagged out on the throw from cf. He did not even try to avoid the catcher...I guess he didn't think the throw was close. Sigh... It was a rather bone-headed play. By the way, I don't think either of the players near home plate (Chance, who had scored, and Travis, who was on deck and should've been watching closely) indicated that he should slide. So, mental errors all around. In the bottom of the 8th, Gerch reached on a single after 2 quick outs. Sullivan singled to rf. Kyle Russell tried to scoop the ball and throw in one motion but missed the ball, ran past it a bit, and then couldn't get a handle on it. Gerch scored all the way from 1b and Sullivan reached 2b on the error. Mort reached on a 5-pitch walk. Nimmo then reached on a 4-pitch walk to load the bases. Lanning hit a high bouncer in front of the plate. Preston Clark fielded and stepped on the plate for the force-out to end the inning.

UPDATE. My dad, who was at the game, wrote to say that Chance did try to get Michael to slide on the play at home. I was watching the game via the Internet video stream and did not see that. FYI, the feed they were streaming on the Internet appeared to be the video feed they were using in the stadium. You know the one...the thing that's showing on the video screens when you're standing in line at the concession stands. So, there were something on the order of 4 cameras being used with very few (and extremely random) replays. The feed didn't have any "pause" or "rewind" capabilities so no way to review anything. I appreciate that we had video. But, it was rather poor.

In the top of the 9th, with one out, Jordan Danks reached on an infield single. He was erased on a double play ball lined to the first baseman. In the bottom of the inning, Belfonte flew out to the lf/cf alley. Corriston singled through the lf side. Brown struck out for the 2nd out of the inning. Opitz lined out to 2b to end the game. Travis Tucker made a great dive to catch the ball and end the game. Horns win 5-4.

So, the Aggies go to the Championship Game. And, the Horns come home to get ready for our Regional at Dell Diamond.

Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 3:45 PM