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Saturday - June 2, 2007

Game 61: UC Irvine at Texas (Austin Regional)

Texas lost to UC Irvine this evening 1-3. There were two main factors in the loss: (1) the Horns ran up against a pitcher (Scott Gorgen) who threw a whale of a game and (2) the UCI center fielder (Ollie Linton) made two amazing catches that took extra-base hits away from the Horns (both plays, by sad coincidence, robbed Russell Moldenhauer of hits). Looking at the boxscore, you might think errors played a part in the loss as well. But, they really didn't. Only one of the errors led to a run. Nope. The main problem was that pitcher and the fact that Texas could not string two hits together to save their lives. The only inning in which the Horns did get more than one hit was the 6th. It started off when Chance Wheeless flew out to lf. Bradley Suttle followed that up with a single. Then, Russell Moldenhauer flew out to the lf/cf gap. That was one of those hits stolen by the center fielder. Suttle would've definitely ended up at 3b on the play...he might well have scored. And, Moldenhauer would've been standing on 2b with 1 out. Instead, Suttle was still at 1b with 2 outs. Nick Peoples then singled through the left side. If runners had been standing on 2b and 3b, at least one of them would've scored on that single. But that's not what happened. And, Chais Fuller followed that up with a ground out to 3b. Which should've been the 2nd out of the inning. But, Linton made that catch. And, Texas did not score.

Adrian Alaniz got the start and took the loss. He did not pitch one of his "wow" games but he was not bad. He went 6.2 innings and gave up 3 runs (1 unearned) on 6 hits with 2 walks, 1 hit batter, and 7 (!) strikeouts. Normally, that would be more than good enough for Texas to win a game. But, not today. Joseph Krebs and Randy Boone combined for near-perfect relief for the final 2.1 innings of the game.

Texas gave up a run in the top of the first when Holiday tripled to lead things off. Orloff followed with a single (rbi) and was stranded at 2b. In the bottom of the inning, Jordan Danks singled, moved to 2b on a bunt, and then to 3b on a ground out. Then, Russell Moldenhauer hit a ball to the rf/cf alley. A ball that should've fallen for at least a double. But no. That was the first amazing play made by Linton to rob Russell of an extra-base hit.

UCI scored their second run in the 3rd. Holiday (him, again) reached on a throwing error by ss (high throw). It was a close play. It looked like Chance Wheeless, who had to jump off the bag to make the catch, might've landed on the bag before Holiday crossed but that's not what the 1b ump saw. Holiday moved to 2b on a sac bunt and then to 3b on a single. He then scored on a sac bunt down the 3b line. On the play, Bradley Suttle charged the ball, fielded, and looked Holiday back. Holiday was way off the bag, though, and as soon as Bradley threw the ball to 1b (to get the batter), he broke for home and beat the throw from 1b. It was a tough play and Bradley really couldn't have done anything else. If he'd held onto the ball to keep Holiday from scoring, the bases would've been loaded with only one out. Anyway, unearned run. In the bottom of the inning, Bradley Suttle hit a 2-out solo homerun onto the berm over the lf fence.

UCI scored their final run of the game in the 7th. Lowenstein started the inning off with a single through the left side. He then moved to 2b on a sac bunt and then scored on a double (by Holiday, of course).

It was a very tough loss.

Posted by Joanna at 11:27 PM