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Friday - February 22, 2008

Game 1: Virginia Commonwealth at Texas

Texas hosted Virginia Commonwealth in their 2008 season opener today. The weather was great. The atmosphere was great. The crowd was very big for a February week-day game (close to 6,000). Not unexpectedly, there were a few hiccups with the newly renovated stadium. But, the Horns took care of business and won the game 6-2.

Sadly, I did not take my camera to the game. I figured I'd taken enough photos last weekend. I was wrong. Pauline Reese (sorry to say, I'd never heard of her...oops) sang the National Anthem and did a fine job. The best thing that happened all day? Coach Gus threw out the opening pitch. It was great seeing him out there. I was really wishing I had my camera when I realized who they were introducing as the special first pitch guest. Ah well. Later in the game, when the yahoos three rows above us dumped their a glass of coke on the floor and it started making its way toward us, I was glad my camera bag wasn't there to get all wet.

Austin Wood started on the mound for the Horns. He went 6 innings, faced 25 batters, and gave up 2 earned runs on 6 hits with 6 strikeouts and 1 hit batter. He did not give up a hit until the 5th inning. Brandon Workman took over at the top of the 7th. I'm guessing the atmosphere got to him a bit. He seemed a bit erratic (getting behind to the first four batters he faced) but he settled down nicely, going 2 scoreless innings. He allowed only one baserunner on a walk while striking out 3. Kyle Walker tossed the last inning. He gave up a couple of walks sandwiched around a fly out to cf and two strikeouts.

Here's a shot of Brandon Workman going through his motion last Sunday during the Orange/White scrimmage:

On the offensive side of things, Travis Tucker started the game for the Horns with a single to deep 3b; a good hustle on his part beat the throw from 3b for the hit. He moved to 2b on a sac bunt by Michael Torres and on to 3b on a sac fly by Jordan Danks. Kyle Russell worked the count full, hit a couple of foul balls, and ended up drawing a walk to put runners at the corners. Preston Clark then singled to shallow cf to plate Travis. Russell Moldenhauer was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Brandon Belt grounded out to 1b to end the 1st inning. Keven Keyes led off the 2nd with a single off the shortstop but was stranded at 3b.

In the 3rd, Jordan Danks reached on a walk and stole 2b on the first pitch to Kyle Russell. Kyle then hit a high fly ball to cf. The center fielder lost the ball at the last second and it scooted off toward lf. Jordan had tagged up at 2b and took off the second he saw the ball misplayed and scored easily. Kyle made it to 2b on the error. He then stole 3b n the fist pitch to Preston Clark. Preston deove him home on a sac fly to cf.

The Horns scored a 4th run in the 4th. Kevin Keyes led off with his 2nd single in as many at-bats in a Texas uniform. Nice. He then moved to 2b on a sac bunt by David Hernandez. Travis Tucker then hit a nice bunt toward 3b to reach 1b and move Kevin to 3b. Michael Torres tried to bunt his way aboard but hit into a 3-6 fielder's choice instead. Kevin scored on the play. At that point, VCU changed pitchers and the reliever (Ian Thomas) kept the Texas bats quiet into the 7th except for giving up a single to David Hernandez in the 6th.

In the 7th, Jordan Danks and Kyle Russell reached base on back-to-back 1-out walks. They advanced to 2b and 3b on a wild pitch and then scored on a single to lf by Preston Clark. Those proved to be the 3rd and 4th runs batted in by Preston. Nice. Texas stranded runners at 2b and 3b in the 8th.

Defensively, the Horns made a couple of very nice plays. In the 2nd, David Hernandez made a diving stop to his left to rob Jaren Bolden of a single. He jumped up and threw a bullet to complete the out. In the 8th with a runner at 1b and no outs, Jordan Danks made a spectacular circus catch of a fly ball hit to the lf/cf gap. It was a thing of beauty. On the next pitch, the batter hit a lazy fly ball to cf and all I could think was "ho-hum" after the excitement of the previous catch.

Here's another "action" series from Sunday's scrimmage (Kyle Russell throwing a ball in from rf this time):

All-in-all, it was a fun day and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 11:23 PM