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Saturday - February 23, 2008

Game 2: Virginia Commonwealth at Texas

Today proved to be another day of firsts at the newly renovated UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Yesterday, for the first time in my memory, the Texas Cowboys showed up at a baseball game with Smokey the Cannon. And, boy...was he loud! Today, for the first time in my memory, Bevo showed up at a baseball game. Here he is with Jennie:

And, the APO kids showed up with one of those giant Texas flags they cart around:

The Horns won again. It was a actually a fairly close game into the 6th inning. Alas, the VCU Rams had a bit of a melt-down in the 7th and 8th innings. Texas won 17-4. Rather than write much about the game, I thought I'd post some photos today. So, here's a link to the story on the TexasSports.com site.

Here's the new home dugout getting a workout:

Brandon Belt went 4-for-5 with a double, 3 singles, and a strikeout. He also scored 4 runs. Good day, eh? Here he is hanging out at 2b:

Kevin Keyes went 2-for-3 with a couple of singles, a strikeout, a walk, and he was hit hard in the helmet in the 8th inning. He scored 3 runs. Kyle Lusson pinch ran for him in the 8th and went on to score that run as well. Here he is hanging out at 2b:

Kevin went down hard after being hit but got up and walked off the field under his own power. He was out on the field with the rest of the team for the "Eyes" at the end of the game so I hope that's a good sign that he wasn't hurt too badly. He also participated in the post-game interview posted to the game summery I linked above. All around, good news, I think.

Michael Torres went 3-for-6 with a single and 2 doubles. He scored 2 and drove in 4. Here he is reaching 3b safely after a wild pitch:

Some of the Rams enjoy the Texas sun:

Cole Green started and did a fine job. He went 4 innings and gave up 1 earned run on 3 hits with 3 strikeouts and 4 walks. Here's an "action" shot of him from last Sunday's Orange/White scrimmage:

Keith Shinaberry went in at the top of the 5th. He was in for 1.2 innings and gave up 3 earned runs on 6 hits with a strikeout. It wasn't one of his best outings but he did enough to earn the win. At least one of his pitches was "way" on. A few of the VCU batters just looked silly swinging at it. But, then they managed to hit others so...shrug. He's got a rather unique delivery:

It's always fun watching Keith pitch.

Chance Ruffin went to the mound in the 6th with a runner at 2b and 2 outs. He tossed a few pitches to the batter and then picked off the runner at 2b. Cool. He went on to close out the game by setting the next 9 batters down in order. Four of those outs were by strikeout. Here he is in motion:

Kyle Russell went 2-for-3 with a run scored, two batted in, and two walks. He hit his first homerun of the season. Here he is rounding 3b and getting congratulated by Coach Harmon after hitting said homerun:

He almost looks like he's hovering above the ground. Heh.

Another new thing this year:

I dunno if they're gonna shoot fireworks off every time the Horns win. Or if it's just for the re-dedication weekend. I was surprised by them yesterday. But, as you can tell, I was ready for them today.

And, here's the final line...direct from the scoreboard:

Posted by Joanna at 11:53 PM