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Tuesday - March 11, 2008

Game 14: Texas at Rice

So. I decided to try the CSTV streaming service since they were airing the Texas/Rice game. Overall grade? D. I don't know if it was due to the fact that I have a Mac. Or "slow" DSL. Or what. But, the picture was jumpy and pretty poor quality. The MLB.TV service was a lot better. It did not have buffer issues at all. The CSTV broadcast kept freezing. I had to reload the page every 5 minutes or so. There was a progress bar running across the bottom of the screen under the video and pretty much every time the bar would get to the right-hand edge, I'd lose the signal and have to re-select the game. I tried making sure that I reloaded at the end of each half-inning but that didn't really help since the half-innings were lasting longer than 5 minutes, of course. Texas scored their first run (in the top of the 4th) during one of those reloading periods. Very frustrating. The only reason I don't give the service a grade of "F" is that I could see some of it. And, I suspect it's better for Windows users.

The game was fairly uneventful until the top of the 4th (except for a 20-minute glare delay in the 2nd when they had to wait out the setting sun which was reflecting off a nearby hotel, blinding the batters...yes, really, a "glare" delay). Cole St. Clair (who started for the Owls) gave up a walk and 5 hits to allow 4 across before being lifted for Bryan Price. Price promptly threw a couple of wild pitches to allow another run to cross the plate, giving the Horns a 5-0 lead. I'd give more details but I just don't have them. The video basically sucks. What the heck...here's what GameTracker said: (1) Rupp singled to rf. (2) Belt hit a sac bunt to 1b, moving Rupp to 2b. (3) Russell walked. (4) Hernandez singled to lf, scoring Rupp and moving Russell to 3b. (5) Lusson singled to rf, scoring Russell and moving Hernandez to 3b. (6) Torres singled to lf, scoring Hernandez and moving Lusson to 2b. (7) Tucker flied out to rf. (8) Danks singled to cf, scoring Lusson and moving Torres to 3b. (9) Rice sent Price to the mound. (10) A wild pitch scored Torres and moved Danks to 2b. (11) Danks moved to 3b on a wild pitch. (12) Clark struck out swinging.

In the bottom of the inning, Casey Whitmer (in for Riley Boening, who pitched the first 2 innings) got Buenger to ground out to 2b. Luna then singled and stole 2b. Zornes walked. Prompting a change to Cole Green on the mound. He caught Padron looking for the 2nd out of the inning. Hague struck out swinging to end the inning.

"There's not much rhyme or reason to Augie." That is a direct quote from the Rice radio guy as Augie called Kyle Russell over for a quick offensive timeout in the top of the 5th. Kyle had gone to the plate with 2 out and nobody on, causing the announcer to wonder at the timing of the mini-conference. 'Made me laugh. Kyle flew out to rf for the 3rd out, by the way.

Rice got 2 aboard in the bottom of the inning but stranded them at 1b and 2b. Cole Green still pitching in relief.

After 2 quick strikeouts (to David Hernandez and Kyle Lusson) in the top of the 6th, Michael Torres reached on a throwing error by the third baseman. And, then I had to reload the video feed. I do believe I'm going to have to change that grade from a D to an F. While reloading, Travis Tucker apparently grounded out to 3b. Or so said GameTracker. Sigh...

Brandon Workman went to the mound for the Horns in the bottom of the 6th and started things off by giving up a full-count single to Luna. Zornes followed that with a fly out to cf. And, reload the video. Sigh... Padron singled up the middle. On the hit-and-run, Luna made it to 3b. Hague flew out to lf (sac fly) to score Luna. Seastrunk singled to cf, putting runners at 1b and 2b with 2 out. And, reload video. It's official: the grade for this service is a big fat F. Dodson walked (full-count, I think) to load the bases...prompting a visit to the mound by Skip Johnson. Mozingo grounded out to end the inning. Leaving the Horns up 5-1.

Rice sent a new pitcher (Ojala) to the mound to start the 7th. And, I pretty much decided to give up on the video feed...switching instead to Keith Moreland and Bill Little on the radio. Ahhh...much better. Jordan Danks flew out to deep cf. Preston Clark, alas, struck out looking...for the third time in the game, according to Keith. Cameron Rupp grounded out to 3b. And, then Keith made me laugh by saying we had 7 innings in the book and were headed to the 8th before realizing we were actually headed to the bottom of the 7th...and thus, the 7th inning stretch.

Chance Ruffin went to the mound for Texas in the bottom of the 7th. Gayhart flew out to cf. Camerota (pinch-hitting for Buenger) worked the count full and then flew out to rf. Luna was hit by a pitch. Zornes followed that with a strikeout to end the inning.

Brandon Belt tripled to the rf/cf gap to start off the 8th! Rice sent Runnels to pitch for Ojala. Kyle Russell worked the count full and then struck out looking. David Hernandez flew out to cf (sac fly), scoring Brandon and putting the Horns back up by 5. Kyle Lusson reached on a throwing error by the second baseman and then moved to 2b on a wild pitch. Michael Torres hit his first homerun of the year down the rf line to score 2! Rice sent Haynes to the mound and Travis Tucker grounded out to 2b to end the top of the 8th. Texas up 8-1.

Stayton Thomas replaced Chance Ruffin on the mound for the Horns. Padron flew out to lf. Hague lined out to 1b. Nice play by Brandon Belt, according to Keith. Seastrunk struck out looking. 3-up/3-down for Mr. Thomas. Cool.

Jordan Danks started off the 9th with a single to rf. Preston Clark drew a full-count walk to put runners at 1b and 2b. Cameron Rupp grounded out to the pitcher to move the runners to 2b and 3b. The pitcher made a mistake on the play. He should've thrown to 2b to kick-off a double play but looked at 3b instead and was then too late to make a throw to 2b. So, Rice had to settle for one out. Which prompted Wayne Graham to replace his pitcher. Evers went to the mound for the Owls. Brandon Belt grounded out to the pitcher, scoring Jordan and moving Preston to 3b. The infield was pulled in but a high chopper left the pitcher with no choice but to go for the out at 1b and allow the run to score. Kyle Russell struck out to end the top of the 9th. Horns up 9-1.

Marcus Tackett went in for the Horns to close out the game. Dodson reached on an error by the shortstop. David Hernandez stopped the ball but then bobbled it and could not get a throw away so he just held onto the ball. Mozingo flew out to lf. Kyle Lusson made a nice long run to grab the ball and rob Mozingo of a single. Gayhart reached on a 3-6 fielder's choice. Comerota hit a ground ball that would've been a single through the right side but, instead, it hit Gayhart running from 1b to 2b for the final out of the game. What a weird way to end the game. Texas wins 9-1.

By the way, I tuned back in to the video for the bottom of the inning and it worked just fine. For 5 minutes. And, then it got to the point where I had to reload the feed. But, it was just after the final out so it wasn't too aggravating. My mom also watched the CSTV feed (also with a Mac) and did not have nearly as many problems as I did. She did not have to reload every 5 minutes like I did but the video was about 1/2 inning behind for the entire game. She said the service was very poor. When pressed to give it a letter grade, she gave it an F. When pressed further, she said it might not have been quite that bad. I'm still giving it an F and am very glad I did not have to spend any money on it. I'm going to go ahead and cancel my free trial so I don't have to remember to do something about it later and end up paying for it by mistake.

Posted by Joanna at 10:25 PM