« Game 6: Tennessee at Texas (Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park) | Main | Game 8: Houston at Texas (Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park) »

Sunday - March 2, 2008

Game 7: Texas at Rice (Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park)

Today's game (Saturday's game, actually, since this didn't get posted until 12:30 in the morning on Sunday) against Rice was set to start at 7 o'clock. Alas, the Texas Tech vs. Tennessee game was only in its 3rd inning at 7. The first game of the day (OU vs. Houston) went 10 innings and lasted over 3-and-one-half hours before OU finally won 8-5. That 2nd game started just over an hour late and didn't end until after 8 (Tech won 7-3, by the way...putting the Big 12 up on the day). Which meant the Texas game couldn't start until about 9. Which, yes, means they started 2 hours late. Yikes.

Today's line-up (facing Rice starter Cole St. Clair): (1) Travis Tucker at 3b, (2) Michael Torres at 2b, (3) Jordan Danks in cf, (4) Preston Clark at dh, (5) Brandon Belt at 1b, (6) Kyle Russell in rf, (7) Cameron Rupp at c, (8) Kevin Keyes in lf, and (9) David Hernandez at ss. Note that Kyle Russell moved down a couple of spots in the line-up. Kenn Kasparek started for the Horns. And, Rice got the home team nod.

And, things went thusly:

• 1st inning
• Top: Cole St. Clair on the mound. Travis Tucker singled up the middle. During Michael Torres' at-bat, the home plate umpire gave coach Graham some sort of warning. It appeared that the Rice bench was complaining about the strike zone. Alas, Michael struck out looking at a full-count pitch (the pitch immediately following the warning). Travis stole 2b with Jordan Danks at the plate. Jordan ended up drawing a walk (3-1 pitch). Preston Clark then drew a full-count walk to load the bases. Which prompted a visit to the mound by Coach Graham. Brandon Belt hit a sac fly to cf, scoring Travis. The other runners held up. Kyle Russell flew out to ss in shallow cf. Texas up 1-0.
• Bottom: As the bottom of the inning started up, it looked like Coach Graham was complaining to the 3b ump about the home plate ump and the announcers commented that he'd had talk with the home plate ump on his way out to the 3b coach's box. Kenn Kasparek on the mound. He struck out the first batter (Gayhart). Chad Mozingo hit the first pitch he saw over the rf fence (just a few feet fair). Game tied. Diego Seastrunk then homered over the lf fence. Both homeruns easily cleared the fences. Wow. Aaron Luna was then hit by a pitch. I cannot believe there was no comment by the announcers or argument from Texas about the hit pitch because Luna would not have been hit if he'd stood still but he stuck his lead arm out in front of the pitch. Wow. Skip Johnson went out to the mound at this point for a short visit. Luna stole 2b as Padron struck out. Hague then struck out to end the inning. Texas down 1-2.
• 2nd inning
• Top: Cameron Rupp grounded out to 2b. Nice play by the second baseman to charge the ball and get it thrown to 1b in a timely fashion. Kevin Keyes popped out to 3b. David Hernandez hit a 3-1 pitch over the rf fence to tie the game! David's first collegiate homerun. Travis Tucker was hit (just barely) by a pitch to reach. I liked how the announcers actually commented that Travis didn't move out of the way of the pitch but said nothing about Luna's lean-in during the 1st inning. Sigh. St. Clair threw a pick-off throw to 1b and it sailed over the first baseman's head. Travis ran all the way to 3b. Michael Torres then grounded out to 1b (unassisted) for the 3rd out. Gamed tied 2-2.
• Bottom: Zornes struck out swinging to start things off. Comerota singled through the right side. Simmons struck out. 5 outs, 5 strikeouts. Amazing. Too bad about those two homeruns, eh? During Gayhart's at-bat, Comerota was thrown out (2-6) as he tried to steal 2b.
• 3rd inning
• Top: Jordan Danks drew a full-count walk. Preston Clark was called out on strikes. Brandon Belt reached on a 4-6 fielder's choice. Brandon was caught stealing (2-6) with Kyle Russell at the plate for the 3rd out. Top of the 3rd ends like the bottom of the 2nd.
• Bottom: Gayhart struck out again. Mozingo singled through the left side. Seastrunk reached on a fielding error by Michael Torres at 2b. Runners at the corners. Luna then hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. Whew.
• 4th inning
• Top: Kyle Russell singled through the right side. Cameron Rupp doubled to the lf corner, moving Kyle to 3b. Which prompted a pitching change. Chris Kelley took the mound for Rice. Russell Moldenhauer (pinch-hitting for Kevin Keyes...note: neither FOX announcer noticed the change but the folks in the control booth did) lined into lf, driving Kyle home and Cameron to 3b. The booth finally pointed the announcers' folly out to them after David Hernandez took his first pitch and they apologized for not noticing the Keyes/Moldnehauer change. David bunted down the 1b line (squeeze play) and the first baseman made a great play to charge the bunt, field the ball with his bare hand, and toss it to the catcher in time to catch Cameron sliding home. 1st out. Runners at 1b and 2b. Travis Tucker reached on a fielder's choice (3-unassisted). The third baseman had lost track of the number of outs and almost made things interesting as he started to jog back into the Rice dugout while tossing the ball toward the pitcher's mound. The pitcher quickly picked up the ball so no harm, no foul. Michael Torres was called out on strikes (full-count pitch). Texas up 3-2.
• Bottom: Russell Moldenhauer stayed in the game at lf. Padron grounded out to 2b. Hague homered to left-center. Wow. After the first pitch to Zornes, the home plate ump gave a warning to someone in the Texas dugout. Zornes singled through the left side. Which prompted another visit to the mound by Skip Johnson. Comerota singled through the right side. Zornes made it to 3b. David Hernandez misplayed the throw in from Kyle Russell and then failed to hustle after the ball, which allowed a quick-thinking Comerota to reach 2b. E6. Coach Garrido quickly made a defensive substitution and sent Pat McCrory in at ss. Shortly thereafter, Coach Johnson made another trip to the mound and called Casey Whitmer in to take over. Jess Buenger (pinch-hitting for Simmons) hit a bloop single over Brandon Belt at 1b, plating both runners. Rice then sent Derek Myers to pinch run for Buenger at 1b. Gayhart struck out (3rd time today). Myers advanced to 2b on a wild pitch (which flew about 5 feet over Cameron's head!...yikes!) with Mozingo at the plate. Mozingo then flew out to cf. Texas down 3-5.
• 5th inning
• Top: Jordan Danks flew out to lf. Preston Clark struck out swinging. Brandon Belt followed suit.
• Bottom: Seastrunk grounded out to 2b. Luna walked and then stole 2b with Padron at the plate. Padron went on to strike out. Hague singled through the left side, scoring Luna. (The announcer failed to remember that Kevin Keyes was no longer in lf and called his name as Russell Moldenhauer threw the ball back in from lf.) Casey's first pitch to Zornes was pretty far outside and in the dirt which prompted a visit from Skip Johnson who quickly called Chance Ruffin to the mound. Zornes reached base on a catcher's interference putting runners at 1b and 2b. But FOX didn't show it, the folks in the booth didn't notice, and neither did the announcers. Boggles the mind, doesn't it? Chance threw a pick-off throw at this point, to 1b. But, since there were runners at 1b and 2b, Brandon was not holding the runner at 1b and the throw went wild. Hague scored and Zornes moved to 2b. This is when I got very confused. Because, as far as I knew, there was only one runner on base. Where did the runner at 2b come from? The announcers were busy talking about how many tough mid-week games the teams were going to be playing and they just weren't paying attention to the game in front of them. That's when I was happy, once again, to have TiVo. I rewound to the beginning of the inning and carefully watched what happened. And, noticed that Comerota was actually at the plate with a 1-0 count, I believe, when Chance made his errant throw. Sigh. Right before the throw, FOX actually had a wide shot of the runners at 1b and 2b with the graphic showing a 2-2 count and one runner at 1b. Look:
  
  I paused my TiVo and took this horrible photo just to preserve the insanity since I wasn't actually recording the game. The graphic should've shown 2 runners on and a 1-0 count. Do you suppose Chance also thought there was only one guy aboard and Brandon would be holding him at 1b? Ha! Shortly after making that little joke to myself, Chance threw his first strike to Comerota and started to trot off the field, thinking he'd struck him out. Maybe my sad little joke wasn't that far off? Scary thought. At any rate, Comerota singled down the rf line, plating Zornes. Comerota stole 2b with Myers at the plate. Myers then flew out to lf. Texas down 3-8.
• 6th inning
• Top: Kyle Russell grounded out to 1b. Cameron Rupp grounded out to 2b. Russell Moldenhauer walked. Pat McCrory was hit by a pitch. Alas, Travis Tucker flew out to cf.
• Bottom: Gayhart singled to rf. Mozingo reached on an error by 1b. The ball was hit toward 2b. Brandon Belt broke for the ball and then returned to 1b to cover. As he was about to catch the throw from Michael Torres, he glanced toward 2b to see if he could catch Gayhart off the bag. Instead, he missed the throw from Michael and Rice ended up with 2 aboard and no outs. Seastrunk singled through the right side to load the bases. Kyle Russell made a wild throw in from rf. Luckily, Gayhart held up at 3b and Chance did a good job of backing up the throw. Sigh. Another visit to the mound sent Marcus Tackett in for Texas. Luna popped out to 1b in foul territory. Padron grounded out to 2b (4-1). Gayhart scored. Runners at 2b and 3b with 2 outs. Hague lined out to rf. Texas down 3-9.
• 7th inning
• Top: Michael Torres grounded out to ss. Jordan Danks struck out. Preston Clark was hit by a pitch to get on. Brandon Belt grounded out to 2b.
• Bottom: Zornes flew out to lf. Very nice diving catch by Russell Moldenhauer! Comerota popped out to 2b. Myers singled to rf. Coach Johnson made another trip to the mound with a 1-0 count to Gayhart. Keith Shinaberry went in for the Horns which prompted Rice to send Jordan Dodson to pinch hit for Gayhart. Dodson grounded out to 3b. Very nice throw by Travis to beat Dodson.
• 8th inning
• Top: Dodson stayed in the game in rf. Kyle Russell doubled to lf. Cameron Rupp singled up the middle to score Kyle. Coach Graham made a short visit to the mound but left Kelley in. Russell Moldenhauer flew out to cf. Pat McCrory also flew out to cf...nearly the same spot. Travis Tucker fell behind 0-2 but worked the count full and drew a walk. So, Coach Graham went to the mound and called Bryan Price in to pitch. When the count went to 2-0 to Michael Torres, someone (pitching coach David Pierce?) on the Rice staff was thrown out of the game by the home plate ump. The ejected coach had apparently objected to the ball/strike calls. Michael went on to ground out to 2b. Texas down 4-9.
• Bottom: Mozingo reached on an infield single to 2b. Mozingo charged hard and Michael didn't really make much of an effort to get him at the plate. Late throw. Another mental mistake by the Horns. Seastrunk moved Mozingo to 2b on a 2-3 sac bunt. Skip Johnson went out and called Garrett Clyde to the mound. Garrett had a tough time getting the ball down into the strike zone and walked Luna on 4 pitches. Padron doubled off the bottom of the wall in lf, scoring Mozingo. Which prompted another pitching change: in went Stayton Thomas. Runners at 2b and 3b with 1 out. Hague struck out on 3 pitches. Zornes popped out to 3b. Texas down 4-10.
• 9th inning
• Top: Jordan Danks flew out to the warning track in straightaway cf. Preston Clark struck out swinging. Brandon Belt struck out to put me out of my misery. About 10 minutes after midnight. Thank you, Brandon.
• Bottom: Not played.

Texas loses 4-10. Ouch.

Coach Garrido spent a lot of time pacing in the dugout during tonight's game. He was clearly not happy with the team's performance.

In the post-game visit, Coach Garrido said it's a situation where we had 3 really good innings. Unfortunately the game lasted 9 innings. It shows how much the team needs to do to win at a high level. The team is seeing how fast the game plays at this level and had a hard time with the speed of the game. The defensive players' skills and quickness are being challenged. This game belonged to Rice and reveals where the Horns are and where they need to be. He thinks we have good athletes that can learn and can get the job done. (That's more-or-less what was said...the stupid field mike kept cutting out.)

And, with that...I'm headed to bed. 'Night.

Posted by Joanna at 12:30 AM