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Friday - April 18, 2008

Game 37: Oklahoma State at Texas

Very tough loss tonight. The Horns fell to the Oklahoma State Cowboys 1-2 in 11 innings. Chance Ruffin pitched the best game of the year for a Texas starter.

Very. Tough. Loss.

The line:

																							R	H	E
OSU			0	0	0			0	0	0			1	0	0			0	1		-		2	6	0
Texas			0	0	0			0	0	0			1	0	0			0	0		-		1	6	2

Chance went 10 innings and gave up 1 earned run on 6 hits (all singles) with no walks (!) and 7 strikeouts. All on 105 pitches by my count. It was really a spectacular show. It's a terrible shame he didn't get a win out of it.

The OSU starter (Andrew Oliver) also pitched a very nice game. He went 8 innings and gave up 1 earned run on 3 hits (including 1 homerun) with 4 walks, 1 hit batter, and 7 strikeouts. He threw 117 pitches by my count.

There was one extra-base hit on the evening: Preston Clark hit a "no doubt about it, the ball is gone gone gone!!!!" homerun over the visitor bullpen with 2 outs in the 7th to match the run scored by the Cowboys in the top of the inning. It was a thing of beauty.

Here's how things played out:

• 1st inning
• OSU: (Chance Ruffin on the mound.) Webb grounded out to 2b. Mercer struck out. Hague struck out looking.
• Texas: (Andrew Oliver on the mound.) Tucker walked. Torres moved Tucker to 2b on a sac bunt to the pitcher. Danks walked. Clark hit into a 5-4-3 double play.
• 2nd inning
• OSU: Green grounded out to 3b. Flores flew out to lf. Medchill singled up the middle. Ridling struck out.
• Texas: Rupp struck out. Russell was hit by the first pitch he saw. Lusson struck out looking. Russell was caught stealing (2-6) with Belt at the plate.
• 3rd inning
• OSU: Hambly reached on a bunt single, moved to 2b when Belza grounded out to the pitcher, and moved to 3b on a passed ball with Webb at the plate. Webb grounded out to 1b unassisted. On the play, Belt fielded the ball, looked Hambly back to 3b, then raced to 1b and just barely beat Webb to the bag for the out. Nice play. Mercer grounded out to 3b.
• Texas: Belt and Hernandez struck out. Tucker flew out to cf.
• 4th inning
• OSU: Hague flew out to rf. Green grounded out to 2b. Flores popped out to 1b (foul).
• Texas: Torres flew out to lf. Danks flew out to rf. Clark flew out to cf.
• 5th inning
• OSU: Medchill grounded out to 1b unassisted. Ridling lined out to lf. Lusson dove for the ball and it looked like it popped out of his glove and then he sort of rolled over with the ball. The ump on the left side of the field ruled it a catch. He was closer than we were so maybe he saw that the ball did not hit the ground. I don't know. But, I think Texas may have gotten a break on the play. Lusson did jump up with the ball as though he'd made a catch. 'Course, it's his job to do that. I would not have been surprised if it had been ruled a hit. At any rate, Hambly grounded out to 3b for the 3rd out.
• Texas: Rupp flew out to cf. Russell struck out looking on three pitches and then had a word or two for the home plate ump (Six-Shooter Bob Homolka). I was a bit surprised that he was not ejected. Lusson struck out.
• 6th inning
• OSU: Belza singled to rf and moved to 2b on a sac bunt (1-3) by Webb. Mercer flew out to cf. Hague grounded out to 3b.
• Texas: Belt singled through the right side. Hernandez struck out. Tucker grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
• 7th inning
• OSU (Cowboys score first run of the game): Green singled up the middle. Flores singled past the short stop into cf, moving Green to 3b. If Green hadn't been running on the play, forcing the shortstop (Hernandez) to move toward 2b to cover the sb attempt, the ball would've been hit right at him. Alas, he was nearly to 2b when the ball went past him on his right. He tried to get back to it but there was no way. The throw in from cf went to 3b and Flores moved up to 2b on the throw. OSU sent Thomas to 3b to pinch run for Green. Skip Johnson made a trip to the mound. Medchill struck out looking. Then, one of the more bizarre plays I've ever seen took place. Ridling hit a ground ball to ss. Hernandez fielded the ball and threw to 3b to get Flores running from 2b. Thomas scored as Flores reversed course and headed back to 2b. He fell (when he re-reversed course) and was tagged out by the second baseman. Ridling (who'd reached 1b safely on the fielder's choice) thought he'd catch Texas sleeping and tried to sneak up on 2b during the run-down. Alas, Texas was awake and he was tagged out easily before reaching 2b. The run-down went 6-5-4. And then the 2nd out of the double play went 4-5. Tucker had run toward 2b after throwing to Torres for the first out. Torres turned and tossed back to Tucker for the easy tag on Ridling. Cool.
• Texas (Horns tie things up): Torres grounded out to 2b. Danks flew out to lf. Clark hit that homerun I mentioned earlier over the lf fence. Rupp walked. Russell lined out to cf.
• 8th inning
• OSU: Hambly popped out to 2b. Belza singled up the middle. Webb flew out to rf. Mercer hit into a 6-4 fielder's choice.
• Texas: Lusson lined out to cf. Belt singled off the pitcher. The ball hit the pitcher and ricocheted toward 3b. Belt beat the off-line throw to 1b. Hernandez walked, moving Belt to 2b. Sadly, Tucker lined a ball right at the ss (full count). Belt was about even with the shortstop when he caught the ball, so the shortstop had an easy toss to 2b to complete the double play.
• 9th inning
• OSU: Hague flew out to rf. Davis (pinch-hitting in the DH spot) struck out. Rupp couldn't handle the pitch so had to throw down to 1b to complete the out. Flores struck out swinging.
• Texas: Hague went from rf to the mound. Webb moved from cf to rf. Harvard went in at cf (and into the line-up in the spot previously occupied by the dh). Torres singled to lf. Danks popped out to the pitcher in foul territory. He was trying to bunt Torres over. Moldenhauer (pinch-hitting for Clark) singled up the middle, moving Torres to 3b. Texas sent Rowe to pinch run for Moldenhauer. Emsley-Pai (pinch-hitting for Rupp) struck out. The Cowboys intentionally walked Russell, loading the bases. Lusson grounded out to 2b. Damn. Best chance of the evening. Squelched.
• 10th inning
• OSU: Emsley-Pai stayed in the game at c. Medchill struck out. Ridling flew out to cf. Hambly reached on the first error of the game. He popped up toward ss and David Hernandez was not able to catch the ball. Hambly reached 2b on the error. Belza flew out to cf.
• Texas: Belt grounded out to the pitcher. Hernandez grounded out to ss. Tucker reached on an infield single to 3b. Torres hit into a 6-4 fielder's choice.
• 11th inning
• OSU (re-takes the lead): Texas sent Cole Green to the mound. Webb walked on 4 pitches and moved to 2b on a wild pitch. Mercer hit a very nice sac bunt down the 3b line, advancing Webb to 3b. Texas sent Pat McCrory to the mound. With the infield pulled in, Hague hit a hard ground ball right at Torres at 2b. Torres booted the ball toward the lf/cf gap. Webb scored on the play and Hague reached 2b on the error. Harvard was intentionally walked. Flores popped out to 1b. Medchill grounded out to 3b.
• Texas: Danks grounded out to 2b (nice play by the second baseman). Shepherd (pinch-hitting in the dh spot) flew out to cf. Emsley-Pai struck out looking to end the game. Texas lost 1-2.

Random observations:

• It was a quick game. It started at 6 and ended shortly after 9. I could not get over how fast it went...what with the two extra innings and all.
• Travis Tucker made several very nice plays at 3b.
• Michael Torres extended his consecutive-game hitting streak to 24 games with that single in the 9th. He's now tied Rick Bradley's record from 1974. Another hit tomorrow and the hitting streak record is his alone.
• Chance threw four 3-up/3-down innings.
• The Cowboys turned 3 double plays.

Posted by Joanna at 11:32 PM