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Tuesday - April 22, 2008

Game 40: Texas at Baylor

I was working away and forgot all about the game. Horrors! I remembered at about 7:40 or so and tuned it to find the game in the top of the 2nd with Texas ahead 2-1. So, I opened up GameTracker and found that the Horns scored 2 runs in the 1st as follows: Jordan Danks hit a 2-out solo homerun; Russell Moldenhauer and Kyle Russell followed with consecutive doubles to score the 2nd run. In the bottom of the inning, with Kenn Kasparek on the mound, things looked a bit dicey: strikeout, 4-pitch walk, 5-pitch walk, rbi single, hit batter, strike out, fly out foul to 3b. Yikes!

Kenn settled down, though. He ended up pitching through the 5th. He gave up a 2-out 4-pitch walk in the 2nd but stranded the runner at 1b. The 3rd and 4th were 1-2-3 innings! He hit another batter to start off the 5th; threw 2 strikeouts; allowed a single (moving the runner to 3b); and then got a line out to cf. Stayton Thomas went to the mound in the 6th and gave up the 2nd Baylor run: double (Craig and Keith said Moldenhauer lost the ball in the lights), strikeout, ground out to 1b, rbi single, strikeout. The 7th went 3-up/3-down (with two strikeouts). The 8th also went 3-up/3-down (this time with 3 ground outs). Stayton gave up a lead-off walk to Weems in the 9th but Weems was stranded (strikeout, pop out to 1b, ground out to ss) to end the game. And, the 4-game losing streak. I did not realize, before the game started, that the Bears also went into today's game with a 4-game losing streak. So, theirs is now 5 games. And, the Horns have a 1-game winning streak! Heh.

Kenn got the win (improving his record to 2-3) and Stayton earned his 3rd save of the year.

So, how'd the Horns score the rest of their runs? In the 3rd: Jordan Danks walked (full count) and moved to 2b on a sac bunt by Russell Moldenhauer (who started in lf today); Kyle Russell singled to score Jordan. In the 7th: David Hernandez walked (full count); Michael Torres singled to 2b and moved to 2b on a throwing error by 2b (David moved to 3b on the play); Travis Tucker hit a sac fly to cf scoring David; Baylor changed pitchers; Jordan struck out; Kyle Lusson (pinch hitting for Moldenhauer) singled, scoring Michael. And, in the 9th: Michael reached on a 1-out walk (full count) and stole 2b; Travis lined out to ss; Jordan reached on a 4-pitch walk; and Tant Shepherd (pinch-hitting for Kyle Lusson) hit a 2-out 3-run homer over the lf fence. Woo hoo! His 2nd homerun of the year.

All-in-all, it was a very good game. Solid pitching, good defense, and very nice 2-out hitting. Go Horns!

Texas wins 8-2.

One more thing to note: tonight's game does not count in the conference standings. But, it does count in both teams' overall standings. OU and OSU have been doing this sort of thing for years. And now, with the compressed schedule, the Horns and Bears decided it was a good way to get in another game without having to travel very far.

Posted by Joanna at 10:34 PM