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Sunday - November 2, 2008

Fall Ball: Scrimmage #4 vs. Texas State

Texas won their 4th scrimmage of the Fall season, beating Texas State 11-4 in a scheduled 12-inning game. As usual for one of these things, the teams played loose with substitution and dh rules. I did not keep score today. I decided to just wander the stands and take photos. It was a gorgeous day for baseball. They did not have the clock or temperature working on the scoreboard so I don't know what the temperature was but I'm guessing it hit 80 °F or so and there was a pleasant right-to-left breeze for most of the game. The win, by the way, put the Horns at 2-2 for their Fall scrimmages as they beat Baylor, then dropped two to Rice, and won today.

One more note. The roster they handed out at today's scrimmage was the same as the one for the 1st scrimmage against Baylor with one exception: #37 Lee Johnson was not listed.

Ah well. On to the photos...

Proof of the beauty of the day:

I took that first photo at about 1 o'clock and the second one about 45 minutes later.

Early in the game, Michael Torres was called out at 3b on an attempted steal. I happened to be in just the right spot to record the play:

Hmmmm. Was he actually out? Let's zoom in and look:

I don't believe he was. 'Twas awfully close, though.

A few innings later, this Texas State batter was called out at 1b:

I don't think we really need a zoom on this one. I guess that evens things out. Right?

And, one more "is he out or not?" play. Jordan Etier trying to steal 2b (this happened somewhere between the other two plays shown above):

Out by a mile, right? Um. Nope. Well, he was. But, it turned out that he attempted that stolen base on Ball 4 to Russell Moldenhauer. So, he was not out. He got to stay at 2b. I think he scored later in the inning. Heh.

Oh. And, see all that stuff Jordan managed to kick up in the last photo? That's apparently a big bunch of black plastic pellets...err, rather...cryogenic rubber pellets. A vital part of FieldTurf. Here's some info from the company that makes the stuff. At least, I think that's what's now installed at Disch-Falk. I'm not too pleased that the only dirt on the field is on the mound. The area around home plate and the sliding pits around the other bases really need to be dirt, don't they? Bye-bye, dirty uniforms! It seems that not having dirt around the plate would really mess with some batters' routines. I noticed that Cameron Rupp was kicking the black pellets around a bit as he got ready to bat. It's just not the same, somehow. I did think of one advantage, though. The batters who like to creep back past the back of the batter's box cannot smudge the box out of existence any longer. Another unexpected (to me) effect of the new turf: the field seems to have lost quite a bit of its crown. I don't think we can count on nearly so many bunted balls rolling foul. In the past, a lot of balls bunted down the baselines would eventually roll foul if you waited long enough. It looks like we've lost home-field advantage on those plays.

That's it for tonight. I took a lot of photos today and will try to post the best of 'em over the next few days.

PS: I apologize for not posting anything about the two Rice scrimmages. I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm to post about the first one at the Dell Diamond. And, I didn't go to Houston for the 2nd one so didn't have any info on it above and beyond what was posted on the TexasSports.com site. And so, a couple of links to the TexasSports.com stories: Rice at Texas (played at Dell Diamond) and Texas at Rice (played at Reckling Park).

Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 11:16 PM