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Friday - February 20, 2009

Game 1: Illinois-Chicago at Texas

Texas won their opener today, beating the Flames from the University of Illinois at Chicago 6-1. It was a lovely day at the ballpark. The weather was gorgeous (about 71 °F for the duration) and the sun shone brightly. There was a pretty stiff wind out to lf and I was rather expecting a homerun or two. But, no such luck. By the way, I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the crowd...what with it being a weekday afternoon game. It was a big crowd. Maybe lots of other people took the day off like I did.

The line:

																			R	H	E
UIC			0	1	0			0	0	0			0	0	0		-		1	5	1
Texas			1	4	0			0	0	1			0	0	x		-		6	11	0

Note: The official scorer and I differed at one point so I show one more hit than will show up in the official boxscore. Shrug. That's life. Heh.

And, here's how things played out:

• 1st inning - UIC
• Chance Ruffin started on the mound for the Horns.
• McGuiggan (cf) flew out to cf.
• Altavilla (2b) flew out to rf. Kevin Keyes made a nice catch in rf.
• Carr (lf) grounded out to 3b.
• 1st inning - Texas
• Chris Kovacevich started for the Flames.
• Travis Tucker (2b) singled through the right side.
• Brandon Loy (3b) moved Tucker to 2b on a sac bunt (1-3).
• With Brandon Belt (1b) at the plate, Tucker moved to 3b on a wild pitch.
• Belt then hit a sac fly to lf, scoring Tucker.
• Preston Clark (dh) then, sadly, struck out looking (1-2 count).
• Texas up 1-0.
• 2nd inning - UIC
• Schaefer (dh) singled through the right side and then moved to 2b on a wild pitch during the next batter's plate appearance.
• Ganek (3b) struck out on a foul bunt attempt (2-2 count). I was very surprised to see him square around to bunt.
• Leonard grounded out to ss. Schaefer had to stand his ground at 2b.
• Garcia (1b) singled to lf, scoring Schaefer.
• Orf (c) grounded into a shortstop-unassisted fielder's choice.
• Game tied at 1-1.
• 2nd inning - Texas
• Kevin Keyes (rf) singled into shallow cf.
• Cameron Rupp (c) walked, moving Keyes to 2b.
• Tant Shepherd (lf) reached on a bunt down the 3b line, moving Keyes to 3b and Rupp to 2b. On the play, the pitcher fielded but made a bad throw to 1b. All runners advanced 1 base (Keyes scored). Here's where the official scorer and I differed. He/she scored a straight error. I felt Shepherd beat the bad throw and should've been awarded a bunt single to go along with the error charged to the pitcher.
• David Hernandez (ss) hit a sac fly to cf. Rupp scored and Shepherd advanced to 3b. He just barely beat the throw from cf. Nice play.
• Connor Rowe (cf) hit another sac fly to cf, scoring Shepherd.
• Tucker was hit by a pitch (1-0 count) to reach.
• Loy singled to shallow rf. Tucker hussled around 2b to 3b.
• Belt walked to load the bases.
• Clark (9th batter of the inning) walked (full count) to score Tucker.
• Keyes grounded out to 1b (unassisted). He came very close to beating the pitcher to 1b. On the play, the first baseman and the pitcher both went for the ball. The pitcher went to throw the ball to 1b, realized nobody was covering, and made a mad dash to the base, beating Keyes by a split second. Darn!
• Texas up 5-1.
• 3rd inning - UIC
• Rubio (rf) grounded out to 3b. One of several nice plays by the new freshman (Brandon Loy) manning 3b.
• McGuiggan lined out to 2b.
• Altavilla walked.
• Carr grounded into a 6-4 fielder's choice.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 3rd inning - Texas
• Rupp flew out (sky high!) to rf.
• Shepherd singled to rf. I think this is the first sign of the difference the new turf is making at Disch-Falk. This looked like a hit that would've had a good chance of skipping into the corner for a double on the old turf.
• Hernandez singled through the left side. Shepherd flew around 2b and beat the throw to 3b. Great hussle on his part.
• Rowe moved Hernandez to 2b on a safety squeeze to the pitcher (sac bunt). Sadly, the ball did not get deep enough into the field to allow Shepherd to score.
• Tucker grounded out to the pitcher.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 4th inning - UIC
• Schaefer grounded out to 2b. Very nice play by Tucker.
• Ganek walked (full count) and then moved to 2b on a wild pitch (the first pitch) to the next batter.
• Leonard singled to 3b. Loy made a nice stop, looked the runner back to 2b, and then made a nice throw to secure the out.
• Garcia popped out to 1b (foul).
• Orf batted into his second 6-4 fielder's choice of the day. Both times resulted in the 3rd out. Poor guy.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 4th inning - Texas
• Loy grounded out (2-3) on a bunt attempt.
• Belt grounded out to 2b.
• Clark grounded out to 3b.
• 3 outs on 4 pitches. Ouch.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 5th inning - UIC
• Rubio grounded out to 3b.
• McGuiggan grounded out to the catcher on a bunt attempt.
• Altavilla grounded out to the pitcher (unassisted).
• A 10-pitch inning. I thought it would be the last for Ruffin since he'd hit 5 innings and had thrown 75 pitches by my count.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 5th inning - Texas
• Keyes grounded out to 2b.
• Rupp singled down the 3b line.
• Shepherd flew out to rf.
• Rowe grounded out to 3b.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 6th inning - UIC
• Despite my expectations, Chance Ruffin stayed in the game.
• Carr fouled off a couple of pitches and then hit a nice double to the cf/rf gap.
• Schaefer flew out to rf.
• Ganek grounded out to 3b.
• Leonard grounded out to ss. Very nice play by Hernandez at ss.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 6th inning - Texas
• UIC also surprised me by leaving their starter in the game. He'd thrown 85 pitches through 5 by my count.
• Tucker singled to rf.
• Loy reached on a fielder's choice (1-6).
• Loy stole 2b on the first pitch to Belt. Again, the scorer and I differed. I felt that since Loy was running as the pitcher let loose, he should be awarded a stolen base. The official scorer apparently did not agree and only scored it a passed ball...no stolen base.
• Belt hit a beauty of a double to the lf/cf gap, scoring Loy.
• Clark grounded out to the pitcher, moving Belt to 3b.
• Keyes walked.
• Rupp popped out to 1b (foul). The UIC first baseman made a very nice play to catch the fly ball just shy of the Texas dugout.
• Texas up 6-1.
• 7th inning - UIC
• Ruffin continued on the mound for the Horns (having thrown 90 pitches through 6 innnigs by my count).
• Garcia grounded out to 2b.
• Orf struck out swinging on 3 pitches.
• Rubio was hit pretty solidly on his left hip or lower back by the first pitch thrown to him.
• McGuiggan struck out swinging on 3 pitches.
• Another 10-pitch inning for Ruffin. 'Turned out to be his last. He looked pretty strong there at the end.
• Texas up 6-1.
• 7th inning - Texas
• Salemi went to the mound for the Flames.
• Shepherd grounded out to 3b.
• Hernandez popped out to 2b.
• Rowe struck out looking.
• Texas up 6-1.
• 8th inning - UIC
• Kyle Lusson replaced Tant Shepherd in lf. And, Stayton Thomas went to the mound for Ruffin.
• Altavilla walked on 5 pitches.
• Thomas threw two more balls to the next batter which prompted a quick visit to the mound by Skip Johnson. Thomas then threw two called strikes.
• Carr then hit a hard grounder that looked bound for lf. But, Brandon Loy made a great stop and threw a rocket to 2b. Tucker turned a perfect throw to 1b for the only double play of the game. It was picture perfect. Play of the game in my book.
• Schaefer fouled off a few pitches, watched two balls, and then struck out swinging.
• Texas up 6-1.
• 8th inning - Texas
• Tucker lined out to 1b.
• Loy reached on an infield single to ss.
• Belt lined out to rf.
• Michael Torres (hitting for Clark) struck out swinging after fouling off a couple of pitches.
• Texas up 6-1.
• 9th inning - UIC
• Texas moved Lusson to rf and sent Tim Maitland in at lf (taking Keyes' spot in the line-up). The Horns also sent Austin Dicharry to the mound.
• Ganek singled through the left side.
• Leonard walked (5 pitches), moving Ganek to 2b.
• Garcia struck out looking.
• Harwell (hitting for Orf) also struck out looking after working the count full.
• Rubio grounded out to the pitcher to end the game.
• Texas wins 6-1.

All-in-all, I thought it was a very good opening-day effort by the Horns. One more note: the start time for Sunday's game has been moved up 30 minutes to 12:30.

Posted by Joanna at 11:10 PM