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Saturday - March 14, 2009

Game 15: Missouri at Texas

The 2nd game on today's schedule went a lot better as far as the home crowd was concerned. After losing the opener 0-2, the Horns made turnabout fair play and blanked the Tigers 5-0. Brandon Workman started and went 7 innings. Austin Wood threw the final 2. They combined to face 30 batters and gave up 3 hits with 8 strikeouts and 2 walks. Very nice.

The starting line-ups matched the first game with one change (Clark was behind the plate for the Horns, replacing Rupp):

Missouri	Texas
1 Greg Folgia, lf 2 Conner Mach, dh 3 Ryan Lollis, cf 4 Aaron Senne, rf 5 Trevor Coleman, c 6 Steve Gray, 1b 7 Andrew Thigpen, 2b 8 Kyle Mach, 3b 9 Michael Liberto, ss - Ian Berger, p	1 Travis Tucker, 2b 2 Michael Torres, dh 3 Brandon Belt, 1b 4 Russell Moldenhauer, rf 5 Tant Shepherd, lf 6 Preston Clark, c 7 David Hernandez, ss 8 Kyle Lusson, cf 9 Brandon Loy, 3b - Brandon Workman, p

Workman gave up one hit to the lead-off batter in the 2nd. He was promptly erased on a 4-6-3 double play. He gave up another single (again to the lead-off batter, Liberto) in the 6th. Liberto tried to steal 2b and appeared to beat the throw. However, he took his hand off the bag and was called out. Wood gave up a single to the 2nd batter (Folgia) he faced in the 9th. Folgia was stranded at 2b as the game ended.

On the offensive side of the game, things went much better for the Horns in the 2nd game of the day than they did in the 1st. The scoring went like so...

• 1st inning, 1 run scored:
• Tucker doubled down the 3b line. It was a very pretty hit.
• Torres moved Tucker to 3b on a sac bunt down the 1b line.
• Belt grounded out to 2b, scoring Tucker. Small ball at its best. The Horns did not even square to bunt a single time in the opener.
• Moldenhauer grounded out to 2b to end the inning.
• 4th inning, 1 run scored:
• Torres was hit by a pitch. The first pitch. It seemed to hit him low on his left leg. But, the catcher and umpire were blocking my view so I'm not sure about that.
• Belt advanced Torres to 2b with a s sac bunt to the pitcher.
• Moldenhauer singled up the middle, scoring Torres. Nice hit.
• Shepherd walked, moving Moldenhauer to 2b.
• Clark struck out.
• Hernandez grounded out to 2b. Nice play. Which reminds me. The Mizzou second baseman (Andrew Thigpen) made several really nice plays today.
• 6th inning, 2 runs scored:
• Torres singled past 2b.
• Belt doubled to the lf/cf gap, scoring Torres. It sure looked like it was gonna be a homerun. Alas.
• That prompted the Tigers to change their starter.
• Moldenhaeur reached on an error by 3b. The third baseman made a nice play to stop a hard hit ball headed to lf. But, he dropped the ball...and then couldn't find it. It dribbled a couple of feet behind him. By the time he managed to scoop it up, Moldenhauer was safe at 1b. Belt could not advance, though, since the ball was between him and 3b.
• Shepherd hit a sac bunt to the pitcher, moving Belt to 3b and Moldenhauer to 2b. On the play, the throw was a bit offline and the first baseman caught it right as Shepherd was getting to the bag. The ball reached the glove and both hit Shepherd near his head. He fell to the ground after crossing the bag (tagged out...ouch) but got up after about a minute. At first, I though he might have been hit in the face but I think the hit went to the side of his head (on his helmet). He was replaced in the field but did not appear to be injured...just a bit shook up. From the stands, it looked like he'll be okay.
• Clark hit a single to lf, scoring Belt and moving Moldenhauer to 3b.
• Hernandez hit a sky high pop-up to shallow rf. No chance for Moldenhauer to score.
• Lusson grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• 8th inning, 1 run scored:
• Rowe (who entered the game after Shepherd was hurt) singled to lf.
• Clark was hit by a pitch, moving Rowe to 2b.
• Hernandez worked the count full. On the 5th pitch, Rowe stole 3b. Nice.
• Hernandez flew out to rf...but not deep enough to score Rowe.
• Lusson singled to rf, scoring Rowe and moving Clark to 3b.
• Loy, sadly, hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

The Horns looked very good in the 2nd game. Not that they looked bad in the first (they just couldn't hit Gibson). It was a good game. The temperature, by the way, did get up to 50 °F and the wind barely kicked up at all in the 2nd game but it felt colder as the day wore on. I'm sure it was mostly because we'd been sitting out there for so long and the cold moist air managed to seep in past our cold-weather garments and blankets.

Entertaining note for our section today: Russell Moldenhauer hit a foul ball up toward us in the 1st inning of the first game. It was headed for the seat (empty at the time) in front of my dad. He tried to reach over and catch it but it fell down into the bag on the seat...a bag belonging to our buddy Forrest. In the 7th inning of the second game, Ryan Lollis hit a foul ball to the exact same spot. Our buddy Don was in his seat this time. But, he couldn't hold onto the ball and Forrest managed to snag his second foul ball of the day. We all got a kick out of that.

Here's the line (from GameTracker):

Here's hoping the Horns take the series tomorrow. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 11:47 PM