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Tuesday - March 17, 2009

Game 17: Texas at Rice

I tried to watch the "Owlvision" stream online but it kept reporting that "The Media You Have Selected Is Currently Unavailable" so I gave up. I'm not having the best of luck with the online watching lately. So, I ended up listening to Craig Way and Keith Moreland on the radio. Which is just fine. This report is, it follows, based on the radio broadcast. And, by the way, I never did get a video feed. I don't know if anyone else had the same problem. Weird.

The starting line-ups:

Texas	Rice
1 Travis Tucker, 2b 2 Michael Torres, dh 3 Brandon Belt, 1b 4 Russell Moldenhauer, rf 5 Cameron Rupp, c 6 Tant Shepherd, lf 7 Kyle Lusson, cf 8 David Hernandez, ss 9 Brandon Loy, 3b - Austin Dicharry, p	1 Brock Holt, 2b 2 Rick Hague, ss 3 Chad Mozingo, rf 4 Anthony Rendon, 3b 5 Diego Seastrunk, dh 6 Jeremy Rathjen, cf 7 Steven Sultzbaugh, lf 8 Craig Manuel, c 9 Jimmy Comerota, 1b - Matthew Reckling, p

And, here's how things played out:

• 1st inning, Texas
• Matthew Reckling on the mound for Rice. (Yes...it appears that he is the grandson of the namesake for the Rice stadium.)
• Tucker struck out looking (full count).
• Torres doubled to the rf corner.
• Belt struck out swinging (full count).
• Recking balked with Moldenhauer at the plate, moving Torres to 3b.
• Moldenhauer popped out to 3b (in foul territory).
• 1st inning, Rice
• Austin Dicharry on the mound for Texas.
• Holt grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Hague struck out looking (1-2 count).
• Mozingo flew out to cf.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Rupp struck out swinging.
• Shepherd flew out to rf.
• Lusson lined out to rf.
• 2nd inning, Rice
• Rendon grounded out to 3b.
• Seastrunk grounded out to 2b.
• Rathjen struck out swinging.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Hernandez singled to lf.
• Loy moved Hernandez to 2b with a sac bunt down the 3b line.
• Belt moved to 3b on a wild pitch (4th pitch of the at-bat) with Tucker at the plate.
• Tucker struck out swinging.
• Torres flew out to lf.
• 3rd inning, Rice
• Sultzbaugh hit the first pitch he saw off the top of the fence in rf (it sounded like Moldenhauer leapt and almost caught the ball) for a triple.
• Manuel hit the first pitch he saw into cf for a single (rbi).
• Comerota tried to bunt Manuel over but Dicharry fielded and threw out the runner at 2b; Comerota safe at 1b on the fielder's choice.
• Holt flew out to cf.
• Hague singled to lf (full count). Since the count was full, Comerota was off with the pitch and made it to 3b. Hague took a wide turn around 1b and was almost thrown out.
• Skip Johnson made a visit to the mound.
• Mozingo grounded out to 3b.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Belt reached on a 5-pitch walk.
• Moldenhauer moved Belt to 2b with a sac bunt (1b unassisted).
• The first pitch to Rupp was a wild pitch that went all the way to the backstop, moving Belt to 3b. Which prompted a visit to the mound by Coach Graham.
• Rupp hit a sac fly to the warning track in rf, scoring Belt.
• Shepherd lined out to lf.
• Game tied 1-1.
• 4th inning, Rice
• Rendon got ahead 2-0 and then struck out swinging.
• Seastrunk drew a full-count walk.
• Rathjen struck out looking. Craig and Keith both commented that it was a killer change-up pitch for the strikeout.
• Sultzbaugh singled through the left side, moving Seastrunk to 2b.
• Manuel popped out to shallow lf.
• Game tied 1-1.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Rice sent Matt Evers to the mound, replacing Reckling.
• Lusson reached and moved to 2b on a throwing error by the shortstop. The ss threw wide of 1b and the ball went into the stands.
• Hernandez reached on a 5-pitch walk. He squared to bunt on the 2-1 and 3-1 pitches but both went for balls.
• Loy hit a bunt down the 3b line. The pitcher fielded and tried to get the lead runner out at 3b but did not make the play. Bases loaded. Keith argued that it should be scored as a sac bunt and a fielder's choice. I don't think the official scorer gave Loy the sac.
• Tucker struck out looking...and was not happy with the call by the home plate umpire. (3rd strikeout of the day for Tucker.)
• Preston Clark was announced as a pinch-hitter for Torres. Which prompted a visit to the mound by Coach Graham.
• Jordan Rogers (righty) was sent to the mound, replacing Evers (lefty).
• Clark hit a sac fly to lf, scoring Lusson.
• Belt grounded out to ss.
• Texas up 2-1.
• 5th inning, Rice
• Comerota flew out to cf (1st pitch).
• Holt singled up the middle.
• Hague hit a homerun over the lf fence. 2 rbi.
• Texas sent Andrew McKirahan to the mound for Dicharry.
• Mozingo singled into lf.
• Rendon hit a bloop single into rf, moving Mozingo to 3b. Craig and Keith commented that the ball had a weird spin on it and kicked off toward the line after it hit the ground.
• Skip Johnson made a visit to the mound.
• Seastrunk singled a high-bouncer up the middle, scoring Mozingo and moving Rendon to 2b. Yep...5 hits in a row.
• Texas sent Taylor Jungmann to the mound, replacing McKirahan.
• The runners advanced to 2b and 3b on a wild pitch with Rathjen at the plate.
• Rathjen struck out swinging.
• Rendon scored and Seastrunk moved to 3b on a wild pitch with Sultzbaugh at the plate.
• Sultzbaugh went on to strike out looking.
• Texas down 2-5.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Moldenhauer doubled down the rf line past the first baseman into the corner.
• Rupp singled up the middle, moving Moldenhauer to 3b. The ball was hit so hard to cf, there was no chance for Moldenhauer to score.
• Shepherd hit a sac fly to lf, scoring Moldenhauer.
• Lusson worked the count full but struck out swinging.
• Hernandez flew out to rf.
• Texas down 3-5.
• 6th inning, Rice
• Manuel singled past 3b into lf.
• Comerota struck out (2-strike foul bunt). Keith said he thought Comerota was actually trying to get out of the way of the pitch but couldn't get the bat out of the way.
• Holt reached on a 6-4 fielder's choice.
• Hague struck out looking (3 pitches).
• Texas down 3-5.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Loy popped out to ss.
• Tucker was hit by a 2-0 pitch.
• Coach Graham made a visit to the mound but did not change the pitcher.
• With Clark at the plate, Tucker was picked off by the pitcher. Perhaps that was the subject of the mound visit conversation?
• Clark lined out to 3b. Craig reported that Tommy Harmon was having words with the 3b ump...saying the ball was trapped?...I dunno. 3rd out, regardless.
• Texas down 3-5.
• 7th inning, Rice
• Mozingo singled past Hernandez into cf. The throw back in was not caught (Hernandez was frustrated at not catching the hit ball?) and the hitter moved to 2b on the error. The error was charged to cf but probably should've been charged to ss. (UPDATE: The error did end up going to ss instead of cf.) Coach Garrido immediately sent Etier into the field, replacing Hernandez. Etier went to 3b and Loy moved over to ss.
• Rendon flew out to rf. Very bizarre play. Official initially ruled the ball not caught. Mozingo scored...just beating the throw. After things were appealed by Garrido, the officials ruled that the ball was caught but they let the run scored by Mozingo to stand...essentially ruling that Mozingo tagged and scored after the ball was caught. Which DID NOT HAPPEN. He did not tag up. Bizarre and very bad call by officials. Rendon was credited with a sac fly and run batted in. Wow.
• Seastrunk singled up the middle.
• Texas sent Wood to the mound for Jungmann.
• Rathjen reached on an error (E1). High throw from Wood on a bunt attempt.
• Sultzbaugh flew out to cf.
• Manuel lined out to 3b.
• Texas down 3-6.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Rice sent Abel Gonzales to the mound.
• Belt flew out to cf.
• Kevin Keyes was announced as a pinch-hitter (for Moldenhauer).
• Rice responded by sending Mike Ojala to the mound.
• Which prompted Texas to send Tim Maitland to hit for Keyes.
• Maitland struck out swinging.
• Rupp grounded out to ss.
• Texas down 3-6.
• 8th inning, Rice
• Texas sent Lusson to rf and kept Maitland in the game in cf.
• Comerota struck out looking (full count).
• Holt reached on a bunt single down the 1b line.
• Hague struck out swinging.
• Holt stole 2b with Mozingo at the plate.
• Holt was caught stealing 3b (2-5) 3 pitches later. Mozingo left at bat.
• Texas down 3-6.
• 9th inning, Texas
• Shepherd struck out looking (2-2 count).
• Lusson struck out swinging. The catcher dropped the ball so had to throw down to 1b to complete the out.
• Etier struck out swinging. And, like the previous play, the catcher dropped the ball and had to throw down to 1b.
• Texas loses 3-6.

The win went to Jordan Rogers. Mike Ojala got a save (his first of the year). And, Austin Dicharry took the loss.

And, here's the line (from GameTracker):

That 7th inning was just bizarre. The officials got the call completely wrong. Simply amazing. The run did not end up counting in the decision. But, you don't know what would've happened if things had been ruled correctly. The mind boggles at the bad decision by the officials.

UPDATE (a couple of hours later). Entertainingly, the official story on the game from the TexasSports.com website describes the poor officiating in the 7th thusly: "[Mozingo] scored on an extremely rare two-base sacrifice fly by Rendon." Extremely rare, indeed.

The folks at the Rice Owls page couldn't even bring themselves to say that much. They wrote: "Rice plated its final run of the night in the seventh for a 6-3 final." It would appear that they were appropriately embarrassed enough that they would not pretend it was anything other than a bad call by the officials.

"Extremely rare two-base sacrifice fly." Wow.

Texas next travels to Lawrence for a 3-game series against Kansas this weekend.

Posted by Joanna at 10:32 PM