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Friday - March 27, 2009

Game 22: Texas Tech at Texas

Let me just get this out of the way before I go on. The Horns made me very happy this evening. They managed this before the first pitch of the game. How did they do this? It took very little effort on their part. I was sitting there in the stands watching Chance Ruffin throwing his warm-up pitches. And, noticed he was sporting high socks. I thought that was odd; I didn't remember him doing the high socks thing in the past. Then, I noticed that Travis Tucker was also sporting high socks. Also unusual. I quickly looked around the field to find that all of the Longhorns were sporting high socks. Woo hoo! That made me very happy. I dunno what the deal was. But, as things went on and the Horns were winning, I started to get a bit giddy. 'Cause, I could see this turning out very nicely. I mean, you know 'bout baseball players and their superstitions, right? If the high socks were instrumental in the win, that would mean high socks for the rest of the season. Right? Happy happy. Joy joy. Tee hee.

Okay. I can move on now. Those of you who just don't care (or, heaven forbid, prefer long pants) can relax as we now resume our regularly scheduled game report.

First off. The weather. It was windy windy windy. And, when I say windy, I mean windy. We had a steady wind (25 mph or so) for the entire game. It blew in from the lf corner straight across the field to the rf corner...northwest to southeast. And, it did not ease up at all as the game wore on. It was 66 °F at the start of the game and dropped down to 55 °F by the time it was over. Most of us really weren't prepared for such a drop. The high this afternoon was about 80. I wore a t-shirt to work today but, luckily, I'd tossed a hooded sweatshirt into the back of my car this morning. Wearing that along with my jean jacket, I managed. But, if I'd realized how much the temperature was going to drop, I would've taken some gloves along, at the very least. My pencil-holding hand did not appreciate the cold wind. Brrr.

So, how'd things go? The Horns won! They beat Tech 9-5. Thanks, to two big innings. In the first, the Horns scored 5 runs on 4 hits, a couple of walks, and a hit batter. In the second big inning, they scored 4 unearned runs as the Tech defense collapsed and managed to commit 3 errors. It was rather painful to watch. Anyway...

Chance Ruffin started (as I may have mentioned) and got the win. He threw 6.2 innings and gave up 4 earned runs on 9 hits (including 1 double and 1 homerun) while throwing 8 strikeouts. He did hit a batter but didn't give up any walks. He threw 96 pitches by my count. Austin Wood earned his 4th save of the year. He went the final 2.1 innings and gave up 1 earned run on 2 hits (1 single, 1 double) with 1 strikeout. He didn't walk or hit any batters and threw 26 pitches by my count. Miles Morgan started, went 4 innings, and took the loss for the Red Raiders.

The starting line-ups:

Texas Tech	Texas
1 Willie Rueda, 2b 2 Joey Kenworthy, ss 3 Michael Reed, lf 4 Chris Richburg, 1b 5 Scott LeJeune, dh 6 Taylor Ashby, cf 7 Justin Berry, 3b 8 Mason Macnoll, rf 9 Jeremy Mayo, c - Miles Morgan, p	1 Travis Tucker, 2b 2 Michael Torres, 3b 3 Brandon Belt, 1b 4 Kevin Keyes, rf 5 Preston Clark, dh 6 Cameron Rupp, c 7 Kyle Lusson, cf 8 Tant Shepherd, lf 9 Brandon Loy, ss - Chance Ruffin, p

So...how were the runs scored? Like so...

• 3rd inning, Tech
• Mayo led things off with a towering homerun down the rf line. The ball, headed more toward straight-away rf, got caught up in the wind and almost blew foul. But, the ump ruled it fair. My seats stare straight down the rf line and it was close. By the time it landed, no doubt it was foul. But, when it passed over the fence? I think it might have just been fair. Just barely. So. Texas down 0-1.
• Rueda grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Kenworthy singled down the lf line. The ball was ruled fair by the 3b ump. Coach Garrido argued that it was foul. But, you know how those things go.
• With Reed at the plate, Kenworthy stole 2b.
• Reed flew out to cf.
• Richburg then singled up the middle to score Kenworthy. Texas down 0-2.
• LeJeune then flew out to lf.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Tucker singled into cf.
• Torres reached on an infield single. Tucker took off as the pitcher threw, drawing the ss to 2b to cover a possible sb. Torres managed to hit the ball to where the ss had been. He backtracked and fielded the ball but had no play. If Tucker hadn't taken off (hit and run?...or sb?...not sure), it likely would've been a double play. Whew.
• Belt hit a beautiful bunt down the 3b line. The third baseman might've had a play at 1b. He started down the line after the ball, then abruptly went back to 3b to cover the bag. There was zero chance of a play at 3b since he'd charged so hard. The pitcher was forced to field and had no play by the time he got to the ball. Bases loaded, no outs.
• Keyes grounded out (high bouncer) to ss (rbi). Tucker scored, Torres moved to 3b, and Belt moved to 2b. Texas down 1-2.
• Clark drew a 5-pitch walk to reload the bases, this time with one out.
• Rupp doubled off the wall in the lf/cf gap, scoring all three baserunners. Yes! Texas up 4-2.
• Lusson reached on a full-count walk. Which prompted a visit to the mound.
• Shepherd was hit by a pitch (on his left hip) to load the bases again (still only one out).
• Loy hit a sac fly near the warning track in rf. Rupp scored. Lusson tagged and moved up to 3b. Texas up 5-2.
• With Tucker (10th batter of the inning) at the plate, Shepherd stole 2b.
• Alas, Tucker grounded out to 2b to end the inning.
• 5th inning, Tech
• Mayo struck out swinging. He flailed, really, at a low/outside pitch. The pitch got away from Rupp and rolled all the way to the backstop. Mayo reached 1b quite easily on the wild pitch.
• Rueda singled through the right side, moving Mayo to 2b.
• Kenworthy advanced the runners to 2b and 3b on a sac bunt to 3b. This play was nearly identical to the play in the 3rd where Belt reached safely. Torres, however, charged hard from 3b, fielded cleanly, and got the batter out at 1b. Nicely done.
• Reed then reached on an error by lf. He hit a hiiiiiiiigh fly ball to lf. The ball got a bit caught up in the wind and Shepherd had to make a pretty long run in to field. I couldn't tell if he took his eye off the ball a bit or what, but the ball glanced off his glove and fell to the ground. E7. Mayo scored on the play. Texas up 5-3.
• Richburg doubled to right-center, scoring Rueda. The hit also turned Reed's score into an earned run. Texas up 5-4.
• LeJeune struck out swinging (3 pitches).
• 7th inning, Texas
• Clark struck out swinging.
• Rupp reached on an error by the pitcher who was running to cover 1b as the first baseman fielded the ball. The toss from the first baseman reached the pitcher in time but he dropped the ball.
• Rupp advanced to 2b on a balk with Lusson at the plate.
• Lusson singled about 1/3 the way down the 1b line. Rupp moved to 3b. On the play, the pitcher and catcher both went for the ball and then both pulled up, apparently thinking the other would field. Mental lapse, I suppose, but no error on the books.
• Shepherd singled to 3b, scoring Rupp and moving Lusson to 2b. The third baseman made a nice stop on the ball headed into the lf corner and then couldn't pick the ball up. Texas up 6-4.
• Loy reached on a fielder's choice. The second baseman fielded a ground ball to him and tried to get Shepherd at 2b but overthrew the shortstop. Lusson advanced to 3b on the ground ball and then scored on the throwing error. Shepherd moved to 3b on the error. Texas up 7-4.
• With Shepherd at 3b, Loy at 1b, and Tucker at the plate, Loy broke for 2b and appeared to be caught in a run-down. He slowed down, in order to give Shepherd a chance to steal home, and the pitcher threw past the second baseman into shallow rf. Shepherd scored on the play and Loy made it all the way to 3b. Wow. Texas up 8-4.
• Tucker grounded out to the catcher (bunt attempt).
• Torres reached on an error by 2b. Loy scored. The second baseman made a great stop of a ground ball headed toward the cf/rf gap. He then threw from his knees to 1b. The ball bounced on the ground before reaching 1b and the first baseman couldn't handle the throw. It did beat Torres to the bag and the first baseman really needs to dig that throw out. I would've probably charged the error to 1b. But, I wasn't in charge. Texas up 9-4.
• Belt reached on an infield single to 2b, moving Torres to 2b.
• With Keyes at the plate, the runners attempted a double steal. Belt was thrown out (2-4) to end the pain. It appeared that the Horns were just going to keep forcing the situation until Tech could get their act together.
• 9th inning, Tech
• Berry singled to lf.
• Hanslick, pinch-hitting for Macnoll, lined out to lf.
• Mayo doubled into the lf corner, scoring Berry. Texas up 9-5.
• Rueda grounded out to 2b, moving Mayo to 3b.
• Kenworthy flew out to cf to end the game. Whew.

Here's the line (from GameTracker):

Don't be late to tomorrow's game or you'll be sorry! They're gonna retire Brooks Kieschnick's number. I'm pretty sure the ceremony will take place at the start of the game.

Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 11:00 PM