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Sunday - March 29, 2009

Game 24: Texas Tech at Texas

Texas beat Tech 8-1 today to take the series win. The offense managed only two more hits than yesterday but 6 more runs! And, they didn't rely on Tech errors for any of 'em like they did on Friday night. 'Course the Raiders did walk 8 of our guys. That helped. The weather was gorgeous. It was sunny all day. The temperature at the start of the game was 68 °F and it got up to 75 or so. We had an occasional easy breeze blowing from the southeast to the northwest (opposite yesterday's wind) from time to time. Often, the flags over cf were hanging quite still.

And, so...the starting line-ups:

Texas Tech	Texas
1 Willie Rueda, 2b 2 Joey Kenworthy, ss 3 Michael Reed, cf 4 Chris Richburg, 1b 5 Scott LeJeune, dh 6 Taylor Ashby, rf 7 Justin Berry, 3b 8 Garrett Totten, lf 9 Jeremy Mayo, c - Nathan Karns, p	1 Travis Tucker, 2b 2 Michael Torres, 3b 3 Brandon Belt, 1b 4 Cameron Rupp, c 5 Russell Moldenhauer, dh 6 Kevin Keyes, rf 7 Tant Shepherd, lf 8 Kyle Lusson, cf 9 Brandon Loy, ss - Cole Green, p

Cole Green started and did a pretty good job. When he gave up back-to-back 2-out singles in the 5th, he was lifted, though. His final numbers: 4.2 innings pitched, 1 run (earned) given up, 7 hits (6 singles, 1 homerun), 2 strikeouts, 1 walk, on 63 pitches by my count. With 2 on and a lefty due up, Texas sent Keith Shinaberry to the mound. He gave up a tough-luck single, though. On the play, Travis Tucker very nearly fielded a ball headed to cf. He did keep the ball in the infield, and kept the the runners from advancing extra bases. But, all runners ended up being safe. With the bases loaded, the Horns sent Austin Dicharry to the mound for Shinaberry. Dicharry got Richburg (who hit the 3-run dinger in yesterday's game) to fly out to lf. Dicharry went on to pick up the win. His numbers: 2.2 innings pitched, 0 runs, 2 hits (singles), no strikeouts or walks, on 41 pitches by my count. When he gave up a 1-out bloop single in the 8th, Austin Wood went to the mound (actually after Dicharry threw a ball to the next batter). Wood shut the Red Raiders down. He got the final 5 Tech batters out on two strikeouts, 2 fly outs, and 1 ground out...on 25 pitches. Nice job.

High socks update/report. Most of the team sported high socks today. Cole Green and Cameron Rupp stuck with the long pants. Connor Rowe entered the game in cf in the top of the 7th (defensive substitution) and was sporting long pants. I commented on the situation and then we were amused to see him being chastised by his teammates as they re-took the field in the 8th. So, he switched to high socks. Funny. The relief pitchers, by the way, all sported long pants.

So, how did Texas score their runs? Like so:

• 1st inning...2 runs:
• Nathan Karns on the mound.
• Tucker struck out looking. Not a particularly happy way to start a game. But, six-shooter Bob Homolka was behind the plate. His strike zone tends to be...shall we say...flexible. Today's was the first game I'd seen him calling this year. I hope it's the last. But, I know that won't be the case. Anyway...
• Torres singled up the middle and stole 2b with Belt at the plate.
• Belt singled to rf, scoring Torres.
• Rupp walked.
• Moldenhauer singled to lf, scoring Belt and moving Rupp to 2b.
• Keyes struck out swinging. On the play, the ball got away from the catcher momentarily. Rupp broke for 3b and was thrown out. Double play.
• 2nd inning...2 runs:
• Shepherd reached on a full-count walk.
• Lusson reached on a fielder's choice. On the play, Shepherd took off with the pitch. The hit went to the pitcher who tried to throw out the lead runner. He rushed his throw and Shepherd arrived at the bag with the ball. The shortstop was unable to keep his foot on the bag as he fielded. Both runners safe.
• Loy hit a beautiful sac bunt down the 3b line, moving the runners to 2b and 3b.
• Tucker singled to cf (scoring Shepherd) and then stole 2b with Torres at the plate.
• Torres flew out to cf (sac), scoring Lusson.
• Which prompted the first pitching change of the day for Tech. Robert Kilcrease went to the mound.
• Belt worked the count full, fought off an additional 4 pitches and finally flew out to cf.
• 3rd inning...2 runs:
• Rupp drew a 5-pitch walk.
• Moldenhauer drew a 7-pitch walk, moving Rupp to 2b.
• Keyes reached on a 6-5 fielder's choice. On the play, the shortstop had to charge hard to his right to field the ball. His only play was to 3b and he threw a bullet to beat Rupp. Nice play.
• Shepherd hit a double to the cf/rf gap, scoring the runners. It was a cool play. Moldenhauer held up to see if the outfielders would make the catch and took off as soon as it was clear they wouldn't. Keyes was almost on top of him at that point and had to hold up a bit as Moldenhauer took off. They ran hard and Tommy Harmon waved 'em both around. They both beat the throw in but...wow. Close play. See photos below!
• Shepherd was caught stealing 3b with Lusson at the plate.
• Lusson reached on a full-count walk.
• Loy hit into a 6-4 fielder's choice to end the inning.
• 4th inning...1 run:
• Tech sent lefty Ben Flora to the mound.
• Tucker singled to rf.
• Torres flew out to cf.
• Belt went down swinging. On the play, Tucker stole 2b.
• Tech intentionally walked Rupp. Rupp's third walk in as many plate appearances. I think Tech was trying to get to lefty dh Moldenhauer, going for the lefty-lefty match-up. I think.
• Happily, Moldenhauer drew a 4-pitch walk to load the bases.
• Which prompted another pitching change. Colton Farrar went to the mound.
• Keyes then walked on 5 pitches to plate another run.
• Shepherd hit into a 4-6 fielder's choice to end the inning.
• 5th inning...1 run:
• Lusson grounded out to ss.
• Loy singled to rf.
• Tucker hit a sky-high single, moving Loy to 2b. "That's gonna be trouble," said Bob as we watched the center fielder, right fielder, and 2nd baseman head toward a spot just about equidistant from all of them. Bob was right.
• Torres singled to lf, scoring Loy and moving Tucker to 2b.
• Which prompted the final pitching change of the day for Tech. They sent Cory Large to the mound.
• And, that was all they wrote. Large sat down the final 11 Texas batters of the game. Ouch. Nice job on his part. But, too late. Which was just fine by me!

I took my camera and shot lots of photos. As usual. I generally try to post a photo of each player that enters the game when I take photos. But I failed to take into account how bright the sun was today. Result? For the most part, the whites are way blown out and the photos aren't all that great. So, I'm just gonna share a few of the more interesting ones today. Okay? Okay.

I just love this series. I wish I'd been closer and had exposed things better. But, what's a person to do? Anyway, here's the series where Moldenhauer and Keyes scored on that double by Shepherd. In the first two photos, you can see how close Keyes was to Moldenhauer. You can also just see Coach Harmon waving them around third.

Then, Moldenhauer beats the throw:

And, Keyes beats the tag:

Very cool.

Here's Loy scoring the last run of the game:

And, that's about it.

Here's the line (my photo of the scoreboard at the end of the game):

I also took some photos of the kids running the bases. Here's my favorite set. I noticed the older brother taking care of his sister (I'm guessing it's a brother/sister pair...could be cousins...or just friends) as they rounded 1b. I decided to take their pictures as they were headed to 3b. And, then this happened:

How cute is that? Yep, darned cute.

Anyway...the Horns have improved to 4-5 in conference play. If they continue to win series as conference play goes on, I think they'll be okay. But, they pretty much have to win the rest of their series to have a shot at the regular season Big 12 Championship. They don't need to win it, of course, to make it into post-season and then on to the CWS. But, if they're to have any hope of advancing when Regionals roll around, they have to keep winning more games the way they did today. Their next two conference series will be at Oklahoma State and at Nebraska. OSU is 2-2 and Nebraska is 4-4 in conference play. Both schools have one more conference game to play tomorrow (making up for bad-weather delays on Friday and Saturday) in their respective series. OSU is hosting Missouri (OSU won the first two games) and Nebraska is at OU (they split the first two). The Horns host Oral Roberts at Disch-Falk on Tuesday. I don't know if Dicharry's 2.2 innings today will mean a different starter on Tuesday. Hmmmm...

Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 11:27 PM