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Thursday - March 5, 2009

Rupp injury update

"What Rupp injury?" you might ask. As I did when I saw the "Rupp cleared to practice" headline on an Alan Trubow blog post. He was injured in Tuesday's game? Wait a minute. Nobody said anything about Rupp being injured. Not a word in the TexasSports article, or the Daily Texan, or the Statesman. In the linked blog post, Trubow says:

"[Rupp] was injured when a ball missed his padding and hit his collarbone. He has a deep bruise in his shoulder/chest area, but he was cleared to practice today. That's good news because the Longhorns thought it was possible he had broken his collarbone."

When I posted my game report, there was no boxscore attached to the TexasSports.com story on the game. There is one now. And, it does say that Preston Clark replaced Rupp late in the game, but doesn't say why. Of course.

In Trubow's post, he comments that back-up J.T. Files is injured. Yep, we've all noticed him hobbling around on crutches at the games. So, clearly, he can't play. Trubow mentions that Jordan Etier and Russell Moldenhauer have been spending some time behind the plate in practice. But, Moldenhauer is still recovering from his bad knee injury at the Rice Regional. Surely, he can't be expected to be behind the plate during a regular game? I have no idea what Etier's experience as a catcher is. He played shortstop and third base at Westlake. I wondered, not for the first time, where Kawika Emsley-Pai is. He was not listed on the Fall roster and isn't listed on the current roster. So, I went looking for him. And, I found him. He's playing for the Lewis-Clark State College Warriors in Lewiston, Idaho. I don't know why he transferred. But, he's a lot closer to home (Washington) now. And, he's playing a lot more now than he did as a Freshman at UT. Anyway, he's not an option.

This doesn't really seem like good news for the Horns. Having a bunch of injured players lined up to play catcher. Sigh...

Ah well. There's other news in that blog post. Do read it.

Posted by Joanna at 6:53 PM