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Tuesday - April 7, 2009

Game 29: TCU at Texas

TCU came to town today. I was just a wee bit worried about the visit. You see, TCU swept the New Mexico Lobos this weekend and went so far as to stomp them badly on Sunday, winning 19-3. The Lobos are ranked this year. The Lobos beat the Aggies twice in College Station a few weeks ago. So, you can see why I'd be a bit nervous, right? Silly me. Texas won handily, blanking the Horned Frogs 6-0. Nice. Best thing? The bats were still active. Two games in a row. After getting those 13 singles on Sunday, the Horns turned around and got 11 hits today (including 2 doubles and a beauty of a homerun by Kevin Keyes). I sure do hope it's a trend.

So, here are the starting line-ups:

TCU	Texas
1 Corey Steglich, cf 2 Taylor Featherston, 2b 3 Matt Carpenter, 3b 4 Chris Ellington, rf 5 Matt Vern, 1b 6 Bryan Holaday, c 7 Jason Coats, lf 8 Jimmie Pharr, dh 9 Ben Carruthers, ss - Greg Holle, p	1 Travis Tucker, 2b 2 Michael Torres, 3b 3 Brandon Belt, 1b 4 Russell Moldenhauer, dh 5 Tant Shepherd, lf 6 Cameron Rupp, c 7 Kevin Keyes, rf 8 Brandon Loy, ss 9 Connor Rowe, cf - Cole Green, p

Yes, indeedy...Brandon Belt back in the line-up. He seemed to be in fine form, too.

So, how'd things go? Like so...

• 1st inning, TCU
• Cole Green on the mound for Texas.
• Steglich grounded out to 2b.
• Featherston walked (full count)
• Carpenter hit into a very nice 3-6-3 double play. Yes, really. Belt fielded, threw to 2b (ss covering), and scampered back to 1b in plenty of time to take the throw back. Purty!
• 1st inning, Texas
• Greg Holle on the mound for TCU.
• Tucker grounded out to 3b.
• Torres grounded out to the pitcher
• Belt hit a double to lf. The ball alllllllmost cleared the fence at the TCU bullpen. But, it just stayed in the park and the TCU left-fielder just missed catching it.
• Moldenhauer's at-bat went like so: called strike, foul ball, ball, foul ball, ball, foul ball, ball, foul ball, foul ball, fly out to rf. Whew. 10 pitches. He was not about to let Holle off easily. Belt, by the way, also worked the count full and that double he hit was the 7th pitch of his at-bat.
• 2nd inning, TCU
• Ellington singled through the left side.
• Vern singled over Tucker into shallow rf, moving Ellington to 3b.
• Holaday struck out swinging. The strikeout pitch was wild, and the runners both took off. Happily for Texas, the pitched bounced off the wall behind the plate right back to Rupp. He turned and made a perfect throw to Green, covering the plate. Green got the tag down to turn a nice double play and prevent a run scoring. Vern safe at 2b on the play.
• With Coats at the plate, Vern stole 3b (on the 3rd pitch to Coats).
• Coats flew out to cf. Whew.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Shepherd walked (5 pitches).
• Rupp moved Shepherd to 2b with a sac bunt to the pitcher. Coach Garrido, by the way, took an offensive time-out to talk things over with Rupp before he went to the plate.
• Keyes fought off several pitches before grounding out to 2b and moving Shepherd to 3b.
• Loy struck out looking. He looked at all three pitches, alas. Tsk tsk.
• 3rd inning, TCU
• Austin Dicharry to the mound for Texas.
• Pharr grounded out to ss.
• Carruthers singled to cf.
• Steglich singled (high bloop) into rf. Tucker almost caught the ball. It was close. Carruthers advanced to 2b.
• Featherston flew out to deep lf.
• Carpenter flew out to deep rf.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Rowe led things off with a lovely double to lf.
• Tucker reached on a bunt single down the 3b line. On the play, the pitcher fielded...but nobody covered 1b. Mental lapse, I suppose. Rowe advanced to 3b. Tucker, by the way, stumbled and fell after he crossed the bag but waved off the trainer and seemed fine for the rest of the game. 'Hope he didn't hurt himself.
• Torres singled to lf, scoring Rowe and moving Tucker to 3b.
• TCU sent Taylor Cragin to the mound.
• Belt singled to rf, scoring Tucker and moving Torres to 3b.
• Moldenhauer lined out to 1b. The first baseman, took about 2 steps to step on the bag for an unassisted double play. Belt was only about 8 feet off the bag but the first baseman was closer when he caught the ball. Shucks.
• Shepherd flew out to shallow rf.
• Texas up 2-0.
• 4th inning, TCU
• Ellington popped out to ss.
• Vern struck out swinging. Rupp couldn't hang onto the ball and had to throw down to 1b to complete the out.
• Holaday: ditto. Swinging strikeout, throw down to 1b.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Rupp reached on an infield single off the shortstop.
• Keyes fouled off four pitches and watched 2 balls (not in that order) before hitting a homerun over the 405 sign in right-center...right at the folks sitting on the orange bus. Nice!
• Loy singled into cf.
• Loy was almost picked off 1b. He took off, the pitcher threw to 1b, 1b threw to ss, Loy started back to 1b, ss threw to 1b, Loy avoided the tag and made it back to 1b. TCU argued that Loy ran outside the base line but the umps disagreed. Whew.
• Rowe flew out to lf.
• Tucker singled to cf. Loy took a big turn around 2b, heading for 3b, but was sent back by Skip Johnson, coaching 3b. Loy hit the breaks and made it back to 2b safely. The throw back from cf to 3b was right on target so it was a good decision.
• Tucker singled to cf, moving Loy to 3b.
• TCU sent Tyler Lockwood to the mound.
• Torres singled o lf, scoring Loy and moving Tucker to 2b.
• Belt hit into a 4-6-3 double play.
• Texas up 5-0.
• 5th inning, TCU
• Coats worked the count full and then struck out looking.
• Pharr popped out to 2b.
• Carruthers doubled to the lf/cf gap.
• Steglich popped out to 2b in shallow rf.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Moldenhauer walked on 5 pitches.
• Shepherd grounded out to 1b (unassisted), moving Moldenhauer to 2b.
• Rupp grounded out to 3b, moving Moldenhauer to 3b.
• Keyes singled to lf, scoring Moldenhauer. Does Moldenhauer really have to have a name that takes so long to type? Really?
• Loy hit into a fielder's choice (ss fielded and stepped on 2b, to force Keyes).
• Texas up 6-0.
• 6th inning, TCU
• 3-up/3-down: Featherston grounded out to ss, Carpenter struck out swinging, and Ellington struck out swinging.
• 6th inning, Texas
• TCU sent Walker Kelly to the mound.
• Rowe worked the count full and then walked.
• Tucker got ahead 3-0, watched a called strike, fouled off 2, and then walked, moving Rowe to 2b. By the way, TCU did send a coach to the mound after the first ball to Rowe for a quick visit.
• Torres was told to bunt. The first pitch to him? Popped up. And, over the screen behind home plate! Yikes! The second pitch? Bunted nicely down the 3b line, moving Rowe to 3b and Tucker to 2b.
• Belt struck out swinging. The ball got away from the catcher but he managed to throw to 1b in plenty of time to complete the out.
• Texas announced David Hernandez as a pinch-hitter for Moldenhauer.
• TCU sent Eric Marshall to the mound in response.
• Pitch sequence to Hernandez: ball, called strike, ball, called strike, foul ball, foul ball, ball, called strike (and out).
• 7th inning, TCU
• Texas sent Stayton Thomas to the mound.
• Vern popped out to ss.
• Holaday doubled to lf.
• Coats grounded out to 2b. Holaday was not able to advance.
• Sadly, Thomas threw 3 balls to Pharr. Which prompted a visit to the mound. The fourth pitch was another ball, to walk Pharr.
• Texas sent Taylor Jungmann to the mound.
• Carruthers lined the first pitch he saw to 3b. Very nice.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Shepherd reached on an error by ss. The shortstop fielded in time but threw high to 1b.
• Rupp hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Yes, the third one turned by the Horned Frogs.
• Keyes grounded out to 2b.
• 8th inning, TCU
• Texas made their usual defensive substitutions: Kyle Lusson went into rf for Keyes and Tim Maitland went into lf for Shepherd.
• Steglich struck out looking.
• Featherston also struck out looking.
• Carpenter tripled to lf. On the play, Maitland charged hard in an attempt to catch the ball. He realized he wasn't going to be able to make the catch but pulled up too late. The ball got past him and rolled to the wall. Ouch.
• Ellington watched a couple of strikes and balls before fouling off 4 and eventually grounding out to 3b. Very nice play by Torres at 3b to field and throw the batter out.
• 8th inning, Texas
• 3-up/3-down: Loy grounded out to ss, Rowe struck out swinging, and Tucker popped out to ss.
• 9th inning, TCU
• Vern singled past a diving Loy into lf. Loy missed the ball by just a couple of inches.
• Holaday struck out looking.
• Texas turned their third double play of the day to end the game. 'Twas a thing of beauty. Coats hit a hard grounder that was headed into cf. Loy fielded behind 2b and realized he did not have time to turn so backhanded the ball toward Tucker. Tucker caught the ball with his bare hand, stepped on 2b, whirled, and threw to 1b to get the batter. It was a gorgeous play. Thanks, guys!
• Texas wins 6-0.

So, Austin Dicharry notched his 3rd win of the year. Holle took the loss for TCU. Texas pitchers combined to shut-out TCU on 8 hits (including 2 doubles and a triple), with 2 walks, 9 stikeouts, and no hit batters or wild pitches. Very nice.

Did you catch that part in the 4th where I mentioned Skip Johnson coaching 3b? As soon as the Horns went to bat in the bottom of the 1st, I noticed him out there without a jacket. I noticed the lack of a jacket before I noticed that the wrong person was out there. Skip Johnson always wears a wind-breaker (or, you know, a heavy coat if it's cold). Always. Except for when he doesn't. Which is, maybe, one game a year. No really. It's extremely unusual to see his number (47) during a game. So, that struck me first. Then, I was struck by the fact that it was the wrong guy out there. I wondered what was up. Mom listened to much of the game on the radio and they eventually reported that there'd been a death in Tommy Harmon's family, thus explaining his absence. My condolences to Coach Harmon and his family.

Here's the line (from GameTracker):

Nebraska is next up. They appear to be on the skids. They lost 0-15 at home tonight to Creighton. They were swept at home this weekend by Kansas State, by a combined score of 7-29. They've lost their last 6 games, are 4-8 in Big 12 play, and 16-15-1 overall. It's not pretty. They'll have a lot to prove. The first game on Thursday night will be aired on CBS College Sports (previously known as CSTV). Go, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 11:11 PM