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Saturday - April 25, 2009

Game 40: Kansas State at Texas

Ugh. Texas lost (4-5) to Kansas State this afternoon. In 12 innings. The Horns put 15 hits on the board. Which is one of the things I've been wanting. More hits. Alas, those 15 hits did not produce more runs today. Sigh...

But, before we get into all that, Burt Hooton's number (20) was retired before the game started. Here are a couple of photos, first one of Coach Gus congratulating him and then of him talking with his former coach and several teammates backing him up:

Back to the game. Texas scored 2 in the 1st. KSU tied it up in the 2nd. And, the score stayed that way 'til the 11th. When KSU scored 2. Texas tied it in the bottom. Whew. But, KSU scored another in the 12th and Texas could not match that one. Bah.

Today's starting line-ups:

Kansas State	Texas
1 Adam Muenster, dh 2 Carter Jurica, 2b 3 Nick Martini, lf 4 Justin Bloxom, 1b 5 Jason King, 3b 6 Drew Biery, ss 7 Jordan Cruz, rf 8 Rob Vaughn, c 9 Dane Yelovich, cf - Lance Hoge, p	1 Travis Tucker, 2b 2 Michael Torres, 3b 3 Tant Shepherd, lf 4 Kevin Keyes, rf 5 Preston Clark, dh 6 Cameron Rupp, c 7 Brandon Belt, 1b 8 Brandon Loy, ss 9 Connor Rowe, cf - Cole Green, p

With a lefty on the mound for the Wildcats, the Horns shuffled the order up a bit. It worked like a charm in the 1st as they quickly scored 2:

• Tucker singled past the ss and moved to 2b on a sac bunt (1-3) by Torres down the 1b line.
• Shepherd flew out to rf.
• Keyes singled to lf, scoring Tucker.
• Clark singled to rf, moving Keyes to 2b.
• Rupp reached on an error by 3b (throw to 1b in the dirt). Keyes scored (unearned) and Clark moved to 2b.
• Belt drew a 7-pitch full-count walk to load the bases.
• Loy grounded into a 6-4 fielder's choice.

Kansas State responded with 2 of their own in the top of the 2nd:

• King singled to lf and stole 2b on the 5th pitch to Biery. The throw from Rupp on the stolen base attempt was off-line (toward 1b) and Tucker made a great play to dive and keep the ball from going into the outfield.
• Biery struck out swinging.
• Cruz hit the first pitch he saw over the Texas bullpen. Game tied.
• Vaughn and Yelovich struck out swinging. Yep, Green struck out the side while giving up 2 earned runs. Ouch.

And, no more scoring 'til the 11th. For the 3rd through 10th, KSU got 6 hits (all singles) and ended up stranding 6 (4 in scoring position). For the 2nd through 10th, UT got 7 hits (6 singles, 1 double) and ended up stranding 7 (4 in scoring position). And, then the 11th came along:

• KSU
• Taylor Jungmann to the mound for Austin Wood.
• Bloxom (0-fer through 10) struck out swinging.
• King (who'd gone: single, single, K (swinging), intentional walk) singled to rf.
• Biery (0-fer through 10 with 2 Ks) struck out looking.
• Cruz (who'd gone: 2-run homer, pop out to 1b, single, K (swinging)) homered over the KSU bullpen to tie the game.
• Vaughn struck out swinging.
• UT
• Thomas Rooke (who'd come on in the 10th) on the mound.
• Belt (who'd gone walk, ground out to 2b, single, K (swinging)) hit a homer to lf in front of the scoreboard. We all thought it was gonna be a pretty routine fly ball to cf (in the gap) but the ball kept going and going and going until it squeaked over the wall. Very cool.
• Loy (who'd gone fielder's choice, single, single, double) hit another double off the base of the wall in lf.
• Kyle Lusson (who entered the game in the top of the 7th and did the sac bunt thing in the 9th) struck out looking.
• Tucker (who'd gone single, fly out to cf, single, fielder's choice, intentional walk) flew out to rf.
• Torres singled to lf, scoring Loy!
• KSU changed pitchers (sending Matt Applegate to the mound) and he struck Tant Shepherd.

In the top of the 12th, Muenster reached on a 1-out walk and moved to 3b on a single by Jurica. He then scored on a single by Martini. Bloxom and King both flew out to cf to end the KSU half of the inning. In the bottom of the 12th, David Hernandez (3rd dh of the game for Texas) reached on a 1-out single to cf. Rupp popped out to 2b. Tim Maitland (pinch-running for Hernandez) moved to 2b on a single to cf by Belt. Alas, Loy hit into a 6-4 fielder's choice to end the game. So painful.

Applegate got the win for KSU and Jungmann took the loss for UT (dropping his record to 4-3).

Here's the line (from GameTracker):

So? Pictures? Anyone wanna see some pictures? Okay...here you go. First, Cole Green on the mound in the 1st:

Travis Tucker, hitting a single in the 1st:

Kevin Keyes, hitting a single (and driving home the first run of the game) in the 1st:

Cameron Rupp, taking a lead off 1b in the 1st:

Travis Tucker, about to make that error-saving catch in the 2nd:

Brandon Belt, in the 1st (after reaching on a single to rf):

Austin Dicharry on the mound, in the 7th:

Austin Wood on the mound, in the 9th:

Coach Harmon and Brandon Loy discuss matters in the 9th:

Taylor Jungmann on the mound in the 11th:

And, finally...Brandon Belt gets some props after his homer in the 11th:

And, now...3 hours after I started this report, I'm done. And, am reminded why I don't take my camera to all the games. Whew.

'Back tomorrow with news of the 3rd game of the series. I'm sure the news will be much better.

Posted by Joanna at 11:13 PM