« Big 12 Tournament - Day 2 summary | Main | Game 54: Texas at Kansas State (Big 12 Tournament) »

Friday - May 22, 2009

Big 12 Tournament - Day 3 summary

In yesterday's Pool play, the winners from the first day played each other while the losers did likewise. So, we were assured there'd be one 2-0 team, one 0-2 team, and two 1-1 teams. Not so today. Pool 2 had the possibility of ending up with everyone having a 1-1 record at the end of the day.

In the first game of the day, Mizzou (1-0) faced Texas Tech (0-1). The Tigers swept the Red Raiders during the regular season. I had the game on but have to admit that I didn't follow it very closely. It just wasn't very interesting to me. It was scoreless through the first 5 innings. Then, Mizzou scored a run in the 6th. And, Tech answered with one of their own in the bottom of the inning. Then, a scoreless 7th. Mizzou scored another run in the top of the 8th. And, Tech matched it in the bottom. And, I left my office, thinking we were in for more of the same. But, no...Tech scored two more in the 8th after I left. Mizzou was unable to answer in the top of the 9th so Tech won 4-2. Revenge! And, both teams now have 1-1 records in the tournament.

I came home fully intending to watch the Aggie/Sooner game via the Big 12 Internet stream. But, I turned on the TV and found that Baylor was playing Michigan in softball Super Regional action. So, I watched that. Baylor lost. Then I watched most of the Stanford/Arizona game. And, finally went upstairs to check out the results of the baseball game. I rather expected it might be over. Nope. Far from it. OU was ahead 10-8 with the Aggies batting in the bottom of the 6th. What? OU scored 6 in the top of the 1st! The Aggies answered with 5 in the bottom of the frame! And on it went. Almost as soon as I tuned in, the Aggies scored 3 runs to take an 11-10 lead. And, then they scored another to push the lead to 2 runs. Wow. As the game went on, the Aggies kept it up, scoring 1 in the 7th and 4 in the 8th. In the 8th, with 2 in, the Aggies hit what was ruled a ground-rule double down the lf line. At least one of the Sooner players was ejected after arguing the call by the 3b umpire...saying that the ball landed in foul territory before bouncing into the crowd. Two players, however, were replaced (the second baseman and the third baseman). Hmmm... In the top of the 9th, behind 10-17, the Sooners loaded the bases with one out on a couple of walks and a wild-pitch 3rd strike that went to the wall. Yikes. Then they scored a run when the next batter was hit. Then the Aggies walked in another run. And, then the Sooners hit a bases-clearing double to get back to within 2! A single put runners at the corners (all still with 1 out) to bring the go-ahead run to the plate. Heh heh heh. Oh, my...what a comedy of errors. The Aggies finally replaced the closer (who'd gone into the game with 2 out in the 8th). New pitcher induced a double play to end the game. Nice 5-4-3 double play turned by the Aggies. Wow. Aggies win 17-15.

So, Pool 2 has all teams with 1-1 records going into tomorrow's series of games. Nothing settled there.

I got to thinking about the games involving teams that had been swept in the regular season. It's really hard to beat a team 4 times in one season. For games that have been played where one team was swept by the other during the regular season, here are the results:

Looky there. You sweep during the regular season, you lose in the tournament. Interesting.

There are 4 games on tap for tomorrow. I will try to follow all of them and will have a full report for the Texas game. Again, if Texas wins, they play on Sunday; if KSU wins, they play on Sunday. Go, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 11:40 PM