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Sunday - May 10, 2009

Game 49: Texas A&M at Texas

Texas scored 5 unearned runs in the 1st inning of today's game. Happily, those 5 runs held up as the Horns beat the Aggies 5-4. Whew. Lots of emotion out there today. The crowd was big and loud. I rather expected there to be fewer people in the stands since it was Mother's Day but I think there were actually more people in the stands today than there were yesterday. There were certainly more people in our section at any rate.

Taylor Jungmann started for Texas but did not make it out of the 5th inning. He gave up 3 earned runs on 9 hits with 1 strikeout and 2 walks. Austin Dicharry pitched the middle 2.1 innings to get his 6th win of the year. He gave up 1 earned run on 1 hit with a walk and 2 strikeouts. He also threw a wild pitch. Austin Wood went into the game in the 7th. He didn't allow any runs (he did give up 3 hits and struck out 3) to earn his 13th save of the year.

Offensively, the Horns only managed 5 hits. The best hit of the day was probably the double Travis Tucker hit down the 3b line in the first. Purty. The most important hit was likely the single by Tim Maitland, also in the first inning, to drive in the 3rd and 4th Texas runs.

Today's starting line-ups:

Texas A&M	Texas
1 Brodie Greene, 2b 2 Brooks Raley, rf 3 Luke Anders, 1b 4 Kyle Colligan, cf 5 Joe Patterson, dh 6 Caleb Shofner, 3b 7 David Alleman, lf 8 Kevin Gonzalez, c 9 Adam Smith, ss - Barret Loux, p	1 Michael Torres, 3b 2 Travis Tucker, 2b 3 Brandon Belt, 1b 4 Russell Moldenhauer, dh 5 Cameron Rupp, c 6 Brandon Loy, ss 7 Kevin Keyes, rf 8 Tim Maitland, lf 9 Connor Rowe, cf - Taylor Jungmann, p

Second start of the year for Maitland.

Here's how things played out:

• 1st inning, Texas A&M
• Taylor Jungmann (rhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Greene grounded out to 3b.
• Raley reached on a bunt single down the 3b line.
• Anders grounded out to 2b, moving Raley to 2b.
• Colligan reached on a 12-pitch walk. Yes, really. 12 pitches. He fouled off 7 of 'em. I thought his at-bat might never end.
• Patterson flew out to lf.
• 1st inning, Texas
• Barret Loux on the mound for the Aggies.
• Texas sent 10 men to the plate.
• Torres flew out to lf.
• Tucker doubled down the 3b line...just fair but 2 or 3 feet.
• Belt reached on a 5-pitch walk.
• Insert visit to the mound by head coach Rob Childress.
• Moldenhauer reached on a 6-unassisted fielder's choice. The first baseman had trouble catching the throw on the double-play attempt (the throw was a bit off-line toward the outfield) and Moldenhauer was ruled safe. The umpire at 1b (Dave Yeast) said the effort to catch the ball pulled the first baseman off the bag. He was the same ump who made the controversial calls at home on Friday night and at 3b on Saturday afternoon. Childress did not like the call and went out to argue with Yeast about it. To no avail, needless to say. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Aggies raise some sort of stink about his officiating this weekend. I don't know if the batter was out or not but I do know that the first baseman struggled to get control of the ball and it was not a clean play.
• Rupp reached on an error by 3b (bad throw that went past the first baseman almost all the way to the fence). Rupp fell as he was rounding 1b or he probably would've made it to 2b. Instead, he ran back to 1b. With 2 out, Tucker and Moldenhauer were moving as soon as Rupp hit the ball. Tucker scored and Moldenhauer made it to 3b.
• Loy drew a full-count walk to load the bases.
• Keyes was hit by a pitch (1-2 count, left hip?) to drive in a run (Moldenhauer scored). Rupp moved to 3b and Loy to 2b.
• Maitland singled through the right side, scoring Rupp and Loy. Keyes moved up to 3b and Maitland alertly ran to 2b on the throw home from rf.
• The first pitch to Rowe was a ball. And, with that, the Aggies sent Kyle Thebeau (rhp) to the mound, replacing Loux.
• Rowe reached on an error by 3b. On the play, the third baseman had a bit of trouble fielding a ground ball. The runners were off with the hit ball and the third baseman decided he had a better chance to tag Maitland out than getting the throw across the infield to 1b. Sadly for him, Maitland turned around and ran back to 2b. Nobody was covering the bag, though, and Maitland got back safely. Keyes scored. Wow. Rattle City.
• Torres grounded into a 6-4 fielder's choice. Torres made the first and last outs of the inning. Tsk tsk. I'm sure nobody said anything about that in the dugout, though. Right?
• Texas up 5-0.
• 2nd inning, Texas A&M
• Shofner grounded out to ss.
• Alleman grounded out to 2b.
• Gonzalez reached on a 7-pitch full-count walk.
• Smith singled into rf, moving Gonzalez to 2b.
• The runners advanced to 2b and 3b on a passed ball with Greene at the plate (fist pitch to Greene).
• Green grounded out to 3b.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• 3-up/3-down: Tucker grounded out to ss, Belt flew out to lf, and Moldenhauer grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• 3rd inning, Texas A&M
• Raley singled to lf.
• Anders singled through the right side, moving Raley to 2b.
• Colligan struck out looking (2-2 pitch).
• Patterson flew out to cf. Nice long running catch by Rowe in cf. On the play, Raley tagged up and moved to 3b.
• With Shofner at the plate, Anders stole 2b. With a runner at 3b, Rupp did not make a throw down to 2b.
• Shofner grounded out to 3b.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Rupp singled to cf.
• Loy singled through the left side, moving Rupp to 2b.
• Keyes squared to bunt on the first two pitches (called strike and ball) and then lined out to 3b. Damn.
• Maitland hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Double damn.
• 4th inning, Texas A&M
• Alleman grounded out to 2b.
• Gonzalez singled into cf.
• Smith grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Rowe reached on an error by ss. The shortstop, charging the ball, bent to scoop it up and it rolled under his glove toward left-center. He basically gave up on the play and both the left fielder and second baseman were late covering. Rowe made the turn at 1b and easily made it to 2b on the error.
• Torres grounded out to 1b (3-1 on the out), moving Rowe to 3b.
• Tucker, with the infield pulled in, grounded out to ss. The ss looked Torres back to 3b before throwing to 1b for the out.
• Belt popped out to cf.
• 5th inning, Texas A&M
• Greene reached on an infield single off the pitcher's glove. Jungmann almost managed to field the ball but ended up slowing it down and deflecting it so much that by the time Tucker could catch up to it, Greene was safe at 1b.
• Raley singled into lf, moving Greene to 2b.
• Anders singled into cf, loading the bases.
• Skip Johnson made a visit to the mound.
• Colligan drew a 9-pitch walk (rbi). Remember the 12-pitch walk he drew in the 1st? Wow.
• Patterson singled to lf, scoring Raley and Anders. Colligan moved up to 3b on the play.
• Texas sent Austin Dicharry (rhp) to the mound, replacing Jungmann.
• Shofner struck out looking.
• With Alleman at the plate, Patterson stole 2b. Like earlier, Rupp did not throw to 2b with a runner at 3b.
• Alleman hit into the most unusual double play I've ever seen. He hit a soft grounder to the pitcher. Colligan was charging hard toward home as the ball was fielded. Dicharry tossed the ball to the catcher, getting Colligan caught up in a run-down. Colligan headed back to 3b. Rupp charged after him. Colligan hesitated a bit, faked a move to home and then ran back to 3b. Rupp charged hard, dove, and tagged Colligan a couple of feet shy of the bag. While this was going on, Patterson decided to go ahead and move up to 3b. The tag on Colligan happened just as Patterson decided to slide head-first into 3b. Rupp spotted him as he was tagging Colligan and lunged toward Patterson. Rupp tagged Patterson for a 1-2 double play! Wow. I've never seen that done before. In the post-game interview, Coach Garrido, who's seen a whole lot more baseball than I've ever seen, said he'd never seen that play before either. Amazing. And, very cool.
• Texas up 5-3.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Moldenhauer grounded out to ss. The shortstop charged on a ball that was bouncing slowly toward 2b and fielded in front of the second baseman to make the play. I don't know that I've ever seen that happen before. The second of two very unusual plays in today's game. And, back-to-back no less. Although this one wasn't as spectacular as the double play in the 5th. In fact, the double play was so unusual that I completely forgot about this play until I was doing this write-up.
• Rupp flew out to rf, just shy of the foul line.
• Loy grounded out to 2b (pitcher covered the 1b bag).
• 6th inning, Texas A&M
• Gonzalez popped out to 2b.
• Smith struck out looking.
• Greene doubled to lf. He fell as he was rounding 1b but still had enough time to make it to 2b. He moved up to 3b on a wild pitch with Raley at the plate.
• Raley popped out to 2b.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Keyes flew out to rf.
• Maitland flew out to cf.
• Rowe singled past ss into cf.
• Torres drew a 5-pitch walk, moving Rowe to 2b.
• The Aggies sent Alex Wilson (rhp) to the mound, replacing Thebeau.
• With Tucker at the plate, the runners advanced to 2b and 3b on a wild pitch.
• Tucker grounded out to 2b, ending the scoring threat.
• 7th inning, Texas A&M
• Anders reached on a 5-pitch walk. Skip Anderson, by the way, made a visit to the mound after the 3rd ball (and 3rd pitch) was called.
• Colligan reached on a 5-4 fielder's choice.
• Texas sent Austin Wood (lhp) to the mound, replacing Dicharry.
• Patterson was hit by the first pitch, moving Colligan to 2b.
• Shofner doubled into rf. On the play, the runners had to hold up to see if Keyes would catch the fly ball or not. He dove and missed the ball by a couple of feet. He managed to get to the ball quickly enough that only the runner from 2b scored. Patterson moved to 3b.
• Alleman struck out swinging.
• Gonzalez grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Texas up 5-4.
• 7th inning, Texas
• The Aggies moved Raley to lf and sent Scott Arthur into rf (taking Alleman's spot in the line-up).
• 3-up/3-down: Belt lined out to 2b, Moldenhauer grounded out to 2b, and Rupp grounded out to the pitcher.
• 8th inning, Texas A&M
• Smith struck out swinging.
• Greene reached on an infield single to 2b.
• Raley grounded out to the pitcher, moving Greene to 2b. Nice play by Wood.
• Anders also grounded out to the pitcher...this time down the 1b line.
• 8th inning, Texas
• 3-up/3-down: Loy lined out to cf, Keyes struck out swinging, and Maitland grounded out to 2b.
• 9th inning, Texas A&M
• Texas sent Kyle Lusson into rf, replacing Keyes.
• Colligan flew out to straight-away cf. Rowe had his back to the wall as he made the catch. Wow.
• Patterson singled into lf and was replaced at 1b by pinch-runner Randall Thorpe.
• Shofner flew out to rf.
• Dylan Petrich, pinch-hitting for Arthur, struck out swinging to end the game.
• Texas wins 5-4.

Anyone know what's up with Keith Shinaberry? The situation in the 5th...with bases loaded and a lefty at the plate...is exactly the sort of situation he's excelled at over the last couple of seasons. Send him in, he throws a couple of pitches, and gets the batter to hit a double-play ground ball. I've seen him throwing in the bull pen several times in the last few weeks but I can't remember the last time he actually appeared in a game. I can only assume that he's suffering from some sort of injury. I wish the folks in the Baseball office would post injury info. But, perhaps that would violate student privacy laws?

Here's the line (from GameTracker):

With the win and a loss by OU to OSU later in the afternoon, Texas clinched the regular-season Big 12 Championship. Congrats!

Today also proved to be Senior Day. Sadly, the Baseball Office didn't bother to advertise that fact. This is the first time I can remember them having Senior Day before the final home game of the season. They did comment that it was the final Big 12 home game of the year. I didn't have my camera with me so y'all don't have any photos of the Seniors from me. The TexasSports.com gallery for today's game has a couple, though. Sigh...

With the series win, I'm thinking Texas has a lock on hosting a Regional this year. They're also likely to be a Top 8 seed. So, things are looking good for the post-season. The team has one more home series...a double-header against Alabama A&M on Saturday...before they head to Oklahoma for the Big 12 tournament. Go, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 11:32 PM