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Wednesday - May 20, 2009

Game 52: Baylor at Texas (Big 12 Tournament)

I missed most of the first inning...joining the radio broadcast just in time to hear the Horns take a 3-2 lead. Then, I got back to my office and watched the Big 12 stream as Texas loaded the bases in the bottom of the 2nd. And, watched as much as possible from then on out. The account below is based partially on watching the stream and catching up here and there with GameTracker.

Today's starting line-ups:

Baylor	Texas
1 Dustin Dickerson, dh 2 Raynor Campbell, 3b 3 Shaver Hansen, ss 4 Aaron Miller, rf 5 Dan Evatt, 1b 6 Ben Booker, lf 7 Don Lambert, cf 8 Gregg Glime, c 9 Joey Hainsfurther, 2b - Logan Varrett, p	1 Michael Torres, 3b 2 Travis Tucker, 2b 3 Brandon Belt, 1b 4 Kevin Lusson, dh 5 Cameron Rupp, c 6 Kevin Keyes, rf 7 Brandon Loy, ss 8 David Hernandez, lf 9 Connor Rowe, cf - Cole Green, p

Here's how things played out:

• 1st inning, Baylor
• I wasn't listening but Baylor scored 2 on a 2-out homerun.
• 1st inning, Texas
• I started listening just as Texas scored 3 to take the lead. The Horns batted around and left the bases loaded.
• 2nd inning, Baylor
• Cole Green struck out the side.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• After Texas loaded the bases with one out (Torres singled, Tucker moved him over with a sac bunt, Belt singled, and Lusson walked), Baylor replaced the starter (Varrett) and sent Craig Fritsch to the mound.
• Rupp struck out swinging.
• Keyes singled up the middle, scoring Torres and Belt, and moving Lusson to 3b.
• Loy walked to re-load the bases. On 4 pitches, I think.
• Hernandez (starting again in lf) sadly grounded into a 6-4 fielder's choice.
• Texas up 5-2.
• 3rd inning, Baylor
• Hainsfuther tripled off the top of the fence in rf and scored on a ground out to ss.
• Campbell walked and was then caught stealing (2-6).
• Hansen then struck out swinging.
• Texas up 5-3.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Rowe led things off with a triple past the right fielder.
• Torres flew out to the warning track in lf, scoring Rowe (sac fly).
• Tucker reached on catcher's interference (E2).
• Belt doubled (to right, I think), scoring Tucker.
• Lusson struck out (swinging, I think...sigh...not able to pay as much attention as I'd like).
• Texas up 7-3.
• 4th inning, Baylor
• Fly out to rf; ground out to ss; and ground out to 1b.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Keyes struck out swinging.
• Loy singled to right then stole 2b with Hernandez at the plate.
• Hernandez walked.
• Rowe struck out swinging.
• The runners moved to 2b and 3b on a wild pitch with Torres at the plate.
• Torres flew out to cf.
• First scoreless inning of the game.
• 5th inning, Baylor
• Lambert singled (where?...I dunno...I wasn't watching).
• Glime and Hainsfurther struck out.
• Dickerson grounded into a fielder's choice (4-6).
• 5th inning, Texas
• Tucker grounded out to 2b. Nice play by the Baylor second baseman who dove to his right to stop the ball and then made a perfect throw to 1b. Close play.
• Belt struck out swinging.
• Lusson flew out to rf. I think. Yep...confirmed via GameTracker.
• 6th inning, Baylor
• Texas sent Austin Dicharry to the mound, replacing Green.
• Campbell fouled off a pitch and was then hit (on his front shoulder) by the second pitch. Sigh.
• Hansen doubled down the lf line, moving Campbell to 3b. Damn.
• Miller drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Ouch.
• Skip Johnson made a trip to the mound. C'mon, Horns!
• Evatt struck out swinging.
• Booker singled to lf, scoring Campbell. Bases still loaded. One out.
• With a 2-2 count to Lambert (and after a very high 4th pitch), Texas sent Austin Wood to the mound, replacing Dicharry.
• Sadly, Lambert went on to walk, scoring one. Walk and score charged to Dicharry. Bases still loaded. One out.
• Brooks Kimmey (pinch-hitter) hit a sac fly ball to rf (at the warning track), scoring Miller and moving Booker to 3b. Runners at the corners. Two out.
• Hainsfurther walked (full count, I think) to reload the bases.
• Dickerson doubled over the shortstop, scoring two. Runners at 2b and 3b. Two out. Sigh...
• Campbell (who led things off) singled to lf, scoring one. Runners at the corners. Two out. Double sigh...
• Skip Johnson made another trip to the mound. And, called Brandon Workman to the mound.
• Hansen doubled to rf, scoring two more. He tried to stretch his double into a triple and was thrown out easily. Thank you, aggresive base running.
• Texas down 7-11. Damn.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Rupp fouled off a few pitches but struck out looking.
• Keyes also struck out looking. Sigh...
• One of the guys doing the broadcast pointed out at this point that Baylor had left only one runner on base through the first 6 innings.
• Loy singled into rf.
• And, then I missed some stuff. According to GameTracker, Hernandez struck out swinging.
• 7th inning, Baylor
• From GT: Evatt singled and then Booker doubled, putting runners at 2b and 3b with no outs.
• I got back in time to see Skip Johnson headed back to the mound. In came Keith Shinaberry (!!!), replacing Workman. I'm still wondering where Shinaberry's been for the last several weeks.
• Lambert grounded out to 3b. Torres, pulled in, made a great stop, looked the runner back to 3b, and then threw to 1b.
• And, out to the mound went Skip Johnson again. He called Kendal Carrillo to the mound. Shinaberry threw one pitch and got the needed out. Wow.
• From GT: Kimmey singled to ss, rbi (Evatt scored); Booker advanced to 3b and scored on a throwing error by ss.
• Then Texas was at bat. No explanation of how Texas made the 3rd out. I remembered that the Big 12 is also running a LiveStats thing so checked it and found that Hainsfurther flew out to rf for the 3rd out.
• Texas down 7-13. What's going on? Baylor loses 10 conference games in a row and then scores 8 runs on Texas in a single inning...and 2 more in the next? Baseball is a very very cruel game.
• 7th inning, Texas
• From GT: Kendal Volz to the mound; Rowe flied out to right center; Torres grounded out to 1b; and Tucker singled through the right side.
• I got back to my desk just in time to see Belt hit a homerun over the lf fence!
• Lusson grounded out to 1b (pitcher covering).
• Texas down 9-13.
• 8th inning, Baylor
• Dickerson singled to cf.
• Campbell hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Yes!
• Hansen grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• 8th inning, Texas
• Rupp grounded out to 3b.
• Keyes lined out to ss.
• Loy singled into rf.
• Hernandez struck out swinging. The catcher dropped the ball so had to tag him to complete the out.
• Note from the announcers: Texas has stranded 11 through 8; Baylor's stranded 2.
• 9th inning, Baylor
• Texas sent Andrew McKirahan to the mound, replacing Carrillo.
• Miller grounded out to 2b.
• Evatt homered over the lf fence.
• From GT: Booker singled; Lambert struck out; Booker moved to 2b on a passed ball; and Kimmey flew out.
• 9th inning, Texas
• Rowe struck out swinging.
• And, the live video feed froze. Sigh...
• 'Turned out that the video switched to the next game feed automatically. I got it going but missed a bit. And, then that fizzled out as well. Sigh.
• From GT: Torres reached on a 5-pitch walk.
• From GT: Tucker reached on a throwing error by the pitcher, moving Torres to 2b.
• Then GameTracker seemed to freeze. I turned the radio on. In commercial break. I can only assume Baylor was changing pitchers.
• Nope. From GT: Belt grounded into a 4-3 double play. Game over.
• Texas loses 9-14. Bah.

Here's the line (from GameTracker):

Post-game comments from Coach Garrido (very paraphrased, as he spoke with Keith Moreland):

One thing about baseball is that on any given day, anything can happen. Baylor came out with nothing to lose and hit the ball all over the ballpark. There were no bobbled or dropped balls by Texas. Baylor just came with the right attitude. The tournament championship is still out there. The overall performance was good. It was a much better game than the score reveals. Baylor just pounded the ball all over the place.

Austin Dicharry took the loss, moving his record to 6-2 on the year. Baylor really was effective with the bats. Not to mention the "not stranding any runners on base" thing. I'm having a hard time getting past that 6th inning. Dicharry gave up 5 earned runs on 2 hits. Wood gave up 3 earned runs on 2 hits. They each pitched one-third of an inning. That's just plain ugly. Dicharry's ERA coming into today's game? 1.49. Wood's? 2.18. Wow. Hopefully, it's out of their system and we'll see nothing more of this in the post-season. Hopefully.

On the offensive side of things, Belt and Tucker both scored 3 runs. Belt and Loy had 4 hits apiece. Belt and Keyes batted 3 in apiece. I'm getting the feeling that Belt had a great game. Here's how everyone did, running down the line:

• Torres: 1-for-4 with a run scored, 1 batted in, a walk, and a sac fly
• Tucker: 1-for-3 with 3 runs scored, a walk, and a sac bunt
• Belt: 4-for-6 (1 homerun, 1 double) with 3 runs scored, 3 batted in, and a strikeout
• Lusson: 0-for-4 with a run scored, 1 batted in, and a walk
• Rupp: 0-for-5 with a run batted in
• Keyes: 2-for-5 with 3 batted in and 2 strikeouts
• Loy: 4-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base
• Hernandez: 1-for-4 with a walk
• Rowe: 1-for-5 (a triple) with a run scored and 3 strikeouts

The Horns face Kansas tomorrow at 3. Go, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 4:39 PM