« Quick note about Game 58 | Main | Game 60: Texas at TCU (Austin Super Regional) »

Saturday - June 6, 2009

Game 59: TCU at Texas (Austin Super Regional)

Wow. Texas won the first game of the Super Regional 10-4. Michael Torres hit 2 (two!) homeruns today. He doubled his season homerun total. Heh heh. And, Chance Ruffin threw his 3rd complete game of the season. Oh, my. What fun! So, how'd they do that? Read on.

First off, the starting line-ups:

TCU	Texas
1 Corey Steglich, 2b 2 Taylor Featherston, ss 3 Matt Carpenter, 3b 4 Matt Vern, 1b 5 Bryan Holaday, c 6 Chris Ellington, rf 7 Jason Coats, lf 8 Matt Curry, dh 9 Aaron Schultz, cf - Kyle Winkler, p	1 Michael Torres, 3b 2 Travis Tucker, 2b 3 Brandon Belt, 1b 4 Kevin Keyes, rf 5 Brandon Loy, ss 6 Preston Clark, dh 7 Cameron Rupp, c 8 Connor Rowe, cf 9 David Hernandez, lf - Chance Ruffin, p

And, here's how the game went:

• 1st inning, TCU
• Chance Ruffin (rhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Steglich flew out to cf.
• Featherston hit a homerun over the lf fence (0-1 count). Ick.
• Carpenter flew out to rf at the warning track.
• Vern drew a 9-pitch walk.
• Skip Johnson made a visit to the mound.
• Holaday flew out to cf. Connor Rowe made a great leaping catch against the cf wall. Wow.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 1st inning, Texas
• Kyle Winkler (rhp) on the mound for TCU.
• Torres singled up the middle.
• Tucker tried to bunt Torres over to 2b but ended up drawing a 5-pitch walk.
• Insert visit to the mound by a TCU coach.
• Belt put down a perfect 5-4 sac bunt down the 3b line to advance the runners to 2b and 3b
• Keyes doubled to the lf/cf gap, scoring Torres and Tucker!
• Loy drew a 5-pitch walk. As the count went from 2-1 to 3-1, TCU sent a couple of pitchers and a catcher down to the bullpen.
• Clark flew out to rf.
• Rupp lined out to cf.
• Texas up 2-1.
• 2nd inning, TCU
• Ellington grounded out to ss. At the start of his at-bat, Ellington called time (and was granted time by the home plate ump) just as Ruffin was going into his wind-up. He then swung at a pitch (and missed it). He called time again as Ruffin was about to deliver the next pitch. And the ump granted it. Ruffin went ahead and finished his motion. The ball bounced in the dirt and hit the ump on the shin. The ump went out to talk to Ruffin. And, give him a warning, I guess. Ellington was the one playing games, though. He was trying very hard to get under Ruffin's skin and mess up his timing. Ruffin was not taking any time at all as he got the call from Rupp behind the plate so Ellington had no reason to be calling time. I call foul on Ellington.
• Coats flew out to cf.
• Curry grounded out to 2b. Tucker made a great stop on a hard-hit ball that seemed destined for rf. Nice play.
• First of four 3-up/3-down innings for Ruffin.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Rowe grounded out to the catcher. A high chopper just in front of the plate.
• Hernandez flew out to rf.
• Torres hit a homerun over the rf fence! His second run scored of the game. Cool.
• Tucker grounded out to 3b.
• Texas up 3-1.
• 3rd inning, TCU
• 3-up/3-down #2.
• Schultz grounded out on a slow bouncer to ss.
• Steglich popped out to shallow cf.
• Featherston struck out swinging.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• First of two 1-2-3 innings put up by the Texas offense.
• Belt grounded out to 2b.
• Keys grounded out to ss.
• Loy struck out swinging.
• 4th inning, TCU
• Carpenter hit an 0-2 pitch (after watching two called strikes) into the Texas bullpen. Ugh.
• Vern struck out swinging.
• Holaday grounded out to 3b.
• Ellington struck out looking.
• Nice bounce back by Ruffin after giving up the homerun.
• Texas up 3-2.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Texas answers again.
• Clark singled past the ss into cf.
• Rupp hit a sac bunt down the 1b line. Very weirdly, the third baseman was charging hard and managed to pass the pitcher to get to the ball and then he couldn't pick it up. E5. Clark safe at 2b. Rupp credited with a sac bunt.
• TCU sent a coach to the mound. He spent much of the visit talking to the third baseman.
• Rowe hit a 1-4 sac bunt, moving Clark to 3b and Rupp to 2b.
• Hernandez hit a 3-unassisted sac bunt (squeeze!) down the 1b line, scoring Clark and moving Rupp to 3b.
• Geesh! I just realized they hit 3 sac bunts in an inning! Back-to-back-to-back, no less! That's extremely unusual. I mean, sac bunts usually result in outs. And, you know...you usually only get three outs an inning. Cool.
• Torres grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 4-2.
• 5th inning, TCU
• 3-up/3-down #3.
• Coats lined out to cf.
• Curry lined out to 1b.
• Schultz out on a soft liner...also to 1b. Heh.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Tucker struck out swinging.
• Belt singled through the right side.
• Keyes flew out to rf in the cf/rf gap.
• Loy flew out to cf in the lf/cf gap.
• 6th inning, TCU
• TCU ties it up.
• Steglich flew out to cf.
• Featherston grounded out to 3b.
• Carpenter singled into rf.
• Vern hit a homerun off the bottom of the scoreboard (the ball hit the BMW ad).
• Skip Johnson made a quick trip to the mound.
• Holaday struck out swinging. Rupp dropped the ball and had to throw down to 1b to complete the out.
• Game tied 4-4.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Texas answers again. Third time in the game that TCU scored, and Texas answered with runs of their own in the bottom of the frame.
• Clark drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Rupp moved Clark to 2b with a 3-4 sac bunt down the 1b line (2b covering the 1b bag).
• TCU sent Erik Miller (rhp) to the mound, replacing Winkler.
• Rowe singled up the middle, scoring Clark.
• Hernandez flew out to cf (8-pitch plate appearance).
• Torres singled into rf, moving Rowe to 2b.
• Tucker doubled into cf, scoring Rowe and moving Torres to 3b.
• TCU intentionally walked Belt to load the bases.
• TCU then sent Trent Appleby (rhp) to the mound, replacing Miller.
• Keyes, sadly, struck out swinging (full count).
• Texas up 6-4.
• 7th inning, TCU
• 3-up/3-down #4.
• Ellington flew out to cf.
• Coats grounded out to ss.
• Curry struck out swinging. Rupp dropped the ball and tagged Curry to complete the out.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Loy singled into cf.
• Clark moved Loy to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• Rupp reached on an infield single (slow bouncer) to ss, moving Loy to 3b.
• Rowe advanced the runners with a 1-3 sac bunt (squeeze #2!) down the 1b line. Loy scored and Rupp moved to 2b.
• Russell Moldenhauer, pinch-hitting for Hernandez, reached on a full-count walk without ever swinging his bat.
• Texas sent Tim Maitland in to pinch-run for Moldenhauer.
• Michael Torres hit the first pitch he saw way over the rf fence (toward the folks sitting on the buses). His second homerun of the game...fourth of the year!
• Tucker watched 3 balls and then 2 called strikes. Then, he fouled off 3 pitches. And, finally hit a single up the middle.
• Tucker was caught stealing (2-6) on the 2nd pitch to Belt.
• Texas up 10-4.
• 8th inning, TCU
• Texas kept Maitland in the game in lf.
• Schultz grounded out on a slow bouncer to the pitcher.
• Steglich grounded out to 2b.
• Featherston singled into cf.
• Carpenter flew out to cf.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Another 1-2-3 inning.
• TCU sent Carruthers into the game in ss (taking Schultz's spot in the line-up). The moved Featherston from ss to 2b and moved Steglich from 2b to cf. They also sent Steven Maxwell (rhp) to the mound, replacing Appleby.
• Belt grounded out to 1b (p covered the bag).
• Keyes grounded out to ss.
• Loy also grounded out to ss.
• 9th inning, TCU
• Texas sent Kyle Lusson into rf, replacing Keyes.
• Vern flew out to rf (testing Lusson, right off).
• Holaday singled into rf.
• Ellington singled past a diving Torres into lf, moving Holaday to 2b.
• Coats struck out swinging.
• Curry also struck out swinging.
• Texas wins 10-4!!

Chance Ruffin pitched his third complete game of the year to move his record to 10-2. By my count, he threw 127 pitches. He faced 35 batters and gave up 4 earned runs on 7 hits (3 homers and 4 singles). He struck out 7 and walked only 1. Sigh...what a game.

And, going down the line, here's how the batters did:

1. Torres: 4-for-5, 2 homeruns, 2 singles, 4 rbi, 3 runs scored...WOW
2. Tucker: 2-for-4, double, single, rbi, run scored, strikeout, caught stealing
3. Belt: 1-for-3, single, sac bunt, intentional walk
4. Keyes: 1-for-5, double, 2 rbi, strikeout
   - Kyle Lusson: no plate appearances
5. Loy: 1-for-4, single, run scored, walk, strikeout
6. Clark: 1-for-2, single, 2 runs scored, walk, sac bunt
7. Rupp: 1-for-2, single, run scored, 2 sac bunts
8. Rowe: 1-for-2, single, 2 rbi, run scored, 2 sac bunts
9. Hernandez: 2-for-2, rbi, sac bunt
   - Moldenhauer: 0-for-0, walk
   - Maitland: no plate appearances, run scored

The 7 sac bunts hit by Texas set a single-game NCAA record. And, look at Loy's line. He did not participate in the sac bunt parade. Going into today's game, Loy led the team with 24 sac bunts on the year. Next in line? Brandon Belt with 8. Loy's 24 sac bunts, by the way, also lead the country. Through games played as of June 1st, he was tied at 24 with Joe Scott of Cal State Fullerton. And, he didn't get one today. Heh.

Final line:

Texas and TCU play again tomorrow. Texas will play visitor. Go, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 11:38 PM