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Monday - June 22, 2009

Game 65: Louisiana State at Texas (CWS)

Texas played home to the Louisiana State Tigers in the 1st game of the 2009 College World Series Championship Series this evening. As in the last game, I watched the game on ESPN and listened to the KVET radio broadcast by Craig Way and Keith Moreland, streaming over the Internet (I synced the Internet radio stream with the ESPN broadcast on my TiVo). This report is based on that combination.

By the way, as I was rushing to get home in time for the first pitch, I was wondering what I could put together for a quick meal before the game. And, then I remembered. I brought left-overs home from the wonderful Father's Day meal my mom cooked yesterday. Yummm! Thanks, Mom!

Anyway...

Today's starting line-ups:

Louisian State	Texas
1 DJ LeMahieu, 2b 2 Ryan Schimpf, lf 3 Blake Dean, dh 4 Micah Gibbs, c 5 Mikie Mahtook, cf 6 Jared Mitchell, rf 7 Sean Ochinko, 1b 8 Derek Helenihi, 3b 9 Austin Nola, ss - Louis Coleman, p	1 Michael Torres, 3b 2 Travis Tucker, 2b 3 Brandon Belt, 1b 4 Russell Moldenhauer, dh 5 Cameron Rupp, c 6 Kevin Keyes, rf 7 Brandon Loy, ss 8 Preston Clark, lf 9 Connor Rowe, cf - Chance Ruffin, p

And, here's how things played out:

• 1st inning, LSU
• Chance Wheeless (rhp) on the mound for Texas.
• LeMahieu grounded out to 3b.
• Schimpf homered waaaay over the rf fence.
• Dean struck out looking (2-2 count).
• Gibbs struck out looking (full count, 7 pitches).
• 16 pitches.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 1st inning, Texas
• Louis Coleman (rhp) on the mound for LSU.
• Torres flew out to cf (1st pitch).
• Tucker grounded out to 3b.
• Belt flew out to rf.
• 12 pitches.
• 2nd inning, LSU
• Mahtook struck out swinging (3 pitches).
• Mitchell singled up the middle...off the mound.
• Ochinko popped out to ss in shallow lf behind 3b.
• Helenihi struck out swinging (1-2 count).
• 15 pitches (31 on the day).
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Moldenhauer singled into cf.
• Rupp lined out to lf.
• Keyes popped out to 2b.
• Loy struck out looking (2-2 count).
• 13 pitches (25 on the day).
• 3rd inning, LSU
• Nola singled over 2b into rf.
• LeMahieu moved Nola to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt. Ruffin might've had a chance to throw Nola out at 2b but slipped as he fielded and squared to throw so went to 1b instead.
• Schimpf struck out looking. Purty.
• Dean popped out to 2b in shallow cf.
• 12 pitches (43 on the day).
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Clark struck out swinging after fouling off 3 pitches (2-2 count).
• Rowe popped out to ss (on the 1b side of 2b).
• Torres lined out to 2b.
• 11 pitches (36 on the day).
• 4th inning, LSU
• Gibbs struck out swinging.
• Mahtook also struck out swinging.
• Mitchell flew out to cf. Rowe made a nice running catch at the warning track as he ran toward the wall and to his right. Yes!
• 12 pitches (55 on the day).
• 4th inning, Texas
• Tucker hit a homerun over the lf fence!
• Belt grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Moldenhauer hit a homerun over the cf fence!
• I love this team.
• Rupp flew out to cf.
• Keyes hit a homerun over the lf fence (way over the 375 sign)!
• Oh my.
• Coach Mainieri made a visit to the mound.
• Loy lined out to rf.
• 14 pitches (50 on the day).
• Texas up 3-1. Yes!
• 5th inning, LSU
• Ochinko drew a full-count walk.
• After Ruffin threw 2 balls to Helenihi, Skip Johnson made a trip to the mound.
• Helenihi flew out to lf on the next pitch.
• Nola popped out to 1b in foul territory (1st pitch).
• LeMahieu struck out swinging (2-2 count).
• 15 pitches (70 on the day).
• 5th inning, Texas
• Clark grounded out to 3b.
• Rowe struck out swinging (2-2 count).
• Torres singled though the right side.
• Tucker struck out looking (3 pitches).
• 16 pitches (66 on the day).
• 6th inning, LSU
• Schimpf struck out looking!
• Dean singled into cf.
• Gibbs singled past 2b, moving Dean to 3b. Tucker was moving to cover 2b or he would've probably fielded the ground ball for an out. Darnit. The throw in from rf was off-line but Torres did a great job to stop it and keep the runners from advancing further. Whew.
• Skip Johnson made a trip to the mound.
• Mahtook struck out for the 3rd time in as many plate appearances!
• Texas sent Austin Wood (lhp) to the mound, replacing Ruffin (88 pitches on the day with 10 (!!) strikeouts).
• Chance Ruffin, by the way, seemed to be in quite a bit of pain in the dugout as Wood took his warm-up pitches...a cramp perhaps?
• Mitchell tripled to the wall in the lf/cf gap, scoring both base runners.
• Ochinko grounded out to 3b.
• 5 pitches.
• Game tied 3-3.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Belt flew out to cf at the warning track (1st pitch). Mahtook (cf) appeared to be suffering from a cramp and a trainer ran out to see if he could help Mahtook stretch it out. Play resumed after a couple of minutes.
• Moldenhauer hit his second homerun of the night...this time over the lf wall. Yes!!
• Rupp struck out swinging (full count).
Keyes singled into cf.
• Loy doubled into cf (toward the rf gap), moving Keyes to 3b.
• Which prompted another visit to the mound...by an assistant coach this time.
• On a wild pitch that went behind (!!) Clark, Keyes scored and Loy moved up to 3b!
• Clark went on to strike out swinging (full count, 8 pitches).
• 23 pitches (80 on the day).
• Texas up 5-3.
• 7th inning, LSU
• Texas sent Tim Maitland into lf, replacing Clark.
• Helenihi grounded out to ss behind 2b.
• Nola worked the count full and then struck out swinging.
• LeMahieu hit a homerun over the cf wall.
• Schimpf struck out swinging!
• 20 pitches (25 on the day).
• Texas up 5-4.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Rowe hit another homerun over the lf fence (in the power alley). Wow.
• LSU sent Chad Jones (lhp) to the mound, replacing Coleman (5 pitches, 94 on the day).
• Keith Moreland commented that Jones did not throw a strike during his warm-up pitches.
• Torres grounded out to 1b (pitcher covered the bag).
• Tucker flew out to cf (1st pitch).
• Belt struck out swinging.
• 8 pitches.
• Texas up 6-4.
• 8th inning, LSU
• Dean drew a 5-pitch walk to lead things off.
• Gibbs flew out to rf at the line.
• Mahtook grounded into a 4-6-3 double play!
• 12 pitches (37 on the day).
• 8th inning, Texas
• Tant Shepherd was announced as a pinch-hitter for Moldenhauer. LSU countered with a pitching change, sending Paul Bertuccini (rhp) to the mound, replacing Jones.
• So, Texas sent Kevin Lusson (switch-hitter) to the plate, for Shepherd.
• Lusson drew a full-count walk.
• Rupp grounded out on a slow bouncer to 3b, moving Lusson to 2b.
• Keyes popped out to shallow lf.
• Loy flew out to rf.
• 13 pitches.
• 9th inning, LSU
• Texas sent Kyle Lusson into rf, replacing Keyes.
• Mitchell grounded out to ss.
• Ochinko singled through the left side.
• LSU sent Leon Landry in to pinch run for Ochinko.
• Texas sent Taylor Jungmann (rhp) to the mound, replacing Wood (42 pitches on the day).
• Helenihi drew a 4-pitch walk. Sigh.
• With a 2-0 count to Tyler Hanover (pinch-hitting for Nola), Texas sent Austin Dicharry to the mound, replacing Jungmann (who'd thrown 6 pitches, all balls).
• Oh. My. Goodness.
• Hanover went on to strike out swinging (full count). Whew.
• LeMahieu hit a double into the lf corner (first pitch), scoring Landry and Helenihi. Damn.
• Texas intentionally walked Schimpf.
• Dean flew out to cf.
• 12 pitches.
• Game tied 6-6.
• 9th inning, Texas
• LSU sent Matty Ott (rhp) to the mound, replacing Bertuccini. They also moved LeMahieu to ss and kept Hanover in the game at 2b. Shimpf moved to 1b and Landry stayed in the game in lf.
• Maitland was hit by a 1-2 pitch (knee). He did not make a move to get out of the way of the pitch and could've easily been kept at the plate.
• Rowe moved Maitland to 2b with a sac bunt down the 1b line. The first baseman fielded and tagged Rowe out.
• Torres fought off four pitches, worked the count full, and then flew out to lf at the warning track.
• Tucker flew out to cf (toward the rf gap).
• 15 pitches.
• 10th inning, LSU
• Gibbs drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Which prompted a visit to the mound by Skip Johnson. Dicharry also had to replace his belt, which had broken.
• Mahtook singled through the right side, nearly hitting Gibbs with the ball. Runners at 1b and 2b. Twice during his at-bat Mahtook squared to bunt and watched balls both times. He swung away without squaring at the other 3 pitches he saw.
• Mitchell flew out to rf. Gibbs tagged and moved up to 3b.
• The second pitch to Landry was in the dirt and got away from Rupp, not far enough to score the run but far enough to move Mahtook to 2b.
• Texas went ahead and intentionally walked Landry to load the bases.
• Texas sent Brandon Workman (rhp) to the mound, replacing Dicharry (30 pitches on the day).
• Helenihi struck out swinging after fouling off a couple of pitches.
• Hanover struck out swinging. The ball got away from Rupp but he picked it up and stepped on the plate to end the inning.
• Whew. 9 pitches.
• 10th inning, Texas
• Belt grounded out to 2b.
• Kevin Lusson flew out to cf (1st pitch).
• After the first pitch to Rupp (a ball), LSU made a visit to the mound. Coach Garrido took advantage to talk to Rupp.
• Rupp drew a full-count walk.
• Kyle Lusson struck out swinging.
• 17 pitches (32 on the day).
• 11th inning, LSU
• LeMahieu drew a full-count 7-pitch walk.
• Schimpf popped out to ss (1st pitch).
• Dean flew out to lf at the warning track.
• LeMahieu took off on the first pitch to Gibbs. The throw from Rupp got through into cf, allowing LeMahieu to move up to 3b.
• Gibbs drew a 5-pitch walk.
• Skip Johnson made a visit to the mound.
• Mahtook singled into cf, scoring LeMahieu and moving Gibbs to 2b.
• Mitchell flew out to rf.
• 22 pitches (31 on the day).
• Texas down 6-7.
• 11th inning, Texas
• Loy struck out swinging (1-2 count).
• Maitland struck out looking.
• Rowe worked the count full, fought off a few pitches, and then grounded out to 2b. Damn.
• 16 pitches (48 on the day).
• Texas loses 6-7.

Damn. That was painful. I sure wish the Horns had put the Tigers away in the 9th. Sigh. It was all so exciting for awhile, eh? And, answer me this: if you'd been told Texas would hit 5 homeruns in a game, would you ever have believed they'd lose that game? Wow. And, yes...m'thinks the Horns can still win it all. I just wish they'd done it in two.

Here's the line (from GameTracker):

Post-game comments from Texas: Coach Garrido was at the table ready to go very soon after the game was over and waited for the players (Moldenhauer and Ruffin) to join him for 3 minutes or so. Weird. Coach Garrido opened saying it was an incredible game with two teams doing everything they could to win. The team that would lose was going to have to deal with the wrath of baseball. We became that team and have to refocus and get ready for tomorrow's game. When asked about his homeruns, Moldenhauer said he was just feeling relaxed and good today and put good swings on the balls that went out. Asked about his cramps, Ruffin said they didn't take him out of the game...he was going to fight through it. Coach Garrido has talked to the team about how they're going to handle the adversity and what they're going to do now. The players need to have the courage to leave tonight's game behind them and battle back tomorrow. All things are possible in a 2-out-of-3 series. Asked if he saw anything in Jungmann that could explain his trouble tonight, Garrido said he felt confident that what happened would not happen and the trouble was more with his decision than with anything Jungmann did. Jungmann will start tomorrow. Moldenhauer said the difference in their power surge is that they're not playing at Disch-Falk which is a bigger park. When asked what he says to the team in this situation, Coach Garrido said he thinks that really should stay with the team. They got down to the end in the Super Regional as well but won it. He said the performance tonight was really good so the problem is the loss. The secret is to let go of the imperfections instead of nit-picking them to death. Moldenhauer said they just need to forget the loss and come back tomorrow with the feelings they had at the beginning of tonight's game and everything will be fine.

Post-game comments from LSU: Coach Mainieri opened saying that was the most courageous never-say-die performance by a team he's ever coached. Even when they were down, he never felt out of the game and they'd be able to rally. He thought Ott was a real key to winning the game. It was a total team effort. Mahtook said he got an IV after the cramps got him down but didn't have any more problems as the game went on. He saw that Workman was throwing the ball really hard and after fighting off some pitches he was able to find one to hit. Mainieri was happy to see his bullpen do a good job today. Ott said his arm felt good the whole time even though he usually just throws 1 or 2 innings but he's been working on his conditioning so he could go longer as the season went on. Mahtook said he had 3 terrible at-bats but got some encouragement from the older guys to keep him from getting his head down. LeMahieu said they focus on their own game and don't worry about what Texas might do. Coach Mainieri said winning 14 games in a row has added a little bit more to the team's confidence. He said he does not know who will start tomorrow. He said he thinks his team will have the correct mindset for tomorrow's game. He said they've had some great wins but, yes, this was the biggest win they've ever had. It was a very sweet win.

And, now their backs are to the wall. Go, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 11:03 PM