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Saturday - February 27, 2010

Game 6: Stanford at Texas

Texas wins again, 6-3 today. Nice game.

Another quick post from the field. Full report to come this evening. Watch for an update here.

UPDATE. Texas took the lead early and kept it. Timely hitting was the key to today's win. Afterall: 6 hits, 6 runs. Yikes. The weather was much better today. There was a slight breeze in from lf for a little while but, for the most part, the flags were quiet this afternoon. The temperature stayed in the mid-60s for most of the day.

Brandon Workman started and got his first win of the year. He threw 5 innings. By my count, he threw 97 pitches (58 strikes), faced 23 batters (hitting one of them), gave up 2 walks, and struck out 6, while giving up 2 runs (both earned) on 6 hits. Andrew McKirahan started the 6th. McKirahan did not have as good a day today as he did yesterday. He faced three batters, giving up a full-count walk (7 pitches) to the first and a single to rf to the second. The runner from 1b was off with the pitch and dug for 3b. Kevin Keyes tried to throw the lead runner out at 3b but his throw was high. The batter scooted up to 2b on the throw, putting batters at 2b and 3b with no outs. The next batter grounded out to ss, scoring one. Texas sent Chance Ruffin to the mound. He struck out the first batter he faced on 3 pitches. Then, got the next one to ground out to the pitcher. Whew. Ruffin threw the final 3.2 innings to earn his first save of the year. By my count, he threw 44 pitches (34 strikes), faced 12 batters, struck out 4, and gave up a single. He looked really good today.

Offensively, the Horns scored early when Tant Shepherd hit a solo homerun into the Texas bullpen to start the game. Yeah! Brandon Loy then walked his way aboard but was picked off 1-3-6. So sad. Russell Moldenhauer drew another full-count walk a couple of batters later but was stranded at 1b. Moldenhauer is only batting .118 on the year but paces the team with 9 walks. Cameron Rupp and Kevin Lusson are in 2nd place with 5 walks apiece.

In the second, Connor Rowe started things with a single and was moved to 2b on a sac bunt by Kevin Lusson. Kyle Lusson then reached on an error by the 1st baseman who stopped a ground ball but could not get a handle on it and was unable to get a throw off to the pitcher covering 1b. Rowe moved to 3b on the play. Jordan Etier then executed a really lovely squeeze bunt to score Rowe and move Lusson to 2b. Shepherd then singled in his second rbi of the day. Alas, he was picked off much like Loy was, 1-3-6. The pitcher must've had a really good move, eh?

The Horns went down in order in the 3rd but scored another run in the 4th. The last three runs scored by the Horns came on 2-out/nobody-on rallies. 'Love that kind of playing! In the 4th, with 2 out, Kevin Lusson singled his way aboard. Kyle Lusson singled behind him, moving him to 2b. Etier then worked an 8-pitch full-count walk to load the bases. The pitcher (Scott Snodgress) made a move to throw to 1b after his 2nd pitch to Shepherd. Alas, nobody was covering the base and he did not throw the ball. Balk. Kevin Lusson scored. Stanford lifted the starter at that point. The reliever went on to complete the walk and then got Loy to ground out to 2b to end the inning. Texas up 4-1 at that point.

After giving up single runs in the 5th and 6th, the Horns started off the bottom of the 6th with back-to-back ground outs by the Lusson brothers. Etier drew another full-count walk, though. Shepherd then drew a 4-pitch walk to chase a second Stanford pitcher from the game. Loy followed with a full-count/8-pitch double to lf (he did a great job fighting off some nice pitches), scoring Etier and Shepherd! Rupp flew out to cf to end the inning.

The line:

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Stanford	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	3	8	1
Texas	1	2	0	1	0	2	0	0	x	6	6	0

So, the Horns get their first series win of the year. Hopefully, they get their first series sweep tomorrow. Austin Dicharry is slated to get the start for the Horns. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 4:47 PM