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Tuesday - March 23, 2010

Game 21: Rice at Texas

Texas beat Rice 5-1 tonight to take the series. In some ways, it was a very sloppy game. In others, it was a very well-played game. The line:

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Rice	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	2
Texas	0	0	1	0	0	4	0	0	-	5	3	1

Sam Stafford got his first career start and threw three perfect innings. Very, very nice. He got two strikeouts (one looking), 5 ground outs, 2 fly outs, and threw 41 pitches by my count (26 strikes). Subsequent Texas pitching went like so:

• Austin Dicharry: 1.1 innings, 27 pitches (15 strikes), 7 batters faced, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 1 hit (a single), 1 unearned run.
• Hoby Milner: 0.2 innings, 5 pitches (4 strikes), 2 batters faced.
• Stayton Thomas: 0.2 innings, 13 pitches (4 strikes), 4 batters faced, 1 hit batter, 1 walk (intentional).
• Chance Ruffin: 3.1 innings, 42 pitches (32 strikes), 11 batters faced, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 1 hit (a single).

Rice scored their sole run in the 5th:

• Dicharry on the mound for Texas.
• Anthony Rendon drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Rick Hague hit a single to cf, moving Rendon to 2b.
• Michael Ratterree struck out swinging (1-2 count).
• Steven Sultzbaugh drew a full-count walk to load the bases.
• Texas sent Hoby Milner to the mound (looking for the lefty-lefty match-up).
• Rice tried a squeeze play with Craig Manuel at the plate. Milner fielded the softly hit bunt and then made a bad toss to the catcher (Cameron Rupp) for the force. But, Rupp could not hang onto the ball. Rendon bowled his way through Rupp and scored. All other batters safe on the play, 1 unearned run across. Mysteriously, they gave the error to the catcher rather than the pitcher. The toss was just awful. Rupp had almost no chance of catching it. Ah well...
• Mozingo then grounded into a very unusual double play. He hit the ball on the right side. The second baseman fielded and threw to the ss covering the bag. The runner from 1b (Manuel) did not slide into 2b and was called for runner's interference...which lead to the batter being called out.
• Double play. Inning over. Excess damage averted.

The Texas runs came in the 3rd (Jordan Etier hit his 5th homerun of the year) and 6th innings. The four runs in the 6th came without benefit of a hit:

• Brandon Loy reached on a throwing error by ss. Loy hit a hard ground ball to the shortstop who had time to throw him out but he let the ball sail way over the first baseman...giving Loy a free pass to 2b.
• With a 2-1 count to Rupp, Rice changed pitchers, sending Mike Ojala in for Abe Gonzales.
• Rupp went on to draw a 7-pitch full-count walk. Loy advanced to 3b on the last pitch to Rupp which was wild.
• Kevin Keyes was hit by a pitch (near his head) to load the bases.
• Kevin Lusson drew a 4-pitch walk to score Loy. Bases still loaded.
• With Jonathan Walsh at the plate, Rupp scored, Keyes moved to 3b, and Lusson moved to 2b on a wild pitch.
• Two pitches later, Keyes scored and Lusson moved to 3b on a passed ball.
• Walsh then hit a sac fly to lf, scoring Lusson.
• Russell Moldenhauer went on to draw a walk, prompting another Rice pitching change.
• Tant Shepherd then flew out to cf.
• And, Jordan Etier hit into a fielder's choice to end the inning.

It was not pretty. Not by a long shot. But, it was more than enough to put another mark in the win column. The pitching and defense (except for that one slip in the 5th) looked good all night. Stayton Thomas, by the way, was drilled by a line drive...in the leg it appeared to me, in the 6th, shortly before he was lifted in favor of Ruffin. I do hope all's well with him and he's not suffering from anything more than a nasty bruise.

The Horns now head out to Lubbock for a Big 12 series against the Red Raiders. 'Hope it all goes well. Next home action will be a week from tonight when the Horns host the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.

Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 11:09 PM