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Tuesday - March 2, 2010
Game 8: UT-Pan American at Texas
Texas beat UT-Pan American 3-2 this evening to improve their record to 6-2. 'Twas a bit of a scary game as the offense barely showed up. Kyle Kotchie pitched a great game for UTPA. It was his first appearance of the year and he went 7 innings, faced 30 Texas batters, and threw (by my count) 131 pitches. He walked 4, struck out 11 (ouch!), and gave up 3 hits (2 singles and 1 homerun). He allowed all 3 runs (1 unearned). What killed his outing, surprisingly, were 2 bases-loaded balks. Poor guy. Ah well...we're all about the Longhorns here so, on to that story!
Texas scored single runs in the 2nd, 4th, and 5th...which proved just enough to win the game. After going 1-2-3 in the 1st, the 2nd went like so:
- Russell Moldenhauer struck out looking.
- Kevin Keyes grounded out to 2b.
- Connor Rowe reached on a throwing error by 3b and then stole 2b with Kevin Lusson at the plate.
- Kevin Lusson drew a full-count walk.
- Kyle Lusson drew a 5-pitch walk to load the bases.
- Kotchie balked on his first pitch to Jordan Etier to put the first run of the game across.
- Etier went on to strike out swinging.
The Horns went down in order again in the 3rd. And, then they finally got a hit in the 4th:
- Moldenhauer singled on a hard ground ball off the second baseman. The ball careened off his glove toward the ss behind 2b. The shortstop almost managed to get Moldenhauer out at 1b. Whew.
- Keyes and Rowe then struck out.
- The Lusson brothers repeated their walk performances of the 2nd inning to load the bases.
- Kotchie balked again (2-2 count to Etier) to push another run across. Wow.
- Etier struck out (looking this time) on the next pitch.
And, the 5th:
- Tant Shepherd flew out to lf.
- Brandon Loy popped out to shallow lf.
- Cameron Rupp hit his first homerun of the year to the cf/rf gap. Nice. That was only the 2nd hit on the day for the Horns, by the way.
- Moldenhauer was hit by a pitch.
- Keyes struck out swinging.
Note how all three runs were scored with 2 outs. Those Longhorns were making me nervous today!
They got two more hits on the day. Kyle Lusson reached on on a 2-out single in the 6th and stole 2b but was stranded there. Kevin Keyes hit a 1-out ground-rule double in the 8th. I think that was the first ground-rule double hit on the new turf at Disch-Falk. It was a hiiiiiiiiiigh flying ball that went all the way to the warning track by the Texas bullpen. I could not believe it when it dropped in a couple of feet shy of the wall and then bounced over...and into the corner of the bullpen. We used to see ground-rule doubles hit on the old turf all the time. But, the new field turf just isn't as bouncy. Anyway, Cohl Walla went in to pinch-run for Keyes...but turned into the 3rd out on a fielder's choice a few batters later.
Hoby Milner saw his first action as a Longhorn today, getting the start. He went 4.1 innings, threw 74 pitches (45 strikes), faced 21 batters, gave up 2 walks, threw 2 strikeouts, gave up 6 hits, and one run (by my reckoning...more on that in a moment). Stayton Thomas relieved Milner with 1 on (via walk) and one out in the 5th. The first batter Thomas faced (Mejia) reached on a 5-4 fielder's choice, advanced to 2b on a wild pitch, and scored on a single. Weirdly, both iScore and the official boxscore charged the run scored by Mejia to Milner. I'm completely puzzled by this. Anyone with some insight on this? Regardless...by my count, Thomas pitched 1 inning, threw 16 pitches (6 strikes), faced 6 batters, threw 1 wild pitch, hit one batter, walked one, gave up 1 hit, and one run (or so I think). He also managed to get his first win of the year. Andrew McKirahan replaced Thomas in the 6th. He went into the game with 1 out and runners at 1b and 2b. He gave up a 7-pitch full-count single up the middle. The runner from 2b tried to score but a perfect throw from Connor Rowe in cf caught him easily at the plate. Excellent play! The next batter grounded into a fielder's choice to end the inning. McKirahan threw a 1-2-3 seventh. His totals: 1.2 innings, 24 pitches (15 strikes), 5 batters, 2 strikeouts, and 1 hit. Chance Ruffin threw the final 2 innings and faced the minimum to earn his 2nd save of the year. His totals: 2 innings, 25 pitches (18 strikes), 6 batters, and 2 strikeouts. Purty.
Here's the line:
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UT-Pan American | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 1 |
| Texas | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | x | 3 | 4 | 2 |
Kind of a weird game. I'm not complaining, though, 'cause the Horns came away with a win! They head off to Houston this weekend. 'Hope the winning ways continue. Hook 'em!
Posted by Joanna at 10:58 PM