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Sunday - October 17, 2010

Fall Ball, Game 3: Vanderbilt at Texas

The Horns showed up for today's game. A little late but they showed. They ended up beating Vanderbilt 7-5 in the final Fall Ball game of the year. The line (according to my own scorecard...I did not remember to check out the final line on the scoreboard before leaving the park):

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	R	H	E
Vanderbilt	1	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	13	2
Texas	0	0	0	0	3	0	1	2	0	0	0	1	7	8	2

So...four errors. Pitchers committed 3 of those: 2 bad throws to 1b on bunt attempts and 1 bad pick-off throw. Yikes. The final error was committed by Loy on a throw from ss to 1b. Kirby Bellow had just come into the game at 1b...Tant Shepherd might've dug that throw out of the "dirt" but there's really no way to know that.

On the pitching side of things, Cole Green and Sam Stafford combined to give up all 5 Vandy runs (1 unearned) in the first four innings of the game. Texas used 8 pitchers in today's scrimmage and they combined to strike out 12 batters, give up 2 extra-base hits, walk 2 batters, and they committed 1 error and 1 balk. Individual numbers went like so...

• Cole Green: 3 innings, 15 batters faced, 2 runs (1 unearned), 5 hits (1 double), 2 Ks, 1 error
• Sam Stafford: 2 innings, 10 batters faced, 3 runs, 4 hits (1 triple), 3 Ks
• Kendal Carrillo: 2 innings, 7 batters faced, no runs, no hits, 1 K, 1 walk
• Austin Dicharry: 1 inning, 5 batters faced, no runs, 1 hit, 1 K, 1 walk
• Andrew McKirahan: 1 inning, 5 batters faced, no runs, 2 hits
• Nathan Thornhill: 1 inning, 3 batters faced, 2 Ks
• Hoby Milner: 1 inning, 3 batters faced, 2 Ks
• Stayton Thomas: 1 inning, 5 batters faced, 2 singles, 1 K, 1 balk

I did not make much of an attempt to keep up with defensive substitutions. Since the teams (mostly the Longhorns) were being fast and loose with substitutions, I didn't think it was really worth the effort. But, I did note who batted and how they did. Individual numbers went like so...

• Mark Payton (rf, cf): 0-for-3, 1 K
• Brandon Loy (ss): 1-for-4, 1 rbi, 2 Ks
• Cohl Walla (cf at beginning and end of game): 1-for-4, 1 run scored, 1 rbi, 1 K, 1 hbp
• Jonathan Walsh (lf, c): 1-for-5, double, 1 run scored, 1 rbi, 1 K
• Tant Shepherd (1b): 0-for-2, 1 K
• Kevin Lusson (3b, dh): 2-for-4, double, 1 run scored, 2 rbi
• Lucas Kephart (c): 0-for-2
• Alex Silver (dh, 3b): 2-for-4, double, 1 run scored, 1 rbi
• Christian Summers (2b, ss): 0-for-4, 1 sac bunt
• Jacob Felts (dh, c): 0-for-4, 1 run scored, 1 K, 1 walk
• Erich Weiss (lf): 0-for-2, 1 sac bunt
• Kirby Bellow (1b): 1-for-3, 1 run scored, 1 K
• Paul Montalbano (cf): 0-for-1, 1 run scored, 2 walks
• Jordan Etier (2b): 0-for-1
• Tim Maitland (ph): 1 walk
• Ryan Ford (ph): 1 walk

There were no stolen base attempts by either team. Things that make you go hmmm...

Anyway, here's how the game played out...

• Vanderbilt, 1st inning
• Cole Green (rhp) on the mound.
• Ground out to 2b, double, ground out to p (runner moved to 3b), single (rbi), K (swinging).
• Texas down 0-1.
• Texas, 1st inning
• Grayson Garvin (lhp) on the mound.
• Payton lined out to lf.
• Loy grounded out to ss.
• Walla struck out swinging (2-2 count).
• Texas down 0-1.
• Vanderbilt, 2nd inning
• Ground out to 2b, ground out to ss, double over left-fielder, ground out to 2b (nice play by Summers).
• Texas down 0-1.
• Texas, 2nd inning
• Walsh struck out looking (1-2 count).
• Shepherd flew out to cf.
• Lusson flew out to rf.
• Texas down 0-1.
• Vanderbilt, 3rd inning
• Single to cf, e1 (bad throw on bunt attempt, runner to 2b), K (swinging), 5-4 fielder's choice (runners at corners), single (rbi, runner to 3b, batter to 2b on throw), ground out to ss.
• Texas down 0-2.
• Texas, 3rd inning
• Kephart grounded out to the pitcher.
• Silver flew out to rf.
• Summers flew out to lf (foul).
• Texas down 0-2.
• Vanderbilt, 4th inning
• Sam Stafford (lhp) to the mound.
• Single, single, 5-4 sac bunt (runners to 3b and 2b), single (2 rbi), K (looking), triple to cf/rf gap (rbi), ground out to 3b.
• Texas down 0-5.
• Texas, 4th inning
• Taylor Hill (rhp) to the mound.
• Felts struck out looking (1-2 count).
• Payton grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Loy struck out looking (2-2 count).
• Texas down 0-5.
• Vanderbilt, 5th inning
• First 3-up/3-down of the game for Texas pitching/defense.
• K (swinging), K (swinging), fly out to rf.
• Texas down 0-5.
• Texas, 5th inning
• Walla reached on E1 (bad throw on bunt attempt) and advanced to 2b.
• Walsh doubled down the rf line, scoring Walla.
• Shepherd struck out swinging (2-2 count). Walsh moved up to 3b on a wild pitch during Shepherd's at-bat.
• Lusson singled to rf, scoring Walsh.
• Kephart grounded out to 3b, moving Lusson to 2b.
• Silver doubled to cf, scoring Lusson.
• Summers grounded out to 2b.
• Texas down 3-5.
• Vanderbilt, 6th inning
• Kendal Carrillo (rhp) to the mound.
• Walk (full count, 8 pitches), K (swinging), 6-3 double play. Loy made a great catch about 8 feet left of 2b, ran to 2b for the force and then threw to 1b for the dp. Really nice.
• Texas down 3-5.
• Texas, 6th inning
• Felts popped out to ss in shallow cf.
• Payton struck out swinging (1-2 count).
• Loy struck out swinging (0-2 count).
• Texas down 3-5.
• Vanderbilt, 7th inning
• E6 (low throw), 1-3 sac bunt (runner to 2b), fly out to cf (runner to 3b), ground out to 2b.
• Texas down 3-5.
• Texas, 7th inning
• Weiss grounded out to 2b.
• Walsh grounded out to ss.
• Bellow singled over 2b into shallow rf.
• Lusson doubled down the rf line, scoring Bellow.
• Montalbano grounded out to the pitcher (high chopper near the plate).
• Texas down 4-5.
• Vanderbilt, 8th inning
• Austin Dicharry (rhp) to the mound.
• Ground out to p, walk (3-1 count), single (hit & run, runner to 3b), K (swinging), fly out to lf.
• Texas down 4-5.
• Texas, 8th inning
• Silver reached on an infield single to ss. The shortstop and third baseman ran into each other as both went for the ball.
• Summers moved Silver to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• Felts reached on a 5-pitch walk.
• Walla singled through the right side, scoring Silver and moving Felts to 3b.
• Loy singled through the left side, scoring Felts and moving Walla to 2b.
• Weiss moved the runners to 3b and 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• Walsh grounded out to 3b.
• Texas up 6-5.
• Vanderbilt, 9th inning
• Andrew McKirahan (lhp) to the mound.
• Fly out to lf, ground out to 3b, single to rf, single up the middle (runner to 2b), ground out to 3b.
• Texas up 6-5.
• Texas, 9th inning
• Navery Moore (rhp) to the mound.
• Bellow grounded out to 3b.
• Lusson flew out to lf.
• Montalbano reached on a 5-pitch walk.
• Silver flew out to cf.
• Texas up 6-5.
• Vanderbilt, 10th inning
• Nathan Thornhill (rhp) to the mound.
• Ground out to ss (great stop deep in the hole and nice dig at 1b by Summers at ss and Bellow at 1b), K (swinging), K (swinging, dropped ball had to be thrown to 1b to finish out).
• Texas up 6-5.
• Texas, 10th inning
• Will Clinard (rhp) to the mound.
• Summers grounded out to 1b.
• Felts grounded out to ss.
• Walla was hit by a pitch (grazed jersey).
• Etier grounded into a 4-6 fielder's choice.
• Texas up 6-5.
• Vanderbilt, 11th inning
• Hoby Milner (lhp) to the mound.
• K (swinging), fly out to cf, K (swinging).
• Texas up 6-5.
• Texas, 11th inning
• Weiss grounded out to 1b.
• Walsh popped out to ss.
• Bellow struck out swinging (foul tip).
• Texas up 6-5.
• Vanderbilt, 12th inning
• Stayton Thomas (rhp) to the mound.
• K (looking), single (+ advance to 2b on a balk), single (runner to 3b), 1-3 squeeze bunt (runner at 3b stayed there, runner from 1b moved to 2b), ground out to ss (great play by Summers!).
• Texas up 6-5.
• Texas, 12th inning
• Sam Selman (lhp from St. Andrew's in Austin) to the mound.
• Maitland (ph) drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Montalbano drew a full-count 7-pitch walk.
• Ford (ph) drew a 4-pitch walk to load the bases.
• Summers reached on a 1-2 fielder's choice. Bases still loaded.
• Felts grounded out to 2b (rbi). Runners at 2b and 3b.
• Walla grounded out to ss.
• Texas wins 7-5.

And, that does it for Fall Ball. The Horns definitely showed improvement over the course of the three games which was great to see.

Also, see Donald Boyles' College Baseball Blog report for his take on the game plus photos.

The next action for the Horns will be Fan Appreciation Day plus the Alumni Game at the end of January. Here's hoping it won't be too terribly cold that day!

Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 11:00 PM | Permalink

Fall Ball, Game 2: Vanderbilt at Texas

Sorry for being late with this. Texas lost their second Fall Ball game on Friday evening...this time losing 2-7 to Vanderbilt. It was another scheduled 12-inning scrimmage with loose substitution rules. The line:

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	R	H	E
Vanderbilt	0	0	2	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	7	13	0
Texas	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	5	1

In general, I think the Horns looked better than they did last weekend. But, they're still not getting any hits. Remember the bat thing? It seems that Vandy's using a different brand of bat. It didn't have the same ear-splitting clang that the Texas bats have when the bat didn't square exactly with the ball. I'm sure there's some sort of sponsorship agreement in place that won't allow Texas to change bat manufacturers but...ugh...the Texas bats sound just awful. And, maybe it's our hitters (I really doubt it) but the Vandy bats seemed to have more of a sweet spot and appeared to be a bit more forgiving.

I didn't keep score but I took notes. The five Texas hits:

• Mark Payton (in the 4th) lined a 1-out double over the left fielder's head.
• Two batters later, Cohl Walla also doubled, driving Payton home.
• Tant Shepherd (in the fifth) lined another double over the left fielder (again with 1 out).
• After Shepherd moved to 3b on a fly to cf by Paul Montalbano, Alex Silver singled to push the final run of the game across for Texas.
• The Horns managed one more hit in the 6th when Jordan Etier reached on a lead-off bunt down the 3b line. It was a gorgeous bunt and he then made it to 3b on a sac bunt and fly out to cf but was stranded at 3b.

Not much going on offensively. Jonathan Walsh reached on a walk in the 2nd but was picked off. Montalbano was hit by a pitch in the 8th but Silver hit into a double play in the next at-bat. Payton reached on a 1-out walk in the 9th but that was followed by another double play (this time hit into by Brandon Loy). Walla walked in the 10th. Lucas Kephart then popped out to cf and Walsh hit into a 1-6-3 bang-bang double play.

All-in-all, not a great day at the plate for the Horns.

Defensively, there were a couple of nice highlights. The play of the game went to Walla in cf who made a beautiful running dive to catch a ball hit toward the lf gap in the 2nd. Beautiful play. Loy started a nice 6-4-3 double play and then made a fantastic stop deep in the hole at ss in the 7th to end the inning after Vandy had managed to load the bases.

Taylor Jungmann started for the Horns and was charged with the first four Vanderbilt runs. Vanderbilt went down in order in the first two innings but then capitalized on a lead-off walk and a double in the 3rd. Three singles, a stolen base, and a walk led to two more runs in the 4th. Kirby Bellow threw the 5th and 6th...scoreless with a single. Josh Urban threw the 7th and 8th. A lead-off walk scored in the 7th but he threw a 1-2-3 eighth. Corey Knebel pitched the 9th and 10th. He gave up a lead-off double and walked a batter in the 9th but no further damage done. A lead-off walk and single were squashed when the defense turned another 6-4-3 double-play behind him in the 10th. Hoby Milner threw the 11th and gave up a 1-out double followed by a triple and a single to allow the final two runs of the game for Vanderbilt. Stayton Thomas, who's in the mix for the closer role this year, threw the 12th and gave up a 1-out double (runner stranded at 3b).

The Horns seemed a bit more relaxed on Friday than they were last week but still don't seem to have a lot of fire. I'm very interested to see how things go this afternoon. Especially after they watched what the football team did to Nebraska yesterday.

Also, check out Donald Boyles' report for the College Baseball Blog (includes some nice photos).

Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 9:07 AM | Permalink

Sunday - October 10, 2010

More net

I forgot to note something in my earlier post. UT has extended the protective netting between home plate and the crowd. It used to curve around the backstop area and stop at the "inner" edges of the dugouts (the edges closest to home plate). Now, it extends to the "outer" edges of both dugouts. I'm sure that'll make things a lot safer for the crowd. But it cuts down on the net-free photo-taking angles quite a bit. It also means fewer foul balls will be going home as souvenirs.

Posted by Joanna at 10:29 PM | Permalink

Fall Ball, Game 1: Texas State at Texas

Texas lost 0-9 to Texas State in a scheduled 12-inning scrimmage this afternoon. Ouch. I made an effort to keep score with the iScore app on my iPhone even though I knew the teams would be loose with substitution rules. I gave up in the 6th when the Horns skipped Cole Green (who started as one of the DHs) and then sent him to the plate two batters later. iScore has an option to skip a batter without penalty but I couldn't figure out how to put him back into the lineup without replacing a batter. Sigh...

Offensively, the Horns were pretty disappointing today. They only managed to get three hits on the board...all singles. The Bobcats ended up with 9 hits, including only one extra-base hit to the best of my recollection (it was a double). The new bats were the talk of the town. Nobody seems happy with them...to this point. I suspect that they'll benefit teams like Texas in the long run...especially when we play teams that are built for Gorilla Ball. But, in the short run, the Horns just could not hit the ball today. That's not to say that Texas State did much better for the first 9 innings. I think both teams were tied at 2 hits through regulation...with Texas trailing 0-1 on an unearned run as the teams went into the 10th inning.

Things fell apart defensively in the 10th and 11th when the Horns gave up 7 runs. It was not pretty.

In general, I thought the pitchers looked pretty good...especially early on. But, overall, the team looked flat and uninspired.

Link to the story on the TexasSports.com page.

Here's hoping things go better against Vanderbilt next week. Two games are on tap: Friday at 5 and Sunday at 1. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 9:16 PM | Permalink

Monday - October 4, 2010

Five dollars

Five dollars. That's what Texas is charging on Sunday for the game against Texas State. No really. They're charging for Fall Ball. That's never happened before at Disch-Falk. I realize there hasn't been much Fall Ball to see over the years. I mean...it used to just be the Orange/White series. But, now we've started playing Fall games against other teams. And, it's no longer a "treat" for the fans. Now it's a money-making opportunity. Too bad.

I'll still be there. Of course.

I wonder if people will turn around and leave when asked to pay up. 'Cause most folks showing up won't be expecting to pay.

All change is bad.

And...hey! You! Kid! Get off my lawn!

Posted by Joanna at 3:28 PM | Permalink

Sunday - October 3, 2010

2011 schedule released

Texas finally released the 2011 schedule. Check it out.

First thought: lots of home games. In fact...all our games before conference play starts are home games except for a late-February series in Hawaii. I don't think I'll be making the trip. Heh. I like that our last series ends at home against the Aggies. That makes for a good Senior Day vibe.

And...yay!...Fall Ball vs. Texas State just 7 days away.

Hook 'em!

PS: Oh. And, no games against Rice. I hope they get back on the schedule soon.

Posted by Joanna at 12:50 PM | Permalink

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