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Saturday - February 19, 2011

Game 2: Maryland at Texas

So...that was a confusing day.

First, the weather wasn't nearly as nice today as it was yesterday. It was overcast, damp, and chilly for much of the day.

Second, as I was waiting at a red light on the south-bound frontage road of I35, I heard this happen:

[wreck]

It sounded bad. And, it looked bad. And, I just felt bad for everyone involved. Ugh.

Third, this happened in the first game of the day:

[boxscore]

And, yeah...7 innings. On double-header days, the first game is scheduled for 7 innings and the second for 9. If the first game goes extra innings, the second game will be shortened to 7.

Starting lineups...

Texas mixed it up a bit. Not surprising to see them do this sort of thing early in the season so they can get a look at how the guys do in real-game situations.

Erich Weiss continued to shine. He went to the plate 3 times and got aboard each time (1 walk and 2 singles). He also scored the only run of the game for Texas. In the 2nd, he fouled off 5 pitches and then watched 4 balls to draw a 1-out walk. He moved to 2b on a single by Jacob Felts, moved to 3b on a fielder's choice hit by Kevin Lusson (seeing his first action of the year), and scored on a single by Tant Shepherd. Jordan Etier was called out on strikes (2-2 count) in the next at-bat and that opened a big ol' can of worms. The strike-out call was on a ball that was very high. Etier couldn't believe the call and asked the ump about it. As Coach Harmon walked past the plate toward the Texas dugout, it looked like he wasn't going to say anything (which surprised me no end because it was a particularly bad call) but then he did say something. And, continued on his way to the dugout without stopping. He apparently continued to say things, though, because he was quickly ejected from the game. He came back out and got in the ump's face and got his money's worth before grudgingly leaving the field.

Things continued to go badly and, in the top of the 5th, Coach Garrido was also ejected from the game as he argued a close call at home plate. I cannot remember a game when two Texas coaches were ejected.

Cole Green started and took the loss for Texas. He gave up a lead-off single and hit the second batter he faced before giving up a 3-run dinger to Tomo Delp that just cleared the lf fence near the 375 sign. Delp, by the way, had hit a towering ball on the first pitch he saw from Green down the lf line that was just foul. That was the longest hit ball I've seen since last spring. Green sat the next six guys down in order. He got into a bit of a jam in the 3rd but worked his way out of it without further damage but things kind of fell apart in the 5th. Brandon Loy was charged with 2 errors but I think one of them should probably have been charged to Jonathan Walsh in lf. Whatever. With the bases loaded (on back-to-back singles and a hit batter), Tomo Delp hit into what looked to be a relatively routine double play. The ball bounced off Loy's glove, though, and into shallow cf, plating two runs and leaving runners at the corners...and still no outs. Instead of 1 across and 2 out. Ouch. The Terrapins ended up scoring 5 runs in the inning (1 unearned) and Texas seemed completely out of sorts. Kirby Bellow, in relief of Green, gave up a couple of hits and a walk in that inning before Keifer Nuncio went in and shut things down. Nuncio threw a 1-2-3 inning in the 6th before giving way to Kendal Carrillo for the final inning. Carrillo got two quick outs but then gave up 2-0 double, a full-count walk, and a run-scoring single before getting one last ground-out.

I'm really not sure what to say about the loss other than to point out that the team just looked off from the get-go. And, the 7 innings they played in the first game took as long as the 9 innings they played last night. Not pretty. We could only hope that things would get better in the second game of the double header.

Posted by Joanna at 10:00 PM