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Saturday - April 30, 2011

Game 43: Oklahoma at Texas

The Horns gave up 3 in the second and things did not look good for a while. But, a homerun in the bottom of the 2nd and a 3-spot posted by the Horns in the third turned things around just enough to bring about another Texas win. Whew. With the 4-3 win, the Horns clinched the series win...and with another loss for the Aggies at Mizzou, the Horns now sit all alone atop the conference standings. Yes!

The line:

The line-ups:

Texas Tech		Texas
Evan Mistich (dh) Erik Ross (lf) Garrett Buechele (3b) Tyler Ogle (c) Cameron Seitzer (1b) Rick Eisenberg (rf) Christopher Ellison (cf) Cale Ellis (2b) Caleb Bushyhead (ss)		Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (rf) Tant Shepherd (1b) Erich Weiss (lf) Paul Montalbano (cf) Jonathan Walsh (rf) Kevin Lusson (dh) Jordan Etier (2b) Jacob Felts (c)

Before I get into my play-by-play, let me just say that the long delays between innings (caused by the fact that the game was being televised) were miserable. Ugh. They made me appreciate the efforts made to speed the game up. Anyway...

The play-by-play...

• 1st inning, Oklahoma
• Cole Green (rhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Mistich grounded out to 3b.
• Ross grounded out to ss.
• Buechele struck out swinging. Felts dropped the ball so tagged the batter to complete the out.
• 1st inning, Texas
• Burch Smith (rhp) on the mound for Oklahoma.
• Loy grounded out to ss after fouling off several pitches.
• Payton popped out to ss right at the 2b bag.
• Shepherd (wearing high socks again!...did I mention he was sporting the high socks yesterday?) struck out swinging (full count).
• 2nd inning, Oklahoma
• Ogle drew a full-count walk.
• Seitzer moved Ogle to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt down the 1b line.
• Eisenberg lined a single into right-center, scoring Ogle.
• Ellison drew a 4-pitch walk, moving Eisenberg to 2b.
• Skip Johnson made a visit to the mound.
• Ellis struck out looking. Both runners were off with the strikeout pitch and Felts almost threw Ellison out at 2b. Alas, both runners were save on the double steal.
• Bushyhead tripled to right-center, scoring both runners. It really looked like Montalbano was going to get to the ball but it ended up falling a foot or two beyond his reach. Damn.
• Mistich was hit by a pitch (off his elbow guard).
• Ross grounded into a 6-4 fielder's choice.
• Ugh. That was a miserable half-inning.
• Texas down 0-3.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Weiss hit the second pitch he saw over the rf fence...at the fans who sit on top of the busses! Woo-hoo!
• Montalbano flew out to cf.
• Walsh grounded out to 1b, unassisted.
• Lusson drew a 7-pitch full-count walk.
• Etier flew out to left-center.
• Texas down 1-3.
• 3rd inning, Oklahoma
• Buechele grounded out to 3b. The throw pulled Shepherd off the bag toward home but he managed to tag the batter for the out.
• Ogle grounded out to 3b. Weiss made a really nice snag on a shot hop.
• Seitzer grounded out to ss.
• Really nice half-inning after the previous one.
• Texas down 1-3.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Felts singled through the left side. Nice.
• Alas, he was caught off the bag on the first pitch to Loy and thrown out 2-3-6.
• Loy lined a single into cf. Too bad about that pick-off, eh?
• Payton singled up the middle, moving Loy to 3b. The throw went to 3b and Payton was able to move up to 2b on the throw. Nice job by Payton to move up on the throw. Whew.
• Insert visit to the mound.
• Shepherd singled through the left side, scoring Loy and Payton. The throw from lf was a bit late and went home. Shepherd moved to 2b on the throw!
• Weiss drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Oklahoma sent Jordan John (lhp) to the mound, replacing Smith.
• Montalbano hit a bloop double down the lf line, scoring Shepherd and moving Weiss to 3b!
• Walsh grounded out sharply to 3b. The third baseman looked Weiss back to 3b before throwing across the diamond for the out.
• Lusson struck out swinging (full count, 8 pitches).
• Texas up 4-3.
• 4th inning, Oklahoma
• Eisenberg struck out swinging...full count, 11 pitches!
• Ellison grounded out to 2b.
• Ellis grounded out to ss.
• Another nice 1-2-3 inning for Green.
• Texas up 4-3.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Etier grounded out to ss.
• Felts singled through the right side.
• Loy flew out to cf toward the lf/cf gap.
• Payton grounded into a 6-4 fielder's choice. Not sure the second baseman hit the bag...but...shrug.
• Texas up 4-3.
• 5th inning, Oklahoma
• Bushyhead lined out to cf.
• Mistich struck out looking.
• Ross drew a 4-pitch walk.
• After another ball to Buechele, Coach Johnson made a visit to the mound.
• Buechele flew out to cf.
• Texas up 4-3.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Shepherd grounded out to ss.
• Weiss grounded out to 2b.
• Montalbano popped out to 2b in shallow rf.
• Texas up 4-3.
• 6th inning, Oklahoma
• Ogle grounded out to ss.
• Seitzer singled up the middle past the pitcher.
• Eisenberg and Ellison struck out swinging.
• Texas up 4-3.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Walsh flew out on a hiiiiiiiigh fly ball to lf...nearly to the warning track. It was exciting for a second or so.
• Lusson grounded out to 3b.
• Etier reached on an infield single to ss deep in the hole. He just beat out the throw. Nice.
• Felts flew out to rf.
• Texas up 4-3.
• 7th inning, Oklahoma
• Texas sent Hoby Milner (lhp) to the mound, replacing Green.
• Ellis struck out looking. He was very unhappy with the call by the home plate ump.
• Bushyhead flew out to rf just shy of the warning track.
• Mistich also flew out to rf down the line.
• Texas up 4-3.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Loy struck out swinging.
• Payton struck out swinging.
• Shepherd grounded out to 1b (p covered bag).
• Texas up 4-3.
• 8th inning, Oklahoma
• Ross lined out to cf. Montalbano made a nice charging run in to make the play.
• Buechele grounded out to 2b.
• Ogle lined a single into rf.
• Seitzer grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 4-3.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Weiss was hit by a pitch on his elbow. Ouch. He wasn't wearing a guard on his arm.
• Montalbano moved Weiss to 2b on a 3-4 sac bunt.
• Walsh grounded out to 3b. The third baseman looked Weiss back to 2b before throwing to 1b.
• Cohl Walla (pinch-hitting for Lusson) grounded out to ss.
• Texas up 4-3.
• 9th inning, Oklahoma
• Texas sent Tim Maitland into lf, replacing Walsh. They also sent Corey Knebel (rhp) to the mound, replacing Milner.
• Casey Johnson (pinch-hitting for Eisenberg) drew a full-count 9-pitch walk.
• Ellison moved Johnson to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt. The throw from Knebel to 1b bounced. Nice dig by Shepherd at 1b. Whew.
• Cody Reine (pinch-hitting for Ellis) struck out swinging.
• Bushyhead was hit by a 2-1 pitch on the elbow.
• Coach Johnson made another visit to the mound.
• Mistich lined out to rf to end the game.
• Texas wins 4-3!

Green got the win and improved to 4-3. Knebel earned his 14th save of the year (which ties Huston Street's freshman record for saves). Nice.

The Horns go for the sweep tomorrow. Sam Stafford has been announced as the starter for the Horns. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 10:35 PM | Permalink

Game 42: Oklahoma at Texas

Last night's opener against Oklahoma, wherein Texas won 5-0, was pretty much the perfect game as far as I'm concerned. I mean...

• Taylor Jungmann threw a complete game shutout,
• Coach Garrido hit another career milestone (he's now won 1,800 games...most ever in Division I baseball),
• Nobody on the Texas side of things made an error,
• Brandon Loy hit his first homerun of the year (it was so pretty), and
• All of that happened against OU.

Sweet. Also, the Aggies lost to Mizzou so the Horns are once again tied for the top spot in conference standings.

After a marathon week at work, I was too tired to do the game report last night. Sorry about that. It just means you get more this morning, though. Win-win. Maybe.

The line:

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

The line-ups:

Oklahoma		Texas
Erik Ross (cf) Caleb Bushyhead (ss) Garrett Buechele (3b) Tyler Ogle (c) Casey Johnson (lf)) Evan Mistich (dh) Cameron Seitzer (1b) Cody Reine (rf) Cale Ellis (2b)		Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (rf) Tant Shepherd (1b) Erich Weiss (3b) Paul Montalbano (cf) Jonathan Walsh (lf) Lucas Kephart (dh) Jordan Etier (2b) Jacob Felts (c)

And, here's how things played out...

• 1st inning, Oklahoma
• Taylor Jungmann (rhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Ross grounded out to the pitcher.
• Bushyhead flew out to cf.
• Buechele grounded out to ss.
• 1st inning, Texas
• Michael Rocha (rhp) on the mound for Oklahoma.
• Loy singled up the middle.
• Payton moved Loy to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• With Shepherd at the plate, Loy was caught stealing 3b (1-5). So sad.
• Shepherd (sporting high socks...yeah!) doubled down the rf line of the second baseman's on a high pop-up. Too bad about that caught stealing thing. Loy probably wouldn't have scored since he would've been waiting between 2b and 3b to see if the ball would be caught. But, still...
• Weiss grounded out to 3b (full count, 9 pitches).
• 2nd inning, Oklahoma
• Ogle struck out swinging.
• Johnson also struck out swinging.
• Mistich grounded out to 1b (p covered bag).
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Montalbano grounded out to 2b.
• Walsh flew out to cf.
• Kephart drew a full-count walk.
• Etier popped out to 2b.
• 3rd inning, Oklahoma
• Seitzer lined out to lf. I don't think Walsh took a step...the ball went straight to him.
• Reine singled into lf.
• Ellis was hit by a pitch, moving Reine to 2b. Ellis fell to the ground on the pitch before...and avoided being hit by a pitch. Ouch.
• After the first pitch to Ross was a ball, Coach Johnson made a visit to the mound. The next pitch was another ball.
• Ross hit a perfect bunt single down the 3b line to load the bases.
• Bushyhead struck out swinging (3 pitches).
• Buechele flew out to rf down the line.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Felts flew out to cf, toward the lf gap.
• Loy flew out to shallow rf.
• Payton grounded out to ss.
• 4th inning, Oklahoma
• Ogle struck out looking.
Johnson and Mistich both grounded out to the pitcher.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Shepherd was hit by a pitch (on the hip, I think).
• Weiss moved Shepherd to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt down the 1b line.
• With Montalbano at the plate, the pitcher tried to pick Shepherd off at 2b but his throw was low and skipped into cf. Shepherd reached 3b on the error.
• The infield pulled in but it didn't matter. Montalbano hit a double to left-center, scoring Shepherd. Purty.
• Insert visit to mound.
• Walsh grounded out to 2b, moving Montalbano to 3b. Nice play by the first baseman to gather up the off-target throw by the second baseman.
• Kephart flew out to lf.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 5th inning, Oklahoma
• Seitzer reached on an infield single to 2b. Etier made a very nice running grab behind 2b to keep the ball from getting into cf. He then whirled and threw off-line to 1b. Felts made a nice back-up play on the errant throw to keep the ball in play and the runner at 1b.
• Reine drew a 5-pitch walk, moving Seitzer to 2b.
• Ellis advanced the runners to 2b and 3b on a 1-4 sac bunt down the 3b line.
• Ross struck out looking.
• Bushyhead grounded out to 1b (p covered bag). This was a really nice play by Shepherd and Jungmann who really had to hurry to (1st) stop the ball and (2nd) beat the batter to the bag. Well played.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Etier grounded out to ss. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Etier hit a high pop-up down the rf line in foul territory. The first baseman actually got to the ball and had it but the second baseman ran into him and jarred it loose. Whew. On the ground out to ss, the shortstop did not make a clean catch and dropped the ball. It was hit so hard, though, that he had plenty of time to recover and throw Etier out.
• Felts grounded out to 1b (p covered bag).
• Loy tripled to left-center. If the left fielder hadn't had trouble fielding the ball off the wall, it likely would've been a double.
• Payton reached on a perfect bunt single down the 3b line, scoring Loy!
• Shepherd struck out looking.
• Texas up 2-0.
• 6th inning, Oklahoma
• Buechele grounded out to 2b.
• Ogle struck out swinging at a ball in the dirt. Nice. Felts had to tag him for the out but he didn't even make a move to 1b. Oklahoma batters did that at least 2 or 3 other times during the game. Weird.
• Johnson grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 2-0.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Weiss tripled down the lf line. He hit a high pop-up that was just fair in shallow lf. The left-fielder misjudged the bounce and the ball went off his glove and down the line into foul territory. By the time he rounded the ball up, Weiss was standing on 3b. That was the 6th triple of the year for Weiss, setting a new Freshman record.
• Montalbano lined a single over the first baseman into rf, scoring Weiss.
• With Walsh at the plate, Montalbano advanced to 2b on a passed ball.
• Walsh lined a single into cf, scoring Montalbano.
• Insert another visit to the mound.
• Kephart struck out looking.
• Etier popped out to ss in shallow cf.
• Felts grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 4-0.
• 7th inning, Oklahoma
• Mistich reached on a bloop single over the second baseman.
• Seitzer struck out swinging.
• Reine popped out to 3b in foul territory...near home plate. That could've been a disaster...with Felts and Weiss both going after the ball but Felts pulled off in time to avoid a collision.
• ellis grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 4-0.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Loy hit his first homerun of the year over the lf fence...to the right of the OU bullpen. Yes!
• Payton grounded out to the pitcher.
• Shepherd flew out to cf (in left-center).
• Weiss flew out to cf.
• Texas up 5-0.
• 8th inning, Oklahoma
• Ross grounded out to 1b (p covered bag). Jungmann stumbled and fell as he hit the first base bag. Luckily, he did not seem to hurt himself at all. Yikes. That could've been ugly.
• Bushyhead struck out swinging. Dropped 3rd strike. Felts tagged the batter who was already headed back to the dugout.
• Buechele grounded out to 3b.
• Texas up 5-0.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Montalbano flew out to lf.
• Walsh grounded out to 1b (p covered bag).
• Kephart grounded out to 1b, unassisted.
• Texas up 5-0.
• 9th inning, Oklahoma
• Tim Maitland went in at lf, replacing Walsh.
• Ogle flew out to left-center, nearly to the warning track.
• Johnson flew out to cf in nearly the same trajectory...just not as deep.
• Mistich struck out looking.
• Texas wins 5-0!

It really was a nicely played game by Texas. Jungmann struggled a bit in the 3rd and 5th but was "lights out" for the rest of the game. By my count, he threw 106 pitches (76 for strikes). He faced 33 batters. He hit 1 and walked 1. He struck out 9 and gave up 4 hits. Here's hoping Cole Green has the same kind of outing today!

Posted by Joanna at 7:45 AM | Permalink

Tuesday - April 26, 2011

Game 41: Texas State at Texas

I had to work tonight and missed most of the game. Luckily, the Horns won anyway! They beat Texas State 2-0. Not a lot of offense by either team, eh? The line:

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

The Horns scored one run in the 6th. With Erich Weiss at 1b and one out, Paul Montalbano tripled to right-center. Nice. A pop-out and strikeout ended the inning. They scored another run in the 8th:

• Tant Shepherd singled up the middle.
• Weiss reached on an infield bunt single down the 1b line. His ball went almost a third of the way down the line. The catcher hoped it would roll foul but it stayed fair. Cool.
• Montalbano advanced the batters to 2b and 3b on a sac bunt (1-3 or 1-4...not sure who was covering 1b since I wasn't keeping score).
• Cohl Walla, pinch-hitting in the dh spot, was intentionally walked to load the bases.
• Jonathan Walsh then hit a bloop single over the first baseman, scoring Shepherd. Yes!
• Double play ended the inning.

Sam Stafford started for the Horns and went a pre-determined 3 innings. He gave up 2 hits and struck out 3. Nathan Thornhill went 2.2, gave up 1 hit, and struck out 3. Kendal Carrillo threw 1.1. He hit the first batter he faced but got the next to ground out and then threw a perfect 7th. Hoby Milner pitched the 8th. He gave up a 2-out single but then caught the runner stealing to end the threat. Corey Knebel threw the 9th and struck out the side. Carrillo earned his 4th win of the year and Knebel earned his 13th save! Nice.

The Sooners come to town this weekend. The Saturday and Sunday games are on TV (FSN on Saturday, ESPNU on Sunday) for you out-of-towners. Or for you in-towners who can't make it to Disch-Falk. Hook 'em!

UPDATE. I forgot to comment on two things:

• Erich Weiss started at 2b today. In his post-game interview, Coach Garrido said they were just seeing how he'd fare at 2b in case he's needed there somewhere down the line. I didn't see much but was told he looked a little rusty/tentative out there.
• Texas State turned a 5-6-3 double play on a sac bunt attempt. You might think that meant the third baseman threw to the ss at 2b who relayed to 1b. Nope. Texas State did an unusual shift as the Texas batter (cannot remember who it was) squared to bunt. The shortstop ran over to 3b to cover while the third baseman charged hard at the bunted ball. He fielded, turned, and threw to the ss on 3b for the first out. The shortstop then threw across the diamond to clip the batter at 1b. Craig Way was blown away by the play.

Posted by Joanna at 11:39 PM | Permalink

Saturday - April 23, 2011

Game 40: Texas at Kansas

I watched the Kansas internet stream (via CBS-Sports) and this game report is based on that broadcast. The line (from GameTracker):

Sadly, the Horns lost 2-4. It didn't really feel like a "Saturday blahs" loss. But, the team did seem a bit flat. In his post-game interview, Coach Garrido said basically that it's hard to believe but the Horns played better than the Jayhawks...but the cruel game of baseball didn't care about that. Not sure I buy it. The Horns stranded 9 batters...5 of them in scoring position. And, the bullpen did not shut down the Kansas offense as they've been doing of late. The Horns did not play poorly but they didn't really play inspired baseball, either. It was a disappointing loss, but not a terrible one.

Anyway...the line-ups:

Texas		Kansas
Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (rf) Tant Shepherd (1b) Erich Weiss (3b) Paul Montalbano (cf) Kevin Lusson (c) Lucas Kephart (dh) Jonathan Walsh (lf) Jordan Etier (2b)		Brandon Macias(ss) Jason Brunansky (cf) Jimmy WAters (lf) Zac Elgie (1b) Jake Marasco (dh) Casey Lytle (rf) Alex DeLeon (c) Jordan Dreiling (3b) Kaiana Eldredge (2b)

And, here's how things played out...

• 1st inning, Texas
• Tanner Poppe (rhp) on the mound for Kansas.
• Loy popped out to 2b (in foul territory).
• Payton struck out swinging.
• Shepherd lined a single into lf.
• Weiss fought off several pitches but ended up striking out (swinging).
• 1st inning, Kansas
• Sam Stafford (lhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Macias homered (2-0 pitch) over the lf fence.
• Brunansky grounded out to ss.
• Waters grounded out to 2b.
• Elgie struck out looking.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Montalbano grounded out to ss.
• Lusson grounded out to 1b, unassisted.
• Kephart grounded out to the pitcher. Easy come-backer.
• Very efficient 7-pitch inning for Poppe.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 2nd inning, Kansas
• Marasco struck out swinging. The catcher dropped the ball so had to throw down to 1b to complete the out.
• Lytle grounded out to 1b, unassisted.
• DeLeon reached on a single off the second baseman's glove.
• Dreiling grounded out to 3b.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Walsh singled through the right side.
• Etier popped out to 1b (foul).
• Loy reached on an infield single to ss (deep in the hole).
• Payton flew out to lf.
• Shepherd grounded out to 3b.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 3rd inning, Kansas
• Eldredge fell behind 0-2 but then watched four balls to draw a walk.
• Macias reached on a 4-6 fielder's choice.
• Brunansky popped out to the catcher (bad bunt).
• Waters flew out to cf. Montalbano backed up to the wall in straightaway cf and then timed his jump just right to make the catch. Sweet.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Weiss homered over the cf fence!
• Montalbano lined a single into rf.
• Lusson moved Montalbano to 2b on a 3-unassisted sac bunt down the 1b line.
• Kephart was hit by a pitch (near his ankle, I think).
• Walsh struck out swinging.
• Etier lined out to 1b.
• Game tied 1-1.
• 4th inning, Kansas
• Elgie singled up the middle.
• Marasco was hit by a pitch (elbow), moving Elgie to 2b.
• Skip Johnson made a visit to the mound.
• Lytle advanced the runners on a 1-4 sac bunt down the 3b line.
• Texas sent Kendal Carrillo (rhp) to the mound, replacing Stafford.
• With DeLeon at the plate, Elgie scored on a wild pitch and Marasco moved up to 3b. Two pitches later, Marasco also scored on a wild pitch. Sigh...
• DeLeon went on to ground out to 2b.
• After two balls thrown to Dreiling, Johnson made another trip to the mound.
• Dreiling ended up walking on 4 pitches.
• With Eldredge at the plate, Dreiling stole 2b.
• Eldredge struck out swinging.
• Nice end to the inning but not the sort of relief appearance we're used to from Carrillo. Shucks.
• Texas down 1-3.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Loy drew a 5-pitch walk.
• Payton moved Loy to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt hit toward the mound.
• Shepherd popped out to 1b in foul territory.
• Mound visit after the first pitch (a ball) to Weiss.
• Weiss singled up the middle, scoring Loy.
• Montalbano drew a full-count walk.
• Lusson flew out to lf.
• Texas down 2-3.
• 5th inning, Kansas
• Texas sent Josh Urban (rhp) to the mound, replacing Carrillo.
• Macias flew out to lf.
• Brunansky drew a full-count walk.
• With Elgie at the plate, Brunansky stole 2b.
• Elgie popped out to 1b.
• Texas down 2-3.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Kephart flew out to cf.
• Walsh hit a ground-rule double that bounced over the fence down the rf line. Nice.
• Kansas sent Scott Heitshusen (rhp, side-arm thrower) to the mound, replacing Poppe.
• Walsh stole 3b on the 4th pitch to Etier.
• Etier struck out swinging (full count).
• Loy flew out to left-center at the warning track.
• Texas down 2-3.
• 6th inning, Kansas
• Marasco singled through the left side.
• Lytle drew a full-count walk, moving Marasco to 2b.
• Texas sent Hoby Milner (lhp) to the mound, replacing Urban.
• Surly the Saturday blahs won't strike today. Right???
• DeLeon hits a bloop single into shallow right-center to load the bases. The runners had to hold up to see if the ball would be caught.
• Brief offensive time-out between batter and 3b coach.
• Dreiling ground into a 1-4-6-3 double play. Marasco scored and Lytle moved up to 3b. The ball went off Milner's foot and toward the second baseman.
• Eldredge drew a full-count walk.
• Macias drew a full-count 8-pitch walk to load the bases.
• Brunansky flew out to lf. Whew.
• Texas down 2-4.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Wally Marciel (lhp) went to the mound, replacing Heitshusen.
• Payton grounded out to 2b.
• Shepherd popped out to 2b.
• Weiss grounded out to 1b, unassisted.
• Texas down 2-4.
• 7th inning, Kansas
• Waters grounded out to 2b.
• Elgie grounded out to 1b, unassisted.
• Marasco flew out to 2b in shallow rf.
• Nice 7-pitch inning for Milner.
• Texas down 2-4.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Montalbano drew a 5-pitch walk.
• After a couple of tosses to 1b with Alex Silver (pinch-hitting for Lusson) at the plate, Kansas made a visit to the mound. and, then made a pitching change. Colton Murray (rhp) went to the mound, replacing Marciel.
• Silver moved Montalbano on a 1-unassisted sac bunt down the 1b line.
• Kephart flew out to cf...almost to the warning track. Montalbano tagged and moved up to 3b on the play.
• Walsh popped out to 3b in foul territory about half way between home and 3b.
• Texas down 2-4.
• 8th inning, Kansas
• Texas sent Jacob Felts in at c.
• Lytle struck out swinging.
• DeLeon lined a single into lf. His 3rd hit of the day.
• Dreiling lined a single over the third baseman into lf, moving DeLeon to 2b.
• Kansas sent Tucker Tharp to 2b to pinch-run for DeLeon.
• Texas sent Nathan Thornhill (rhp) to the mound, replacing Milner.
• Eldredge struck out swinging.
• Macias flew out to lf.
• Texas down 2-4.
• 9th inning, Texas
• Etier flew out to lf (toward the gap) at the warning track. Damn.
• Loy drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Payton grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.
• Texas loses 2-4.

The Horns now come home to host Texas State on Tuesday and then Oklahoma over the weekend. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 4:13 PM | Permalink

Game 39: Texas at Kansas

I was at work and had the game on last night and saw what happened but did not watch closely. The Horns played really well...to beat Kansas 9-1. The line:

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Texas	3	1	0	1	0	1	0	1	2	9	15	0
Kansas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	8	1

It was really nice to see the Horns jump ahead and then keep attacking throughout the game. Tant Shepherd went 4-for-5 with 3 doubles, 3 runs scored, and a run batted in. Nice. Erich Weiss went 3-for-3 with a double, 1 run scored, and 3 batted in. Jordan Etier also got 3 hits (going 3-for-5) with 2 runs batted in. Cole Green started and threw 7 shut-out innings. He scattered 6 hits, walked 2, and struck out 4. Hoby Milner threw a perfect 8th with 1 strikeout. Corey Knebel (in a non-save situation) threw the 9th and did give up an earned run on a couple of hits before finishing the game. A link to the recap from the TexasSports.com page: No. 7 doubles down on Kansas.

Posted by Joanna at 3:10 PM | Permalink

Friday - April 22, 2011

Game 38: Texas at Kansas

Texas beat Kansas 9-0 last night. I was not able to watch the whole game but tuned in to the Kansas CBS-Sports stream during the exciting 6th inning...exciting for Texas, that is. The score was 2-0 with the bases loaded when we tuned in. Jacob Felts drew a walk to score the third run of the day. Brandon Loy then singled to left center, scoring two more. Felts held up to see if the ball would be caught or it would've been a double. Mark Payton then reached on a hard bunt single between the pitcher's mound and 1b. The first baseman (I think) tried to catch Felts off the 3b bag but threw wildly, allowing Felts to score and putting the runners at 2b and 3b. That was the 2nd error of the inning...I'd missed the first one. Tant Shepherd then hit a sac fly to rf, scoring Loy. Weiss (who'd started things off with a single, according to the announcers) then flew out to end the top half of the 6th. Texas was up 7-0 by the time all the dust had settled.

The Horns scored 2 more in the 9th. With one out, Cohl Walla (pinch-hitting) was hit by a pitch. Tim Maitland went in to pinch-run for him. A ground out to 3b, moved Maitland to 2b and a single by Paul Montalbano scored him. Jordan Etier then tripled to the rf/cf gap, scoring Montalbano. Sweet.

The offensive stars of the game were Loy (who went 4-for-5 with a run scored and 2 batted in) and Etier (who went 3-for-5 with a run scored and 2 batted in). The team combined for 12 hits on the day with 4 walks and 5 strikeouts.

Taylor Jungmann started and went 8 innings to earn his 9th win of the year. Going into the 8th, he'd allowed only 1 hit while striking out 8 and walking 1. The first batter grounded out and as soon as the announcers commented on the 8 strikeouts versus 1 walk, Jungmann walked his second batter of the day. And, then his third. A pop-out and another strikeout (giving him 9 on the day) got the Horns out of trouble. Nathan Thornhill pitched the 9th. The Jayhawks went: ground out, double, fly out, ground out to end the game.

Here's a link to the TexasSports.com report: No. 7 Baseball blanks Kansas, 9-0. There are a couple of nice quotes at the end. check it out.

All-in-all, a really nice game for the Horns. Here's hoping this evening's game goes equally well. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 8:24 AM | Permalink

Wednesday - April 20, 2011

Game 37: UT-Pan American at Texas

The Horns came from behind for the second game in-a-row to beat the UT-Pan American Broncs 4-2. The line:

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

The line-ups:

UT-Pan American		Texas
Andy Forduna (lf) Roger Bernal (ss) Angel Ibanez (1b) Vincent Mejia (3b) Mike McCarthy (c) Stuart MacInnes (rf) Iradier Hernandez (2b) Colton Van Komen (dh) Adrian De La Rosa (cf)		Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (rf) Tant Shepherd (1b) Erich Weiss (lf) Jonathan Walsh (dh) Jordan Etier (2b) Alex Silver (3b) Jacob Felts (c) Paul Montalbano (cf)

Austin Dicharry saw his first action on the mound since April of last year. It was great to see him out there but things did not go as well as the Horns would've hoped. But, he did have a couple of flashes. And, despite allowing 4 aboard in the 1st, only one run scored. After giving up a lead-off triple (hit to the deepest part of the field in the cf/rf gap) and a walk in the second, the Horns pulled Dicharry. The Broncs only got 4 more aboard the rest of the way...and, obviously, none of them scored. The final numbers for the pitchers (by my counts):

• Austin Dicharry: 1+ inning, 8 batters, 2 runs (both earned), 4 hits (1 triple, 1 double, 2 singles), 1 strikeout, 2 walks, 1 balk (rusty and nervous?), 31 pitches (16 for strikes).
• Nathan Thornhill: 2 innings, 8 batters, 1 hit (a double), 1 strikeout, 22 pitches (18 for strikes).
• Josh Urban: 4 innings, 13 batters, 1 hit (a single), 6 strikeouts, 1 walk, 50 pitches (32 for strikes).
• Kendal Carrillo (win, now 3-0): 1 inning, 3 batters, 9 pitches (5 for strikes).
• Corey Knebel (12th save): 1 inning, 3 batters, 2 strikeouts, 12 pitches (10 for strikes).

Nice.

And, here's how Texas scored their runs...

• 3rd inning
• With 2 out, Montalbano drew a full-count walk.
• Loy doubled over the left fielder's head to the warning track, scoring Montalbano.
• Payton grounded out. The pitcher just got his glove on the ball that was headed up the middle and deflected it toward where the shortstop had been. The shortstop made a nice adjustment to get back to the ball and threw Payton out at 1b.
• Horns down 1-2.
• 6th inning
• With 1 out, Payton (who went 3-for-4 on the night) lined a double into rf. Really it was a single but he stretched it into a double...just barely. The throw from rf beat him to 2b but was a couple of feet toward cf and Payton just beat the tag. Whew. The Broncs argued the call to no avail.
• A balk with Shepherd at the plate moved Payton to 3b.
• Shepherd lined out to 3b. Payton was only a few feet off the bag and got back to 3b before the third baseman could get there. Whew.
• Weiss doubled down the lf line, scoring Payton.
• Walsh lined out to lf.
• Game tied 2-2.
• 8th inning
• Montalbano drew his 2nd full-count walk of the night.
• Loy moved Montalbano to 2b on a 5-4 sac bunt.
• Payton hit a ground-rule double over the rf fence...near the 375 sign, scoring Montalbano. That's only the 2nd ground-rule double I've seen hit over the outfield fence since Texas installed the new field turf.
• Shepherd flew out to cf. Payton tagged and moved up to 3b.
• Weiss was intentionally walked. Interesting.
• Cohl Walla (pinch-hitting for Walsh) singled through the left side, scoring Payton and moving Weiss to 2b.
• The Horns sent Dex Kjerstad in to pinch-run for Walla who's still hobbling a bit.
• The Broncs sent Leo Chang (submariner rhp) to the mound.
• Etier was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
• Silver hit into a 4-6 fielder's choice to end the inning.

A couple of interesting notes: Montalbano reached twice on walks and scored both times; Payton scored the other two Texas runs after reaching on doubles in his final two at-bats.

The Horns now travel to Kansas for Thursday-Friday-Saturday games. Their next home game is scheduled for April 26th against Texas State. Hook 'em, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 8:15 AM | Permalink

Monday - April 18, 2011

Tuesday starter

From the Texas Baseball Twitter stream: Austin Dicharry will make the start on Tuesday for the Longhorns. It will be his first appearance since April 7, 2010.

Great news. Hook 'em, Austin!

Posted by Joanna at 6:29 PM | Permalink

Sunday - April 17, 2011

Game 36: Texas Tech at Texas

The Horns pulled off a come-from-behind victory over Texas Tech this afternoon and won 3-1 to take the series. The line:

The line-ups:

Texas Tech		Texas
Jamodrick McGruder (2b) Bo Altobelli (c) Barrett Barnes (cf) Stephen Hagen (1b) Kelby Tomlinson (ss) Nick Popescu (dh) David Paiz (rf) Nick Hanslik (lf) Reid Redman (3b)		Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (rf) Tant Shepherd (1b) Erich Weiss (lf) Jonathan Walsh (rf) Kevin Lusson (c) Paul Montalbano (cf) Jordan Etier (2b) Alex Silver (3b)

In his post-game comments after yesterday's game, Coach Garrido said he was disappointed in the team for failing to play as a unit. Today, everyone came out almost sporting high socks. Trying to be more of a team unit? I rather enjoyed the high socks (I prefer the high-sock look) but I said "almost" because, for the most part, they weren't really high socks. More like half- or three-quarter-high socks. Here they are congratulating each other after the win:

See the socks? The coaches were also in on the fashion statement:

Heh. Anyway...

Sam Stafford started today and threw a pretty good game. After getting a quick strikeout to start the game, the Horns started off by misplaying two pop-ups. It was ugly. Mostly because it was windy. Very windy. In fact I rather expected to see some homeruns flying over the lf fence today. That did not happen, but the wind did wreck havoc on high pop-ups early in the game. Well, for the Hapless Horns at any rate. The second batter of the day hit a high pop-up about half-way down the 1b line and half-way between the mound and the line. But, it kept blowing toward lf and ended up falling on the 3b side of the mound. Stafford quickly got out of the way when the ball flew off the bat while Etier and Shepherd went after the ball. They ended up running into each other and the ball fell harmlessly to the ground. The batter ended up standing on 2b. E4. Sigh. The third batter of the day hit another pop-up...this time behind 2b. It kept going and going and going, though, and ended up dropping harmlessly between the center fielder, the shortstop, and the second baseman. Luckily the runner from 2b had to wait to see if the ball would be caught so he was unable to advance past 3b. The batter made it to 2b. So...two in scoring position with only one out. The next batter struck out looking and the final batter grounded out to 3b. Nice play at both ends of that play with Silver making a nice stop behind the 3b bag and Shepherd making a nice stretch to catch the ball before the batter crossed the 1b bag. Whew.

Tech scored their lone run in the 4th when Popescu reached on a 2-out full count walk. Paiz lined a single into rf, moving Popescu to 2b. Then, Hanslik hit another one of those little bloop singles the Red Raiders kept hitting yesterday just beyond the reach of Loy at ss. With 2 out, Popescu had taken off with the crack of the bat and scored easily despite the ball barely getting out of the infield. Sigh...

Thankfully, the Red Raiders were not able to score again...although they did threaten in the 5th and 6th. Final numbers (by my count) for the Texas pitchers:

• Sam Stafford: 5 innings (plus one batter), 23 batters, 1 run (earned), 5 hits (1 double, 4 singles), 4 strikeouts, 2 walks, 2 hit batters, 86 pitches (54 for strikes).
• Nathan Thornhill: 1 inning, 4 batters, 0 hits, 2 strikeouts, 1 walk, 24 pitches (14 for strikes).
• Hoby Milner: 2 innings (both went 1-2-3), 6 batters, 16 pitches (8 for strikes), win (taking his record to 4-2).
• Corey Knebel: 1 inning, 4 batters, 1 hit (2-out single after the batter fought off 4 pitches with an 0-2 count), 2 strikeouts, 24 pitches (18 for strikes), save (bringing his total to 11 saves on the year).

The Horns actually got runners in scoring position in the 1st and 4th but could not push any runs across in either instance. They really struggled against the Tech starter (Brennan Stewart) who threw his best game of the year. He went 7.1 innings and gave up 4 hits while striking out 5 and walking 2. He left the game in the 8th with a runner at 2b and 1 out. The 8th went like so for the Horns:

• Montalbano singled through the left side.
• Etier moved Montalbano to 2b on a 1-4 sac bunt.
• Texas sent Lucas Kephart (lefty) to pinch-hit for Silver.
• Tech sent Ben Flora (LHP) to the mound.
• Kephart managed to work the count full and then draw a walk, putting runners at 1b and 2b.
• Tech sent Jerad McCurmmen (RHP) to the mound. Texas sent Tim Maitland in to pinch-run for Kephart.
• Loy lined a single into rf, scoring Montalbano and moving Maitland to 2b. The second baseman did not make a clean catch of the throw in from rf and was unable to relay the ball to home to try and catch Montalbano.
• Payton grounded out to ss, advancing Maitland to 3b and Loy to 2b.
• Shepherd tripled down the lf line, scoring Maitland and Loy!!!
• Tech sent Zack Fowler (LHP) to the mound.
• Weiss was hit by a pitch.
• With Walsh at the plate, Weiss broke for 2b, trying to draw a throw so Shepherd could score. Tech threw behind Weiss and then went after Shepherd who was eventually tagged out to end the inning.

The damage had been done, though, and Texas won the game and the series. The Horns remain tied with the Aggies for first place in conference standings.

Up next? UT-Pan American comes to town on Tuesday and the Horns travel to Kansas for their weekend series. Kansas took 2-of-3 from Missouri this weekend (at Mizzou) and have a record of 18-18 (8-7, Big 12). Hook 'em, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 7:35 PM | Permalink

Game 35: Texas Tech at Texas

Here's the line from yesterday's game:

So, yeah...that happened. It was not pretty. It seemed like just about every ball Tech batters connected with managed to bloop over an infielder and fall in front of an outfielder. Every ball Texas hit, by contrast, seemed to be a pop-up or be hit directly to a Tech fielder. It was agonizing. Texas didn't actually get a hit until the 5th inning, when Mark Payton and Jonathan Walsh led things off with back-to-back singles. Alas, Alex Silver popped out to 2b and Jordan Etier (on a 10-pitch at-bat) grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Erich Weiss finally got the 3rd (and final) hit of the game for Texas when he led the 9th off with a single lined over the shortstop into lf. After yet another ball lined to an outfielder, the Horns loaded the bases on back-to-back walks. Weiss then scored on a ground out to ss. Another walk re-loaded the bases but the game ended on yet another ground out to ss by Brandon Loy...who started the game by grounding out to ss. Despite his struggles at the plate, Loy put on a fielding clinic and made some amazing plays at shortstop. Too bad it was in a losing effort.

I just kept thinking the tide would turn. The Horns only struck out twice yesterday. They kept hitting the ball. But, like I said, right at people. Agony.

Cole Green started and was saddled with his 3rd loss of the year, despite giving up only 2 runs. Those runs came in the 2nd as the Horns gave up 4 singles: the first one was a ground ball up the middle; the second went right at the ss...but it was a hit and run and Loy had moved to 2b to cover a possible throw from the catcher so he was no longer in that spot so did not field the ball (and the throw in from lf was off-line, allowing the batter to end up at 2b); the third was a bloop single over the shortstop...just barely out of Loy's reach; and the fourth was a bunt single pushed between the mound and 1b between the pitcher, the first baseman, and the second baseman. It was the Saturday Blahs all over again. Poor Cole Green. He did not throw a bad game. He struck out 5 but did give up 7 hits. Kendal Carrillo, Hoby Milner, and Corey Knebel were nearly perfect in relief...allowing only one baserunner (a walk given up by Milner)...as they closed out the final four innings of the game.

Sigh...

Here's hoping the Horns win the series today. I imagine they will. I sure don't want a repeat of the OSU series. Hook 'em, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 9:27 AM | Permalink

Saturday - April 16, 2011

Game 34: Texas Tech at Texas

Texas Tech is in town this weekend. And, Texas won the first game of the series 4-1. Taylor Jungmann earned his 8th win of the year. He did not seem to dominate as much as he has done in the past but he did get the job done. Kendal Carrillo did a lovely job in relief in the 8th and Corey Knebel went in for the 9th to earn his 10th save of the year. Nice. The line:

The starting line-ups:

Texas Tech		Texas
Jamodrick McGruder (2b) Bo Altobelli (dh) Barrett Barnes (cf) Nick Popescu (lf) Stephen Hagen (1b) Kevin Whitehead (c) Kelby Tomlinson (ss) Andre Wheeler (rf) Reid Redman (3b)		Brandon Loy (ss) Paul Montalbano (cf) Tant Shepherd (1b) Erich Weiss (lf) Lucas Kephart (dh) Jordan Etier (2b) Alex Silver (3b) Jonathan Walsh (rf) Jacob Felts (c)

Like I said, Jungmann didn't have his best stuff but the defense rallied behind him and the offense did what needed to be done to win the game...and they did it early which is always appreciated by this Longhorn fan! Final pitching numbers (by my counts...as usual):

• Jungmann: 7 innings, 29 batters, 1 run (earned), 8 hits (1 double, 7 singles), 8 strikeouts, 1 walk, 1 hit batter, 2 wild pitches, 106 pitches (64 for strikes).
• Carrillo: 1 inning, 2 batters (yes!), 1 strikeout, 11 pitches (7 for strikes). Carrillo entered the game with a runner at 1b. He left when the runner was gunned down by Felts attempting to steal 2b for the 3rd out of the inning.
• Knebel: 1 inning, 4 batters (1 reached on an error), 23 pitches thrown (14 for strikes).

And, here's how the Horns scored their runs...

• 2nd inning
• Weiss drew a 5-pitch walk.
• Kephart struck out swinging. Alas, it was an ugly K...yikes!
• Etier popped out to 2b.
• Silver singled past the ss up the middle, moving Weiss (hit and run!) up to 3b.
• Walsh was hit by a 2-2 pitch to load the bases.
• Felts drew a 4-pitch walk, scoring Weiss.
• Loy lined a single into lf, scoring Silver and Walsh. Felts advanced to 2b.
• Montalbano flew out to cf.
• 8th inning
• Shepherd tripled to the rf/cf gap!
• With the infield pulled in, Weiss hit a bloop single over the second baseman into shallow rf, scoring Shepherd.
• Texas sent Tim Maitland in to pinch-run for Weiss.
• Kephart moved Maitland to 2b on a 3-4 sac bunt.
• Maitland advanced to 3b on a balk call.
• Alas, Etier struck out and Silver popped out to 1b to end the rally.

Texas also threatened in the 4th when Walsh hit a beauty of a triple to the rf/cf gap with 1 out. The Horns tried a squeeze bunt to score him but Walsh was caught in a run-down. The ball was bunted a bit too sharply down the 1b line and right at the first baseman.

Nice game. Hope the Horns put the series away this afternoon!

Posted by Joanna at 7:57 AM | Permalink

Tuesday - April 12, 2011

Game 33: Dallas Baptist at Texas

'Got a late start on my game report tonight. I got home from the game and found "Dial M for Murder" on TCM so had to watch it even though I've seen it at least 10 times and have it on DVD. Sigh...

Then, I got further side-tracked reminiscing about my grandmother. We were talking on the phone a couple of weeks ago and I'd told her about whatever Texas game I'd watched earlier that day and, for some reason, I remembered when she'd played softball with her "Senior" group. She didn't remember having played and I assured her she had. She laughed at the idea. But, she ended up deciding it must've been true...that I wouldn't lie about such a thing. Although, I kinda think that deep-down she still didn't quite believe that she would do such a thing. Heh. And, when I got to my computer tonight, I found that my mom had posted a photo of my grandmother taking a big whiff:

On the back my grandmother had written: "I lost it. Ha!"

That really makes me smile. I'm guessing they played these games when I was in college...maybe? I dunno. But, likely about 30 years ago or so. She was 94 when she passed away last week. What an amazing lady.

Anyway. On to the business at hand...

Texas beat Dallas Baptist 3-1 tonight in a game that lasted just a little over two hours. The line:

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

That one run they gave up was unearned. More on that in a bit.

The starting line-ups:

Dallas Baptist		Texas
Landon Anderson (cf) Tyler Robbins (2b) Jason Krizan (rf) Ryan Behmanesh (1b) Joel Hutter (ss) Kenny Hatcher (3b) Chris Haney (dh) K.J. Alexander (c) Josh Wilson (lf)		Brandon Loy (ss) Paul Montalbano (cf) Tant Shepherd (1b) Erich Weiss (lf) Lucas Kephart (dh) Jordan Etier (2b) Alex Silver (3b) Kevin Lusson (c) Jonathan Walsh (rf)

The news of the evening was that there will be some changes to the weekend rotation for the Texas Tech series. Cole Green is moving back to the Saturday slot and Sam Stafford is scheduled to make the Sunday start this weekend. I wonder if that news had anything to do with Sam's not-so-great start this evening? Was he suffering from a bit of nerves...and maybe pushing just a little? Or was it the error right off the bat? Hmmm. Regardless, I hope the change goes well this weekend.

About that error...how 'bout I just get on with a full-on play-by-play? Okay. Here you go...

• 1st inning, Dallas Baptist
• Sam Stafford (LHP) on the mound for Texas.
• Anderson reached on an error by the pitcher and advanced to 2b. He hit a high-chopping come-backer to the mound. Stafford jumped up and knocked the ball down which rolled toward the back of the mound. He got after it and then threw off-line (toward home plate) to Shepherd covering the 1b bag. The ball and the runner arrived at the same time. The runner ran into Shepherd's arm as he was reaching for the ball and he was unable to catch it. It rolled down the line into foul territory and Anderson made it to 2b on the error. Not sure if Stafford would've made the out on a better throw. The timing was really close. But there you go...man on 2b, nobody out.
• Robbins flew out to rf. Anderson tagged up and advanced to 3b.
• Krizan doubled down the rf line and into the corner, scoring Robbins (unearned).
• Behmanesh struck out looking.
• Hutter lined out to lf.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 1st inning, Texas
• Jared Stafford (RHP) on the mound for DBU. Yep, both starting pitchers were named Stafford. I wonder how often that sort of thing happens? I don't know that I've ever seen it. But, then...I do tend to forget things.
• Loy grounded out to ss.
• Montalbano continued his hot-hitting ways and doubled into lf.
• Shepherd popped out to 2b.
• Weiss singled through the right side, scoring Montalbano.
• Kephart drew a 5-pitch walk, moving Weiss to 2b.
• Etier flew out to lf.
• Game tied 1-1.
• 2nd inning, Dallas Baptist
• Hatcher singled to rf. Walsh charged the softly hit fly ball and dove but could not quite get to the ball.
• Haney ground into a 3-6-3 double play. Sweet!
• Alexander drew a 5-pitch walk. Not so sweet.
• With Wilson at the plate, Alexander advanced to 2b on a wild pitch. The ball sailed over the catcher to the backstop. Oops.
• Insert visit to mound by Skip Johnson.
• Wilson eventually drew an 8-pitch walk.
• Anderson struck out swinging.
• Game tied 1-1.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Silver lined a single into lf.
• Lusson, sadly, grounded into the second 3-6-3 double play in as many innings. Weird.
• Walsh hit a beauty of a double to the lf/cf gap.
• Alas, he was stranded at 2b when Loy lined out to ss. The shortstop made a really nice diving catch to rob Loy of a hit and RBI. Sad.
• Game tied 1-1.
• 3rd inning, Dallas Baptist
• Robbins grounded out to ss.
• Krizan lined out to 3b. I don't think Silver had to do anything more than raise his glove hand up a few inches to make the play. The ball was hit directly to him.
• Behmanesh drew a full-count walk.
• Hutter drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Texas sent Nathan Thornhill (RHP) to the mound, replacing Stafford. Stafford's final numbers: 2.2 innings, 14 batters, 1 run (unearned), 2 hits (1 double), 2 strikeouts, 4 walks, 61 pitches (32 for strikes).
• Hatcher lined out to cf.
• Game tied 1-1.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Montalbano popped out to 1b right on the foul line.
• Shepherd grounded out to ss
• Weiss flew out to cf.
• Game tied 1-1.
• 4th inning, Dallas Baptist
• Haney flew out to lf.
• Alexander flew out to rf.
• Wilson lined a single just over Shepherd into rf.
• Anderson grounded out to 2b.
• Game tied 1-1.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Kephart was hit by a pitch (on his shin, I think).
• Etier moved Kephart to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• Silver grounded out to 2b, moving Kephart to 3b.
• Lusson doubled down the rf line, scoring Kephart!
• Walsh struck out looking (full count).
• Texas up 2-1.
• 5th inning, Dallas Baptist
• Robbins flew out to rf.
• Krizan struck out swinging (full count, 9 pitches).
• Behmanesh also struck out swinging.
• Texas up 2-1.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Loy drew a 5-pitch walk.
• Montalbano could not get the bunt down but then singled through the right side, moving Loy to 3b.
• Shepherd grounded into a 5-4-3 double play. Loy scored on the play. The second baseman thought about trying to get the out at home but then changed his mind and threw to 1b.
• Weiss popped out to 3b.
• Texas up 3-1.
• 6th inning, Dallas Baptist
• Texas sent Josh Urban (RHP) to the mound, replacing Thornhill. Thornhill's final numbers: 2.1 innings, 8 batters, 0 runs, 1 hit, 2 strikeouts, 41 pitches thrown (27 for strikes).
• Hutter flew out to cf.
• Hatcher struck out looking.
• Haney also struck out looking. Sweet.
• Texas up 3-1.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Dallas Baptist sent Brandon Williamson (RHP) to the mound, replacing Stafford.
• Kephart grounded out to the pitcher.
• Etier doubled to cf. I think Etier was destined for a single but he ran really hard and big turn at 1b. I think the center fielder spotted Etier and thought he could gun him down at 2b but bobbled the ball a bit and then had no chance at a play. Really nice hustle by Etier.
• Silver grounded out to ss, moving Etier to 3b. It was another nice play by the ss who dove and threw to 1b to get the out and rob Texas of another run. That's two on the day for Hutter.
• Lusson drew a full-count 8-pitch walk.
• Walsh flew out to lf. Nice play by the left fielder who had to run a long way into the gap to snag the ball.
• Texas up 3-1.
• 7th inning, Dallas Baptist
• [Yawn! I'm sleepy. But, I'm headed down the home stretch. The last couple of innings went quickly. Whew.]
• Alexander struck out looking.
• Wilson grounded out to 2b.
• Anderson flew out to rf.
• Texas up 3-1.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Loy struck out swinging.
• Montalbano flew out to rf.
• Shepherd grounded out to 3b.
• Texas up 3-1.
• 8th inning, Dallas Baptist
• Robbins grounded out to 3b. Silver had a bit of trouble fielding the ball but he stayed with it and gunned his throw to 1b to make the out.
• Krizan gounded out to 2b.
• Behmanesh struck out swinging.
• Texas up 3-1.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Shortest half inning of the game.
• Weiss grounded out to 1b (p covered the bag). Second pitch.
• Kephart popped out to 2b in very shallow rf. First pitch.
• Etier flew out to cf. 1st pitch.
• See? I told you. Four (!!!) pitches. You could've blinked and missed the bottom of the 8th.
• Texas up 3-1.
• 9th inning, Dallas Baptist
• Texas sent Corey Knebel (RHP) to the mound, replacing Urban who had a very good night. Urban's final numbers: 3 innings (3-up/3-down in each one), 9 batters, 4 strikeouts, 39 pitches (25 for strikes). Sweet.
• The Horns also sent Tim Maitland in defensively in lf, replacing Weiss.
• Hutter grounded out to 3b. First pitch.
• Hatcher singled up the middle. First pitch.
• Haney popped out to ss. Second pitch.
• Duncan McAlpine (pinch-hitting for Alexander) struck out swinging. Third pitch.
• Knebel's final numbers: 1 inning, 4 batters, 1 hit, 1 strikeout, 7 pitches (6 for strikes).
• Texas wins 3-1.

Thornhill earned his first career win as a Longhorn (yay!) and Knebel earned his 9th save of the year.

Texas Tech now comes to town this weekend. Hook 'em, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 11:49 PM | Permalink

Monday - April 11, 2011

Game 32: Baylor at Texas

The Horns won the rubber match of the Baylor series 5-2. The line:

I loved seeing the Horns fight back to a tie and then have that good 7th inning to win the game. I have to admit that I was worried for a bit there in the middle innings. But, the Horns kept plugging away and finally got things lined up just right to pull off another Big 12 series win. Love it.

The starting line-ups:

Texas		Baylor
Brooks Pinckard (cf) Max Muncy (1b) Cal Towey (rf) Josh Ludy (dh) Dan Evatt (lf) Joey Hainsfurther (c) Lawton Langford (3b) Steve DalPorto (2b) Landis Ware (ss)		Brandon Loy (ss) Paul Montalbano (cf) Erich Weiss (lf) Lucas Kephart (dh) Tant Shepherd (1b) Jordan Etier (2b) Jonathan Walsh (rf) Alex Silver (3b) Jacob Felts (c)

Of note: Alex Silver made his first start at Disch-Falk Field. He went 1-for-4 and drove in the game-tying run. He also made a couple of nice plays at 3b.

Cole Green got the nod today and, despite a few struggles (3 hit batters, anyone?), he stayed in the game through 6 (plus 1 batter). Sadly, the game was tied at 2-2 when he left and he got no decision. He had a really strong start, striking out the side in the first. Purty. He hit the first batter in the second, struck out the next one and then walked the third. A single to lf loaded the bases. Another strikeout and we thought it would all be okay. But, alas, a soft liner into cf (0-2 count) plated two Baylor runs (thankfully, the only two runs they'd get across). Baylor got another runner to 3b (with two out) in the 5th and then went down in order (with two Ks) in the 6th. Green seemed to be going strong. Alas, when he hit the first batter of the 7th, Texas decided his day was over. His final numbers (by my count, as usual): 6+ innings, 23 batters, 2 runs (both earned), 2 hits (those two singles in the 2nd), 9 strikeouts, 3 walks, 3 hit batters, 107 pitches (61 for strikes). Kendal Carrillo replaced Green. He faced two batters (1-3 sac bunt and 5-3 ground out) and was lifted for Sam Stafford. Carrillo's final numbers: 0.2 innings, 2 batters, no runs, 7 pitches (5 for strikes). Stafford struck out (looking) the lone batter he faced in the 7th. He walked the first batter of the 8th on 4 pitches and was replaced by Corey Knebel. Texas had taken the lead in the bottom of the 7th so Stafford got credit for the win, moving his record to 5-0. His final numbers: 0.1 innings, 2 batters, 1 strikeout, 1 walk, 11 pitches (5 for strikes). Corey Knebel went in and got 6 straight outs to earn his 8th save of the year. Knebel's final numbers: 2 innings, 6 batters, no runs, 2 strikeouts, 22 pitches (13 for strikes).

The Horns threatened in the bottom of the 2nd when Shepherd and Etier reached on back-to-back 1-out singles. Alas, a pop-out and fly-out left them stranded. Here's how they scored their runs:

• 5th inning
• Silver grounded out to the pitcher.
• Felts reached on an infield single off the second baseman.
• Loy reached on a bunt single down the lf line, moving Felts to 2b.
• Montalbano struck out looking.
• Weiss lined a single into cf, scoring Felts and moving Loy to 2b.
• Kephart grounded out to ss.
• Horns down 1-2.
• 6th inning
• Shepherd reached on a full-count walk.
• Etier advanced him to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• Walsh singled through the left side, scoring Shepherd and moving Walsh to 2b.
• Felts flew out to cf.
• Loy flew out to lf at the warning track. I thought that one was gone.
• Game tied 2-2.
• 7th inning
Montalbano singled through the left side.
• Weiss was hit by a pitch, moving Montalbano to 2b.
• Kephart moved the runners to 2b and 3b on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• Shepherd hit a double into lf, scoring Montalbano and Weiss.
• Etier singled to lf, moving Shepherd to 3b.
• Walsh advanced the batters on a 1-3 squeeze bunt (Shepherd scored).
• Silver grounded out to 2b.
• Texas win 5-2.

All-in-all, a nice game for the Horns who now host Dallas Baptist on Tuesday. The Patriots come to town with a very decent 21-11 record. Then the Red Raiders (who lost their series at home against the Aggies this weekend) come to town for the weekend.

Posted by Joanna at 7:38 AM | Permalink

Sunday - April 10, 2011

Game 31: Texas at Baylor

Like the Friday game, I watched Baylor's web stream of the game (via CBS-Sports). I have to say I really missed Craig Way. One of the Baylor radio guys was very shrill. Sigh...

It was a close game until the 7th when the bullpen fell apart and the Horns fell behind by 5. They rallied in a big way in the 9th but came up just short, losing 6-7. The line:

The starting line-ups:

Texas		Baylor
Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (rf) Erich Weiss (lf) Lucas Kephart (dh) Tant Shepherd (1b) Jordan Etier (2b) Alex Silver (3b) Paul Montalbano (cf) Jacob Felts (c)		Joey Hainsfurther (dh) Brooks Pinckard (cf) Max Muncy (1b) Josh Ludy (c) Dan Evatt (lf) Cal Towey (rf) Landis Ware (ss) Jake Miller (3b) Steve DalPorto (2b)

Yes...Alex Silver made his first start as a Longhorn. Cool.

And, the play by play:

• 1st inning, Texas
• Josh Turley (lhp) on the mound for Baylor.
• Loy lined a double down the lf line.
• Payton drew a full-count walk.
• Weiss reached on a 6-4 fielder's choice. The relay throw on the double-play attempt pulled the first baseman off the bag or Baylor likely would've turned the dp.
• Kephart popped a bunt attempt to the pitcher who had an easy throw to 1b to catch Weiss off the bag to turn an easy double-play. Damn.
• 17 pitches (8 for strikes).
• 1st inning, Baylor
• Hoby Milner (lhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Hainsfurther flew out to shallow rf. Nice run and catch by Payton.
• Pinckard flew out to lf (in the gap).
• Muncy struck out looking (full count).
• 14 pitches (8 for strikes).
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Shepherd singled past the second baseman into cf.
• Etier moved Shepherd to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• Silver, making his first start of the year, lined a single into cf, moving Shepherd to 3b.
• Montalbano hit a squeeze bunt between the mound and 1b, scoring Shepherd and moving Silver to 2b. 3-1 on the out.
• Felts flew out to rf.
• 8 pitches (6 for strikes).
• Texas up 1-0.
• 2nd inning, Baylor
• Ludy flew out to rf.
• Evatt drew a full-count walk.
• Towey struck out swinging. The ball got away from Felts and Evatt moved up to 2b. WP?
• Ware singled to shallow cf, scoring Evatt. Montalbano made a hard run in but was unable to catch up with the ball.
• After the first pitch to Miller (a ball), Skip Johnson made a quick trip to the mound.
• Miller flew out to rf.
• 20 pitches (11 for strikes).
• Game tied 1-1.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Loy grounded out to the pitcher.
• Payton lined a single over the second baseman into rf.
• Weiss doubled over the right fielder's head. Payton had to wait to see if the ball would be caught and was only able to advance to 3b. Payton must have stumbled at 3b or something and came up limping. After a short visit with the trainer, he stayed in the game.
• Kephart struck out swinging (full count). Ouch.
• Shepherd also struck out swinging (2-2 count). Double ouch.
• 24 pitches (14 for strikes).
• Game tied 1-1.
• 3rd inning, Baylor
• DalPorto flew out to cf.
• Hainsfurther popped out to 2b in shallow rf. He fell down making the catch instead of letting Payton, who seemed to have better position, make the catch. Maybe worrying about Payton not being able to get to it after hurting his leg earlier? Hmmm...
• Pinckard flew out to rf.
• 13 pitches (7 for strikes).
• Game tied 1-1.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Etier popped out to ss in shallow lf.
• Silver flew out to cf.
• Montalbano grounded out to 2b.
• 12 pitches (7 for strikes).
• Game tied 1-1.
• 4th inning, Baylor
• Muncy strikes out for the 2nd time (swinging this time).
• Ludy singled to left center. Montalbano did a nice job to cut the ball off in the gap and limit Ludy to a single.
• Evatt homered over the lf fence. Sigh...
• Towey falls behind 0-2 and then draws a full-count walk.
• Ware grounded out to 3b, moving Towey to 2b. Close play at 1b...looked like the batter was probably safe.
• The first bitch to Miller bounced away from Felts, allowing Towey to advance to 3b on the wild pitch. Prompting another visit to the mound by Skip Johnson.
• Miller ended up drawing a 5-pitch walk.
• DalPorto grounded out to ss. Really nice play and throw by Loy at ss.
• 22 pitches (12 for strikes).
• Horns down 1-3.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Felts grounded out to 3b.
• Loy doubled past 3b and down the lf line.
• Payton advanced Loy to 3b on a 1-3 sac bunt hit down the 3b line. Umm. Never mind. Ruled that he was going for a bunt single, no sac.
• Weiss reached on an infield single to ss, scoring Loy!
• With Kephart at the plate, Weiss stole 2b. The Bears had him picked off (1-3-6) but the ss missed the throw from 1b and Weiss was safe. It could've easily been ruled an error.
• Kephart struck out looking. Whew.
• 20 pitches (12 for strikes).
• Texas down 2-3.
• 5th inning, Baylor
• Hainsfurther grounded out to ss.
• Pinckard tripled to the rf/cf gap.
• Muncy reached on a 3-2 fielder's choice on a high-bouncer. Pinckard tried to slide in at home but was tagged out easily.
• Texas sent Kendal Carrillo (rhp) to the mound, replacing Milner.
• I lost the streaming video at this point. Grrrr...
• Ludy struck out swinging.
• Milner's final numbers: 4.2 innings, 21 batters, 3 runs (all earned), 4 hits (including a triple and a homerun), 2 strikeouts, 3 walks, 2 wild pitches, 72 pitches (41 for strikes).
• 4 pitches (3 for strikes) for Carrillo.
• Texas down 2-3.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Shepherd flew out to lf.
• Etier grounded out to ss.
• Silver flew out to rf.
• 8 pitches (5 for strikes).
• Texas down 2-3.
• 6th inning, Baylor
• Evatt grounded out to 2b.
• Towey flew out to cf.
• Ware struck out swinging. Felts dropped the ball so tagged the batter to complete the out.
• 8 pitches (7 for strikes).
• Texas down 2-3.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Montalbano grounded out to ss deep in the hole.
• Felts struck out swinging.
• Loy also struck out swinging.
• 9 pitches (7 for strikes).
• Texas down 2-3.
• 7th inning, Baylor
• Miller struck out swinging.
• DalPorto drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Texas sent Andrew McKirahan (lhp) to the mound, replacing Carrillo.
• Hainsfurther doubled into lf, moving DalParto to 3b.
• Pinckard was intentionally walked to load the bases. Sigh.
• Muncy doubled to the rf/cf gap, scoring DalPorto and Hainsfurther. Pinckard moved up to 3b.
• Texas sent Josh Urban (rhp) to the mound, replacing McKirahan. Not a good day for McKirahan, sadly.
• Ludy singled past 2b (infield drawn in) into cf, scoring Pinckard and Muncy.
• Evatt after getting ahead 3-0, went down looking.
• Texas sent Kirby Bellow (lhp) to the mound, replacing Urban.
• Towey, very sadly, walked on 4 pitches. Ouch. Ludy moved to 2b.
• Texas sent Stayton Thomas (rhp) to the mound, replacing Bellow.
• Ware (9th batter of the inning) grounded out to ss to end my agony.
• Carrillo's final numbers: 1.2 innings, 6 batters, 1 run (earned), 0 hits, 3 strikeouts, 1 walk, 19 pitches (13 for strikes).
• McKirahan's final numbers: 0 innings, 3 batters, 3 runs (all earned), 2 hits (both doubles), 1 walk (intentional), 13 pitches (7 for strikes).
• Urban's final numbers: 0.1 innings, 2 batters, 0 runs, 1 single, 1 strikeout, 10 pitches (5 for strikes).
• Bellow's final numbers: 0 innings, 1 batter, 0 runs, 1 walk, 4 pitches (all balls).
• 4 pitches (3 for strikes) for Thomas.
• Texas down 2-7.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Payton grounded out to ss.
• Weiss grounded out to 2b.
• Kephart flew out to rf.
• 12 pitches (7 for strikes).
• Texas down 2-7.
• 8th inning, Baylor
• Miller struck out swinging.
• DalPorto grounded out to ss.
• Hainsfurther grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• 9 pitches (5 for strikes).
• Texas down 2-7.
• 9th inning, Texas
• Shepherd was hit on the hip (1-2 pitch).
• Baylor moved Brooks Pinckard (rhp) from cf to the mound, replacing Turley. They sent Chris Slater in at cf (and lost the dh).
• Shepherd moved up to 2b on a passed ball with Etier at the plate.
• Etier grounded out to ss (who looked Shepherd back to 2b before throwing across the diamond).
• Silver drew a 5-pitch walk.
• After the first pitch to Montalbano (a ball), Baylor made a visit to the mound.
• Montalbano singled past 3b down the lf line, scoring Shepherd and moving Silver to 2b.
• Jonathan Walsh (pinch hitting for Felts) hit a 3-run HOMER over the rf fence!!
• Loy grounded out to 3b.
• Payton drew a full-count walk. Yes.
• Weiss fell behind 0-2 and then drew a 7-pitch walk, moving Payton to 2b. Wow.
• Baylor sent Max Garner (rhp) to the mound, replacing Pinckard. Pinckard moved back to cf (putting Garner in the #1 spot in the batting line-up).
• Texas sent Dax Kjerstad in to pinch-run for Payton at 2b.
• Kephart grounded out to 2b. Shucks.
• Turley's final numbers: 8 innings (plus 1 batter), 32 batters, xx runs (), 6 hits (including 3 doubles), 5 strikeouts, 1 walk, 1 hit batter, 114 pitches (68 for strikes).
• Texas loses 6-7.

Great come-back effort by the Horns in the 9th. Too bad it fell just a little bit too short. Rubber match in Austin. I was wondering, by the way, why they split the series they way they did. Usually on these split series, they play the Friday game in one city and the Saturday/Sunday games in the other. They apparently switched this year because the Texas Relays were going on and they were trying to avoid some of the congestion problems that come with so many extra people being in Austin.

Posted by Joanna at 10:55 AM | Permalink

Game 30: Texas at Baylor

I watched Baylor's web stream of the game (via CBS-Sports). The line (I apparently did not take a screen-shot of the GameTracker results):

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Texas	0	1	0	0	0	9	1	0	0	11	14	0
Baylor	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	3	6	5

Yeah...5 errors for Baylor. Frankly, I didn't think a couple of them should've been charged as errors but...shrug...it was not up to me. And, all three of Baylor's runs were scored via solo homeruns. Glad they were solo shots!

The starting line-ups:

Texas		Baylor
Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (rf) Erich Weiss (lf) Lucas Kephart (dh) Tant Shepherd (1b) Kevin Lusson (3b) Jordan Etier (2b) Paul Montalbano (cf) Jacob Felts (c)		Brooks Pinckard (cf) Max Muncy (1b) Joey Hainsfurther (c) Josh Ludy (dh) Cal Towey (rf) Dan Evatt (lf) Jake Miller (3b) Landis Ware (ss) Steve DalPorto (2b)

Play by play:

• 1st inning, Texas
• Logan Verrett (rhp) on the mound for Baylor.
• Loy flew out to cf.
• Payton singled into rf. Really nice at-bat: foul, check swing strike, foul, ball, foul, foul, ball, ball, single.
• With Weiss at the plate, Payton advanced to 2b and 3b on wild pitches. One of them looked more like a passed ball. But...whatever.
• Weiss went down swinging.
• Kephart grounded out to ss. Really nice play by Ware at ss deep in the hole.
• 1st inning, Baylor
• Taylor Jungmann (rhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Pinckard popped out to 3b.
• Muncy grounded out to 1b. Shepherd had to make a bit of a dive to his right to make the play and was a bit off-balance. His momentum was carrying him away from the bag and he ended up going with it, spinning around, and tossing to Jungmann covering the bag for the out. Nice.
• Hainsfurther grounded out to 2b.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Shepherd flew out to rf.
• Lusson grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Etier line a single into lf.
• With Montalbano at the plate, Etier stole 2b. The throw got away from the player covering and Etier moved up to 3b on the E2.
• Montalbano singled up the middle, scoring Etier.
• With Felts at the plate, Montalbano stole 2b.
• Felts struck out swinging.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 2nd inning, Baylor
• Ludy struck out swinging. Felts had to tag him to complete the out.
• Towey tripled to the cf/rf gap. Yikes.
• Evatt struck out swinging.
• Miller also struck out swinging! (Again, a tag had to be applied.)
• Texas up 1-0.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Loy struck out swinging.
• Payton tried to bunt his way aboard but the third baseman made a really nice barehanded scoop and throw to just beat Payton at 1b.
• Weiss reached on an infield single to 3b. The third baseman tried to make another barehanded scoop and throw on the slow bouncer but missed the ball this time.
• Kephart grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 3rd inning, Baylor
• Ware struck out swinging.
• DalPorto singled to rf.
• Pinckard reached on a slow-rolling infield single over the mound. Jungmann tried to reach for the ball but just couldn't get to it. DalPorto moved to 2b on the play.
• Muncy struck out swinging.
• Hainsfurther grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Shepherd reached on a throwing error by 3b. The high throw drew the first baseman off the bag. He tried to tag Shepherd on his way down but seemed to miss the tag entirely. The Baylor commentators were dumfounded at the call but it looked pretty clear to me even on the sketchy internet video stream.
• Lusson moved Shepherd to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• Etier lined into a double play you don't see very often. Shepherd took off for 3b with the pitch (sb or hit & run?...I dunno) and the ball went right to the center fielder. Shepherd, who was nearly at 3b by then, tried to get back to 2b but was beat by the throw from cf by a quite a bit.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 4th inning, Baylor
• Ludy flew out to rf.
• Towey grounded out to 2b.
• Evatt grounded out to 1b (p covered 1b bag).
• Texas up 1-0.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Montalbano grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Felts grounded out to ss.
• Loy doubled to the lf corner...and moved to 3b on an E7 when the left fielder could not pick up the ball.
• Payton drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Insert visit to the mound by Baylor.
• With two called strikes against Weiss, Payton broke for 2b and Loy for home on a double steal. Loy was thrown out 1-3-2 as Baylor threw behind Payton (pick-off) and then home.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 5th inning, Baylor
• Miller struck out swinging.
• Ware struck out swinging.
• DalPorto grounded out to 3b.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Weiss doubled to rf. The right fielder appeared to lose the ball in the lights. Yikes.
• Kephart doubled off the rf wall, scoring Weiss!
• Shepherd singled through the left side scoring Kephart. Nice.
• Insert another visit to the mound.
• With Lusson at the plate, Shepherd stole 2b.
• Lusson reached on a bunt single down the 3b line, moving Shepherd to 3b.
• With Etier at the plate, Lusson stole 2b. Baylor did not bite as they expected another double-steal attempt.
• Etier flew out to cf.
• Montalbano bunted down the 1b line (credit for a sac, I think). The pitcher was looking to make the play at home but dropped the ball. He picked it up and hurried his throw to 1b. The first baseman was unable to catch the ball and it dribbled down the rf line. Shepherd scored on the squeeze. Shepherd moved up to 3b on the bunt and scored on the error. Montalbano was safe at 1b and advanced to 2b on the error. Whew. Steve Smith argued that Montalbano interfered with the first baseman and was ejected as he continued to argue the call.
• Felts drew a 4-pitch walk after all the excitement.
• Loy hit a long fly ball over the center fielder. The cf had a bit of trouble picking up the ball so the official scorer only credited him with a single and charged an error. Bizarre. Should've been a double all the way since it went over his head to the wall. Sigh. Anyway, Montalbano scored (unearned) and Felts advanced to 3b...and Loy to 2b.
• Tyler Bremer (rhp) went to the mound, replacing Verrett.
• Payton drew a 5-pitch walk to load the bases.
• Weiss singled into lf, scoring Felts. Bases still loaded.
• Kephart doubled to the wall in the rf/cf gap, scoring Loy and Payton and moving Weiss to 3b.
• Shepherd worked the count full and then flew out to rf down the line. Weiss tagged up and beat the throw from rf. Kephart also tagged and advanced to 3b.
• Lusson grounded out to 1b (unassisted) to end Baylor's misery.
• Texas up 10-0.
• 6th inning, Baylor
• Pinckard tried to bunt his way aboard but hit a soft liner to 1b for an out instead. Ouch.
• Muncy homered over the rf wall.
• Hainsfurther grounded out to 2b for the 3rd time in as many at-bats.
• Ludy flew out to lf.
• Texas up 10-1.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Etier flew out to cf.
• Montalbano flew out to cf (in the cf/rf gap).
• Felts was hit by a pitch.
• Loy doubled off the wall in left-center, scoring Felts.
• Payton struck out looking.
• Texas up 11-1.
• 7th inning, Baylor
• Towey hit a monster homerun over the rf fence.
• Evatt popped out to 1b in foul territory.
• Miller struck out looking.
• Lawton Langford (pinch-hitting for Ware) was hit by a pitch.
• A wild pitch with DalPorto at the plate moved Langford up to 2b.
• Langford struck out looking. 9th K of the day for Jungmann.
• Skip Johnson made a trip to the mound at some point...maybe after the hit batter?...but I forgot to write it down. Oops. :-)
• Texas up 11-2.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Langford stayed in the game at ss.
• Weiss grounded out to ss.
• Kephart struck out swinging.
• Shepherd grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 11-2.
• 8th inning, Baylor
• Texas sent Tim Maitland into lf, replacing Weiss.
• Pinckard flew out to lf.
• Muncy struck out looking.
• Hainsfurther grounded out to the pitcher. The hard-hit ground ball was headed right up the middle but hit Jungmann on the leg and rolled toward 3b. Jungmann jumped off the mound, grabbed the ball, and fired it to 1b for the out. Sweet!
• Texas up 11-2.
• 9th inning, Texas
• Baylor sent Chris Slater in at cf, replacing Pinckard.
• Lusson struck out looking.
• Etier singled to shallow cf (bloop).
• Montalbano hit into a 3-6-3 double play. Another double play you don't see often. 'Course you do see this more than the first one.
• Texas up 11-2.
• 9th inning, Baylor
• Texas sent Nathan Thornhill (rhp) to the mound, replacing Jungmann. Jungmann's final numbers (by my count): 8 innings, 30 batters, 2 runs (both earned), 5 hits (including a triple and 2 homeruns), 10 strikeouts, 1 hit batter, 1 wild pitch, 99 pitches (66 for strikes).
• Wes Mercurio (pinch-hitting for Ludy) grounded out to the pitcher.
• Towey homered over the rf fence again. Good night for him: 3-for-4 with a triple and 2 homers. Wow.
• Taylor Alspaugh (pinch-hitting for Evatt) struck out looking.
• Nate Goodwin (pinch-hitting for Miller) flew out to lf.
• Texas wins 11-3.

Nice game. It was great to see Jungmann back in a groove. I have to say I was a little surprised that they took him out since he was still under 100 pitches. I'm not about to argue with the decision, though. The more time the other pitchers see on the mound during the season, the better as far as I'm concerned...especially once tournament time rolls around.

Posted by Joanna at 10:45 AM | Permalink

Game 29: Texas at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

I listened to a couple of innings of the Tuesday game at Corpus but that was about it. The line (from TAMU-CC's NeuLion scoreboard thingy):

The starting line-ups:

Texas		TAMU-CC
Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (rf) Erich Weiss (lf) Lucas Kephart (dh) Tant Shepherd (1b) Jordan Etier (2b) Jonathan Walsh (lf) Kevin Lusson (3b) Jacob Felts (c) Paul Montalbano (cf)		Montgomery Weston (ss) Logan Nottebrok (3b) Trey Hernandez (1b) Jacob Perales (rf) Matt Holland (lf) Jumpy Garcia (c) Chris Vergne (cf) Jeramie Marek (2b) Caleb Marx (dh)

Alex Silver also saw his first action late in the game when he pinch-hit and them went in at 3b. Good for him!

It was really nice to see Horns decisively take the lead and keep it. Sam Stafford threw the first 7 innings and had a no-hitter going as he was replaced by Josh Urban for the final two innings of the game. Lots of people complained about taking Stafford out when he was throwing a no-hitter but it made sense to me. He'd already thrown 118 pitches. If he'd thrown 2 more innings, it would've really been pushing things. There's no point, especially in a mid-week non-conference game, in taking that sort of risk. No point at all. Urban, by the way, kept the no-hitter going into the 9th but then gave up a lead-off single in the 9th. Here's a link to the story on the TexasSports.com page: No. 8 Baseball cruises to 8-1 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Posted by Joanna at 10:30 AM | Permalink

Game 28: Missouri at Texas

After two quick outs, the Horns jumped all over the Missouri starter for 5 runs in Sunday's game and went on to win 10-2. The line:

The starting line-ups:

Missouri		Texas
Blake Brown (lf) Brannon Champagne (cf) Conner Mach (3b) Jonah Schmidt (dh) Dane Opel (dh) Dillon Everett (2b) Scott Sommerfeld (1b) Ben Turner (c) Jess Santo (ss)		Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (rf) Erich Weiss (3b) Lucas Kephart (dh) Tant Shepherd (1b) Jordan Etier (2b) Jacob Felts (c) Jonathan Walsh (lf) Paul Montalbano (cf)

More adjustments for the Horns as Cohl Walla was, once again, out of the line-up. I have not heard any news on his condition. There is other news, though, that will likely have an impact soon and that is that Alex Silver has been cleared to play. He will likely move in at 3b when he starts and Erich Weiss will move out to lf. This team has a wealth of outfield defensive talent. I'm guessing hot bats will have more and more of an impact on who'll be starting in the outfield as the season progresses.

I wish I had time for a full-on play-by-play but I just don't. Gonna have to settle for highlights. The main highlight in my mind was Cole Green's play on the mound. Well, maybe it's the fact that the Horns managed to put 12 hits up on the board.

Hmmm...

What a quandary.

Cole Green had a really really nice outing. He threw the first 8 innings of the game to improve his record to 2-2. By my count, he threw 108 pitches (75 for strikes). He faced 31 batters, gave up 1 run (unearned), gave up 4 hits (1 single, 2 doubles, 1 triple), struck out 7, hit 2, and walked none. After giving up a 1-out triple in the 2nd, he struck the next two batters out. Sweet. The lone run he gave up was weird. In the 7th, with two out, he gave up a double to cf. Montalbano misjudged the ball off the bat and started back. He then realized it was more of a bloop and charged forward but just couldn't get to the ball. He made a diving attempt at it but missed the ball...allowing the batter to reach 2b. The next batter reached on a very rare fielding error by Loy at ss. Loy was moving to his right to field a ground ball and it nicked off his glove into lf. With two outs, the runner from 2b scored easily. Tough luck all around. Josh Urban went in for the 9th and struck out the side. He threw 14 pitches...11 for strikes. Pretty!

So...the 5-run first inning:

• Loy popped out to shallow rf.
• Payton flew out to lf.
• Weiss reached on a full-count walk.
• Kephart did the same!
• Shepherd had a glorious at-bat (ball, foul ball, foul ball, foul ball, ball, foul ball off his foot that knocked him down, foul ball, foul ball) and eventually singled up the middle, scoring Weiss and moving Kephart to 3b. Wow.
• Etier lined a single into lf, scoring Kephart and moving Shepherd to 2b.
• Felts homered off the lf foul pole!
• After a pitching change, Walsh lined a single to cf.
• With Montalbano at the plate, Walsh was caught stealing (2-6).

All that with 2 outs. Lovely.

Sorry I don't have time for more. But, if I don't get this posted, I'll never get it up. I appreciate you're patience, folks. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 10:21 AM | Permalink

Friday - April 8, 2011

Administrative note

So...here's the thing. My grandmother passed away this week. I started working on my game report for Sunday's game on Sunday and just haven't finished it. And, I haven't written a word on the Tuesday game in Corpus Christi. I still hope to get to those things but my plans keep finding themselves derailed this week. I will make every effort to watch tonight's game (via Baylor's stream) and write up a decent report. And, I'll get to the two missed games when I can. Your patience is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
-- Joanna.

Posted by Joanna at 4:12 PM | Permalink

Wednesday - April 6, 2011

Article about signee Blake Swihart

Here's an interesting article about Texas signee Blake Swihart: Storm's Swihart Has Scouts Drooling by James Yodice of the Albuquerque Journal. (You have to use a "day pass" or something...follow the instructions...to see the article. UPDATE: I've updated the link to the "print" version of the article which seems to bypass the pay-wall. If that doesn't work, select the "Trial Access Pass" link, sit through the ad, and then select the "No Thanks" link that shows up. Sigh...)

Hat tip: my dad who's in Albuquerque.

PS: Yes...I know. I'm falling behind in my game reports. I've been working on Sunday's. It'll be out soon.

Posted by Joanna at 11:27 AM | Permalink

Saturday - April 2, 2011

Game 27: Missouri at Texas

Texas jumped out to an early lead in today's game against Missouri and never looked back. The Horns won 5-2. The line:

Note the lack of errors. Isn't that pleasant? I certainly think so! Cohl Walla was still out of the starting line-up and the Horns mixed things up again. To wit, the starting lineups:

Missouri		Texas
Blake Brown (lf) Brannon Champagne (cf) Conner Mach (3b) Jonah Schmidt (rf) Dillon Everett (dh) Eric Garcia (2b) Ben Turner (c) Eric Anderson (1b) Jess Santo (ss)		Mark Payton (rf) Brandon Loy (ss) Erich Weiss (3b) Lucas Kephart (dh) Tant Shepherd (1b) Kevin Lusson (c) Jordan Etier (2b) Jonathan Walsh (lf) Paul Montalbano (cf)

Hoby Milner did get the start for the Horns, despite throwing to the final three batters of the game last night, and he did an admirable job...moving his record to 3-1 on the year. His final numbers (by my count): 6.1 innings, 2 runs (both earned), 24 batters faced, 3 hits (2 singles, 1 double), 2 strikeouts, 2 walks, 1 hit batter, and 79 pitches (44 for strikes). With runners at 1b and 2b, 1 out, and no runs actually across yet, Kendal Carrillo (rhp) replaced Milner on the mound. Carrillo gave up a walk to load the bases and a single that scored the two Missouri runs before getting the #9 batter in the lineup to ground into a 5-4-3 double play. Carrillo's final numbers: 1.2 innings, no runs, 7 batters faced, 1 hit (single), 1 strikeout, 2 walks, and 25 pitches (12 for strikes). Corey Knebel threw the 9th to earn his 7th save of the year. His final numbers: 1 inning, no runs, 3 batters faced, 1 strikeout, 9 pitches (7 for strikes). Yes! Matt Stites (rhp) threw a complete game for the Tigers and earned the loss, dropping his record to 1-2.

So, how did Texas score their runs? Like so...

• 1st inning
• Payton lined a single into rf to start the game off right for Texas.
• Loy was trying to bunt Payton over but the Tiger defense was unable to convert the out so Loy reached on a bunt single, moving Payton to 2b.
• Weiss advanced the runners to 2b and 3b on a 5-3 sac bunt down the 3b line.
• Kephart lined a single into lf, scoring both runners! He moved up to 2b on the throw from lf to home.
• Shepherd lined a single into cf, moving Kephart to 3b. Kephart had to wait and see if the center fielder was going to catch the ball before he could advance or he would've scored easily.
• Lusson grounded into a 1-6-4-3 double play. The ball glanced off the pitcher and toward ss. Nice turn by the Tigers.
• Texas up 2-0.
• 3rd inning
• Loy drew a full-count 9-pitch 1-out walk.
• Weiss drew a 4-pitch walk.
• On the first pitch to Kephart, Loy stole 3b while Weiss stole 2b. Double steal! Yeah!
• Kephart grounded out to ss, scoring Loy and moving Weiss to 3b.
• Shepherd struck out swinging.
• Texas up 3-0.
• 5th inning
• Loy lined a 2-out single over the third baseman into lf.
• Weiss followed that with a single over the second baseman into rf, moving Loy to 2b.
• Kephart doubled to the cf/rf gap. The right fielder made a diving attempt at the ball but missed. Loy and Weiss easily scored on the play.
• Shepherd lined out to ss.
• Texas up 5-2...which turned out to be the final score.

Please note that Kephart accounted for all 5 of the runs batted in this afternoon. That doesn't happen often. The Horns threatened again in the 6th when Lusson reached on a lead-off single and moved to 2b two batters later when Montalbano lined a single into lf. Alas, the runners were stranded at 1b and 2b. The Horns went down in order in the 7th and 8th.

So, Texas has clinched their second Big 12 series win of the year. They go for the sweep tomorrow. Hook 'em, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 11:53 PM | Permalink

CBD videos

Check out College Baseball Daily's quick hits for April 1st for a couple of nice video interviews about yesterday's game.

Posted by Joanna at 9:34 AM | Permalink

Game 26: Missouri at Texas

For awhile there last night, things did not look good for the Horns. I got a tweet at about 7 (during the 4th inning) asking how things were going in the game. My reply: "Horns down 0-2 (T4). Jungmann struggling. Bad breaks. 1 UT hit. Ugly. Slight light at end of tunnel, though: 1-2-3 T4." And, things did get better. The Horns went on to win 5-4. The line:

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

By the way...sorry for not getting this up last night. It seems that I just don't have the energy these days to stay up late doing these game reports. Not sure what's up with that. But, I actually feel like doing the full-blown play-by-play today so...is that a win for y'all? Heh. Not sure. At any rate, here are the starting lineups:

Missouri		Texas
Blake Brown (rf) Brannon Champagne (cf) Conner Mach (3b) Dane Opel (lf) Jonah Schmidt (dh) Eric Garcia (2b) Ben Turner (c) Eric Anderson (1b) Jess Santo (ss)		Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (cf) Erich Weiss (lf) Lucas Kephart (dh) Tant Shepherd (1b) Kevin Lusson (3b) Jacob Felts (c) Jonathan Walsh (rf) Jordan Etier (2b)

A bit of a change for the Horns. Apparently Cohl Walla's self-inflicted injury on that foul ball in the Oral Roberts game was a bit worse than initially suspected...causing some interesting shifts in the line-up.

And, here's how things played out:

• 1st inning, Missouri
• Taylor Jungmann (rhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Brown lined a single into cf. Ouch.
• Champagne tried to bunt Brown over. The bunt went down the 1b line toward the mound. Jungmann jumped off the mound, scooped up the ball, and thought about trying to gun down the lead runner. He changed his mind and threw to 1b. The throw was wide on the foul side of the bag. Shepherd lunged to his left and caught the ball. He dragged his right foot across the bag as he made the catch and it looked for all the world like the runner was out but the umpire ruled him safe, saying that Shepherd was not on the bag. If he'd been at 2b, there would've been no question at all about the runner being called out. You see that all the time at 2b. Coach Garrido argued the call but you know how that went. Runners at 1b and 2b, no out, error charged to the pitcher.
• Mach struck out swinging!
• Opel was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Another interesting play. Brown broke with the pitch and kept running to 3b when the ball appeared to get away from the catcher. Felts threw down to 3b and gunned down the runner. Yay! Only not. The home plate ump ruled that the pitch hit the batter. Bases loaded. 1 out. Ouch.
• Schmidt grounded out to 1b, scoring Brown. It looked like Shepherd actually had a play at home but he looked toward 2b and then decided to just step on the 1b bag for the sure out. Bases still loaded and 2 out with a run across.
• Garcia grounded out to ss. Whew.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 1st inning, Texas
• Rob Zastryzny (lhp) on the mound for Mizzou.
• Loy flew out to cf.
• Payton grounded out to ss.
• Weiss flew out to lf.
• Ouch.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 2nd inning, Missouri
• Turner popped out to 2b in shallow rf.
• Anderson grounded out to ss.
• Santo reached on a full-count 7-pitch walk. Damn.
• Brown (who singled in the 1st) tripled to the cf/rf gap. Walsh actually just got his glove on the ball but could not make the catch as he was running full speed to his right. Santo scored.
• Champagne grounded out to 2b.
• Texas down 0-2.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Kephart grounded out to the pitcher.
• Shepherd singled through the left side. Nice hit.
• Lusson lined into an unassisted double play at 2b. Texas actually had a hit & run on (shocker!) and Shepherd was two-thirds of the way to 2b when the second baseman caught the ball...and then easily tagged Shepherd for the DP. So sad.
• Texas down 0-2.
• 3rd inning, Missouri
• Mach grounded out to ss.
• Opel popped out to 3b.
• Schmidt reached on a soft liner to cf. Payton dove for the ball but missed it.
• Garcia reached on a full-count walk.
• Turner lined out to cf.
• Texas down 0-2.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Felts grounded out to the pitcher (bunt attempt).
• Walsh reached on a full-count 8-pitch walk.
• Etier popped out to 3b (near home plate).
• Loy flew out to rf.
• Texas down 0-2.
• 4th inning, Missouri
• Here's where that tweet came in and things started looking a bit better for the Horns.
• Anderson grounded out to 2b.
• Santo grounded out to 2b.
• Brown grounded out to ss.
• Texas down 0-2.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Payton grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Weiss struck out swinging.
• Kephart reached on a 5-pitch walk.
• Shepherd lined a singled through the left side, moving Kephart to 2b. Two at-bats...two singles for Shepherd!
• Lusson, sadly, hit into a 4-6 fielder's choice to end the inning.
• Texas down 0-2.
• 5th inning, Missouri
• Champagne grounded out to 2b.
• Mach went down swinging.
• Opel drew a full-count walk.
• Schmidt hit a homerun over the lf fence...just left of the scoreboard. Damn.
• Garcia grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Texas down 0-4.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Felts flew out to lf.
• Walsh hit a bloop single into cf.
• Etier lined a single past the ss into lf, moving Walsh to 2b.
• Loy lined a single over the third baseman into lf, scoring Walsh and moving Etier to 2b.
• Payton struck out swinging.
• Weiss reached on a 5-pitch walk to load the bases.
• Kephart lined a single into cf, scoring Etier and Loy, and moving Weiss to 3b,
• Missouri sent Jeff Emens (rhp) to the mound, replacing Zastryzny.
• Shepherd lined another single into lf (his 3rd in as many chances), scoring Weiss and moving Kephart to 2b. Game tied! Wow.
• Lusson grounded into another fielder's choice to end the inning. The ss fielded the ball and stepped on 2b for the force.
• Game tied 4-4.
• 6th inning, Missouri
• Turner was hit by a 2-2 pitch.
• Anderson grounded into a 5-4-3 double play! Nice play by Lusson on a ground ball that took a bit of an odd hop just before he fielded it.
• Santo struck out swinging.
• Game tied 4-4.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Felts grounded out on a "nubber" to the pitcher.
• Walsh drew a 5-pitch walk.
• Etier doubled down the 3b line and into the lf corner, scoring Walsh. Nice.
• Loy struck out swinging.
• Payton grounded out to 1b.
• Texas up 5-4.
• 7th inning, Missouri
• Texas sent Kendal Carrillo (rhp) to the mound, replacing Jungmann. Just as Carrillo was getting ready to throw his first pitch, the Horns made a quick change in rf, as well...sending Paul Montalbano in for Walsh.
• Brown reached on an infield single to 3b. Lusson made a diving stop and jumped up to throw to 1b but the throw was high...and maybe a little late.
• Champagne singled through the right side on a hit & run. Brown advanced to 3b. Runners at the corners...nobody out. Ack!
• Mach struck out swinging. Whew. My mom had been calling for a double play and I'd told her we needed a strikeout and then a double play. Heh.
• Texas sent Andrew McKirahan (lhp) to the mound, replacing Carrillo.
• Opel grounded into a 6-4-3 double play! Double whew!
• Texas up 5-4.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Weiss grounded out to 2b.
• Kephart reached on ground ball single up the middle that streaked past the pitcher.
• Shepherd struck out swinging.
• Lusson grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 5-4.
• 8th inning, Missouri
• Texas sent Corey Knebel (rhp) to the mound, replacing McKirahan. They also sent Tim Maitland in defensively and shifted the outfield around. The put Maitland in at cf, moved Payton over to rf, and moved Montalbano to lf.
• Schmidt struck out looking.
• Garcia also struck out looking. Nice.
• Turner flew out to rf.
• Texas up 5-4.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Missouri sent Phil McCormick (lhp) to the mound, replacing Emens.
• Felts grounded out to 3b.
• Montalbano grounded out to 2b.
• Etier reached on a full-count walk.
• Loy reached on a full-count 10-pitch (!!!) walk, moving Etier to 2b.
• Payton flew out to lf.
• Texas up 5-4.
• 9th inning, Missouri
• Ryan Ampleman (pinch-hitting for Anderson) reached on a full-count 7-pitch walk.
• The first pitch to Santo was a ball. Skip Anderson made a visit to the mound. And, Missouri decided, during the mound visit, to send Sal Belfonte in to pinch-run for Ampleman.
• Santo moved Belfonte to 2b on the next pitch...1-3 sac bunt.
• Brown drew a 5-pitch walk.
• Texas sent Hoby Milner (lhp, scheduled for the start today) to the mound, replacing Knebel.
• Dillon Everett (pinch-hitting for Champagne) singled up the middle to load the bases. Yikes!
• Mach struck out swinging (foul tip). Whew.
• Opel flew out to cf (first pitch). Yee-haw!!!
• Texas wins 5-4!

I have to admit that I did not like the way things started out last night. Jungmann really struggled with the strike zone...but the home plate ump did not seem very consistent at all. It was wonderful, however, to see the Horns string together so many hits in the 5th. They really did hit a nice groove there. I have not heard whether the Horns will still start Milner today or go with Green instead and use Milner tomorrow. I'm guessing it will depend on how he's feeling when he gets to the park this afternoon. He threw 15 pitches last night so it's not out of the question that he'll get the nod today. By the way, Jungmann got the win and Milner got credit for a save. Nice. Hook 'em!

Posted by Joanna at 9:16 AM | Permalink

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