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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