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Tuesday - May 3, 2011

Game 44: Oklahoma at Texas

[Note: I sat down to do the game report for tonight's game against Prairie View A&M and discovered that I never finished my game report for Sunday's game. I don't know how that happened. 'Looks like I was about half-way through when I stopped for whatever reason and didn't remember to come back. So, I've chucked some of it and am finishing it off now. Sorry it's so late...and incomplete. But, I have to move on. And, so...]

The Horns did not play their best ball this afternoon. Well, not until the 9th inning at any rate. And, by then it was too late. They ended up losing to Oklahoma 2-5. They still won the series but...that's of little comfort.

The line:

Sam Stafford started and took the loss. He only lasted 3.2 innings, gave up 4 hits (double, 3 singles), 2 runs (1 unearned), walked 2, and struck out 3. He faced 18 batters and (by my count) threw 69 pitches (41 for strikes). Nathan Thornhill threw 0.2 innings, faced 5, gave up 2 hits (singles), 0 runs, walked 1, and threw a wild pitch. By my count he threw 18 pitches (11 for strikes). Andrew McKirahan faced 1 batter and got him to fly out to cf...3 pitches (2 for strikes). Kendal Carrillo had his worst outing of the year (at least, I think it was his worst). He went 1.2 innings, faced 8 batters, gave up 2 hits (single, triple), 2 runs (both earned), walked 1, struck out 2...on 31 pitches (20 for strikes). And, Hoby Milner threw the final 2.2 innings. He faced 11 batters, gave up 1 hit (homerun), 1 run (earned), walked 1, hit 1, and struck out 4...on 39 pitches (28 for strikes).

Offensively, the Horns were pretty flat...with the marked exception of Tant Shepherd who went 3-for-3 (double in the 1st, homerun in the 4th, single in the 6) with a walk. Mark Payton and Shepherd hit back-to-back 1-out singles in the 6th but were followed by a strikeout (looking) by Erich Weiss, a 5-pitch walk by Paul Montalbano to load the bases, and a swinging strikeout by Jonathan Walsh. Ugly. The Horns might've won the game if they could've somehow managed to get Shepherd back up to the plate one more time in the 9th. Alas, that did not happen. Instead, the 9th went like so:

• Montalbano drew his 2nd 5-pitch walk in as many plate appearances.
• Walsh singled to right, moving Montalbano to 2b.
• Cohl Walla (dh) lined a single into cf, scoring Montalbano and moving Walsh to 2b. So sweet. Or so it seemed.
• Jordan Etier hit a hard liner right at the shortstop. Damn.
• Kevin Lusson (pinch-hitting for Felts, who'd struck out in 2 of his 3 at-bats) struck out swinging.
• And, Brandon Loy grounded out to 2b to end the game.

Again, the team didn't seem to be quite back to the "Saturday blahs" that they'd been exhibiting earlier in the season. But, they did not seem to be "on" for much of the game. Maybe it was the Oklahoma pitching? I don't know. But, they did go down in order 4 times. Which makes for a disheartening kind of day.

Posted by Joanna at 9:19 PM