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Thursday - May 26, 2011

Game 55: Texas at Baylor (Big 12 Tournament)

I stayed home this morning and listened to the game on the radio while watching the Big 12 video stream...which did not get started on time. That was very frustrating. Oh well. Life (and baseball) went on anyway.

Texas won 6-1 to keep their hopes alive in the tournament.

The line:

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

The line-ups:

Texas Tech		Texas
Brandon Loy (ss) Mark Payton (rf) Tant Shepherd (1b) Erich Weiss (lf) Paul Montalbano (lf) Jonathan Walsh (dh) Cohl Walla (cf) Jordan Etier (2b) Jacob Felts (c)		Brooks Pinckard (rf) Max Muncy (1b) Josh Ludy (c) Cal Towey (dh) Dan Evatt (lf) Joey Hainsfurther (3b) Logan Vick (cf) Jack Miller (ss) Steve DalPorto (2b)

Play by play:

• 1st inning, Texas
• Josh Turley (lhp) on the mound for Baylor.
• Loy struck out looking.
• Payton grounded out to 1b (p covered bag).
• Shepherd popped out to 3b.
• 1st inning, Baylor
• Taylor Jungmann (rhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Pinckard drew a full-count walk.
• With Muncy at the plate, Pinckard stole 2b (2nd pitch) and then moved up to 3b on a wild pitch (3rd pitch).
• Muncy singled up the middle, scoring Pinckard.
• Felts dropped the first pitch to Ludy and Muncy took off for 2b. The ball bounced right back to Felts, though, and he gunned Muncy down (2-4) for the 1st out of the inning.
• Ludy flew out to lf.
• Towey grounded out to ss.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Weiss out on a soft liner to 3b.
• Montalbano flew out to lf. The left fielder dove for the catch.
• Walsh grounded out to 3b.
• 5 of the first 6 batters for Texas have watched a first-pitch strike. The 6th watched a ball.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 2nd inning, Baylor
• Evatt popped out to ss.
• Hainsfurther grounded out to 2b.
• Vick drew a 5-pitch walk.
• After getting behind 2-1 to Miller, Coach Johnson made a visit to the mound. Lots of throws to 1b, by the way.
• This is about the time that the video finally came up on the Big 12 site.
• Miller went on to strike out looking.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Walla flew out to cf.
• Etier singled over the ss into lf.
• Felts (finally...two batters, Etier and Felts< see first pitch balls) reached on a throwing error by 3b. The third baseman booted the ball a bit and then threw high to 1b. Etier moved to 2b on the play.
• Loy struck out swinging.
• Payton drew a 5-pitch walk to load the bases.
• Shepherd struck out swinging. Damn.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 3rd inning, Baylor
• DalPorto flew out to lf.
• Pinckard struck out swinging.
• Muncy grounded out to 2b. Nice play by Etier stopping the ball behind 2b and throwing across his body to 1b.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Weiss singled off the mound up the middle.
• Montalbano bunted on the 3b side of the mound. The pitcher fielded and threw to the ss (covering 2b) and the umpire ruled Weiss safe saying the ss missed the bag. Montalbano was also called safe at 1b. Amazing. Baylor appealed to no avail. Wow.
• Walsh reached on a bunt single (!) down the 3b line. The third baseman fielded the ball bare-handed but his throw to 1b was late.
• Walla lined a single into lf, scoring Weiss and Montalbano. Walsh moved up to 2b.
• Etier moved the runners to 2b and 3b on a 5-3 sac bunt.
• Felts popped out to 2b in shallow cf.
• Loy lined a double down the lf line, scoring Walsh and Walla.
• Payton lined out to cf.
• Texas up 4-1. Only one of the 4 runs is earned, by the way.
• 4th inning, Baylor
• Ludy struck out swinging.
• Towey grounded out to 2b.
• Evatt struck out swinging. Felts could not hold onto the ball so had to throw down to 1b to complete the out.
• Texas up 4-1.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Shepherd drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Weiss moved Shepherd to 2b on a 3-4 sac bunt.
• Montalbano flew out to lf.
• Walsh struck out swinging.
• Texas up 4-1.
• 5th inning, Baylor
• Hainsfurther tried to bunt his way aboard down the 3b line but grounded out to the pitcher. Nice fielding job by Jungmann on the ball that went about half-way between the line and mound.
• Vick flew out to rf.
• Miller grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 4-1.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Walla popped out to ss.
• Etier lined a single into cf.
• Felts out on a soft pop-up to 2b in shallow rf. Nice play by the second baseman who looped around a bit and caught the ball over his shoulder.
• Baylor sent Kolt Browder (rhp) to the mound, replacing Truley.
• With Loy at the plate, Etier was caught stealing (2-4). Damn.
• Texas up 4-1.
• 6th inning, Baylor
• DalPorto flew out to lf in the lf/cf gap.
• Pinckard grounded out to 2b (hard bunt attempt). Etier scooped the ball up with his glove and then tossed the ball from his glove hand to 1b. Nice!
• Muncy grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Texas up 4-1.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Loy lined a single into cf.
• Payton moved Loy to 2b on a 5-3 sac bunt.
• Shepherd singled to lf, scoring Loy. The left fielder dove for the ball and almost caught it...and raised the glove as though he had but it was ruled a trapped ball.
• Weiss popped out to ss in shallow lf.
• Montalbano grounded into a 4-unassisted fielder's choice.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 7th inning, Baylor
• Ludy flew out to shallow rf.
• Towey struck out looking.
• Evatt grounded out to 3b.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Brad Kuntz (lhp) to the mound for Baylor, replacing Browder.
• Walsh struck out looking.
• Walla reached on an infield single off the pitcher's glove.
• Etier struck out swinging.
• Walla took 2b on a wild pitch with Felts at the plate.
• Felts grounded out to 2b.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 8th inning, Baylor
• Hainsfurther reached on a 5-pitch walk.
• Vick stuck out swinging. Sixth K for Jungmann on the day.
• Miller flew out to cf.
• DalPorto lined out to cf in right-center. Walla made a nice catch as he was running full speed to his left. He reached for the ball, caught it, and stumbled and rolled over and back to his feet. He and Payton ran into each other but just grazed each other. No harm. Nice play.
• Texas up 5-1.
• 9th inning, Texas
• Baylor sent Max Garner (rhp, closer) to the mound, replacing Kuntz.
• Loy reached on an infield single (high bouncer) to 3b.
• Payton moved Loy to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt down the 1b line.
• Shepherd popped out to 2b.
• With Weiss at the plate, Loy stole 3b. The catcher threw high and over 3b as he tried to catch Loy at 3b. Loy scored on the error.
• Weiss went on to draw a full-count walk.
• Montalbano singled into rf, moving Weiss to 3b. Run scored by Loy now counted as an earned run.
• Walsh flew out to cf in the cf/rf gap.
• Texas up 6-1.
• 9th inning, Baylor
• Texas moved Montalbano into rf and sent Tim Maitland into lf, replacing Payton in the lineup.
• Pinckard drew a full-count walk.
• Muncy flew out to rf. Really nice running catch by Montalbano in the corner.
• Ludy grounded into a 6-4 fielder's choice. Loy stopped the ball deep in the hole and just got the out at 2b. The relay throw was late. Nice play by Loy!
• Towey went down swinging. He tried to check his swing but the home plate ump ruled he went around.
• Texas wins 6-1. Nice.

That's the first 1-hitter in the Big 12 tournament since 1999. Nice.

Baylor coach Steve Smith gave big props to Jungmann's performance in his remarks in the post-game show. Muncy said Jungmann's slow/smooth motion makes the hitter believe the ball's coming at you a lot slower than it really is. An interesting closing comment by Coach Smith: he said the umpires are being encouraged to keep things going...that the final check swing was not a strike but the umps are being pressed to keep things going so it's called a strike. Hmmm...

In the Texas side of the post-game news conference, Coach Garrido said he was happy to see everyone on the team supporting every other player for the whole game. He asked the team if they had more fun today or yesterday and said it's a choice they have to make every day to go all in. Jungmann admitted that he got a little tired toward the end of the game but thought he pitched well after being shaky early and then making an adjustment to what he was doing. He rated his performance a 7 on a scale from 1 to 10. Garrido was happy to see the team's commitment to the effort last the whole game. He commented that Jungmann is one of the few pitchers he's seen that gets consistently better every time he plays. He said Jungmann likes his role and is there every day to be the best pitcher he can be.

The Horns will play the loser of this afternoon's Oklahoma State/Mizzou game tomorrow at 3:15. Hook 'em!

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UPDATE. Direct quotes from the post-game news conference (taken from the PDF file posted on the Big 12's site):

• Coach Augie Garrido
• On the game: "I think the game today was energized by the players' attitude. That was the biggest difference in the whole thing. The players got together last night on their own, called their own meeting, made their own commitments to play Longhorn baseball and that is taking it inning-by-inning and pitch-by-pitch and making the best effort in whatever role you have on the team. The net result was that we played a pretty good game. How many bunts did we get down? How many mental mistakes did we make? How many defensive plays? See how they all add up? That is reflective of a change in attitude. The credit goes to the players for making that change. That to me was the big turnaround. Obviously the game was dominated by Taylor Jungmann's pitching. In addition to that, when they started hitting the ball in the last couple of innings, his teammates picked him up with some great defensive plays. Three of the six final outs were awesome defensive plays - one by Cohl Walla in center, one by Paul Montalbano in right and the play that Brandon made at short - all three came from the attitude, the attention to detail and the overall feeling of supporting every player on the team. My question to the players after the game was, 'When did you have more fun? Did you have more fun yesterday playing baseball or today playing baseball?' That's a choice that you can make. You have to make baseball fun. Baseball isn't just fun. There are too many failures in it, but you can make it fun by going all-in."
• On the team maintaining its positive attitude despite falling behind early: "It shows the players that even though you have flipped the switch, the game doesn't. You have to go grind it out. The game is not going to give anything back to you just because all of a sudden you show up with the right attitude to the ballpark the next day after you get beat. They kept at it. The game tested them. They made a commitment to each other to do their best, pick each other up and be a Longhorn baseball player. They made that commitment. It lasted the whole game."
• On Taylor Jungmann: "I recognize how effortless he makes it seem. That's part of his brilliance. He's a pitcher. He has been for three years. He's one of the few pitchers I've been around that gets consistently better. Most of them will have a great season as a freshman, come back as a sophomore and they won't simplify things. They're playing for the pats on the back and the crowd. He's a pitcher. He takes his own routines and follows those when he's on the field and off the field, much like a world-class athlete or somebody in the major leagues right now. He isn't in the major leagues yet, but because he's a regimented person, is a pitcher and respects that 24-7, he will develop those kinds of habits when it's time to develop those kinds of habits. He's fascinated by the role he has on the team. He likes it. It's fun for him to be a pitcher, and he wants to be the best pitcher he can be, so he continues to learn little things. Like he said, today he made an adjustment. He knows what's going on, and he likes it. The great performers in anything they're performing at are driven like that."
• Taylor Jungmann on his pitching performance: "I thought I pitched well. It was a little rough early, but we made an adjustment around the third inning. It was smooth sailing from there. Toward the end I was getting a little bit tired and the command wasn't as good."
• Brandon Loy
• On getting three hits in the game: "It was rough early on. I had a runner on second base with one out and struck out. In my next at-bat, I had runners on second and third with two outs. It was a time when we definitely needed somebody to come through and bust the game open a bit. I happened to hit a double down the line, which got it going for us a little bit. It was what we needed, especially after yesterday. It's a lot more fun when you're winning. When you come out and compete like we did today, it gives us a lot of confidence."
• On the players-only meeting: "Paul Montalbano (called the meeting). He talked for about a minute and turned it over to the captains. It was a good meeting. We talked about some of the things that were going on. We knew what we needed to do today, and I thought we came out and did that. We definitely got us some confidence. It's exciting for us to get a win going into tomorrow."

Posted by Joanna at 12:24 PM