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Saturday - May 28, 2011

Game 58: Missouri at Texas (Big 12 Tournament)

The third and final game of the day started almost an hour late. The Horns played home team. I listened to the game on the radio while watching the Big 12 Internet stream.

The lineups:

Missouri		Texas
Conner Mach (lf) Brannon Champagne (cf) Eric Garcia (1b) Jonah Schmidt (dh) Blake Brown (rf) Ben Turner (c) Jesse Santo (ss) C.J. Jarvis (3b) Andrew Thigpen (2b)		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)

Please note that both schools went with the same lineups they used in the first game. Interesting? Texas used a bazillion lineups through the year but seem to have finally settled on this one.

Play by play:

• 1st inning, Missouri
• Hoby Milner (lhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Mach grounded out to ss.
• Champagne also grounded out to ss (1st pitch).
• Garcia worked the count full, fouled off a pitch, and then struck out looking.
• 10 pitches (6 for strikes).
• 1st inning, Texas
• Kelly Fick (lhp) on the mound for Missouri.
• Loy flew out to rf.
• Payton lined out to lf down the line.
• Shepherd struck out looking.
• 2nd inning, Missouri
• Schmidt singled off the mound up the middle.
• Brown flew out to rf.
• Turner struck out looking.
• Santo doubled to left-center, scoring Schmidt.
• Jarvis grounded out to ss.
• 20 pitches (13 for strikes).
• Texas down 0-1.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Weiss grounded out to 2b.
• Montalbano also grounded out to 2b.
• Walsh out on a soft pop-up to 2b.
• Sigh...
• Texas down 0-1.
• 3rd inning, Missouri
• Thigpen popped out to 2b in shallow rf.
• Mach struck out swinging.
• Champagne lined out to ss. Nice dive to his left and snag by Loy!
• 10 pitches (6 for strikes).
• Texas down 0-1.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Walla grounded out to 2b.
• Etier lined out to cf.
• Felts flew out to lf.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 4th inning, Missouri
• Garcia grounded out to ss.
• [Side note: the Internet video stream seems particularly bad and lethargic this evening. We're missing pretty much all the plays as the home plate camera reacts about a second late to everything that happens. Sigh...]
• Schmidt drew a 5-pitch walk.
• After Milner fell behind 2-1 to Brown, Coach Johnson made a brief visit to the mound.
• Brown drew another 5-pitch walk.
• Andrew McKirahan and Stayton Thomas went down to the bullpen to start warming up.
• Turner flew out to cf.
• Santo struck out swinging! Yes. Nice job by Milner to buckle down and get out of trouble!
• 21 pitches (9 for strikes).
• Texas down 0-1.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Loy lined a single into cf.
• [Insert another comment about what a poor job the home plate camera is doing on the Internet video feed. It's like the person running it has never run a camera before. Terrible. Ugh.]
• Payton moved Loy to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• Shepherd grounded out to the pitcher (high chopper on the 3b side of the mound.
• Weiss grounded out to 2b.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 5th inning, Missouri
• Jarvis flew out to lf.
• Thigpen grounded out (another high-chopper) to ss.
• Mach flew out to lf.
• 5 pitches (4 for strikes). Nice!
• Texas down 0-1.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Montalbano singled into rf.
• Walsh moved Montalbano to 2b on a 1-3 sac bunt down the 1b line.
• Walla struck out swinging.
• Etier flew out to rf.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 6th inning, Missouri
• Champagne grounded out to the pitcher.
• Garcia also grounded out to the pitcher...this time on a high-chopper.
• Schmidt popped out to 1b in shallow rf.
• 9 pitches (7 for strikes).
• Texas down 0-1.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Felts fell behind 0-2, worked the count full, and singled through the right side!
• Loy moved Felts to 2b on a 5-3 sac bunt.
• Third time in a row Texas got the lead man aboard and sac-bunted him to 2b. Hope the outcome is different this time!
• Payton lined out to 3b.
• Shepherd grounded out to ss. Sigh...same song, same verse.
• Texas down 0-1.
• 7th inning, Missouri
• Brown homered down the lf line (just fair).
• Turner popped out to 2b behind the mound.
• Santo lined out to cf. Fantastic diving catch by Walla!
• Jarvis popped out to ss near 3b.
• 12 pitches (7 for strikes).
• Texas down 0-2.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Weiss reached on a 1st-pitch bunt single down the 3b line! Beautiful.
• Montalbano reached on a 1-6 fielder's choice. He tried to bunt Weiss over but hit the ball too hard at the mound.
• Walsh flew out to lf at the wall.
• Walla struck out swinging.
• Geesh. If Texas could just get that second hit of the inning. Sigh...
• Texas down 0-2.
• 8th inning, Missouri
• Texas sent Andrew McKirahan (lhp) to the mound, replacing Milner. Milner's final numbers: 7 innings, 26 batters, 2 runs (both earned), 3 hits (including a double and homerun), 4 strikeouts, 2 walks, 87 pitches (52 for strikes).
• Thigpen flew out to cf.
• Mach popped out to 2b behind the 2b bag.
• Champagne grounded out to 3b.
• 9 pitches (6 for strikes).
• Texas down 0-2.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Missouri sends Dusty Ross (rhp) to the mound, replacing Fick.
• Etier singled through the left side!
• Kevin Lusson (pinch-hitting for Felts) reached on a 4-pitch walk.
• Loy advanced the runners on a 1-3 sac bunt.
• Missouri sent Phil McCormick (lhp, closer) to the mound, replacing Ross.
• Payton drew a 4-pitch walk to load the bases.
• Shepherd reached on a 6-4 fielder's choice (high chopper), scoring Etier and moving Lusson to 3b.
• Weiss struck out swinging. Damn.
• Texas down 1-2.
• 9th inning, Missouri
• Lusson stayed in the game as catcher. Corey Knebel (rhp) went to the mound, replacing McKirahan. McKirahan's final numbers: 1 inning, 3 batters, no runs, no hits, no nuthin, 9 pitches (6 for strikes).
• Garcia grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Schmidt struck out swinging. According to Craig Way...the 500th strikeout of the year for Texas pitchers.
• Brown drew a 7-pitch full-count walk.
• Coach Johnson made a trip to the mound...discussion with Knebel, Lusson, Shepherd, and Etier (late-comer to the discussion).
• With Turner at the plate, Brown stole 2b (2nd pitch to Turner).
• Turner drew a 5-pitch walk. Ouch.
• Texas sent Kendal Carrillo to the mound, replacing Knebel. Final numbers for Knebel: 0.2 innings, 4 batters, 1 strikeout, 2 walks, 19 pitches (9 or strikes).
• Santo reached on a fielder's choice to load the bases. Loy stopped the ball deep in the hole and his only play was at 3b. Sadly, Weiss was not on the bag and they did not get the force. Not sure they would've if Weiss had been on the bag but...
• Jarvis flew out to lf. Whew.
• 3 pitches (all strikes) for Carrillo.
• Texas down 1-2.
• 9th inning, Texas
• Alex Silver (pinch-hitting for Montalbano) struck out swinging. He tried to check his swing but...
• Walsh worked the count full and fouled off a couple of pitches before he also went down swinging.
• Walla reached on a full-count 7-pitch walk. Yikes.
• On the 4th pitch to Etier, Walla took off and stole 2b. The catcher tried to catch him and the ball went past the second baseman into cf allowing Walla to reach 3b on the error.
• Etier struck out swinging 2 pitches later. Damn.
• Texas loses 1-2.

The line:

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

Well, that sucked. Texas got what they needed out of their pitchers (Milner got saddled with the loss) but the bats just did not come through this evening. In his post-game comments on the radio, Coach Garrido said the Horns competed in the game....but sometimes balls just get hit right at people. He said the team wasn't flat but they just didn't get any of the breaks. The pitchers did a good job and the team gave themselves a chance to win the game. He added that it won't hurt the team to head on back to Austin and have an extra day to recover before getting ready for the Regional.

In the post-game news conference, Coach Garrido said that Missouri earned the victory. He added that the game reinforced the importance of the Big 12 tournament...since it will allow another Big 12 team in if Missouri goes on to win. He thought the quality of the pitching and defense by both teams was outstanding. It was just a good old-fashioned game where little things made the difference. Championships are decided by the unexpected. They expected this game to be high-scoring. He said the team has struggled against that type of pitcher (soft-throwing lefty) all year. He said the team was asked to take quality at-bats and they did that...with the exception of only one batter (who went unnamed). The team just ran into a really fine game played by Missouri who had few bad at-bats and capitalized on the opportunities they did have. Interesting side note: Augie said he would favor the change to the 32-regional format because all teams are built for 3-game series. Hoby Milner said he'll pitch whenever the team needs him...stating, out of the pen, whatever. Brandon Loy said it was just one of those games where you keep hitting balls right at people. They team is not going to let this game get them down, though.

Tomorrow we'll find out if the Horns will host a Regional. I'm sure they will. On Monday we find out if they're gonna be a National Seed. I think think they will. We'll also find out who's coming to play in Austin for the Regional on Monday. Hook 'em, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 7:27 PM