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Saturday - June 4, 2011

Austin Regional Tournament, Day 1

Game 1: Kent State at Texas State

It was a hot day for baseball. But, we got a good crowd in to watch the first game of the day. My guess is that we ended up with around 3,000 in the stands. Not at all bad for a Friday afternoon. Of course, it helps that San Marcos is so close to Austin. There were a lot of Texas State fans in the stands...as well as a small but vocal group of Kent State folks. There were quite a few Texas fans there as well. Anyway...

Kent State jumped to an early 1-run lead in the 2nd on a couple of singles sandwiched around a groundout that advanced the original batter to 2b. Texas State tied the game at 1-1 in the 6th with a 2-out single, a walk, and another single. The Golden Flashes (yep...really) answered with another run in the 7th (1-out double, walk, single). The Bobcats tied things up again at 2-2 in the 8th (double, ground out to advance the runner, sac fly). The game went into extra innings and in the top of the 11th, an error and wild pitch led to two runs for Kent State which Texas State was unable to match in the bottom of the inning. In the top of the 11th, David Lyon reached on a full-count walk. With pinch-hitter Jason Bagoly at the plate, the Texas State catcher (Andrew Stumph) tried to pickoff the runner at 1b. Alas, his throw sailed over the first baseman's head and went way down the rf line in foul territory. By the time the right fielder rounded it up. Lyon was standing on the 3b bag. A single to lf scored the run. Kent State sent Nick Hamilton in to pinch-run for Bagoly. Cody Koch advanced Hamilton to 2b on a sac bunt and Joe Koch grounded out to 1b (unassisted) to move him to 3b. A passed ball (on a 2-0 pitch in the dirt that got away from the catcher) scored Hamilton. It was a tough inning for the Texas State catcher. The Bobcats went down in order in the bottom of the inning to lose the game.

Texas State went with their ace, Carson Smith, and he did a good job, limiting Kent State to just 2 runs in 9 innings on 8 hits with 5 strikeouts and 1 walk. He had five 1-2-3 innings but did not get the run support he needed. The Bobcats only managed 4 hits against the Kent State starter, Kyle Hallock, who pitched 6.1 innings. They managed 1 hit against Justin Gill who threw the next 2.1 innings, and failed to get a single hit against Kyle McMillen who threw the final 2.1 innings for Kent State (although they did get two runners aboard via a walk and a hit batter). It seemed like everything they hit was right at a fielder. I felt their pain. It was very much like watching many of the games Texas played this year where they just could not get that timely hit.

So, Texas State moves on to the loser's bracket and Kent State moves to the winner's bracket. Note that Kent State gambled and saved their ace for their second game of the tournament. Hmmm...

Game 2: Princeton at Texas

Sam Stafford started for Texas and limited the Princeton Tigers to 1 run in 7 innings. Nathan Thornhill went in for the 8th and promptly gave up a single and double before he was lifted in favor of Hoby Milner. Milner gave up a single (plating the 2nd run of the day for Princeton) and a groundout (run #3). At that point Corey Knebel went in, threw 2 pitches, and got the batter to ground into a 4-6-3 double play. He allowed a lead-off single in the 9th but a couple of pop-ups and a groundout ended further threats from the Tigers. Offensively, the Horns jumped out to a 2-run lead in the 1st. Coach Garrido, apparently acting on one of those gut feelings he has, switched Tant Shepherd and Brandon Loy in the lineup. So, Shepherd hit in the #1 spot and Loy in the #3 spot. It seemed to pay off. Shepherd drew a full-count walk to start the game and moved to 2b on a sac bunt by Mark Payton. Loy drew a 5-pitch walk and they executed a double steal with Erich Weiss at the plate. Weiss grounded out to 2b, plating Shepherd and moving Loy to 3b. Loy then scored on a wild pitch. In the 5th inning (after having given up a run in the top of the inning), Jacob Felts reached on a 1-out single to lf. Shepherd then blasted a 2-run shot off the top of the wall in the Princeton bullpen to put the Horns up 4-1. The Horns went on to win 5-3 and advance to the winner's bracket. See my full game report for more details.

Elsewhere

In other (mostly Big 12-related) action around the country...

Posted by Joanna at 7:51 AM