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Monday - June 6, 2011

Austin Regional Tournament, Day 4

Championship Game: Kent State at Texas

Texas continued playing with purpose today and beat Kent State by a score of 5-0 to win the Austin Regional Championship. The offense (aided by a couple of Kent State errors) scored solo runs in the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, and 8th. Slow and steady wins the race? Sam Stafford got the nod and started on the mound. He did exactly what the Horns needed and threw 3.2 scoreless innings. He did give up a few hits and a walk. But, with a fine defensive effort behind him, he held Kent State's offense in check. Kendal Carrillo threw an inning. Hoby Milner threw 1.1. Cole Green threw the 7th. Yeah...really. Taylor Jungmann threw the 8th. Yeah...really, really! And, Corey Knebel threw the 9th. I have to admit that I was very surprised when I looked up at the start of the 7th and saw Green standing on the mound instead of Knebel. The surprise did not go away when it was Jungmann instead of Knebel for the 8th. But, Green only threw 9 pitches and Jungmann 13. And, they really looked happy to be out there...especially Cole Green. He was pumped up as he ran off the field after his inning. It was such a contrast to his usual deliberate walk off the mound. Fun city. Anyway, the Horns now need to get ready to play Arizona State in the Super Regional this weekend. This Texas team really seems to have turned a corner. If they keep playing the way they did over the last couple of days, they will be in Omaha in a couple of weeks. Hook 'em, Horns!

Elsewhere

In other action...

• College Station Regional - The final game between A&M and Arizona was postponed due to rain and will be played tomorrow at 12:30.
• Ft. Worth Regional - Dallas Baptist jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the top of the first. It looked like it was gonna be a cake walk. But then they gave up a grand slam in the bottom of the inning. Yikes! They eventually held off a surging Oral Roberts team and won 11-9.
• Houston Regional - Oh. My. Goodness. Baylor scored 6 in the 4th to take a commanding 6-1 lead over Cal. And, they scored another in the 6th and one more in the 9th. Cal started fighting back, though, and scored 2 in the 6th and 2 more in the 8th. Leading 8-5 going into the bottom of the 9th, things were looking pretty good for Baylor. Sadly, Baylor imploded and gave up a four-spot to lose the game 8-9. This very dry recap from the Cal Athletics web site does not do any justice at all to how exciting that 9th inning was. That is a crying shame. It's almost like the writer's in cahoots with whoever it was that was trying to get rid of Cal baseball. Can you be any less supportive of your team? Wow. Let's see...go read this story instead. It'll give you a much better feel for how things went. Cal wins the Houston Regional and will face Dallas Baptist in a Super Regional.

Where will the Super Regional between Dallas Baptist and Cal be played? Dunno. It sounded like they had a pretty good crowd at TCU. Maybe the Frogs could host it? Heh. I read at some point this evening that Dallas Baptist and Oral Roberts were preferred as hosts over Cal in the event that Cal won the Houston Regional since Cal does not have lights at their stadium. Oh well. 'Guess we'll find out soon enough.

So, sadly, Baylor is out...leaving only two Big 12 teams still in contention. And, we won't know about the Aggies until late tomorrow afternoon.

In other (better...in some ways) news, tonight marked the start of the 2011 MLB draft. And...Taylor Jungmann was selected 12th overall by the Brewers. Congratulations, Taylor! Hook 'em, Horns!

[So...that was the good news.] The not as good news (although, I'm sure it's great news for the players in question), two Texas signees were also drafted in the first round: (1) Dylan Bundy, 4th overall by the Orioles, and (2) Blake Swihart, 26th overall by the Red Sox.

UPDATE (Tuesday afternoon). Texas A&M beat Arizona 3-0 on Tuesday to win the College Station Regional. They're now headed to Tallahassee Super Regional where they'll face Florida State (National Seed #5). Congrats to the Aggies.

And, the Super Regional between Cal and Dallas Baptist will be played on the campus of UC-Santa Barbara. I have to say I'm not too terribly surprised that they picked a spot in California. Before that selection, Austin was the westernmost Super Regional and we're in the Central Time Zone. I'm sure ESPN really wanted some games to be played on the West Coast.

Posted by Joanna at 11:45 PM