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Saturday - June 18, 2011

Game 67: Texas at Florida (College World Series)

Game 2 of the 2011 College World Series. Texas played visitor to Florida. I watched on TV and here's how things played out. And, yes...I know, most of you watched the game. Not sure what's up here...other than just to have it all documented.

The lineups:

Texas		Florida
Tant Shepherd (1b) Mark Payton (rf) Brandon Loy (ss) Erich Weiss (3b) Paul Montalbano (cf) Jonathan Walsh (lf) Kevin Lusson (dh) Jacob Felts (c) Jordan Etier (2b)		Nolan Fontana (ss) Bryson Smith (cf) Preson Tucker (1b) Mike Zunino (c) Brian Johnson (dh) Josh Adams (2b) Tyler Thompson (lf) Daniel Pigott (rf) Cody Dent (3b)

Play by play:

• 1st inning, Texas
• Hudson Randall (rhp) on the mound for Florida.
• Shepherd struck out swinging.
• Payton popped out to lf.
• Loy grounded a single past the ss into cf.
• Weiss lined out to rf.
• 1st inning, Florida
• Taylor Jungmann (rhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Fontana flew out to lf.
• Smith drew a 5-pitch walk.
• Tucker lined out to cf. Montalbano made a nice sliding catch as he charged in on the ball.
• Zunino struck out swinging.
• 16 pitches (9 for strikes).
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Montalbano lined out to rf.
• Walsh popped out to 3b in foul territory. Damn.
• Lusson grounded out to 1b (p covered bag).
• 2nd inning, Florida
• Johnson grounded out to 2b.
• Adams grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Thompson grounded out to the pitcher.
• 8 pitches (6 for strikes).
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Felts reached on an error by the ss. The ball went through his legs. Huh.
• Etier reached on an error by 1b. Sac bunt attempt. The first baseman bobbled the ball as he fielded and then threw high to 2b covering the bag. Felts moved up to 2b on the sac.
• Shepherd lined a single into right center, scoring Felts and moving Etier to 3b!
• Payton hit a sac fly to lf, scoring Etier.
• With Loy at the plate, Shepherd stole 2b. He looked safe but on the super slow-mo replay, it turned out he was actually out by about 2 inches. Yikes!
• Loy singled through the right side, moving Shepherd to 3b.
• Insert visit to the mound.
• Weiss hit a sac fly to lf, scoring Shepherd. Loy remained at 1b.
• Montalbano grounded out to ss.
• Texas up 3-0!
• 3rd inning, Florida
• Pigott drew a 4-pitch walk. Yeah, really.
• After the 1st-pitch ball to Dent, Coach Johnson made a visit to the mound.
• Dent drew a 5-pitch walk. Wow.
• Fontana tried to bunt down the 3b line but Jungmann made a great defensive play to barehand the ball and throw to 3b to get the lead runner! Really nice play by Jungmann. Dent moved up to 2b.
• Smith singled through the right side, scoring Dent and moving Fontana to 3b.
• Smith moved up to 2b on a wild pitch (?) when the ball got away from Felts with Tucker at the plate.
• Fontana scored and Smith moved to 3b on a passed ball with Tucker at the plate. Wow. The ball was inside and went off Felts' glove to the wall on the 1b side of the diamond.
• Tucker struck out swinging. Whew.
• Zunino also struck out swinging. Double whew.
• 23 pitches (12 for strikes).
• Texas up 3-2.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Walsh struck out swinging.
• Lusson flew out on a soft liner to ss. Nicely timed leap by the ss to rob Walsh of a bloop single.
• Felts popped out to shallow cf.
• Texas up 3-2.
• 4th inning, Florida
• Johnson grounded out to ss. Nice range by Loy to field behind 2b and throw to 1b with lots of time to spare.
• Adams grounded out to ss. Another nice play by loy...showing even further range...to snag the ball on the 1b side of 2b and throw in stride. Really nice!
• Thompson drew a 5-pitch walk. Wow. Four walks for Jungmann in 4 innings.
• With Pigott at the plate, Thompson moved up to 2b on a wild pitch.
• Pigott lined a double over the right fielder, scoring Thompson.
• Dent doubled down the lf line, scoring Pigott. Get this: his first extra-base hit of the year. Of course it was.
• After first 2 pitches to Fontana (2 balls), Coach Johnson made another visit to the mound.
• Dent was caught stealing (2-5) as he tried to take 3b on a ball that got away from Felts with Fontana at the plate. Yes!
• 19 pitches (8 for strikes).
• Texas down 3-4.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Etier lined out to right center. Nice run by cf to make the play.
• Shepherd grounded out to ss.
• Payton struck out swinging.
• Texas down 3-4.
• 5th inning, Florida
• Fontana grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Smith was hit by a pitch (off his sleeve...would've been ball 4).
• Texas sent Hoby Milner (lhp) to the mound, replacing Jungmann. So sad. Jungmann just did not have it going on today. I sure hope the offense rebounds and wins this thing!
• Tucker doubled to right-center, scoring Smith.
• Zunino was intentionally walked. Sigh. I hate intentional walks.
• Johnson flew out to cf. Tucker tagged and moved up to 3b. Zunino stayed at 1b.
• Texas sent Kendal Carrillo (rhp) to the mound, replacing Milner.
• Adams flew out to lf.
• Final numbers for Jungmann (by my count): 4.1 innings, 20 batters, 5 runs (4 earned), 3 hits (2 doubles, 1 single), 3 strikeouts, 4 walks, 1 hit batter, 2 wild pitches, 75 pitches (39 for strikes). Sad.
• Milner's final numbers: 0.1 innings, no runs, 1 hit (double), 1 walk (intentional), 10 pitches (3 for strikes).
• 2 pitches (2 for strikes) for Carrillo.
• Texas down 3-5.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Loy flew out to cf.
• Weiss struck out swinging.
• Montalbano grounded out to ss.
• Texas down 3-5.
• 6th inning, Florida
• Thompson grounded out to 1b (p covered the bag). Nice diving stop by Shepherd to his right.
• Pigott grounded out to 2b.
• Dent struck out swinging. Felts could not hold onto the ball so had to throw down to 1b to complete the out.
• 6 pitches (5 for strikes).
• Texas down 3-5.
• 7th inning, Texas
• Walsh struck out looking.
• Lusson grounded out to 2b.
• Felts singled up the middle.
• Etier fouled a ball of his foot that then glanced off his helmet and hit him in his right eye. Yikes! He went on to double into the lf corner (!) to score Felts! Nice.
• Florida sent Greg Larson (rhp) to the mound, replacing Randall.
• Shepherd struck out looking.
• Texas down 4-5.
• 7th inning, Florida
• Texas sent Andrew McKirahan (lhp) to the mound, replacing Carrillo.
• Fontana lined out to lf.
• Smith drew a 5-pitch walk.
• After a 1st-pitch ball to Tucker, Coach Johnson made a visit to the mound.
• Tucker reached on a weird play. He hit a ball to 1b on a pitch that was called a balk. Shepherd fielded the ball, was about to throw to 2b, heard the balk call, and "ate" the ball. Tucker ran to 1b. The batter was awarded 2b on the balk. Since the ball was hit into play, it was "live" and Tucker was awarded 1b on the fielder's choice. Bizarro.
• Texas sent Nathan Thornhill (rhp) to the mound, replacing McKirahan.
• Zunino lined out to cf.
• Johnson doubled off the top of the wall, scoring Smith and Tucker. In the replay it looked like the ball actually hit off the top of the wall in right-center for a homerun.
• Adams struck out swinging.
• Carrillo's final numbers: 1.1 innings, 4 batters, no runs, no hits, 1 strikeout, 8 pitches (7 for strikes).
• McKirahan's final numbers: 0.1 innings, 3 batters, 2 runs (both earned), 1 walk, 1 balk, 13 pitches (5 for strikes)...(or 12 pitches (4 for strikes) if the balk pitch is not counted...not sure since the ball went live).
• 10 pitches (7 for strikes) for Thornhill.
• Texas down 4-7. Ugh.
• 8th inning, Texas
• Florida sent Nick Maronde (lhp) to the mound, replacing Larson.
• Payton struck out looking.
• Loy struck out swinging.
• Weiss grounded out to 1b unassisted. Close play at the bag.
• Texas down 4-7.
• 8th inning, Florida
• Thompson singled through the right side.
• Pigott singled over 3b down the lf line, moving Thompson to 2b.
• Texas sent Corey Knebel (rhp) to the mound, replacing Thornhill.
• Dent bunted a 3rd strike foul for a strikeout. Huh.
• Fontana flew out to cf.
• Smith lined a single into cf, scoring Thompson. Pigott moved up to 3b on the throw home.
• Tucker grounded out to 1b (unassisted).
• Thornhill's final numbers: 0.2 innings, 5 batters, 1 run (earned), 3 hits (1 double, 2 singles), 1 strikeout, 14 pitches (10 for strikes).
• 9 pitches (7 for strikes) for Knebel.
• Texas down 4-8.
• 9th inning, Texas
• Montalbano struck out swinging (full count).
• Walsh grounded out to 3b.
• Lusson flew out to lf.
• Texas loses 4-8.

Final numbers for Knebel: 1 inning, 4 batters, no runs, 1 hit (single), 1 strikeout, 9 pitches (7 for strikes).

Taylor Jungmann took his 3rd loss of the post-season in as many chances. Along with his 3rd loss of the year. So hard to believe. And, very sad.

Here's the line (from GameTracker):

Some of the post-game conference comments (please note these are very paraphrased):

• Coach Garrido's opening statement: Texas played a below-average game against a very good team who took advantage of all the things Texas did wrong.
• Jungmann: Felt he got out of rhythm in the 3rd but felt he had decent command until then.
• Coach Garrido: Texas has been pretty good in elimination games and here they are again. The players are very intelligent. They all know they played a below-average game. They know it's been done before (coming out of the loser's bracket to win the CWS) and they have that hope so they're still in it and can fight their way back.
• Loy: The team has a lot of fight and will to win. Obviously it's tough to fight from behind and they have to make the best of it. They have an opportunity in front of them and are not going to back down.
• Etier: They need to stay together as a team and pick each other up and good things will happen.
• Jungmann (asked if his struggles are physical or mechanical): Thinks maybe mechanically things are going wrong down the stretch. Things have been looking good in the bullpen but aren't translating to the field. If you fall behind in counts like he did today, good teams are going to take advantage of it.
• Coach Garrido (asked what Randall did to beat Texas): Once Randall got the lead back, he settled down and became more competitive and found his rhythm. They had him off-balance but his team got him back within one and then when they got a lead, he got momentum and confidence and took charge of the game.
• Loy: took the blame for not being on the bag at the balk call...thus not giving Shepherd someone to throw the ball to.

That last comment from Loy is interesting. I think the result still would've been balk plus fielder's choice if Shepherd had thrown to 2b. He needed to get the batter out to make him go back to the plate. I don't think he really had a chance to make the out at 1b once he made the initial move to try for the out at 2b...he was pretty far off the bag by then.

Texas will now play North Carolina in an elimination game on Monday at 1 o'clock. (Florida and Vanderbilt play at 6 o'clock that evening.)

Hook 'em, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 10:26 PM