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Sunday - February 19, 2012

Game 1: Duke at Texas

Opening Day of the 2012 season was postponed due to rain. The game was originally scheduled for a Friday evening start but was pushed back to 2 o'clock on Saturday...and rescheduled as a 7-inning first game of a double header. It was wet and cold all afternoon. And, we had a 30-minute (or so, I forgot to pay attention) delay between the top and bottom of the 6th inning. But, Texas prevailed to beat Duke 4-0 behind the bat of Freshman Brooks Marlow. Anyone know if he was named after Brooks Kieschnick? I've been wondering that since I first saw his name mentioned as a UT recruit. Regardless, the young man hit two home runs on the day. The first was a solo shot that went over the rf fence into the Texas bullpen to score the first run of the day and the second, on his next at-bat, went over the 375 sign in rf to score two more runs. Gorgeous.

Nathan Thornhill got the nod for Texas on the mound and earned his first win of the year. He went 5 innings, faced 18 batters, gave up 3 singles, walked 1, and struck out 2 by my count. Corey Knebel came on for the 6th and 7th and earned his first save of the year. He faced one over the minimum when a player reached on an error and struck out 2.

I got to the game late...just as the bottom of the 1st was starting. It had been raining pretty heavily at my house and I just didn't believe the game would start on time so I took my time hitting the road. Oops.

There's an addition to the scoreboard capabilities at the field. They've set up a new ginormous video screen beyond the rf fence. I took this photo with my phone in the 2nd inning. Mark Payton at the plate with Bellow at 2b and Summers at 1b. Look at those clouds. Also, look at that screen. I'm curious to see how it holds up in the sun.

Anyway...on to the nitty-gritty...

The lineups:

Duke		Texas
Matt Berezo (ss) Jeff Kremer (dh) Will Piwnica-Worms (cf) Jordan Betts (3b) Mike Rosenfeld (c) Andy Perez (1b) Andrew Istler (rf) Angelo LaBruna (2b) Anthony D'Alessandro (lf)		Mark Payton (rf) Tim Maitland (cf) Erich Weiss (3b) Jonathan Walsh (lf) Landon Steinhagen (dh) Brooks Marlow (2b) Jacob Felts (c) Kirby Bellow (1b) Christian Summers (ss)

The line:

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Visitor	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1
Home	0	0	0	1	2	1	-	4	5	1

Play by play:

• 1st inning, Duke
• Milner (rhp) on the mound for Texas.
• Berezo, Kremer, and Piwnica-Worms all flew out. I missed it, though, so you get no details. Apologies.
• 1st inning, Texas
• Stroman (rhp) on the mound for Duke.
• Payton grounded out to 2b.
• Maitland singled into lf.
• Weiss reached on a fielder's choice. He hit a grounder to 1b who tried to get the lead runner at 2b. Alas, the ss missed the throw. Maitland safe at 2b. The throw was a little high but the ss should've had it. E6.
• Walsh popped out to ss.
• Steinhagen grounded out to ss.
• 2nd inning, Duke
• Betts singled into lf.
• Rosenfeld grounded into a nice 6-4-3 double play.
• Perez grounded out to 3b.
• 2nd inning, Texas
• Marlow struck out swinging. Such a sad start for the freshman. Sigh... Heh heh.
• Felts drew a 5-pitch walk.
• Bellow reached on a 4-6 fielder's choice. The double-play relay throw from ss to 1b was high or that would've been the end of the inning.
• Summers drew a full-count walk, moving Bellow to 2b.
• Payton popped out to cf.
• 3rd inning, Duke
• Istler popped out to 1b in foul territory. Nice play by Bellow.
• LaBruna drew a 5-pitch walk.
• D'Alessandro reached on a 6-4 fielder's choice.
• Berezo hit into another 6-4 fielder's choice.
• 3rd inning, Texas
• Maitland was hit on his right knee by a hard full-count pitch. Ouch. He seemed okay but I bet he's got a heck of a bruise today.
• Weiss moved Maitland to 2b on a nice 3-4 sac bunt down the 1b line.
• Walsh drew a 7-pitch full-count walk.
• Steinhagen grounded into a 5-3 double play. The third baseman fielded the ball near 3b, stepped on it for the first out, and then threw to 1b to complete the DP. Shucks.
• 4th inning, Duke
• Kremer popped out to ss.
• Piwnica-Worms struck out swinging.
• Betts grounded out to 2b.
• 4th inning, Texas
• Marlow started things off nicely by depositing a 2-1 pitch into the Texas bullpen. First hit as a Longhorn. Purty!
• Felts grounded out to 2b.
• Bellow singled through the left side.
• Summers struck out looking (2-2 count).
• Payton drew a 5-pitch walk.
• After a visit to the mound, Mailand drew a 7-pitch walk, moving Payton to 2b.
• Alas, Weiss popped out to 2b to end the inning.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 5th inning, Duke
• Rosenfeld flew out to cf.
• Perez struck out swinging.
• Istler singled through the left side.
• LaBruna singled into rf, moving Istler to 2b.
• Which prompted a visit to the mound by Skip Johnson.
• D'Alessandro grounded out to 2b. Crisis averted.
• Texas up 1-0.
• 5th inning, Texas
• Walsh flew out to rf.
• Steinhagen drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Marlow hit the third pitch he saw over the 375 sign in rf. Oh. My. Goodness. What fun. I'm guessing that's the first time a player at UT had his first two career hits go for home runs. What do you think?
• Felts grounded out to 2b.
• Bellow struck out swinging.
• Texas up 3-0.
• 6th inning, Duke
• Texas sent Corey Knebel (rhp) to the mound, replacing Thornhill.
• Berezo flew out to cf.
• Kremer reached on an error by ss. I cannot, for the life of me, remember the details of the error. Hmmm...
• Piwnica-Worms appeared to ground out on a high-bouncer to the pitcher. But then he was called back to the plate and Kremer was sent to 2b. What???? Turns out a balk was called on Knebel. I did not see the call (nor did anyone around me) and we were all very puzzled. Foul ball that somehow made it to the pitcher? Why's the runner at 2b? We eventually figured out the call but it was a confusing couple of minutes.
• Piwnica-Worms went on to fly ou to rf.
• Betts struck out looking.
• Texas up 3-0.
• 6th inning, Texas
• Insert 30-minute (or so) rain delay.
• Duke sent Chase Bebout (rhp) to the mound, replacing Stroman.
• Bebout promptly threw 6 balls in a row.
• Summers drew a 4-pitch walk.
• Payton worked the count full and then hit a triple off the top of the fence in the rf/cf corner, scoring Summers. Nice!
• Maitland struck out swinging.
• Weiss was hit by a pitch, putting runners at the corners.
• Walsh popped out to ss.
• Steinhagen lined out to rf.
• Texas up 4-0.
• 7th inning, Duke
• Rosenfeld struck out swinging.
• Perez grounded out to 2b.
• Istler grounded out to 1b (unassisted) to end the game.
• Texas wins 4-0.

Hook 'em, Horns!

Posted by Joanna at 10:50 AM