Sam Houston State Game

[FWHORN]

Early start time and game is in bottom of third with Horns trailing 2-0 and two outs.

SHSU got their runs in the second on a double, triple and ground out.

Cameron Cox started for Horns and those are only two hits he has given up but they were costly.

 

[FWHORN]

Johnson drew a walk with two outs in third to become first baserunner for Horns but was caught stealing. SHSU gets a 2 out home run in the fourth to up their lead to 3-0.

 

[FWHORN]

Bottom Four

Moynihan lines out to first base;
Stell flied out to Center Field;
Weiss strikes ou.

$ full done and Horns trail 3-0. They have yet to get a hit.

 

[NBHorn7]

Even the audio feed went out from texassports.
Not a good start for anybody it seems.

 

[FWHORN]

Urban came on to pitch the fifth. he gave up two hits but SHSU stranded runners at second and third.

Bottom Five

Payton gets lead off hit and is advanced to second on SAC bunt.

 

[FWHORN]

McElroy flies out to right;
Marlow flies out to left to end inning.

Not sure I care for a SAC bunt free out down three in the fifth inning when you have all of one hit in the game. Free out when getting at bats has been at a premium.

 

[FWHORN]

Duke comes on to pitch the sixth inning for the Horns. He gives up a two out walk but induces a fly out to right to end inning. 5.5 done and Texas trails 3-0.

Bats need to wake up!

 

[FWHORN]

Bottom Six

Montalbano flies out to left;
Johnson singles to left for Horns second hit of game;
Moynihan Triples scoring Johnson for Horns first run

 

[FWHORN]

Stell grounds out to short scoring Moynihan and cutting lead to 3-2 with two outs.

 

[FWHORN]

Weiss gets an infield single chasing the SHSU starter and Payton follows with another single to put runners on first and second with two outs.

Hinojosa flies out to right though and ends threat.

6 full done 3-2 SHSU.

 

[FWHORN]

And SHSU gets the runs right back in the seventh as Duke gives up two hits that score one and then is replaced by Marlow who gives up a third hit that scores the second run.

5-2 SHSU at the seventh inning stretch.

 

[FWHORN]

Bottom Seven

McElroy K's;
Marlow grounds out to the pitcher;
Montalbano walks;
Johnson K's.

7 full done and Texas trails 5-2

 

[FWHORN]

Marlow gets a quick 1-2-3 inning in the top of the 8th. Horns need to get some offense with just 6 outs left.

 

[NBHorn7]

I don't like sac bunting when we are behind multiple
runs halfway through the game. We need to come
into these midweek games with a different type of
attitude. We need to expect to have to score more
with the midweek starters going on the mound.

We are still a hitting challenged team with not much power. Without the opposition supplying
walks and errors we can't afford to be giving up
outs when we are behind multiple runs in a game.

At least the audio feed came back up finally.

 

[FWHORN]

Bottom Eight

Steinhagen pinch hits for Moynihan and gets a single;
Stell K's'
Weiss K's, Hall who ran for Steinhagen is on second advancing on wild pitch;
Payton with RBI Triple makes it 5-3

 

[FWHORN]

Third pitcher of night is now on for SHSU

Hinojosa flies out to center to end threat.

Texas gets one run back but still trails 5-3 after 8 full innings.

 

[FWHORN]

Hollingsworth on to pitch the ninth and he gets a quick 1-2-3 inning.

Horns with three outs left to try and salvage the game down 5-3 headed to bottom of ninth.

 

[FWHORN]

Bottom Nine

McElroy K's;
Marlow grounds out to short;
Montalbano grounds out to short.

Horns lose 5-3. Not a good early season loss even if it is midweek game. This makes the series in Palo Alto all the more important. It was losses like this that kept Texas out of the tournament last year. That is the thing about these mid week games, they wont get you into the tournament but they can darn sure keep you out.

 

[NBHorn7]

Losing these two games at home against non ranked teams in the non conference does affect your RPI more than it used to.

I think Hollingsworth or Duke have earned a midweek start on the hill.

 

[centexorange]

This makes me uneasy.. Young pitching does not account for lack of output at the plate. Granted in Sam Houstons losses it was the walks that killed them not the hits. Maybe there getting it togther..

 

[s102r18]

Relax. This was not a typical feeble mid-week opponent.

In reply to:

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[NBHorn7]

We are hitting 300 against weak to mediocre pitching
and just hitting a lot of singles with a very few extra
base hits and no home runs. The best example of
this is having one of the best lead off hitters in college baseball, Payton having to hit clean up because he is one of the few hitters with some pop in his bat.

The competition and the pitching will get much better as the season progresses to the conference
schedule.

The hitting has been a problem for several years now and continues as we struggle to score runs and
strand runner after runner in scoring position.

We relaxed our way right out of the playoffs last
season. Sam Houston with their win over us is now
4-4 for the season. Every game is tight because of our lack of hitting. The only exception being one game where a bad Nebraska team disintegrated in
the late innings.

For several seasons supposedly we have this player or that player coming in with all this power, yet it
never materializes. I would love to relax, but reality tells me otherwise. We either win with great
pitching for the most part or lose. This puts a lot
of pressure on virtually every pitch of each game.

 

[NBHorn7]

The updated figures are we are now hitting .256 as a team.

We have no homers in 338 at bats for a slugging % of .310.

We have 38 walks vs. 66 strike outs.

Many base running mistakes and stranded too many when
we do get runners on.

We have 20 stolen bases and sometimes I think this would
be a better choice than the sac bunt depending on who the
runner is.