Shriners Classic.............

Best executed squeeze play I can recall. For the wrong team…

UCLA is a lot like us—good control pitchers, disciplined when at bat—driving up the pitch count of the opposing starting pitcher, some small ball here and there, sound fielding.

Can’t win em all…

We get one last chance.
 
Horns lose 5-1. Tough loss but frankly this loss was one of those where darn near everything set up for it to happen. That included back to back late night high intensity CWS style games against ranked SEC teams the last two days followed by an afternoon start today, to the emotional high of a giant game in front of a huge crowd last night and the let down that had to follow, to the starter being scratched and an unexpected bullpen day. UCLA is a good team and in a three game set Texas would take 2 of 3 most of the time and today was that 1 out of 3 games, If you had told me three weeks ago before the opener against Rice that Texas would be 11-1 at this point I would have taken it without a seconds hesitation. Similarly the realistic goal this weekend was to win two and Texas did.

The Horns have a pair of midweek games with a home and home against Texas State this week and then the South Carolina trip for five on the road so the schedule continues to challenge but this team seems more than up for it.

Hopefully whatever the issue was with Witt it is fixed before they head off to Columbia.
 
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I just got home from the game. UCLA was very aggressive at the plate, and they came out swinging from the first inning. They were moving runners with hits and sacrifice flies. Then there was the squeeze play for a little salt in the wound.

Texas did good by beating two good teams and I thought the way they handled LSU was quite impressive.
 
I guess Coach wanted to know how deep we really are at pitcher today. Pretty good as long as we stay injury free.
3 starters then;
Nixon
Harrison
Lucas
after that it is very sketchy.
 
Going 2-1 against 3 ranked opponents this weekend was a reasonable expectation, although like everyone else I would have guessed that Tennessee or LSU would have been the one to hand us a loss. I almost prefer it working out the way it did, because the first two games felt like playoff games and the game today felt like an anomaly.
 
Chop said:
Aha!!! Ardoin isn’t catching for us today. It’s Schusler. And he just got a passed ball resulting in a run.

I’m not saying Ardoin would have thrown out Oyama at 2nd (he would have at least made it a close play), but that dude wouldn’t have taken 3rd on Silas.
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Sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with the catcher if the pitcher takes 3 seconds to get the ball to home plate.
 
Like someone said above, we weren't going undefeated, this UCLA team is actually quite talented and dangerous. I view this as a quality loss if there is such a thing, there were a lot of learning lessons last night, too many to really list but Schuessler needs to clean up his act if he wants to play, Labarron needs to shorten his delivery with runners on base and Daniel Blair was a surprisingly effective pitcher last night. And I'm concerned that it doesn't seem we have a clutch hitter, no Dustin Mejeski, no Seth Johnson, too many strike outs.
Although next year is next year, I'm concerned about our pitching next year.
 
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Creek said:
I guess Coach wanted to know how deep we really are at pitcher today. Pretty good as long as we stay injury free.
3 starters then;
Nixon
Harrison
Lucas
after that it is very sketchy.
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Add Blair to the solid reliever list.
 
aUTfan said:
Sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with the catcher if the pitcher takes 3 seconds to get the ball to home plate.
Click to expand...

With that much time the only thing a catcher can't get to is being too high to catch. 95%+ of the time at the collegiate and higher levels the catcher should block or catch wild pitches. They are almost always within reach and reaction time. Its not a "passed ball" if its deemed the catcher couldn't get to it.
 
Vol Horn 4 Life said:
95%+ of the time at the collegiate and higher levels the catcher should block or catch wild pitches. They are almost always within reach and reaction time.
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Yep. Ardoin is an excellent defensive catcher--something that often goes unappreciated. He also frames the ball well so we're more likely to get strike calls where the pitch is on the corner. UCLA's catcher was quite adept at this skill too.
 
Chop said:
Yep. Ardoin is an excellent defensive catcher--something that often goes unappreciated. He also frames the ball well so we're more likely to get strike calls where the pitch is on the corner. UCLA's catcher was quite adept at this skill too.
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Three things it seems Texas always has is a good catcher, good pitching and great defenders. We've been blessed for decades in those categories. Ardoin is part of a long list of great catchers here and he definitely deserves to be on that list.
 
Also, going back to the Tennessee game, I was watching it, that freshman did great until i heard a familiar name, Frank Anderson, the pitching coach. I didn't know he was there, I regard him as the top pitching coach in the country. As the season wears on, they are going to get stronger and we will see them again. I'm not sure what Ole Miss has but that will be a good game to watch. Keep an eye on Tennessee.
 
aUTfan said:
Also, going back to the Tennessee game, I was watching it, that freshman did great until i heard a familiar name, Frank Anderson, the pitching coach. I didn't know he was there, I regard him as the top pitching coach in the country. As the season wears on, they are going to get stronger and we will see them again. I'm not sure what Ole Miss has but that will be a good game to watch. Keep an eye on Tennessee.
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:tenn:
Here's another thing with Tenn: Burns isn't even their #1 pitcher; their #1 pitcher was out hurt, so we got Burns--who mowed us down for around 5 innings with 100 mph stuff, precise control, and nasty movement. With Burns and another starter presumably as good as Burns--they're neck and neck with us for the top starting pitching staff in the country. Tenn's pen, however, looked a bit spotty--that may be their Achilles heel.

:ucla:
UCLA's pen looked pretty darn solid. And they've got that 4'9" or so leadoff batter who is 11 for 11 in stolen bases this year--it's almost not fair.
 
Chop said:
:tenn:
Here's another thing with Tenn: Burns isn't even their #1 pitcher; their #1 pitcher was out hurt, so we got Burns--who mowed us down for around 5 innings with 100 mph stuff, precise control, and nasty movement. With Burns and another starter presumably as good as Burns--they're neck and neck with us for the top starting pitching staff in the country. Tenn's pen, however, looked a bit spotty--that may be their Achilles heel.

:ucla:
UCLA's pen looked pretty darn solid. And they've got that 4'9" or so leadoff batter who is 11 for 11 in stolen bases this year--it's almost not fair.
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re: Tennessee, thats pretty scary.

Completely agree with all this and another little insight into my thoughts, California (state of) is equal to if not a little more deep than Texas (state of) on available quality hitters and quality pitchers, no other state comes close. So definitely keep your eye on any quality California teams, I noticed Long Beach St. make a little noise, they are worth watching as well as Stanford.
 
aUTfan said:
re: Tennessee, thats pretty scary.

Completely agree with all this and another little insight into my thoughts, California (state of) is equal to if not a little more deep than Texas (state of) on available quality hitters and quality pitchers, no other state comes close. So definitely keep your eye on any quality California teams, I noticed Long Beach St. make a little noise, they are worth watching as well as Stanford.
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I think Texas, as a state, has just now caught up with California for high school baseball. Or we're getting pretty close.

I remember once I was at a sports bar in California in real early September when there were college football games going on, including PAC 10 games. But the people there would rather watch regular season Dodgers and Padres games than college football?!?!?!? At least one of those teams wasn't even in the playoff race. I thought to myself: WTF is wrong with these people? They just seem to care more about baseball in California, and in Florida. Now, I really like college baseball, but regular season MLB on tv over college football? Live in-person at the MLB game--yeah you bet, but watching a random Rangers or Astros game on tv over a UT, Tech, or TCU football game? Different tastes I guess. (Remember, those people bbq using a tri-tip/Santa Maria cut of beef)

All that being said, the Greater Houston area has long produced a lot of good pitchers.
 
Chop said:
I think Texas, as a state, has just now caught up with California for high school baseball. Or we're getting pretty close.

I remember once I was at a sports bar in California in real early September when there were college football games going on, including PAC 10 games. But the people there would rather watch regular season Dodgers and Padres games than college football?!?!?!? At least one of those teams wasn't even in the playoff race. I thought to myself: WTF is wrong with these people? They just seem to care more about baseball in California, and in Florida. Now, I really like college baseball, but regular season MLB on tv over college football? Live in-person at the MLB game--yeah you bet, but watching a random Rangers or Astros game on tv over a UT, Tech, or TCU football game? Different tastes I guess. (Remember, those people bbq using a tri-tip/Santa Maria cut of beef)

All that being said, the Greater Houston area has long produced a lot of good pitchers.
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My ex-wife is from San Diego and her father was a huge Padre and Chargers fan, he would rather watch the pros over anything else. It is a strange phenomenon that I've noticed as well, definitely way more pro baseball fans out that way.

oh and funny story, I grew up on a farm, we raised our own beef, vegetables etc. and I never even heard of tri-tip till I met californian's and that may be strange, maybe its more common than I knew but its just not a term we used any where in the country.
 
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