Texas v Tech Game Two

[FWHORN]

2 p.m. start today but I am in and out and since didnt start thread last night and Texas lost, am starting it today though someone needs to do the updates.

Dillon Peters on mound for Horns against Masik for Tech who is a top 30 prospect according to Baseball America and against whom runs will be at a premium. Of course with this Texas offense and pretty much every division one pitcher, runs are at a premium.

 

[NBHorn7]

Peters on the hill for Texas.
Ground ball to second for out one.
Then a single to left, but he is picked off first before the next pitch.
A comebacker to Peters ends the inning.

Texas coming to bat against Masek the Tech ace.
Need to do some work at the plate today no matter who is
pitching against us.

 

[FWHORN]

More offense in first inning so far than all of last night combined. Good start so far.

 

[NBHorn7]

Hall leads off with a solid single to left.
Stell K's as Hall steals second.

That's the running game I was talking about yesterday.

Weis single up the middle to score Hall and Texas leads 1-0.
Would have liked this aggressiveness yesterday.

Payton bloops a single to left to put runners on first and second.

Hinojosa grounds into a 4-6-3 double play to end the rally and
the inning.

Texas leads 1-0 after an inning. It's the first earned run off Masek this season.

Had him on the ropes there kind of, hope we can continue with the hitting.

 

[NBHorn7]

Peters retires Tech in order on two ground balls and a K.

Texas leads 1-0 to the bottom of the second.

 

[NBHorn7]

Johnson leads off with a walk.
Masek is not sharp right now and we need to take advantage.

Carter fouls out to the first baseman on a bad pitch.
Masek is not in the strike zone even the dp ball hit by C.J. was
out of the zone on a 2-0 count.

Montalbano fouls out to the second baseman for out #2.

Johnson steals second, love the running game.

Marlow walks as Masek continues to struggle with control.
Hall K's swinging and more runners left on base.

Texas leads 1-0 after two complete.

 

[FWHORN]

Swinging at a lot of bad pitches, good to be aggressive but need to channel it better.

Peters struggling here.

 

[NBHorn7]

Peters walks the lead off batter for Tech to put a man on.
Peters hits the next batter on a 1-2 count to put runners on first and second.
Nine hole hitter up to bunt most likely now as Skip comes out to talk.

Batter fakes the bunt and then hits a little chopper back to Peters that serves the same purpose as the runners move up on the play.

Now another little chopped ball out in front of the plate scores a run as Montalbano comes out to make the play.

Runner on third with two outs with the game tied now at 1.

Ground out to Carter ends the inning.

Tied now at 1 to the bottom of the third.

 

[NBHorn7]

Stell grounds out to short to start the inning for out one.
Weis grounds out to second for out two.
Payton walks as Masek is still getting deep into counts.
He might go.

Hinojosa strikes out looking to end the inning.

Tied at 1 after 3 innings.

 

[NBHorn7]

Fly ball to center is the first out for Tech in the fourth.

Another fly ball this time to right is out two.

A ground ball to Weis ends the inning.

Tied at 1 to the bottom of the 4th.

 

[NBHorn7]

Johnson leads off with another walk as Masek continues to struggle with command.

Carter bunts hiim up as Masek had a play on Johnson at second,
but went to first.

Montalbano K's swinging for out two.
Marlow grounds a ball up the middle that the shortstop can't handle, but Johnson rounds third and is caught off base in a run down and tagged out to end the inning.

Now a base running mistake takes us out of an inning.
Scoring runs is like pulling teeth for the Horns.

Tied at 1 after four innings.

 

[NBHorn7]

Peters gets a pop up to first for out one in the fifth.

A K looking is out #2.

Payton makes a diving catch in the gap in right center to end the inning and save extra bases.

Tied at 1 to the bottom of the fifth now, Hey Frank it's the bottom of the fifth, can you spare some runs?

 

[NBHorn7]

Hall grounds out to short as the shortstop double clutches to make it a close play.

Stell K's swinging for the second out.

Weis gets jammed, but fights it off to left as it falls in for a hit.

Weis might steal, I hope he does.

Payton grounds out to short on a 6-4 FC.
Why not give Weis a chance to steal a bag there?

Tied at 1 still after five.

 

[NBHorn7]

Peters with a swinging K to start the sixth.

Rinse and repeat for Peters as another swinging K is out two.

Marlow makes a sliding play on a ball up the middle and a strong throw records the third out.

Tech has one hit after six frames and the game is tied at 1.

Tech scored on a walk, HBP, and two little choppers in front of the plate that went about 40 feet combined.

 

[NBHorn7]

Hinojosa leads off with a ground out to third on another 2-0 count.

Johnson grounds out to second for out two.

Carter looks really bad striking out swinging to end the inning.

Masek may have lasted long enough to settle down it seems.

Tied at 1 after six completed now.

 

[NBHorn7]

Peters still out there on the hill in the seventh.

Soft fly ball to left is the first out for Tech.

Another ground ball up the middle that Marlow backhands, but this time his momentum is too great to plant and make the throw and it's an infield hit to put a runner at first.

Peters gets another K as the runner steals second for out two.

The next man singles up the middle, but the runner for some reason hesitated and even with the throw from center cut off,
Hinojosa then guns him out by five feet at the plate.

Bad base running rock keeps the game tied.

That keeps the game tied at 1 to the stretch.
Need a run desperately to let Knebel come in as Peters may be tiring now.

 

[NBHorn7]

Motalbano leads it off with a single up the middle.

Gottsacker in in to pr for him

Marlow tries to bunt him up and fouls off two pitches.
Then naturally grounds into a 4-6-3 double play.
More bad execution kill both teams this inning.

Ground ball to short by Hall ends the inning quickly.

Tied at 1 after seven complete.

 

[NBHorn7]

Peters still out there and K's the first hitter for out one.

Marlow makes an over the shoulder of a pop up in the wind
for a good play for the second out.

Peters walks the nine hole hitter on a full count pitch.
Not what you wanted there.

Peters blows a fastball past Tech's lead off hitter for a K to end the inning.

There is a lot of chirping going on by Peters and Tech players the last few innings.

It's up to the bats if we get to chirp last.

Bottom of eight now tied at 1.

 

[NBHorn7]

Stell flies out to left to start it off as Masek goes over the 100 pitch mark.

Weis singles through the hole the opposite way for his thrird hit of
the day.

Payton up and let's see what goes on the bases.
He pops up to short for the second out.
Weis needs to take off now, just has to with two down.
He does and makes it, this is the way to play the game.

Hinojosa must plate him, but he doesn't with his third ground ball out to end the 8th.

Tied at 1 to the ninth.

Peters still on the hill for Texas, got to believe any base runner will bring Knebel.

 

[NBHorn7]

Good start to the ninth as a ground ball to first is out one.

The wind brings back a soft liner down the line fair in right for a double.

Felts has come in to catch by the way.

Here comes Skip to the mound, but he leaves Peters in.
Intentional walk now and then maybe a pitching change.
Peters staying in to face the big lefty that hit the game winner
last night.

He lines a single up the middle on a full count pitch but the runner has to hold up to make the line drive go through and it loads the bases and here comes Skip to get him

Maybe he shouldn't have started this inning, but he deserved the chance.

Here comes Knebel with the game on line with the bases loaded and one out.

 

[NBHorn7]

Knebel with a big K blowing a fastball by the hitter for out two.
Knebel does it again blowing the fastball by the hitter as the scouts have the radar guns out to end the jam.

One time could we clutch up and get a win for a starter that had an outstanding game and get him a much deserved win.

Masek is out of the game for Tech and another righty is in.

 

[madcow]

Our offense is offensive ... maybe the worst in all of college baseball.

 

[madcow]

IT WORKS AGAIN ... I made that same post last weekend and we scored like two pitches later.

 

[NBHorn7]

Johnson leads off and grounds out to short for out one.

Carter up now and works a walk after being down in the count 1-2.

Felts up for the first time today, he does have some pop with the wind blowing out to left if he can make some decent contact.

Can I call myself Hornstradomus as Felts hits a fly to center that goes off the centerfielder's glove and roles to the wall.

Carter rounds third and Texas wins 2-1!

What a great win for Peters and the Horns. Great pitching and a clutch hit for Felts after last night's K.

This was as gratifying a win as last night was a frustrating loss. Let's win this series now please.

 

[FWHORN]

 

[jayakris]

Thanks NB for all the updates. This one takes some sting out from yesterday's game.

But the offense is so far looking worse than in the past 2-3 years, when had just about the worst offense among the NCAA top-100 teams. Thought it couldn't get worse, but it has. To see a pitching staff with a 2.43 team ERA to have lost 6 games out of 18 is sickening. That too, six of those wins have been 1 run wins (the bats getting some credit for the 9th inning spunk shown a few times).

Our bats have just 3 HRs and a team BA of 0.261 so far. Gosh, when will it get better? There just had to be a lot of decent players we could have recruited that we just haven't. No other answer to this. Just keep praying that a bat or two would wake up soon somehow, or this will be another long season.

 

[FWHORN]

Until today Corey had allowed every single inherited runner to score; 5 for 5. He comes in today and gets two huge K's. Hopefully that is sign he is righting, to extent he needed to, his ship.

this was nice win but would have been crushing and while it is great to get the win, the fact is that if you rely on prefect pitching you will lose more often than you win and yesterdays result is far more likely. I dont know if they need a voodoo chant over the bats, jobu needs some rum or what but the offense must come alive for this team to have any chance at the Big XII or a postseason run.

 

[WorsterMan]

Whew - sweet vicktree!

I missed the game live today but hopefully can catch the reply on LHN later this eve. Horns really needed this after dropping the first game of the series Fri night

 

[NBHorn7]

No one has talked more extensively over the last few years about our lack of hitting and power than I have.

Many people didn't want to listen because we were still winning because of outstanding pitching by All Americans and All Conference pitchers and the almost flawless fielding.

As that waned and the hitting became worse each season we started to fall off until it all came to a head last season.

The pitching is pushed to the breaking point by the lack of offense and overused like Knebel last season. Every pitch is
pressure packed nearly because it could cost you the game like on Friday night.

We can't keep this kind of pitching up all season and the offense has to pull it's weight if we will have the success that
Texas Baseball has had for many decades in the past

The Conference is as weak this year as it has ever been in it's storied baseball existence.

OU is the only ranked team in the 20's though OSU has showed up lately in the 24-25 spot in some polls. Their schedule is suspect at best though so far.

TCU and Baylor are under .500 for the year. Most thought they would be and may still be in the top tier of the conference.

KSU with a bad schedule and is struggling this weekend with the worst team in the league WVU in Manhattan.

Tech was thought to be about the 7th place team in the conference with a new coach this year and not much hitting.

Kansas is bad as usual.

Texas was picked around 3-4 this year, but could challenge with any kind of a decent offense.

It seems it's OU with by far the most balance of pitching and offense, but we have absolutely owned them over the last several years including a sweep last year in Norman.

We have them in Austin this year and yes if we could discover an offense somewhere we could compete for the
title.

Of course playing on the road will be a challenge for this team, though it could help the hitting in smaller ballparks. It could also in turn hurt the pitching as routine fly balls at the Disch become homers in some other yards.

Recruiting and the lack of effort going on in it had been talked about for several years prior to Coach Harmon getting the axe. Augie just doesn't do it and stories were rampant how Harmon didn't do it like he used to and that video tapes were often used more than eyeballs on a live game on a recruit.

I know Augie relies on defense and pitching for the most part, but at Texas and at Fullerton he had great hitters too. Then the hitting well started drying up and it gets drier every year,especially in the power outage we have.

Even today there must still be some Russells, Danks, and Belts out there to recruit to college and these are just names of good hitters of the recent past. At this point I would take a Rupp, Shepherd, or Loy.

We need a more balanced team with the pendulum swinging
back in the offensive direction at least a little bit.

Pitching can be a fragile thing as we found out last year and with the way we tax our pitching to the limit even more so.
We have a lot of good arms on the staff and we will need all of them as the season progresses. As much as we need more hitting we need somebody to ease the burden on Knebel.

I see Marlow as a set up man and Duke, Hollingsworth, Boardman, and Cox are being used in situation baseball right now, but could be used in middle relief, we fortunately haven't needed that much of that so far.

The arm now that could really help out is Urban, he has great stuff and could be used like Knebel if he can get command of that stuff. He is starting to show signs that he is gaining that kind of command.

Tomorrow is a big game for us. The first conference series at home against an ok but not great team. We need to win this series very badly I think to gain some confidence and get ready for tougher games at home and on the road in the future.

As last season showed we can't take any game for granted and we need every win possible so not to be in a position like we found our self in. We finished third in the conference standings and still didn't make the NCAA's. A little more timely hitting, some power, and oh yeah cleaning up these costly base running mistakes would go a long way to prevent that from happening again.

 

[FWHORN]

NB hits the nail on the head.