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Saturday - May 27, 2006

Game 59: Texas at Nebraska (Big 12 Tournament)

That was ugly. Texas lost 5-6. After watching the nonsense on FSN, I switched over to ESPN and watched the Texas women beat Washington (9-1) to advance to the WCWS. That was pretty. What a contrast.

Anyway. There were some good things. Kyle McCulloch started and gave up five runs in the 2nd. But, he came back from that bad inning and pitched 4 shutout innings before being replaced. One of the things that stood out to me was the plate appearance by Jake Mort in the 4th. He started off and fouled off pitch after pitch. Finally, on the 11th pitch, he grounded out to ss. Kyle just reached down and would not give up to Mort. Good stuff. Of course, when Mort came up again in the 6th and worked the count full, Kyle hit him. I doubt very seriously that it was intentional. But, it was funny. Randy Boone did a good job when he came in after Austin Wood and Joseph Krebs failed to get any of the first 4 batters they faced in the 7th out. I have to say that when I saw Austin going in at the start of the Nebraska half of the 7th, I was not happy. I really wondered why Randy, who'd had 3 perfect innings in relief in the tourney, was not going in. Looking back through the last several weeks of games, it turns out that Austin has not pitched more than 1.1 innings since April 13th in a game against Baylor. The coaches have only been bringing him in for the last inning since then with that one exception when he went 1.1 innings. Why change things today? It didn't make any sense to me. So what did he do when brought in 2 innings earlier than usual? He gave up a single to left, a single to center, and a bunt single. Weird decision. On the offensive side of things, the Horns did great to get three runs on the board and tie things up in answer to that 5-run 2nd by Nebraska. It was very pretty. Sadly, Nebraska sent Watson in and he just mowed the Horns down. Ah well.

I hope things improve next week. Maybe the Lady Horns will spark something with the guys. Here's hoping...

Oddly enough, after all the talking I've been doing about the poor officiating over the last couple of days, there were a couple of close plays at 1b that were called correctly. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw who as at 1b: the dreaded Bill Davis. On the first call, a Nebraska runner missed first base as he ran past it on a bunt attempt. On the play, the bunt went past Austin Wood. Chance Wheeless fielded the ball and threw toward 1b. Chais Fuller was on the bag. Austin, running toward the bag, grabbed the ball. I doubt the ball would've beat the runner to the bag but it was sloppy. What was worse, though, was that the runner ran past the bag without touching it. Austin Wood went back to the mound without touching the bag. The runner went back to the bag and stood on it. At that point, Davis called him safe. If only Austin had gone ahead and stepped on the bag. A bit later on, with a runner on at 1b and 2 out, Hunter Harris hit a grounder on the right side. The first baseman fielded and went to throw to ss to get the lead runner out. Alas, the ss was just watching the play and had not covered the 2b bag. So, the first baseman turned and threw to the pitcher covering 1b. The pitcher beat the runner to the bag but stepped to the side of the bag rather than on it and tried to drag his foot across but missed it completely. Again, Bill Davis was on top of things and made the correct call...Hunter safe at 1b. Sadly, Nick Peoples hit into a fielder's choice on the next pitch to end the threat. Anyway, two good calls by one of the most frustrating Big 12 umps I've ever had the displeasure to watch. You just never know.

Posted by Joanna at 6:32 PM