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Friday - June 2, 2006

Austin Regional - Day 1, Game 2 (UT-Arlington at Texas) (Game 60)

The offense exploded for the Horns today as they beat up on UT-Arlington 9-1. Kenn Kasparek got the start for Texas and had his longest outing of the year. He went 7.1 innings and gave up that one earned run on 8 hits (including 3 doubles and 1 home run) with 7 strikeouts and 2 walks. By my count, he threw 129 pitches. Joseph Krebs came on for the final 1.2 innings. He did hit one batter but coaxed three ground outs and two fly outs out of the other 5 batters he faced. Defensively, the Horns played error-free which always helps things along tremendously. And, so...the game:

• 1st inning (top). 3-up/3-down (with two strikeouts).
• 1st inning (bottom). 3-up/3-down (with two strikeouts). Hmmm...
• 2nd inning (top). Winn flew out to cf. Barnum hit a ground-rule double to the lf/cf gap. It looked like he struck out looking on the pitch before the double so we were not happy. Slinkman singled to lf. Barnum advanced to 3b. Wilson reached on a fielder's choice (12). Wilson hit a little nubber toward the pitcher. Kasparek fielded and tossed the ball to Preston Clark at home. The throw was a little high but in plenty of time. Barnum tried to slide through Clark but had no chance. Boom! It looked painful for Barnum. Slinkman moved to 2b on the play, by the way. Rudy reached on a full-count walk to load the bases. Garner went down swinging.
• 2nd inning (bottom). Carson Kainer reached on an infield single to 3b. Bradley Suttle hit a sac bunt (a bit hard between the mound and 1b). Gainly (p) fielded and tried to get the lead runner out at 2b but threw badly (E1). Kainer moved to 3b and Suttle to 2b on the error. Chais Fuller hit a sac fly to lf. Chance Wheeless hit a double down the rf line (rbi). Clark singled to lf (Wheeless moved to 3b). Jordan Danks (back from his broken ankle and in the lineup at dh) struck out swinging. With Nick Peoples at the plate, Texas tried the double-steal play (which, sadly worked against the Texas women in their softball game later in the day). Clark broke for 2b trying to draw the throw. The pitcher looked Chance back to 3b and then threw to the second baseman. He then threw to the first baseman as Wheeless broke hard for home. The first baseman threw to the catcher and Wheeless was called out for the 3rd out. It really looked like he was safe...that he slid under the tag. Wheeless immediately started to argue the call with the home plate ump (Harry Greer) and Coach Garrido ran out to intervene. He was livid. I've rarely seen the coach that angry when arguing with an umpire. It surprised me no end that he was not ejected. The radio guys said the TV replay showed that the call was bad, by the way.
• 3rd inning (top). Rieder hit a solo home run over the trees outside the rf fence. Wow. Then, 3-up/3-down (with one strikeout).
• 3rd inning (bottom). 3-up/3-down (with one strikeout). Heh.
• 4th inning (top). 3-up/3-down (with one strikeout). Double heh.
• 4th inning (bottom). Kainer walked. Suttle reached on a fielder's choice (64). Fuller singled up the middle; Suttle moved to 2b. Wheeless reached on a fielder's choice (36); Suttle advanced to 3b. On the play, the ss tried to turn the double play by throwing back to the pitcher covering 1b. The throw was very high, though...E6. On the error, Suttle scored and Wheeless moved to 2b. Clark then hit a line drive home run over the lf fence. Wow. Danks was hit by a pitch and thrown out at 2b to end the inning on a fielder's choice (64).
• 5th inning (top). Rudy grounded out to 2b. Garner lined out to ss. Fuller made a spectacular leap to snag the ball out of the air. Rieder doubled to the lf corner. Whew. Good thing Fuller made that play. McLeod singled to rf; Rieder moved to 3b. With runners at the corners and a 1-1 count to Moore: Kasparek threw a strike to Moore and Clark threw a bullet to Wheeless at 1b to catch McLeod sleeping. The pick-off worked. 3rd out.
• 5th inning (bottom). Bridges went in at p. Hunter Harris singled to lf. Drew Stubbs reached on a fielder's choice (56) and moved to 2b on a balk. Kainer singled up the middle (rbi). Suttle flew out to cf. Fuller grounded out to 3b.
• 6th inning (top). Moore popped out to 2b (on the rf line...nice long run by Suttle). Winn walked (4 pitches). Barnum reached on a fielder's choice (64). Slinkman lined out to lf. A really nice play by Kainer to get the out.
• 6th inning (bottom). Danks (3rd batter of the inning) reached on a 5-pitch walk. Otherwise uneventful.
• 7th inning (top). Wilson grounded out to ss. Rudy went down swinging. Garner singled up the middle. Rieder singled (his third and last hit of the game) to rf; Garner moved to 3b. McLeod grounded out to 2b.
• 7th inning (bottom). Harris hit by pitch. Stubbs reached on a fielder's choice (54). Kainer lined out to ss. Suttle singled to cf; Stubbs moved to 2b. Fuller singled to rf (rbi); Suttle moved to 3b. Wheeless singled up the middle (rbi); Fuller moved to 3b and Wheeless moved to 2b on the throw in from the outfield. Clark popped out to 2b.
• 8th inning (top). Kasparek still pitching much to my surprise. Moore went down swinging. Winn doubled to the rf/cf gap. Krebs went in at p. Out went Kasparek to a very appreciative standing ovation from the crowd. Barnum grounded out to 2b; Winn moved to 3b. Smith (pinch hitting for Slinkman) hit by pitch. Wilson grounded out to p.
• 8th inning (bottom). Danks singled up the middle. Another appreciative ovation from the crowd as he gets on base for the third time while collecting his first hit (note again: his first game back after being injured). Bryan Herrera was sent in to pinch run for Danks. Another ovation for Danks as well as the rarely-used senior coming in. Long sent in at p. Peoples walked after working the count full. Harris singled through the right side (rbi); Peoples moved to 3b. Stubbs lined out to ss who threw back to 1b behind Harris to turn a double play (the only one of the game for either team). Kainer grounded out to 2b.
• 9th inning (top). 3-up/3-down. Nick Peoples made an amazing play at 3b that I wouldn't be surprised to see on SportsCenter's "Top 10" at some point. He made an amazing leap to grab a high bouncer by Rudy out of the air. He fell on his side, rolled, got to his knees, and fired a perfect throw to 1b to get Rudy out. Wow!!!!! Newby (pinch-hitting for Garner) and Rieder flew out to rf and lf respectively to end the game.

Funny story. In the 4th, Chance Wheeless hit the 1st pitch to him on a soft liner into the crowd a bit below and to the left of us. Several people tried to catch the ball. It bounced off at least one person before a pretty big guy grabbed it and pumped it in the air like it was a big deal. We all laughed and cheered (remember, it did not go screaming into the crowd). The guy next to him (another big guy) hollered out very loudly something along the lines of: "He saved me!!!" He then gave the guy who caught the ball a big bear hug. Then, we really laughed at them. Spontaneous comedy show. I loved it.

Scoreboard at the end of the game:

Posted by Joanna at 11:59 PM