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Sunday - June 4, 2006

Austin Regional - Day 3, Game 5 (North Carolina State at Texas) (Game 62)

Texas lost to North Carolina State this afternoon 3-6. It's the first time since 1996 that Texas did not win a Regional (or Super Regional) tournament hosted here in Austin. It's funny how you get spoiled by success. It never really occurred to me last week that Texas might not be hosting a Super Regional next weekend. Even though this year's team has struggled. You just assume they'll work it out. Augie Garrido teams usually do. However, Coach Garrido will be the first to tell you that he's never managed to snag back-to-back championships. It's a really hard thing to do. Bibb Falk did it. Rod Dedeaux did it a few times. Mark Marquess did it once. And, Skip Bertman did it once. And, that's it. It's only been done twice in the last twenty years. Texas did get back to the CWS in 2003 after winning it all in 2002. Alas, it's not meant to be this year. Too bad. But, there's always next year.

It was in the 8th after Randy Boone came in and struck Mangum out on three pitches (with the score tied at three) that I really started to think the Horns were gonna pull it off. I thought that if Randy could get the next guy out, then they'd only need three more outs. The Horns could no doubt score 1 run in the bottom of the 8th or 9th, right? I even started thinking that if Randy could get the job done quickly, maybe they'd go ahead and start him in the game against Stanford...saving Riley Boening for the Championship game on Monday. And, then it was over. The Wolfpack scored two more runs. And, then a third. Damn.

And, so...here's how things went today for the Horns:

• 1st inning (top). Adrian Alaniz started for the Horns. 3-up/3-down. On one of the outs, Drew Stubbs made one of his amazing running catches just shy of the fence in the cf/rf gap to snag a ball that everyone knew would fall in. But, it didn't fall in 'cause he caught it. It amazes everyone in the stands every time he does it. None of us can figure out how he gets to those balls.
• 1st inning (bottom). Hobson started for NC-State. Jordan Danks (starting in rf today) singled through the right side. Nick Peoples reached on a great bunt that went just past the pitcher trying to field on the 1b side of the infield. The second baseman fielded and tried to make the play. He had no chance and should've held onto the ball. Alas, he did not and his throw went past the first baseman into the NC-State dugout. Runners at 2b and 3b on the error. Drew Stubbs grounded out to ss (rbi); Peoples moved to 3b. Chance Wheeless hit a sac fly to cf (rbi). Carson Kainer went down swinging.
• 2nd inning (top). Aragon popped out to ss. Jon Still homered over the Monster. (He's the first player to do that since Taylor Teagarden and Drew Stubbs did it on back-to-back days against Vanderbilt in Super Regional games on June 11 and 12 in 2004.) I think it cleared the Monster by a good 10 or 15 feet. It really was a Monster shot. Pond flew out to cf. Mangini walked (full count). Mangum grounded out to the pitcher.
• 2nd inning (bottom). Hunter Harris hit a ground-rule double over the fence in the cf/rf gap. Bradley Suttle grounded out to 2b; Harris moved to 3b. Preston Clark popped out to ss. Chais Fuller flew out to rf.
• 3rd inning (top). Diaz popped out to ss. Camp reached on an error by ss. Fuller tried to field a high bouncer on a shot hop but booted the ball to his right. Corona singled to lf; Camp moved to 2b. Bates popped out to 1b in front of the bleachers on the rf edge of the field; Camp tagged up and advanced to 3b. Aragon flew out to lf. During his at-bat, Corona advanced to 2b on defensive indifference. I see that the official scorer gave Corona a stolen base but you can hardly call it that when the Horns barely even glanced his way as he ran to 2b.
• 3rd inning (bottom). The Horns (Danks, Peoples, and Stubbs) went down in order. The Wolfpack's third baseman made a great leap to snag a line drive by Peoples out of the air, robbing him of a single...if not a double.
• 4th inning (top). Still, Pond, and Mangini went down in order. Still went down swinging which was a nice contrast to his Monster shot in the 2nd inning.
• 4th inning (bottom). Wheeless, Kainer, and Harris went down in order (all on fly outs).
• 5th inning (top). Mangum grounded out to ss. Diaz struck out swinging. Camp singled (I guess) up the middle and then reached 2b on a bad call by the 2b ump. The runner slid past the bag and was tagged out off the bag by the infielder (I can't even remember now if it was Chais or Bradley) covering 2b. But, the 2b ump (Harry Greer, making yet another bad call) had already called him safe on the play. He didn't even seem to notice that the runner slid past the bag. The amazing thing about the play was that Coach Garrido didn't even bother to go out and argue it. Why bother with Greer out there? Corona struck out swinging.
• 5th inning (bottom). Suttle struck out swinging. Clark walked (full count). Fuller hit into a 643 double play.
• 6th inning (top). Bates reached on an infield single to 3b. Aragon walked (full count). The crowd was stunned when the 2-2 pitch to Aragon that went straight down the middle of the plate was called a ball. Still doubled to the cf/rf gap (rbi); Aragon moved to 3b. Pond hit a sac fly to cf for the 1st out of the inning. Mangini walked. Mangum flew out to cf. Diaz popped out to ss. NC-State up by 1.
• 6th inning (bottom). Danks, Peoples, and Stubbs went down in order.
• 7th inning (top). Camp grounded out to 2b. Corona singled. Bates lined out to rf (a really nice play by Danks). Aragon grounded into a 64 fielder's choice.
• 7th inning (bottom). Wheeless flew out to cf. Kainer doubled to lf. Harris doubled to cf (rbi). Suttle flew out to cf. Clark flew out to lf. Score tied at 3.
• 8th inning (top). Still singled through the left side. Pond singled to rf; Still moved to 2b. Jones went in to pinch run for Pond. Joseph Krebbs went in at p. Martin (pinch-hitting for Mangini) hit a 53 sac bunt. Randy Boone went in at p. Mangum went down swinging on 3 pitches. Diaz worked the count full and then doubled to lf (2 rbi). Camp hit a ground-rule double over the lf fence (rbi). Corona grounded out to 3b.
• 8th inning (bottom). Fuller, Danks, and Peoples went down in order...all on ground outs to 2b. Ugh.
• 9th inning (top). Bates, Aragon, and Still went down in order (fly out to cf, strikeout, pop out to 3b).
• 9th inning (bottom). Stubbs tried to reach on a bunt down the 3b line but was just thrown out. Wheeless grounded out to ss. Kainer flew out to rf. Season over.

One more thing. Gib Hobson. He threw a great game for the Wolfpack. He had a very shaky outing against Stanford on Friday and was yanked in the 2nd inning. He only threw 35 pitches before leaving the game and I figured he'd be back so I wasn't surprised to see him get the start. I was surprised that he managed to get a complete game in, though. I thought he'd surely tire in the 5th or 6th and then the Horns would be able to feast on the bullpen. Alas. It didn't happen. Wow.

Scoreboard at the end of the game:

Posted by Joanna at 10:33 PM