Baseball Takes On Mizzou in Austin

by 40AS on Mar 13, 2009 10:00 AM CDT in Texas Longhorns Baseball

Fresh off a midweek DNP, the #1 Horns return to Austin to take on the Missouri Tigers. Texas and Missouri played a memorable series last year. The Horns led 9-3 through 2.5 innings on Friday on their way to being destroyed 31-12. Saturday featured more of the same, but on Sunday Chance Ruffin became a leader and showed he could be the ace of the staff.

Missouri lost seven of their first eight games but have roared back with wins in six of their last seven. Texas and Baylor did not play Wednesday, so many of the keys to the series remain the same.

David Hernandez is hitting near .400 but now has 7 of the team's 11 errors. That's not good and needs to improve (we mean the defense, the hitting is fine)
How's Travis Tucker's ankle? Freshman Jordan Etier was fantastic against Stanford, but Tucker had been tearing it up before the injury. Hopefully the extra rest will get him in the lineup.
Now that we're hitting the conference schedule, where's Taylor Jungmann going to contribute? We agree with Ruffin, Workman and Green as your weekend starters, but this guy is too much of a talent to not play a big role in the pitching staff.
Will the starting pitching remain amazing? We saw a small crack in Brandon Workman's armor, but Cole Green and Chance Ruffin (when starting) have been nearly unhittable. Can they keep it up?
The key to Texas' winning has been scoring early and not giving up the big inning. But off the 27 innings against Stanford, Texas scored in only six. Is this going to remain a formula for success in conference play or will the offense turn it on a bit more?

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS*
Friday, March 13, 2009 - 6 p.m. Central
Texas: RHP Chance Ruffin (3-0, 2.31 ERA)
Missouri: RHP Kyle Gibson (2-1, 1.29 ERA)

Saturday, March 14, 2009 - 2 p.m. Central
Texas: RHP Brandon Workman (2-1, 0.83 ERA)
Missouri: RHP Ian Berger (1-1, 6.23 ERA)

Sunday, March 15, 2009 - 1 p.m. Central
Texas: RHP Cole Green (2-0, 0.81 ERA)
Missouri: RHP Nick Tepesch (1-1, 6.35 ERA)

*These numbers are just sick

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Weather (at least Sunday should be a nice day at the ballpark):

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Comments

What's the chance the Friday game is played?

I heard Baylor/A&M cancelled their Friday game.

by Texas Wahoo on Mar 13, 2009 11:03 AM CDT reply actions

Considering they cancelled Wednesday's game, I'd say not good

Baylor and A&M moved their Friday game to Monday. That’s really the only way to get the game played. I could be wrong, but I think there’s a rule that says you can’t reschedule a conference game outside of the 72-hour window in which the whole series is supposed to be played. This has happened to us a few times in recent years where the Sunday game of a series would be rained out, and the conference wouldn’t let us reschedule.

So they could do Saturday, Sunday, Monday, but I don’t think they can reschedule one of the games for later in the season. I’m surprised they haven’t made an announcement yet. It’s really annoying that they keep waiting till the last minute. All of these other programs are giving a full day’s notice. We’re lucky if we get 3 hours’ notice.

by bassale47 on Mar 13, 2009 11:09 AM CDT up reply actions

Now that I think of it

I suppose they could always do a double-header on Sunday since it’s supposed to be nicer. I guess the difference between our series and the A&M/Baylor series is that Baylor isn’t dependent on a plane schedule, and Missouri is, so they’d probably rather do the DH thing, not to mention a Monday game would probably be prohibited by the travel curfew since they’re already in town and the 72-hour clock starts as soon as they arrive.

by bassale47 on Mar 13, 2009 11:29 AM CDT reply actions

Per the Statesman,

Travis Tucker will try to play today if the game does happen as scheduled.

Also mentioned in the article is the disturbing one-dimensionality of many of the guys in the lineup — the good fielders, Rowe in center, Keyes in right, and Loy at third, aren’t hitting well right now, with players behind them who can hit better. Since the starting pitching and defense are winning games right now, it isn’t a problem, but could become one in the future. If the Longhorns start losing, does Augie go for a more offensively-oriented lineup, inserting players like Russell Moldenhauer and Michael Torres?

Where does Preston Clark fit? There’s such a logjam at DH that playing him at catcher makes sense, especially since he’s a better defensive catcher than Cameron Rupp, but do you want to take Rupp out of the lineup?

It’s been a great start by the team and certainly there is no reason for alarm, particularly, but there are some issues that could cause a hiccup or two in conference season and may demand changes.

by Wescott Eberts (GoBR) on Mar 13, 2009 1:43 PM CDT reply actions

I'm not sure I would define Keyes as a one-dimensional fielding specialist

He probably has the most power on the team and hit .339 last year. He’ll get it going, and it’s not like hitting .263 is awful.

by 40AS on Mar 13, 2009 4:11 PM CDT up reply actions

You're right

The article included him in that group, but I probably should have left him out.

I haven’t seen him hit much this year, but his plate discipline was a problem last season and so having high strikeout numbers paired with one of the lower averages in the lineup would be the only reason that he would be in danger of losing his job.