Horns Take Game One, Magic Number 2*
by 40AS on May 9, 2009 7:33 AM CDT
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PrintKeith Moreland said the runner missed the plate. Aggy fans said the ump blew the call. In the end the only opinion that mattered called the runner out. It was the bottom of the 8th, Texas was in the process of blowing an 8-3 lead by giving up an inside the park homer that would've given Aggy the lead. But the runner was called out, the play made the third out, the Horns scored 3 in the 10th, and Austin Dicharry saved the day with two critical strikeouts in the bottom for an 11-9 victory.
It was probably the strangest game the Horns have played all season. Chance Ruffin was very solid in 6.1 innings, striking out nine and giving up only three hits. Of course two of those three hits were HRs and he gave up 5 ER. The Horns rocked Aggy ace Brooks Raley for 8 runs in 6.1, but then Austin Wood had his worst outting of the year, 4 ER in 2.2 IP.
Assuming Texas takes one of the next two games against Texas A&M, the Horns' magic number is now 2 thanks to a Kansas State loss to Texas Tech. Here's how the top of the conference stands at present:
| Texas | 16-8-1 | .660 | ||
| Missouri | 15-10 | .600 | ||
| Kansas State | 12-8-1 | .595 | ||
| Oklahoma | 13-9 | .591 | ||
| Texas A&M | 13-9 | .591 |
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Another win over Texas A&M eliminates both A&M and Mizzou, who is playing its final series against KU this weekend, from winning the conference. With Texas at 17-9-1, KSU and OU would need to win out to win the conference (if both win out, KSU would be 17-8-1 and OU would be 18-9, not sure who wins the conference in that case).
Anyhow, Texas needs a big start from Cole Green today at 12 in Austin. If you aren't heading to the Disch then join us here for one of the biggest games of the season.
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Play at home from last night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1u2_-1Q5MQ
A few things are clear:
1) Insanely close
2) #14 for A&M is blocking the view of the ump
3) Even despite #2, the ump had a better look at the play than we do
4) The video looks like his left arm slid across the plate but it’s certainly not conclusive and there’s no way to tell if his arm was sliding along the ground or up in the air
5) The Aggy reached around with his right arm after being tagged out, so if the ump saw him miss the plate then the call was correct
6) Poor Aggy
AGGY
excuse for losing is always the refs/umpires. The game was in college station, so that excuse is getting old.
by Longhorns84 on May 10, 2009 12:19 AM CDT up reply actions
#14 of Aglets
What an idiot – he is blocking the umpires view – you can almost see the umpire wanting to use his arm and shove him out of the way.
Oh well, Aglet coach now 0-13 against Texas.
I don't think he touched the plate with his left hand
I think that’s why he swung his right arm around to touch the plate. Why would he have done that if he had already touched it? I think he was hoping that the umpire would assume he had beaten the throw and call him safe even though he wasn’t.
the ump blew two calls
There is no question he was safe.
Regardless, your catcher was blocking the plate, without the ball, which is the second blown call by the ump.
Tucker Ks
Belt grounds out (nice play by the SS to get the out)
Torres singles
Pop out ends the inning
0-0 through 1
Tant grounds out
Another great play by the shortstop gets Rowe for out #2
Groundout for Tucker
0-0 through 3
Should have pulled Green after the first batter of the inning
He was all over the place and walked the guy on 4 pitches. Not acceptable against a team like A&M that can score lots of runs in no time.
Are you watching GameTracker?
I can’t get it to work…
by Sweed4Heisman on May 9, 2009 3:04 PM CDT up reply actions
Summary
Just walked back to the hotel from the game. Thought Id post a few notes on todays game.
- It was hot today. Felt like mid-July rather than early May. The scoreboard said 91, but it felt like 95+ in stands and surely felt at least that warm out on the turf. There seemed to be a bit of a breeze blowing out early, but I think it died off pretty early on. Regardless, the boys looked tired today. Whether it was the heat or the hangover from an emotional win last night and getting back late with an early start today, or a combination of the two…they just looked like they were going through the motions for most of the afternoon.
- The umpiring today was pretty bad. Not to take anything away from the Aggie pitcher Hales, who was terrific. But the strike zone was extremely inconsistent today, especially on the outside corner. Calls often varied from pitch to pitch. Hales would throw two consecutive balls to the same spot on the outside corner and one would be a ball and the next a strike. My girlfriend and I had seats down in Section 5 right behind home plate so we had a pretty good view of the pitches coming in. You could sense the frustration of the guys in the later innings. Because the ump was giving that outside corner pretty liberally, they started swinging more aggressively at those outside pitches. That played right into Hales’ hand, as it allowed him to vary in his slider which was absolutely devastating today. He changed speeds and had spot on control today, moving inside and out and keeping the ball low in the zone. Sure didnt look like a guy with 4+ ERA.
-Cole Green pitched pretty well today. He missed more bats than I had seen from him recently. The home run by Colligan was a fastball he left up in the zone, but it got a little help from the wind. Most balls hit that high stay in the yard at the Disch. He had pretty good location on his fastball and looked like a guy we can count on in the tournament to give us 6 innings of 3 run ball or less, which should be sufficient.
-Workman looked good as well. He was a little wild after first coming in. Seemed like he was trying to nibble a bit and get a bit too cute on the corners. I think its a confidence thing with him. Once he settled down and started trusting his stuff, he was fairly spectacular the rest of the way. His fastball had a lot of life to it and he changed up speeds well, keeping the aggie hitters on their heels.
-All in all, not the performance we needed today, but there are definitely positives to take from it. We hit a total of 5 or 6 balls out of the infield all day, and 2 of those were in the 9th inning. So the offense struggled today and remains a concern. But we saw solid defense and excellent pitching out of Green and Workman. Holding that aggie offense to 5 hits shouldnt be overlooked.
Lets hope we can get a little help from those Red Raiders again today (so far so good) and then wrap up this thing tomorrow. I have a feeling we’re going to see something special out of Jungmann tomorrow.
Allright. Cheers mates. Im off to have a few cold brews and watch a little NBA ball. see if my Mavs can manage to pick me from todays disappointment. Over and out.
Fantastic, thanks!
Green wasn’t terrible and Workman was fantastic in his new role. It was just one of those days.
Tech up 12-2 in the bottom of the eighth
Assuming Tech holds on to that tenuous lead, things get pretty simple for Texas. A win over A&M tomorrow afternoon coupled with an OU loss in any of their last 5 Big 12 games (tonight and tomorrow against Oklahoma State and three at home against A&M next weekend) will give the Horns the regular season crown and #1 seed heading into the Big 12 tournament. As 40AS has mentioned several times, taking two of three from Aggy would also put Texas in pretty good shape for a national seed. If Taylor Jungmann performs tomorrow like he did last Sunday in Waco, I really like our chances.
#4 hitter
I’ve only seen a few games this year, and this guy really looks lost. How is this guy staying in the line-up? Is he just in a slump? His swing looks horrible.
Do you mean Cameron Rupp?
The guy tied for the team lead in homers and second in RBI and the only guy who can be an every day catcher?
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