Kevin Lusson should just pretend he's batting in the 9th inning every time he comes to the plate. In the last three games, Lusson has hit two three-run homers and a walk off "single" to the warning track. On Sunday night, Lusson came to bat with Texas nervously hanging on to a nervous three run lead. He golfed a 3-1 pitch over the right field wall and all of a sudden the Horns were up by a much more comfortable 9-3 margin.
Now the Horns are exactly where they wanted to be when Sunday began: a winner-take-all game against the #3 seed Kent State. Both teams have blown through their starters and now it'll be a battle of the bullpens. Augie Garrido said Sunday that Sam Stafford is taking the hill today, but because he threw 108 pitches on Friday we can pretty much guarantee that there will be several Longhorn pitchers. Our guess would be that Kent State will throw Kyle Hallock to begin with, but he threw 91 pitches Friday so he also won't be able to go for too long, The Horns were very fortunate on Sunday to foreclose extra innings in game one and get some huge insurance runs in game two, thereby avoiding overworking Corey Knebel.
Cole Green and Andrew Chafin are the only two pitchers we feel confident saying they will not pitch today. Jungmann's 85 pitches on Saturday will likely limit him to 35-50 pitches, or an inning or two, if he throws at all. Considering he'll be a first round pick later tonight, Augie owes it to TJ not to overwork him. Carillo finished last night's game and is our guess to be first out of the 'pen to relieve Stafford. Beyond him, McKirahan, Milner, Urban and even Thornhill (63 pitches last night) could see platoon action. The goal for Texas is to get to the 6th or 7th inning with a lead and then turn it over to Knebel. The Texas pitch count looks like this:
Stafford 108 (Friday)
Thornhill 70
Milner 56
Knebel 27
Jungmann 85
McKirahan 32
Carillo 32
Green 103
First pitch is at 1 PM, video is here. This will be your open thread. Hook 'em!