Texas lost Game One to Kansas by a score of 7-2 last night. The Longhorns could only manage three hits against a fantastic outing by Jayhawk starter Frank Duncan. Duncan went the distance and controlled the Longhorns all the way, and he is due a hat tip. To be fair, while we said we expected a Texas sweep this weekend, we warned you that the Jayhawk pitchers were no slouches. What we did not foresee was that Kansas would put up seven runs this weekend. Maybe total for the three games, but against a team hitting as poorly as KU has been it is really tough to allow so many runs in one game. Kansas's early scoring came from manufacturing their own runs with singles, sac bunts, and more singles; unfortunately, the Texas defense is what ultimately allowed the insurance.
During KU's four-run eighth, Hoby Milner made the first mistake by making the aggressive play and trying to get the lead runner at second on a sac bunt. The throw was late and everyone was safe. Texas still should have gotten out of it unscathed, however: a bouncer to Jordan Etier at shortstop should have been the third out without Kansas scoring. But Etier's throw eluded Alex Silver at first, allowing two runs to score. Kansas's Kevin Kuntz followed with the final dagger in the form of a two-run triple. Four runs, all unearned, and that was the ballgame.
But at the end of the day, this is on us. You may be aware that the handle "40AS" is actually two of us (hence the frequent use of plural pronouns). Here is the sad fact: when Jeff has written the previews and posted the open threads this season, Texas has played quite well. When Abram has taken the weekend writing, things have gotten dicier. True, Texas continues to win its Big 12 series; but they just don't play as well as they can when it's an Abram weekend. Well, Jeff is out of town lacking much internet access this weekend, so sadly changing course mid-series is off the table. So this is the Abram half of 40AS, apologizing to Longhorn fans everywhere for my bad juju. Hopefully Texas can win its 12th straight conference series by taking today's game and tomorrow's, but if not you know whom to blame.
Game Two is at 7 PM CDT on the Longhorn Network. This is your open thread.