Hall leads off against the new Tech pitcher. He K's looking to start the inning for out #1. Stell K's swinging for the second out. Weis grounds out to second to end the 8th. Tech leads 1-0 after 8 innings now. We look almost helpless at the plate right now.
5K's, heck of a performance for Urban but it will mean exactly diddly squat if the bats cant come alive here in the bottom of the ninth. Come on Horns need some runs!
Urban still on the hill strikes out his third consecutive batter for out one. Urban on a tear with another K for out two. Now he walks a batter to break the string and put a runner on with two outs. Urban with yet another K to end the inning. Great outing for Josh! But will it matter? Not if we get can't something going in the bottom of the ninth. Tech leads 1-0.
Payton leads off with a single up the middle that just gets by the second baseman. Hinojosa bunts and the pitcher tries to tag him out but misses. Hinojosa reaches and puts runners on first and second. Tech coach wants Hinojosa called out for being out of the base lines, but no dice. Silver ph to bunt no doubt. Here comes Augie to talk to Silver in an offensive time out. I don't think I have ever seen that to talk to a hitter about a bunt.
Moynihan grounds out to second and that's it. Tech wins 1-0. Felts just has to put the ball in play in that situation and doesn't. It's last year all over again, great pitching wasted. French going out and one bad pitch by Marlow. Too frustrating to hardly talk about it.
The same old story. No bats. If it's a decent pitcher we are facing, we can't get more than 6 or 7 hits, and none of it timely to score even 1 or 2 runs. Argh. Give up just three hits and we lose the game. Have 2 on and none out in the 9th and we can't get one to come home in a one-run game. Argh, argh. When will we ever get some guys who can hit the ball?
Augie talks about the cruelty of baseball in the after game interview. Said French's arm tightened up on him and they didn't want to take any chances so they took him out. Only thing I can really question is why we shut down the running game, especially when the game was tied we had chances to steal that would have resulted in a run or two if successful. Sure seemed worth a shot to me. One other thing is why not ph Moynihan for Felts. He usually puts the ball in play, has good speed and bats from the left side. First priority was to tie the game and that seems more likely with Moynihan at bat with less than two outs. You have Montalbano to come in to play catcher. Felts has always struck out a lot and that was the one thing you just couldn't have in that situation.
I hope what Augie said about French is true. Hartung said she heard French tell a trainer it (his throwing arm)" felt just like it did last time." I am afraid he is talking about how it felt last year when he had to shut it down for the rest of the season. That would be a shame and a fatal blow to our offense challenged team.
Felts has been atrocious with the stick. Even of his 8 measly hits in 48 AB's, only 1 has been for extra bases. Has 1 more K (9) than hits. Regardless of his defense I'd suggest sitting him besides Sunday and Tuesday, but Jeremy Montalbano is 1 for 12 at the plate. Offensively we are sadly handcuffed at catcher and it is killing us. Between the 2 catchers we are 9 for 60. OUCH. The 7-9 spots in our lineup are almost as unproductive to warrant giving up hope and waiting til the next inning to get back to the top of the order. Painful to watch. What's really a shame with Texas baseball lately is that 1-run deficits are akin to 3-run deficits in the not so distant past. Even with 3 innings left, we know this year we must get a multi-player rally just to tie. As the chance of a tie with one swing of the bat is almost pointless to ponder.
