Texas v Northwestern

Four game series starts tonight at the Disch. Texas is 5-3 after losing series in Baton Rouge 2-1 but winning midweek game over UTSA.

http://texassports.com/news/2018/3/...-vs-northwestern-march-2-4.aspx?path=baseball

 

Horns drop opener 6-2. Double header tomorrow as they look to get back on track.

http://texassports.com/news/2018/3/2/no-23-baseball-falls-6-2-to-northwestern-in-series-opener.aspx

 

Still can't hit with RISP.

 

Did not seem to be any energy from the Texas side.

 

Horns bats wake up and they sweep double header. Fourth game today at 1.

https://www.burntorangenation.com/2...western-wildcats-double-header-kingham-pierce

https://www.burntorangenation.com/2...rns-baseball-16-northwestern-wildcats-3-recap

 

Now if they can just keep them awake until the end of June.

 

Horns close the deal 12-1 (without Pierce who was tossed) and win the series. Next weekend (starting with a game on Thursday) should be very interesting and very telling.

 

Sunday game and series recap from Burnt Orange Nation.

https://www.burntorangenation.com/2...rthwestern-wildcats-series-recap-kody-clemens

Big early season proving test next week against Stanford.

 

Can anyone explain what happened with the balk call that was reversed in the 1st game on Saturday? I was at the game and everyone around me was clueless.

 

I believe the consensus is everyone including the umpiring crew did not know what was going on.

 

The only thing I can guess at is that Coach Pierce convinced the umps that the pitcher (Andy McGuire I think) was not making a motion to 3rd but was instead going to clean his cleats? Someone on Sat who was watching at home said they talked about cleaning his cleats so that's all I can come up.

 

It was my understanding that the umpire called time before McGuire stepped off and the conference was about the order in which those two things took place.

 

I heard that comment also, but subsequent events didn't seem to correlate with that.

 

I was there. He 100% balked. He called time and fooled with cleaning his cleats. He started to throw to home, then stopped and went back to his cleats. The umpire called a balk. However, Pierce pointed out that none of the umpires called for play to resume. The umpires agreed and overturned the balk.

Truthfully, if he had thrown the pitch as he intended, it would have counted and no one would have brought up play had not resumed. Pierce was right that technically play had not resumed so there was no balk. However, in reality, everyone was acting like play had resumed and would have accepted the pitch. The Northwestern coach had every right to go off and I am afraid to say he was right. It should have been a balk. McGuire made a motion then hesitated because he was worried about his dang shoe being dirty. If I was coaching Northwestern, I also would have gotten thrown out of the game for the reversed call. I think Pierce did not think he would actually get it, but that’s why you always try if you are the manager.

Once McGuire started worrying about his shoe, his head was no longer in the game and he did not pitch as well. I would have pulled him, but I am not qualified to be the coach and it all worked out.

 

Thanks for the clarification. Technicalities count.

 

I was there too and I agree it looked like a balk to me. I was just wondering what reasoning Pierced used to get them to reverse it. Thanks for the clarification.

They subsequently batted the run in, so it didn't help us much in the end.

 

I was at the game and watched Andy's movement to home plate. It was really odd in that he caught himself well into the throw that was directly to the plate. When it happened, I had thought that he held up so late because of the umpire calling time and that the 2nd base ump did not see the timeout signal from the plate ump. To me, it seemed plainly that it was not a fake throw to a runner on one of the bases.