Malmin stays in for the eleventh, for the Horns. New left fielder Jonah Davis, bats for the first time, from the left side, leading off for Cal. This is his first at bat, as a Bear. He K's swinging on a low curve in the dirt, the 2-3 put out keeps him 0 for college. One down for Tyrus Green, the new catcher, one down batting lefty. He walks to put a man on. Another new player is Matt Ruff, batting righty, with one on and one down. He is now the first baseman. After a 2-0 count Skip is out and a pitching change is made.
Travis Duke gets the call, another lefty. He faces Ruff now with a 2-0 count, one on and one out. A ground ball goes through the left side of the infield, for a single to put two on. Celsi bats lefty, with two on and one out. He grounds a single through the left side also and the single will score the run and give Cal the lead, the throw home was wide of the plate. Cal leads 8-7. Reyes bats righty with runners on the corners, with one out. A looper to right center and it falls, the runner had stayed on the bag to tag, but he beats the throw home on a close play, but it's another run. Cal leads 9-7. Skip out and another change.
Blake Wellman, the freshman right hander, comes in to pitch now. He faces righty hitting Peters, two on and one down. He bunts down the third base line and Wellman fields it barehanded and the throw nips him at first, for two away. Knapp bats lefty again, with two on and two outs. A full count and a ground ball to short and Boswell throws it into the ground and Clemens can't hold it, another error, this one an E-6. A run scores. Cal leads 10-7 The wheels have officially come off the UT baseball wagon. Kranson bats lefty, with two on and two outs. He grounds to third and the 5-3 will finally retire the side. Cal takes the lead 10-7 and Texas gets one more crack in the bottom of the eleventh.
Martinez stays on and tries to close the game out and get the win. Harlan leads off batting lefty, for Texas. A full count and he K's swinging on the cut fast ball, that dropped low. Kennedy, who pitched earlier in this game, will pinch hit, batting lefty, with one out. He K's on a fast ball swinging, two gone. Patrick Mathis bats lefty, as another pinch hitter, his first action back after a pulled hamstring He bats with two outs and grounds a single up the middle to keep the game alive. Tate Shaw in to run for the still hampered Mathis. Boswell bats lefty, with two outs and one on. He has had a good day at the plate today. A foul pop by the left field line and the left fielder comes over and makes the catch to end the game. Cal wins the game 10-7 and sweeps the the four game series. Hard to even know what to say about this game, but will try in a bit.
First time in school history we've been swept in a 4-game series. Pathetic. Augie should have been fired/resigned last season. He should be gone without question at the end of this season. Why the hell he and Skip left Shugart in the game when he was completely falling apart is beyond me.
Texas finally scores some runs today and Mayes pitches six innings of shutout ball. So everything is looking good till the eighth inning, a 7-0 lead, then Kennedy gives up a couple of runs, still no problem you think. Shugart comes in and gets out of the eighth. He starts the ninth and though Cal is threatening there is two outs. Cal as we have said all series, can really hit. They kept hitting and hitting in the inning, till it was 7-6. Shugart is a freshman and he is in the closer spot because of Morgan Cooper coming back from injury. Cooper would either be that closer or a weekend starter, but he isn't ready for either yet. But Boswell makes a good play in the hole and his throw is in plenty of time to first, to win the game, but Clemens drops it, for an error to tie things up. To add insult to injury, it's the star pitcher Daulton Jefferies scoring the run, as a pinch runner. Texas did get out of the inning, an out too late, to send the game to extra innings, but the air had gone out of the burnt orange balloon. You had the sinking feeling the game was over, that Cal would win now and they did. More Cal hits and another error sealed things. Cal is just a much more well rounded team than Texas and the outcome was no fluke. The Horns better pull themselves together in a big hurry, Sam Houston State is coming to town Tuesday and they are no pushover, having swept OU already. Team is at a crossroads and they could find themselves fighting for their playoffs lives, like last season. It took the best performance ever in the Big 12 Tounament by starting pitchers, to assure them a regional bid.
NbHorn, bless you for being waaaaay more positive than me. Nothing about this team says anything but abjectly mediocre (at best) to me. But it is still early so.....
This loss is ALL ON SKIP. He makes all decisions concerning pitchers, when to pull'em, etc. After Cal scored their 2nd run in the 9th, I was screaming at him to make a pitching change. He waited, and waited, and waited....til the game was tied....Pathetic! This has always been Skip's problem. He predetermines what he's going to do....doesn't seem to have a real feel of what's going on in "real time" during a game. He'll pull a pitcher who's doing great, and he replaces them with the "unknown." You never know what a pitcher will or won't have on any given day. I could count at least 20 losses last year and the previous year directly related to Skip's decision-making. He's a great teacher for our pitching staff, . In fact, he's the best in the business at development of our pitchers. But his game-day decisions are, often times, very questionable......just look at the 9th inning today. Uggh.... Hope we can re-group from this devastating defeat today.
If it wasn't for Skip, this program wouldn't have had any success in the last five years. The pitching has carried this program on it's back or more precisely it's arms. I would really love for anybody to put forth anything to counter this statement. So there is that. Which has been more pathetic, the hitting or the pitching, in that time frame? Which has been the real problem? Having watched just about every inning of this, I can tell you it's not the pitching that caused the losses to mount. Five years without any offense, now that is truly pathetic. Game after game, after game, I have watched it. Games sent into long exta innings because the team couldn't score a run. The topper of all was going nine straight innings without a hit, in extra innings against Nebraska. We have seen it again this year already. By all means rant on this outlier of a game, where two freshman failed in the late innings. By the way it still took an error to lose the game today. The pitching staff will be fine, it will take some time to see who can do what, depending on Morgan Cooper being able to work his way back, like John Curtis did. Can the same be said of the hitting? When will this team have an offense of any type of consistency again? Who is responsible for this? Just look at the past five years. What is the count on the losses due to this, over the past five years? Would you like to address that? The pitching got Texas to Omaha a couple of years ago and it got them to the regional last year. If this team has any success, it will most likely depend on the pitching doing it again. So yeah let's talk about the bad job Skip has done over the last five years, it's all on him. The pitching staffs have been so mismanaged for so long. In contrast the hitting and whoever is responsible for it is managed so well. No need to call them out. He even has to be the third base coach, because nobody else is competent enough to do it. A pitching coach and not the position coach, who was pulled from this job, because he was terrible at it. The base running mistakes were abundant. Maybe Skip could do better if, he didn't have to do other people's job, besides his own.
I agree with you...said so in my post.....our pitching has saved us over the last few years. BUT Skip made a strategic mistake today...and he does so, with consistency. That's my only point. As you well-know, Skip has a predetermined pitch count, rotation in later innings, etc. And he doesn't seem to have the best "feel" for how he game is going.....he just follows his predetermined decisions. Perfect example...today..9th inning......after 2 runs scored, it was more-than-obvious that he needed to make a pitching change. He's a great pitching coach...i said that in my post......but his "feel for the moment" has always left much to be desired. As for the hitting woes that continue and continue, that's another issue. But today, 7 runs should have easily won the game, had he made the right decisions. It's not like he didn't have options.....many options, actually.
Augie = Mack Brown. Disconnected, just along for the ride anymore. He should have been fired after the DWI. This is the last year of his contract and I have not heard anything about renewal. I am hoping UT and Augie will just part ways quietly after this season, but I doubt it. He doesn't have anything but baseball. We will probably have to push him out and make a scene, which UT abhors, so I am not optimistic this will end well.
I want Cal's hitting coach. They were squaring the ball up all weekend and were disciplined at the plate (for the most part). Over the four games, Cal had 45 hits - yes forty five! They averaged more than 10/game. Compare that to Texas' 27. I have a question for those in the know. Texas already has an Associate Head Coach in Skip Johnson. Could we hire someone like Brad Sanfilippo, hitting coach for Cal, to replace Nicholson or would a good hitting coach have to be more than an assistant coach? He is currently in his first year as an assistant coach at Cal. Not saying he would consider it, but someone like him. Just curious?
The team is in a slump and losing 4 in a row to a team is what hopefully will wake them up and get it going. The pitching is good, the hitting will be better, and the team will bounce back like usual. Keep going to the games and filling up the stadium the best we can to support the team. Hook em.
I haven't lost faith but just trying to understand why the kid was left in there. He was obviously struggling, and don't see the logic in letting him get rocked. I feel bad him.
Hard to fire the best coach in baseball. That would "make a scene".....an embarrassing a stupid scene. Perhaps a new hitting coach is the answer. And getting Skp to be more flexible in his pitching decisions.
Sadly, that's Skip's style.....he sometimes is in "disconnect mode" from the momentum of a game. He predetermines what he's going to do...sticks with it too long....and the game on Sunday was a perfect example of that. Hell....we knew after 2 runs in the 9th, our pitcher didn't have it. And we had LOTS of options in the bullpen to get the final out.
Just an fyi: Cal's team is really REALLY good.....could easily be in the final 4 at the College World series....and they're "senior-laden" team.....we're young and just learning. Time for our team to start making the strides that they're capable of, as they grow into college ball. And remember, we have 2 of our best hitters, our left fielder and our right fielder out right now....due to injuries. And one of our very best pitchers is being eased back into the rotation after surgery last year. Things will get better. Auggie will get this team back in the hunt. And the Big XII hasn't even started yet. Have faith and Hook'Em!
You are basing that on his past accomplishments. Past performance is no guarantee of future success. Augie's 77 and I just don't think he's that into it anymore.
No, the pitching will either keep the team in the hunt or not. This is what has happened now for years. It's already been said who is in charge of that. The real problem is what has gone on for years, the recruiting is not done for the position players on a high level anymore. One coach doesn't do it at all and the other doesn't know how. Harmon was made a scapegoat for this, by being fired, his replacement has done no better. This is the real problem. By the time players get to this level, you don't teach them how to hit. You can tweak a few things. The mechanics of hitting have been taught to them for years. I can't think of any really good hitters that came to Texas and had to be taught how to hit, once they got here. I get a real kick out of hearing how our batters can't hit a good breaking pitch, because they don't see one from our pitchers in practice.There are plenty of pitchers on this team with good breaking balls. That the hitting will catch up to the pitching, as the season goes on. Been waiting for over five years for that to happen, hasn't caught up to it yet. Another problem is that this the worst defensive team at Texas in a while, the great defense helped cover up the lack of hitting over the past, to a degree. Yesterday's game would have ended in a win, but the tying run scored on an error. What options in the pen are you talking about? Cooper and Sawyer are being saved for Tuesday's game, somebody has to throw it. The other options have been used, they are certainly no better than what was on the mound. Also it has been discussed at length, how baseball players today play baseball all year round, from the time they can pick up a bat and ball. They play in summer and select leagues and see all kinds of quality pitching. If they can't hit breaking balls, it isn't because they don't see them. People say the hitting will get better every year. Then wait for next year and say it again. Cal is a good hitting team. How did they get that way? Why can't we get hitters like them? How have they already caught up to the pitching? They also field their positions well. I remember when Texas used to have hitters like Cal has, but it's been so long those memories are fading. Texas just keeps being young and learning for over five years now, in the position player department.
