The new Horn pitcher is lefty Jon Malmin, a lefty. Arakawa will face him batting lefty and two on and two outs. Even the video feed is tired and starting to freeze up off and on. He K's looking and it still keeps going on. Eighteenth on the way and tied 3-3.
Hassel pitches the eighteenth for OSU. Johnson leads off for the Horns, right handed. He flies to right and it's one gone. Shaw bats lefty, with one away. The count runs full and a fly ball to left is two down. Barrera bats righty, with two outs. A ground ball to third ends the frame. Tied at 3-3, to the bottom of eighteen.
Ok, here's another one. I rode the chartered bus up to a TCU game at the Rangers' ballpark back in the early 2000s. I sat next to a tiny lady, and we struck up a conversation. Turned out she was Ryan Huebel's mother. Ryan, if folks don't remember was the Longhorn catcher in those days. His family lived in Paradise, AZ, an enormously wealthy part of the Phoenix area. I asked her why Ryan, with a good college baseball program right there in his backyard in Tempe at ASU, would come to Texas. She said that ASU's coach, Pat Murphy, offered "extra incentives" to Ryan to go there. Mrs. Huebel, a very moral and religious woman, was incredibly offended about that approach to her son's recruiting and told him he definitely was NOT going to ASU. He was also looking at Texas and decided, after some consideration, to commit to Augie. So, Cam Newton and his preacher father aside, not every college athlete will yield to crooked recruiters. Ryan didn't.
Malmin is back for the eighteenth. Costello leads off for the Pokes, batting righty. A fly ball to right is one down. Green bats lefty, with one away. He walks to put the winning run on again. Walton bats with one on and one down. A fly ball down the right field foul line, is caught just fair, for two gone. Hagler bats with two down, from the right side, with two outs. The runner goes and a one hop throw by Barrera is late. The winning run in scoring position again. Skip out and another change is made.
I'm doing car rental reservations for my summer travel. Not a complete loss. Horns need to pick it up. So close on hitting and pitching to start winning games.
The new Texas pitcher is Andy McGuire, a right hander and I think the last right handed reliever Texas has. Hagler back in, from the right side and a 2-0 count. He hits him with a pitch to put two on. Hassel up with two on and two down, batting righty. A long homer to left ends it and you knew somehow, it would end in a bad way. OSU wins it I think, as there was a base running mistake. Augie out, but it's over and OSU wins 6-3 after nearly seven hours of baseball. Texas had all kinds of chances to win and didn't. The bottom of the bullpen finally cracked. It's just watching games like this over and over again that Texas loses, is getting harder to do. Tomorrow is here already, so another game today is all I can say.
Thanks NB, this season is going to get away from the Horns quick if the bats don't wake up. Too solid of pitching to have the bats be so darn lethargic. Please figure it out already Augie. Do something to change that mojo, quick. Ya know, it does not look good for these next two games, but hopefully the pitching stays solid and the bats do eventually wake up. HOOK EM! and thanks again. Only three and a half more hours of the night shift to go!!! Woohoo!
Andy McGuire threw two pitches, both of which were unsuccessful in reaching the catcher's mitt... what an outing. That being said, let's not forget our catcher getting picked off at second base from behind home plate and Mayes failing to throw one more strike in two different opportunities to end this game over 3 hours ago. What a disappointing night, hopefully our guys play harder tomorrow because they really gave this one away. I don't think I've ever seen a Texas team come off of multiple Omaha wins one season play with this much of an apathetic attitude the next. 17-13 is not a record that screams "regional participant"
Damn this is bad news. Had to bailout last night as I had to get up early Sat. AM. Glad I didn't stay up for the end of this turkey. Unfortunately osu has a very good pitcher tonight with a good ERA.
