Texas vs. UCLA Game 2

Gadsby tries to close out the game for UCLA and get the win.

Kody Clemens leads off batting lefty for Texas.
He lines a shot toward the gap, in left center, he heads to second and slides safely ahead of the throw, for a lead double.

Cantu bats righty, with the tying run at second.
He fouls off a bunt and then swings away, for a foul ball.
Need a hit or at least a productive out.
A wild pitch moves the tying run to third.
The count runs full and the infield comes in.
He walks to put runners on the corners.

Harlan bats lefty with runners on the corners.
Jake McKenzie comes in to run for Cantu.
The bunt is back in play now.
Infield moves to double play depth.
He did square, but takes a ball.
Got to have some contact here.
A liner to left is toward the gap and down, the tying run scores and it's a double to put runners at second and third. Big hit for the freshman.

Game tied 4-4.

 

Gurwitz up batting righty, runners at second and third.
The bunt is still in play.
Need to put it in play, but he K's swinging, he didn't see pitches at all against the submariner.
I thought he would bunt, the safety squeeze.

Top of the order is Jones, batting righty, two on and one out.
He grounds to third and the runners has to hold at third, the 5-3, is a second out.
Thought he might have bunted too.

So it's up to Boswell, to give the Horns the lead, two on and two outs.
Coach out, but Gadsby stays in.
Boswell back in.
He K's swinging, on the high fast ball, to end the inning.

Texas does tie it, but misses a huge opportunity to take the lead, with runners at second and third, nobody out. Where was the safety squeeze?

Game tied 4-4, bottom of the ninth.

 

Freshman right hander Blake Wellman comes in to pitch the bottom of the ninth.

He faces the DH, in lefty hitter Peterson, who was up when the Bruins pulled off the trick play to take the lead.
He hits the first pitch to right for a game winning homer.

UCLA wins the game 5-4, to tie the series up at 1-1.

Tough loss for the Horns, back in a bit to talks some more.

 

Ugh, how do we not score with two on and no outs? I guess we were going for two runs instead of one?

 

Darn

 

Another kind of strange game, Texas gives up two runs in the first, a couple of not well hit balls go for hits. Then a liner scores a run.
Then on a double steal, the throw to third and the throw was in plenty of time, but I guess Barrera playing third, misses the tag.
Then a SF, that shouldn't have been scores another run.

Culbreth settles down and only gives up a unearned run because he makes an error, that prevented the side being retired in order.

Meanwhile Bird, a reliever pressed into a starting role, is shutting down Texas for five innings. He reached his pitch limit and Texas got a couple of runs off him, then later tie things up on a Travis Jones homer.

UCLA takes the lead again by stealing the run on a planned play, that catches the Horns off guard.

Texas strikes back and ties the game and has runners at second and third, with no outs.

Gurwitz is up and I am pretty shocked the safety squeeze was not on, you could take the lead, and move another runner to third, with one out. Gurwitz is a good bunter with speed, puts the pressure on the defense. Then the top of the order is up, you could possibly do it again, or let Jones swing away, with the infield in.

Texas had the bunt game on the whole game, even when trailing by three runs, just seemed odd they didn't use it there, with the game tied.

When Texas didn't take the lead, you had that sinking feeling that UCLA took back the momentum, and would win. They did just that.

It was a hard fought game and mistakes were made, that cost the Horns dearly, in the end. A missed tag, an error, caught by a trick play, then not taking the lead in the ninth.

So the series is tied and the rubber game comes tomorrow, need to take it and leave California, on a positive note.

One more thing, don't forget to set your clocks ahead tonight, so you can back on time, for tomorrow's game.

 

Second and third, nobody out, and Texas can't even get a run home. And not even an intentional walk?

Typical...

 

Not a lot of mental toughness from this Texas team thus far. Gonna be pretty embarrassing if Texas walks into College Station on Tuesday with a losing record while a&m is 15-1.

That's going to be an ugly ugly UGLY game

 

Shall I polish the forks?

 

In baseball jargon, the table had already been set, so not needed.

 

Original. Strong comeback

 

Let's change the subject to football recruiting, where we were headed for disaster...wait that actually turned out well.

 

Our hitting hasn't been too bad this series, for the most part. We'll be reading come Big XII play