I’ll be live blogging Texas’ first game of the College World Series. Updates on the game as well as my thoughts on how things are going. The game is on ESPN TV or you can follow along online at NCAASports.com.
The Omaha song this year sucks. Back Home to Omaha was catchy and had good lyrics, this year’s version blows.
Top 1st
People leads off with a solid base hit. Stubbs moves him over with a sacrifice bunt. Runner in scoring position with only one out, good start. The Horns have lost to Baylor four times already this year and it’s important they start off well.
Home run Seth Johnston. That was a monster shot. Baylor’s pitcher, McCormick, left a meat ball right over the middle and he crushed it. Texas is up two quickly and easily.
Walk to Round Rock’s Chance Wheeless. I bet he weighs 30 more pounds than he did as a senior in high school, he was a skinny sucker. Runner on first and one out. Texas needs to jump on the Bears now before they get settled in.
2 outs. McCormick just about broke his leg but he got the curve ball across to strike out Crouch. Carson Kainer up to bad. Grounds out to second to end the inning.
After half an inning, the Horns are up two. Good to get a fast start but they’ve got to keep the momentum. The games Texas lost in the CWS last year were almost all full of wasted chances by the Horns. Texas must play good fundamental baseball and take advantage of their scoring opportunities.
Bottom 1st
Adrian Alaniz on the mound for Texas. Been solid all year long. Throw strikes and take advantage of this lead.
Infield hit for Baylor’s Griffin. Maroul should have let that one by. No way he throws out a speedy runner on a play like that, a third baseman is supposed to get every ball he can but in that case he’s got to let Johnston get it and see if he can make a play.
Baylor plays a little small ball like Texas did and sacrifices the runner to second. Ford grounds out and the runner advances to third.
Pretty generous outside corner from the ump, both pitchers should pound it in there over and over again if he’s going to call that all night. Maroul ran about a mile and almost made a good play on a foul pop, lots of area in foul ground here.
I don’t know where Peoples was playing Dillon, but he had to run forever to catch a soft fly ball down the right field line. Barely got there in time but made the catch and Baylor strands a runner at third.
Top 2nd
McCormick’s still wild. Make him throw strikes because I’m not sure he’s going to be able to. Maroul sacrifices Teagarden to second who walked. Maybe should have force him to throw a strike before laying one down.
Robby Hudson hit the ball hard but right at the center fielder on the first pitch he saw. Teagarden advances to third. 2 outs. Peoples goes quickly as well and grounds to second base. He struggled in the first and walked the first batter of the inning, then the next three batters saw a total of 4 pitches and didn’t take a single one of them.
Bottom 2nd
I hope Baylor loses their first two games so we don’t have to listen to the story of Reid and Drew Brees and their determination over and over and over. I love Huston Street and his dad is a Longhorn legend, but criminy they beat that story to death. Brees flies out to left, one down.
Alaniz is looking pretty good so far, hitting his target consistently early on here. He left that one over the plate a little for Russo but he hits an easy grounder to short for the second out.
As soon as I comment on Alaniz’s control, he walks a guy batting only .181. Can’t let these bottom of the order guys get on base and cause trouble. Especially on free passes. Well I guess it’s okay if they’re going to try to steal and get thrown out by 5 steps. Was either a missed hit and run by the Baylor batter or just a really bad decision by the baserunner.
Top 3rd
These coach interviews between innings are brutal. I hate watching them almost as much as the coaches despise giving them. They’re even more useless than the halftime interviews in NFL games.
Stubbs leads off the third and strikes out. He’s got to get it going. He’s been struggling and it’s got to be getting to him a little. It’s just a small slump, but in Omaha it can roll into a big time slump pretty easily.
Johnston hits another ball hard and reaches on a single to center. Wheeless fans for out number 2. McCormick has great stuff and we may have let him settle in and get comfortable last inning. He’s throwing strikes now.
Crouch grounds out to second to end the inning. We sure have chopped a lot of balls weakly to the right side of the infield.
Bottom 3rd
Stubbs gets a great jump on a ball as Witt hits a ball well to left center. I’m getting tired of Harold Reynolds saying things after I’m typing them. Hard hit ball off of Wheeless and runner reaches on infield single. Both these last two batters have made good contact.
Pop up to Texas second baseman Hudson. Two down.
Strike zone may have come back in a little, the outside corner doesn’t seem to be as far out there anymore. Two pitches in a row from Alaniz that I think would’ve been called strikes in the first inning. Solid base hit to right and Baylor has runners on first and third with two outs. Pretty much every guy in this inning has made good cuts on the ball. Even the guy who popped out hit a shot foul earlier in the at bat.
Alaniz throws a fastball by Baylor’s best hitter Ford. Clocked at 89 MPH but got it passed him easily, great location and Ford must’ve been looking for something else. Baylor strands runners at first and third. Texas still up two after 3 innings.
Top 4th
Kainer grounds out. Ahman Green, former Nebraska Cornhusker, shows up to support the North Carolina basketball team. Oh wait… Hey Ahman, try not to suck ass this year. You killed my fantasy football team last year.
Sometime during that interview Teagarden grounded out, no one with ESPN noticed.
Maroul thrown out at first on a great play by second baseman Griffin. Nice barehand and throw on a slow roller, though he probably made it harder than it needed to be since the throw beat Maroul by step and a half.
Bottom 4th
It’s crucial Texas wins this game because whoever loses this game is going to have to face Oregon State’s ace, Dallas Buck, in the losers bracket. Tough match up in an elimination game. Fly ball to left for out number 1.
Drew is Reid Brees’ brother mention number four and counting.
Scary play on a casual fly ball to right. Peoples has trouble with the sun and then almost busts his butt back pedaling back, but he made the catch.
Maroul is a great defensive third baseman (that’s the main reason he’s in there), but he’s made two defensive mistakes today already. Ball was hit way too hard to attempt a barehanded play. Infield single with two outs.
Base hit through the right side for Fortenberry and the Bears again have first and third with two outs. Let’s see if Alaniz can work out of another jam. He’s still throwing strikes, but he’s not hitting Teagarden’s mitt as well as he was early.
I smell a conspiracy. The ESPN Bottom Line along the bottom of the screen is sponsored by Bayer. Hmmm….
And there’s a single to left for an RBI. Texas 2 – Baylor 1.
Alaniz is overthrowing now. Calm down and throw strikes. Ump squeezed him and he walks the batter on four pitches. Bottom of the order is killing us. Harold Reynolds sure is being an ass, the guy gives up one run and he thinks he should never throw another pitch. He also keeps pointing out how shockingly some of these kids’ batting averages are despite of the aluminum bats. Deep fly ball to left with the bases loaded but the ball is caught for third out short of the warning track. Texas survives a scare and finishes the inning still up by one.
Top 5th
Drew is Reid Brees’ brother mention number 5.
Hard hit ball passed a diving attempt by the shortstop for a base hit by Hudson. Peoples sacrifices him over. Close play at first but they got the out. Big situation for Stubbs here with a runner in scoring position. Both he and Texas could use a base hit here. Hudson is really bothering the pitcher from second base during Stubbs’ at bat.
Stubbs walks. McCormick is still having a little trouble throwing strikes, and if you wait enough he’s going to make a mistake. Take a few pitches and sit dead red on a fastball while you’re ahead in the count. McCormick still bothered by baserunner on second.
That’s why I never wanted a runner on second to try to let me know what the pitch was. I’d much rather not know what was coming than think I knew than get a fastball blown passed me.
Class rings are stupid. Enjoy the 2 years you get to wear that.
Wheeless flies out to left to end the inning, stranding 2. McCormick isn’t exactly cruising though. If Alaniz gets through the bottom of this inning I think Texas will get at least one in the top of the sixth.
Bottom 5th
I’ve got friends who have spent their whole lives following a lot of Beavers
Harold, you don’t see me mentioning it do you? Whoops, just did.
Gerdes swings at ball four and grounds out to second for out number one. Alaniz is throwing a little better, but is still missing his spots.
Strike three looking to Baylor’s three hole hitter Ford. All over the place during the at bat but at least was missing out of the zone and not right down the middle. The curve ball at 3-2 was a great pitch to get the K.
Three up three down, but that’ll probably be Alaniz’s last inning. He’s just not getting the ball where he wants it consistently and he doesn’t have the overpowering stuff to get away with that. I think it’d be a mistake for Augie to send him out there for the 6th.
Top 6th
Why are Baylor’s women’s basketball’s uniforms black? That was a lot of apostrophes.
Crouch almost takes McCormick’s legs out from under him with a hard grounder back up the middle. Runner on first with no outs.
The 21 people who watched the women’s Final Four was not a big crowd.
Hey look, they’re playing a baseball game! Sacrifice attempt by Texas that Baylor botches, runners on first and second and nobody down. I hate bunting Teagarden in that situation. You’ve already got a runner in scoring position with one of you best hitters at the plate. Why bunt the runner over just to get another guy in scoring position? Teagarden hit .330 this year, Maroul’s average is a full 100 points lower.
Maroul strikes out for the second out, still runners at first and second.
Another big mistake by Baylor in the inning. McCormick throws to first wildly on a tapper from Hudson and two Texas runners score easily. Combination of the sun and the runner coming down the line keep the first baseman from being able to make a play. Hudson gets all the way to second.
Pop up to shallow center that the Baylor shortstop catches like a girl. Tough catch, but try not to look so womanly doing it next time. Texas gets a couple of runs just like a predicted last inning and leads Baylor 4 to 1.
Bottom 6th
Surprisingly Alaniz is out for the sixth inning, I’ve got to think he’s on a short leash here. You can’t afford to let them back into this game.
Tough hop but Maroul plays it perfectly and gets the first out. That sun didn’t seem to bother Wheeless. Maybe it was the crappy throw after all.
Harold Reynolds married way out of his league, I imagine the millions and millions he made as major leaguer probably help out with that a little.
Great play by Maroul. Diving stop way to his left and throws the baserunner out from his knees. Big time play and the reason he’s in there. Another base hit by Fortenberry. Randy Boone has been warming up for about an hour now, if Alaniz doesn’t get Witt out he’ll be done. He can’t get the ball down at all right now.
The lone dude chanting Let’s go Baylor
is really wearing on me. Shut up man, nobody cares. Go sit and root for North Carolina with Ahman Green.
Dinky pop out to short to end the inning.
Top 7th
Stubbs down swinging again. He doesn’t look to bad but just seems to not really have a good grasp on the strike zone right now. Swining at a lot of balls outside the zone.
Johnston strikes out as well. Wheeless singles to left and a gapper by Crouch results in runners on first and second. After making Stubbs and Johnston look bad, two hard hits in a row with two outs. Kainer grounds out to third to end the inning.
Bottom 7th
That motion technology they just used to illustrated Maroul’s play is really cool. Harold Reynolds didn’t learn not to take a false first step till he was in the minors, I thought all infielders and baserunners were taught that at an early age. I guess when you’re like me and have no natural range you have to learn to play good defense.
Again, I’m surprised Alaniz is out there to start the inning, I guess he’s been pretty good against the top of the order he’ll be facing. Strikes out the first man up. Good start.
Ball smoked to short by Griffin but it’s out number 2 and another good play by Maroul for out number 3. Only six more outs to go.
Top 8th
Teagarden leads off with another hit. Seems like Texas has been getting a lot of guys on with no or one outs, while Baylor has made their runs with 2 outs already in the book. That’ll make a big difference throughout the games, gives you a lot more chances to earn a run without needing a big hit.
After a sacrifice by Maroul gets him to second, Teagarden scores on a single up the middle by Hudson to make it 5 to 1. Peoples grounds into double play to end the inning, but Texas is in pretty good shape now.
Bottom 8th
J. Brent Cox struggled a little in the Super Regionals against Ole Miss but you’ve got to feel pretty safe with him coming in and a four run lead. Hopefully he can come in and get two easy innings in under his belt. So far so good, ground ball to short for the first out of the eighth.
Risky play diving for a ball when your up by four like that, but fortunately Stubbs was there to back up Kainer and keep the Baylor hitter to a double.
Drew is Reid Brees’ brother mention number six, they’ve fallen off the pace a little. I may forget they’re any relation if you don’t mention it at least once every half evening. The Brees who is actually playing grounds out to the second baseman for the second out.
Sinking liner to right for the third out of the inning. Cox didn’t exactly breeze through the inning (pun very much intended) but he got the job done and threw strikes.
Top 9th
Good solid single by Stubbs, hopefully giving him something he can carry over to the next game. If he gets back on track, he’s a heck of a weapon on the basepaths.
Hard ground ball by Johnston but the third baseman makes a good play and turns the double play. Chance Wheeless has another base hit. He looks like he is really hurting right now, he sure seems to linger uncomfortable in the box after he hits the ball. Good catch up a looper to right, but I don’t think Wheeless scores if it drops with the way he’s running.
Bottom 9th
Three outs to go and Cox will be facing Baylor’s 7, 8, and 9 hitters. They’ve done well tonight but I’d still rather be facing them then the meat of the order.
They finally get Fortenberry out on a foul pop, two more to go. Ground ball up the middle but Johnston is playing deep and towards the bag and makes the play easily. Baylor down to their last out.
Somebody ought to tell Mandel he can’t hit a four run homer with no one on base, he’s really swinging for the fences. He grounds out to short to end it.
Final score: Texas 5, Baylor 1. Texas moves on to play Tulane on Monday night. They’re the number one seed but I watched them play earlier today and last weekend versus Rice in the Super Regionals and they’re certainly beatable. Plenty of rest for both teams, should be a good match-up.
reply to #1
Matt
June 18th, 2005 at 4:58 pm
You should be a sports caster.
reply to #2
Brian
June 18th, 2005 at 5:19 pm
I’m not sure I could control my language throughout an entire game. I’ve already had to edit out a few choice words in this game and it’s not really had any big plays or controversy.