Texas lost (3-7) to Texas A&M this afternoon. The Aggies made an interesting decision to start Kirkland Rivers. He’s mainly been used in short relief this season. He did a great job, though, holding the Horns to 3 runs on 7 hits over 6.2 innings. When he looked like he was getting into trouble in the 4th, the Aggies made no move to replace him. And, the decision paid off. Keith Moorland was completely dumbfounded by the fact that he kept going back to the mound as the game wore on. When the Aggies finally replaced him in the 7th, they sent Kyle Nicholson to the mound. Nicholson has been the Aggies’ most reliable starter all year. He did close out some games early in the season, though, so that move wasn’t quite as unprecedented. Nicholson faced 7 Texas batters. Not a single one reached base.
Texas, meanwhile, sent James Russell to the mound. He got into trouble in the 5th when the Aggies started things off with back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases. James struck the 4th batter out looking and we all let our breath out a little bit. He hit the next on the knee, though, to score the tying run. The 5th batter fouled out to Bradley Suttle at 3b and we relaxed just a wee bit more. Sadly, Craig Stinson hit the first pitch he saw over the lf fence for a grand slam which gave the Aggies a 6-2 lead. James actually pitched a good game after that, although he did give up one more home run (a solo shot) in the 5th. Keith Shinaberry pitched a scoreless 7th and Pat McCrory did the same in the 8th.
As Coach Garrido pointed out in the post-game show, when the Horns had the bases loaded with two outs, they failed to execute. When the Aggies had the same chance, they executed in a big way. And, that made all the difference.
The Horns are concentrating their efforts on managing the pitching in an effort to have the ideal set up when the Regional comes around next weekend. They’d like to win the Big 12 Tournament but are focusing more on where they want to be next weekend. On the one hand, I like that they’re looking ahead. On the other hand, they’ve played “one inning at a time” all year long. Changing philosophies late in the season makes me a little nervous.
As usual, more details available in the game report on my page.
reply to #1
Brian
May 25th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Lot of mistakes in the field and at the plate during the game. Not a huge loss for the Horns though, I’m sure they’re a national top 8 seed no matter what happens this weekend.
reply to #2
Joanna
May 25th, 2007 at 10:05 am
They’ll definitely be a top 8 seed (probably a top 3) no matter what happens on Saturday and Sunday. It doesn’t bother me at all that Texas is 3-1 against the Aggies over the last 7 days (it’s very difficult to beat someone 4 times in the same year). What concerns me (and it’s just a niggling thing…nothing major) is how the change in game-day attitude might affect things over the next couple of weeks.