40 Acres Sports

Wow. Today’s game was something else. I’m glad I got to hear most of it. The TexasSports.com story claims that the team “coasted” to the win. I’m here to tell you: that is not the case. Uh-uh. The Kansas State Wildcats jumped out to a 4-run lead in the 2nd. Texas starter Kyle Walker did not make it out of the 2nd. Thankfully, Joseph Krebs was there to pick up the slack and pitch a very solid 5 innings of no-score relief.

Down 4-0 in the bottom of the 2nd, the Horns scraped together a run and then broke things open in the bottom of the 3rd. They sent 15 men to the plate in the 3rd and scored 10 (the most in a single inning all year). Kansas State actually used 4 different pitchers in that inning. So, yeah, at that point, it did kinda look like the Horns were gonna coast to a win. Especially since the Big 12 uses the 10-run rule during the tournament (for all but the Championship Game). Texas scored 2 more in the 7th to go ahead by 9 and it looked, for all the world, like the 10-run rule would actually kick in.

However, the Wildcats would not roll over. Pat McCrory went to the mound for the Horns in the 8th and they jumped all over him. With 3 runs across, 2 outs, and runners at the corners (and a 13-7 lead!), the Horns decided to send Randy Boone to the mound to shut things down. Alas, things did not go exactly the way Texas hoped they would. The Wildcats’ left-fielder took the 2nd pitch he saw over the left field fence. His first home run of the year. Suddenly, the Horns were only ahead by 3 and those 2 runs they’d scored in the bottom of the 7th were looking mighty good. Randy did toss a strikeout to the next batter he faced, though. All Texas had to do from that point was hold the Wildcats for one more inning. But, first, the bottom of the 8th.

Chais Fuller grounded out to start the Texas half of the 8th. Nick Peoples followed that with his 4th home run of the year. And, then Travis Tucker was hit by a pitch. So, trailing by 4, Kansas State sent Daniel Edwards, their closer, to the mound. He had 11 saves on the year, a 1.30 ERA, and had not given up a home run all year. K-State had plans. They were gonna hold the Horns and then score more in the 9th. Alas, best laid plans and all…eh? Edwards walked Jordan Danks and then plonked Kyle Russell to load the bases. Chance Wheeless then singled to score two. With runners at 1b and 2b, Bradley Suttle approached the plate. Bradley has been stuck at 10 home runs for a very long time. Today was the day he’d get over that. Yep, he hit a 3-run dinger over the right field fence. Texas answered the 6 runs K-State scored in the top of the 8th with 6 of their own in the bottom of the 8th. Amazing. The Wildcats got a couple aboard in the top of the 9th but all for naught.

The Horns came away with a 19-10 win. Which, yeah, sounds kinda like maybe they coasted. But, really, that game was a lot closer than the final score makes it look. Yikes! You just gotta love baseball, doncha? Anything can happen.

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For those that aren’t familiar with the format, the Big 12 sends the top 8 teams to the tournament. They’re divided into 2 pools (#1, #4, #5, and #8 seeds in one and #2, #3, #6, and #7 in the other). The pools play separate round-robin mini-tournaments and the winner of each pool advances to a “winner take all” Championship Game. As of this posting, Nebraska and Texas are 1-0 in the 1st pool. OU won the first game in the 2nd pool. Baylor and OSU are scoreless in the 5th in the final game of the day.

For more details about today’s Texas game, please see the game report on my page.

Update. Baylor beat OSU. So, Texas, Nebraska, OU, and Baylor are 1-0. KSU, TAMU, Mizzou, and OSU are 0-1.

Daniel Gibson on NBA TV talking about the draft and Kevin Durant. The two could have been great duo this year.

With the second pick in the 2007 NBA Draft the Seattle Supersonics select [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag]…

Okay, it hasn’t happened yet but the Sonics won the right to pick second in the draft at tonight’s draft lottery. [tag]LaMarcus Aldridge[/tag]’s Portland Trailblazers secured the number one overall pick despite having only a 5.3% chance to win the pick. The Spurs and Mavericks are breathing a little easier after the Atlanta Hawks won the third pick and therefore don’t have to hand it over to Phoenix.

Seattle isn’t a great situation for Durant, but there’s certainly worse places to go (namely Atlanta or Memphis). The team is in a state of disarray both on and off the court. Not a great place from a marketability standpoint either, as most of the team’s games start too late for the other time zones to watch. Plus, there’s still the rumor that they want to move the team to Oklahoma City. That would mean Texas fans could drive up and see KD play, but then he’d have to live in Oklahoma.

I was rooting for the Blazers to get the number two pick so Aldridge and Durant could team up together. That still could happen, while Greg Oden is definitely the likely pick by Portland it is not a given. ESPN’s Chad Ford even mentioned a possible pick swap between Portland and Seattle since Durant might be a better fit for Portland.

It should come down to the very last minute before we know what’s going to happen with the first pick of next month’s draft. Should make for interesting TV.

Related Links

• Blazers get #1 pick
• True Hoop lottery live blog
• FanHouse mock draft: Blazers take Durant

Ryan Perrilloux is in legal trouble again. He got caught using his brother’s ID to get into a casino.

Texas finally officially signs Dogus Balbay of Turkey. Great addition to our point guard depth.

The Texas A&M sweep puts the Horns on track for a long run to Omaha and the Aggies aren’t ready for primetime.

Under Armour has up a Cat Osterman commercial for their softball line. You can even download it and save it for your iPod. I’m not sure how new this is, but I hadn’t seen it before.

Cat doesn’t have any lines and the commercial is pretty short, but it does a good job of making her and softball look pretty cool. I wish she’d have yelled “We must protect this house!” at the end and then maybe tackled someone. Or at least pegged somebody with a softball. That would have been even better. (via)

Texas beat the Aggies one more time, 9-1, to complete the sweep. Five of the Texas runs were scored on 2 home runs in the 4th: a 2-run shot over the left field fence by Preston Clark (his 7th of the year) and a 3-run shot over the right field fence by Jordan Danks (his 4th of the year). The Horns came close to run-ruling the Aggies but couldn’t quite do it. And, frankly, we were kinda hoping they wouldn’t so we could see just a little more baseball. It was Senior Day, after all. Today was the last time we’d get to see any of the seniors (and a few of the juniors, I’m sure) playing in Burnt Orange at Disch-Falk Field.

Austin Wood got the win for the Horns. He pitched the first 8 innings and gave up one earned run on 5 hits with 2 strikeouts, 1 walk, 2 hit batters, and 1 wild pitch. Pat McCrory went in for the 9th, faced the minimum, and threw 2 strikeouts.

The Horns now head to Oklahoma City for the Big 12 Tournament. They will likely be a National seed for the playoffs leading to the CWS. Regardless, they will host a Regional at the Dell Diamond the first weekend in June. Should they win the Regional, they will then (assuming they get a National seed, and there’s absolutely no reason to think they won’t) host a Super Regional at Whataburger Field, home to the Corpus Christi Hooks (Astros AA affiliate), the following weekend. Here’s hoping!

By the way, more details available in the game report on my page.

Texas beat the Aggies 3-2 last night to clinch the Texas A&M Series, the Lone Star Showdown, and the Big 12 Regular Season Title. All in one game. Cool.

Just like Friday night, the Horns came from behind to tie things up late in the game. And, very much like Friday night, an error by an Aggie player led to the winning run being scored by the Horns. In the 8th, with the game tied at 2, Chais Fuller hit a ball to ss that could’ve gone for a double play. The lead runner (Nick Peoples, who’d reached on a single) was thrown out (ss to 2b) but the relay throw to 1b was high. Chais dug hard for 2b and barely beat a nice throw by the Aggie catcher (who’d backed up the play at 1b). With Chais at 2b, Josh Prince (dh) singled to cf (rbi). The excitement in the stands was unbelievable.

In the top of the 9th, Randy Boone struck out the side. It was a beautiful thing to behold. Adrian Alaniz got the start for Texas but struggled. As Augie commented in his post-game interview with Keith Moorland, it looked like Adrian was just trying too hard. After giving up 2 runs in 3.2 innings, Joseph Krebs replaced him on the mound. And, held the Aggies scoreless through the 8th, giving up 2 hits with 4 strikeouts and no walks. He got the win and Randy got his 12th save of the year.

I love watching this team.

I haven’t done an in-depth report on my page yet (and may not have time to do one) so please check out the TexasSports.com story and the article in the Statesman for more info. And, photos.

The Falcons’ official site has a Q&A up with Justin Blalock. If Vick isn’t in jail, he’ll love having Blalock blocking for him.