40 Acres Sports

It got scary with two outs in the bottom of the night but yesterday’s starter [tag]Chance Ruffin[/tag] came in and got the final out for the 4-3 victory over St. John’s. [tag]Austin Wood[/tag] threw a fantastic 8 2/3rds innings but gave up two runs and put two more runners on before being relieved. After an intentional walk Ruffin got the final out on a bases loaded fielder’s choice.

Texas now must win two in a row against [tag]Rice[/tag] to move onto the Super Regional. Texas will start left-hander [tag]Riley Boening[/tag] against the Owls tonight at 6pm. You can listen to the game online at 1300 the Zone or watch live streaming video at riceowls.cstv.com.

DJ Augustin confident he’s ready to lead a team. The lowest he’ll fall will be to the Pacers at pick #11.

[tag]Kenn Kasparek[/tag] pitched six strong innings but the offense couldn’t get going and Texas dropped the opening game of regional play to St. John’s 2-1. The team now must win three in the row to advance to the Super Regionals.

The game was tied going into the top of the 9th inning when relief pitcher [tag]Cole Green[/tag] mishandled a ball hit back to the mound. He recovered on the play but first baseman [tag]Brandon Belt[/tag] couldn’t handle the throw and the St. John’s batter reached safely. Three batters later he scored the winning run as Texas failed to turn a inning ending double play.

Head coach [tag]Augie Garrido[/tag] looked crushed by the loss in the post game press conference. I get the feeling that if this team gets swept out of the tournament he might call it a career.

The team takes on Sam Houston St. in an elimination game today at 2pm.

Related Links

• TexasSports story
• Box score
• Postgame quotes
• Video highlights

Texas (37-20) vs. St. John’s (42-14)

When: Friday, May 30, 2008, 2 p.m. Central
Where: Houston, Texas (Reckling Park)
TV: none
Radio: KVET 1300 AM “The Zone”
Internet Video: Watch Friday’s game live on riceowls.cstv.com.
Internet Audio: Game will be streamed live on 1300 The Zone.
Live stats: Available at ncaasports.cstv.com.

Series Breakdown

All-Time Series: Series tied 1-1
First Meeting: 6/22/1949; a 7-1 Texas win in Wichita*
Last Meeting: 6/14/1966; a 2-0 St. John’s win in Omaha*
Streak: St. John’s won the last meeting
Garrido vs. St. John’s: First Meeting

Pitching Matchups

Texas: RHP [tag]Kenn Kasparek[/tag] (4-3, 3.76 ERA)
St. John’s: TBA

Source: TexasSports.com

* Game played at College World Series

The New York Post is reporting that TJ Ford is being shopped by Raptors. Toronto has one point guard too many.

Three UT stars (Kyle Russell, Jordan Danks and Preston Clark) are looking for their first regional championship.

SEC coaches hoping for early signing day in late November. Nothing will change unless they can force the NCAA to do something.

Name: Ben Alexander #92
Position: Defensive Tackle
Hometown: Anderson, SC (T.L. Hanna)
HS Rating:

Height: 6-foot-0
Weight: 310 lbs
Class: Junior

Background

The rare out-of-state recruit for the Horns, Ben Alexander lacked ideal size but was still heavily recruited by the ACC and SEC schools in the area even after committing to Texas. By the end of the recruiting process he held offers from Georgia, Florida State, Notre Dame, and other national powers.

Alexander attended TL Hanna High School, the same school as Radio from the popular Disney movie. At Hanna he was a two time first-team all-state defensive tackle and also athletic enough to play fullback and tight end.

Career Stats

Defensive tackle [tag]Derek Johnson[/tag] from Hoxie, Arkansas committed to the Longhorns Wednesday according to Orangebloods.com. Johnson, originally from El Paso, is reportedly one of the top five players in Arkansas for the class of 2009.

The 6-foot-3, 290 pound Johnson is the second defensive tackle in this class, joining Calvin Howell out of San Antonio who committed in mid-May. Hopefully 5-star stud Jamarkus McFarland will come and join an incredible defensive line group.

The recruitment of three defensive tackles in this one class certainly lends creedence to the rumors that defensive tackles [tag]Tyrell Higgins[/tag] and [tag]Brian Ellis[/tag] may not be back on the team in the fall. If they’re gone then the big need at the position quickly became a huge one.

Check out the YouTube video of Johnson courtesy of Orangebloods message boards below (warning: the audio is obnoxious and very NSFW):

Welcome to the Forty Acres Derek.

Bad news for [tag]AJ Abrams[/tag]’ NBA aspirations but possibly good news for next year’s basketball team. The NBA did not invite AJ to the league’s pre-draft camp being held this week in Orlando.

From the AAS:

Longhorn guard AJ Abrams is not at the NBA Pre-Draft camp in Orlando this week, after all. Abrams thought last week that he was going. Others, in the media, predicted that Abrams would make the list of players competing there.

But when the list was released by the NBA Monday night, Abrams was not one of the 64 players included. He can still work out for teams starting on June 3 before deciding whether to remove his name from the draft before the June 16 deadline and return to school for his senior season.

This essentially means that according to the NBA Abrams is not one of the top 64 draft eligible players. Hopefully this means he’ll be headed back to Texas next year, assuming he’s willing to accept his role as defined by coach Rick Barnes. This team needs him back draining threes.