Friday, May 21, 2010

Game Day: Craziest baseball game I have ever seen

Baseball returns to Missouri with a different outlook (TexasSports.com)
“We threw everyone we had out there, and nothing worked,” Texas pitcher Cole Green says. “It was just a weird deal -- the craziest baseball game I have ever seen.”

In a lighthearted effort to exorcise the demons affecting them that night, members of the team, including Workman, wrote the final score on a baseball and buried it in the visiting team dugout. The ploy had no effect that Saturday though, as the Longhorns fell behind 7-1 in the fourth and never recovered, losing 13-2.
Horns ready to dig up memory of 31-run debacle (News8Austin)
Video story
Think of the baseball as a time capsule from the past - you bury it, and then later on you want to come back and dig it up. So that's the team plan, to back to Missouri, get down and dirty in the bullpen, and dig the thing up.

Problem is, Brandon Workman says, they're not exactly sure where the ball is.
■ From HornFans.com
We still owe the Tigers for that horrible butt whipping they applied two years ago. They routed us, scoring over 30 on Friday night. We need to avenge this disgraceful defeat.

We will bury them. We will come out with fire in our eyes, we will eat their young, we will get them in a clinch and bite their ears off.
Horns have learned their chemistry since 2008 flop (Statesman.com)
The Longhorns made history the last time they traveled to Columbia, Mo., to face the Tigers in baseball. And it wasn't the good kind .

In 2008, Texas gave up 31 runs in a Friday night loss and followed that up Saturday by getting blown out 13-2. The 44 runs allowed in those two losses — combined with a 9-2 Texas victory on Sunday — tied a school record for runs allowed in a three-game series.

Two years later, though, the Longhorns believe positives came out of that morbid debacle.

"You better learn from your mistakes," Texas coach Augie Garrido said. "And we made plenty in that series."
. . .
"We took our lumps a couple years ago," Green said. "Some of the biggest lumps came at Missouri. They whooped us. I remember sitting (in the dugout) wondering how we could give up so many runs. Every ball they hit seemed to leave the park."

So what did the Longhorn hurlers take from that weekend?

"The biggest lesson I learned about that weekend was making excuses," Green said. "I remember so many people complaining. It was really cold. It was windy. The umpires were bad. And I remember hearing excuse after excuse. There were so many reasons given (for) why we lost."

Texas Baseball (Hook'em Report)
Baseball isn’t as emotional as football, and that game was two years ago, and in the world of college baseball most of the members of the 2008 team are not here anymore, but still. I would like that memory erased. That was a lovely Friday night. It was nice outside, spring was in the air and the weather had finally turned warm for the first time all spring. We had friends over, hanging outside, etc. And our night was ruined because of the Missouri Tigers. Probably. I don’t completely remember because it was two years ago, but I’m pretty sure it was terrible.
MU Recruits

Moody keeps rolling (Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
It was a much different scenario than the last time the two teams met in the postseason. Two years ago, Alice knocked off Moody 9-6 in a one-game regional quarterfinal playoff in Alice when the Trojans were ranked third and the defending state champions.

“It was my sophomore year and I was playing third base. We just came out flat that game,” Michael Franco said. “I didn’t want a repeat. I came out here with some revenge. I did it for my team in ’08 and I did it for them tonight.”

Franco struck out 13 and walked one, throwing 61 of his 89 pitches for strikes. No Alice runner made it past second base.
. . .
It was all Franco after that. He set down 11 of the final 12 Alice batters he faced. The only real threat the 17-16 Coyotes posed was in the second when A.J. Perez reached on an infield single. He made it to second when Franco uncorked a wild pickoff throw but Perez never slowed rounding the bag and was thrown out at third by Perales.

“It seemed like he got better as the game went on,” Alice coach Victor Escamilla said of Franco. “He’s a veteran pitcher, a confident pitcher. Solid defense behind him. We went up there and battled. We had that one three-run inning. We got the leadoff out and that ball found the gap in the 2-hole. They’re not No. 2 for nothing.”
TX Stat Stars (ESPN Rise)
Rob Zastryzny, Calallen (Corpus Christi, Texas)

For the fourth year in a row, the Wildcats captured the District 31-4A championship as he pitched a complete-game shutout allowing just three hits while having two hits of his own in a 16-0 five-inning win over Tuloso-Midway. Despite the game being just five innings, he recorded 11 strikeouts while improving to 11-0 this year on the mound with eight shutouts.
Athletes of the Week (ESPN Rise, May 7)
Rob Zastryzny, Calallen (Corpus Christi, Texas)

For the fourth year in a row, the FAB 50-ranked Wildcats captured the District 31-4A championship as Zastryzny pitched a complete-game shutout. He allowed just three hits while having two hits of his own in a 16-0 five-inning win over Tuloso-Midway (Corpus Christi, Texas). Despite the game being just five innings, he recorded 11 strikeouts while improving to 11-0 this year on the mound with eight shutouts. Last season as a junior, he was 9-4 with a 2.25 ERA. Zastryzny continued a trend of Calallen's top pitchers going to Big 12 schools as he has signed to play at the University of Missouri.
Calallen tops Ray, 12-1 (Corpus christi Caller-Times)
Zastryzny (12-0) was able to close out his 10th complete game of the season just a week after feeling ill and sitting out the one-game bi-district playoff against Mission Veterans Memorial. He looked fine Friday, striking out nine, not allowing a baserunner until the third inning and not giving up a hit until Matthew Garcia’s solo home run in the fourth.

“I’m fully better. I’m back 100 percent,” Zastryzny said.

"It was pretty hot, really humid. A lot of pressure. I was getting a little tired at the end. I'm not sure why. I haven't been running as much."

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