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Silver Glove Series

Rice’s starter, Jared Rogers, got off to a great start against the top of the Cougar lineup. Joel Ansley, Blake Kelso and Matt Creel went 3-up, 3-down. The second inning didn’t go much better for the Coogs offense with Chris Wallace‘s infield hit providing the only baserunner for UH in two innings. Rice didn’t take quite as long to get going.

The Owls didn’t get a hit in the first but Rick Hague opened the scoring with a solo homer in the bottom of the second. The third was even better for the Owls as Michael Ratterree, Chad Mozingo and Michael Fuda singled. Anthony Rendon followed them with a walk and Chase McDowell brought two guys home with a single to left which prompted UH Coach Raynor Noble to go to his bullpen. Taylor Hammack came in and got out of the frame without allowing any more runs but the damage was already done.

4-0 Rice after 3.

Houston didn’t respond with much in the 4th and, in the bottom of the inning, Hammack proved he was up to the task again when he won a great battle with Ratterree to get out of the inning with a “strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out.” The 5th didn’t see much offense by either team and we headed to the 6th with Houston needing some offensive production to get back in the game.

Ansley stayed hot with a lead-off single and Caleb Ramsey brought him around with a 2-out RBI double to left-center. That made it 4-1 but the Owls didn’t allow it to get any closer than that.

After Hague reached to lead the inning off, Jeremy Rathjen hit a gigantic bomb to left field that cleared the fence by at least 50 feet. That shot brought a completely new battery of John Cannon to catch and James Conlee to pitch for the Coogs but they needed a great play by Kelso at second base to get out of the frame.

6-1 Owls after 6.

Play was suspended for a lengthy stretch because of the glare coming off the Hilton Hotel and, when the game resumed, JT Chargois came in to relieve Rogers. He got off to a shaky start by allowing a solo blast to MP Cokinos three singles to load the bases with one out for Houston’s 2-hole hitter. Kelso hit a shallow fly to right though and Creel couldn’t bring anyone home either so the Coogs stranded four in a 5-run game. The Owls would not return the favor.

Fuda and Rendon led-off the 7th with consecutive walks and William Kankel was inserted to try keep those two from scoring. He was unable to do so however when Jimmy Comerota singled in both runners for a 6-run lead and that was easily a sufficient cushion for the Owl pitchers.

UH got one baserunner on in the 8th with an infield hit and loaded the bases in the 9th with 2 outs. Ramsey left all three on base though with a fly-out to left and the Owls took game 1 of the 4 meetings this season between the two squads.

Final Score: 8-2 Owls.     

This was the second consecutive game in which the Coogs stranded 11 men on base including two times when they left the bases loaded. Houston came up with 12 hits but they couldn’t put them together for a big inning. But the timely hitting will come eventually so the 2-5 record is misleading.

As far as Rice, when I was at the UH-Santa Clara game on Sundya some of the Coog fans were wondering wheterh Rice has the pitching this season to be a top team. I think the Owls are answering that question with four straight quality starts in their 4-game winning streak. Rogers threw very well tonight with 6 innings of work an only one ER.

At this point in the season, I’d have to give the edge to the Owls and they definitely have the bragging rights after this 6-run beating. But it’s still really early.

Multatuli

Houston 2 (2-5)

Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
——————————————————
Joel Ansley cf………..  5  1  4  0   0  0  1  0   0
Blake Kelso ss………..  4  0  1  0   0  0  1  3   1
Matt Creel 1b…………  4  0  0  0   1  1  6  1   3
Caleb Ramsey lf……….  5  0  1  1   0  0  2  0   3
Chris Wallace c……….  3  0  1  0   0  0  5  1   1
John Cannon c………..  1  0  0  0   0  0  2  0   0
M.P. Cokinos dh……….  4  1  2  1   0  0  0  0   0
Jake Runte 3b…………  4  0  1  0   0  2  1  1   2
Ryan Still 2b…………  4  0  1  0   0  1  3  3   0
Zak Presley rf………..  3  0  1  0   0  0  2  0   1
Dakota Dill ph……….  1  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   0
Mo Wiley p……………  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0
Taylor Hammack p……..  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  2   0
James Conlee p……….  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Codey Morehouse p…….  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
William Kankel p……..  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
Tanner Shiflett p…….  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals………………. 38  2 12  2   1  5 24 12  11

Rice 8 (4-4)

Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
——————————————————
Michael Ratterree 2b…..  4  1  1  0   0  1  1  1   0
Chad Mozingo rf……….  5  1  2  1   0  0  3  0   1
Michael Fuda lf……….  3  2  1  0   2  1  3  0   0
Anthony Rendon 3b……..  3  1  0  0   2  2  1  2   3
Chase McDowell dh……..  2  0  1  2   0  0  0  0   0
Daniel Gonzales-Luna dh.  1  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   1
Craig Manuel dh………  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Rick Hague ss…………  2  1  1  1   2  1  3  3   0
Abe Gonzales 1b……….  1  0  0  0   0  0  1  1   0
Steven Sultzbaugh ph….  1  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   2
Jimmy Comerota 1b…….  2  1  1  2   0  0  6  0   0
Jeremy Rathjen cf……..  3  1  1  2   1  1  3  0   1
Geoff Perrott c……….  3  0  2  0   0  0  5  0   0
Jared Rogers p………..  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0
J.T. Chargois p………  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Anthony Fazio p………  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals………………. 30  8 10  8   7  7 27  7   8

Aaron Brooks connected on a made three for the 31st consecutive game. Wide open Jazz three. Both teams were on fire as Houston tied the game at 32 with 2:00 still to play in the period. Wide open Jazz three. Utah committed 9 turnovers in the quarter but Deron Williams‘ 20 points still allowed Utah to lead.

39-35 Jazz after 1.

Fueled by a nice dunk by Garret Temple and some good play-making by Jermaine Taylor, the Rockets’ subs were able to keep the lead at 4 for the 1st 6:00 of the 2nd. Wide open Jazz three. But then the starters came in and Kevin Martin proved that he is even a worse defender than Trevor Ariza. Wide open Jazz three. Wesley Matthews, wo you’ve probably never heard of, scored 11 points on Martin in the quarter, including 7 straight points.

70-59 Jazz at the half.

The lead got as high as 17 for Utah in the thirs quarter because they were hitting everything they threw up. Wide open Jazz three. And with Utah on fire from deep, Rick Adelman decided to go to zone defense rather than play Temple and Brooks together for added quickness to contest more shots. Wide open Jazz three. Utah went over 100 points and there was still over 3:00 in the 3rd.

107-94 Jazz after 3.

The gap got to 22 at 116-94 with 10:00 left. Who cares what happened after that?  

Final Score: 133-110 Utah.

Insights:

Well people, these are your new Houston Rockets with Kevin Martin. He had a great offensive game, much like the Rockets, but he played less-than-zero defense, also much like the Rockets. Martin went off for 32 points on 9/13 shooting. But offense only takes you so far.

Wesley Matthews scored 18 points on 7/9 shooting on Martin basically because Martin weighs as much as a chicken. And speaking of chicken, what’s the 4-letter word you add to “chicken ____” to describe people who play like him?

There was a play in the 3rd quarter when Martin was under the basket playing defense on a fastbreak but, rather than take a charge on Mehmet “Fried” Okur, he ran out of the way. Matt Bullard jokingly said, “Martin though about, for a half-second, taking the charge but he bailed out at the last second.” Bullard sort of laughed it off after he said it but what do you think Shane Battier was thinking?

It was only an 11-point game at the time that play occurred and, if Martin takes that charge and Houston gets a 3-pointer on the other end, it could’ve been nack to an 8-point game. That was a pivotal point and Martin showed his true colors. He may be 6’7″ and 185 lbs but that type of play has nothing to do with size, it is all about heart and I see none from Martin.

I do understand the irony in making that statement when I’ve been begging for T-Mac to be allowed to play but, I can promise you that McGrady would’ve tried to block the shot at least. He would ot have made the tough, hard-nosed play that Battier or Chuck Hayes would’ve made but he would’ve definitely contested ”Fried” Okur because he would have seen an opportunity to get a highlight block for SportsCenter.   

Charles Barkley would have crucified Martin if he would’ve been on the court with him. That was the most embarrassing play in a night full of complete embarrasssment. Teams play like their best players so, Houston, you are reaping what you sewed.

What a pansy-ass,

Multatuli

The offense awoke in the bottom of the inning when MP Cokinos, Ryan Still and Presley loaded the bases for last night’s hero, Joel Ansley. Ansley was unable to get them home though and the Coogs stranded 3. That would be pretty much the theme of this one.

Chase Dempsay made fairly quick work of the Broncos in the 3rd  and the Coogs tried to capitalize. Blake Kelso started their half off with a lead-off single and made his way to 2nd base thanks to a balk. Santa Clara’s pitcher, Jon Hughes, tried to do his part to bring Kelso home with a pass ball to get him to 3rd and hit Wallace with a pitch. The Coogs wuold strand both of those runners as well so they were scoreless after 3.

5-0 Broncos after 3.

Santa Clara went 3-up, 3-down in the 4th so UH had a chance to keep building on the offensive momentum. An error on the right-fielder on a Cokinos shot and walk to Ansley a few batters later set up Kelso for a 2-run RBI single to close the gap to 5-2. The Broncos would continue to try to help the Cougars score but UH would continue to fail to get guys around the bags.

Dempsay escaped some hard hits by Santa Clara in the top of the 5th. UH was a little lucky because a lot of the pitches were catching way too much of the plate but the hits were finding Cougar fielders. The fortune didn’t carry over to the offense though.

Caleb Ramsey led-off the inning with a hit and found his way to 3rd on a wild pitch. Jake Runte brought him home with an RBI groundout to make it 5-3. The 6th didn’t see any runs corss and we moved to the 7th.

5-3 Broncos after 6.

Tommy Medica opened the 7th with a lead-off double and sprinted home when another throwing error by a UH 3rd baseman, this time Runte, provided the Broncos with a run. Those 2 runs would prove to be huge but not quite as big as the runners left-on-base by the Coogs.

The Coogs loaded the bases with one out for Runte and he redeemed himself for the error with a 2 RBI single. Still struckout to end the inning but the lead was down to 6-5 and it felt like Houston was taking control. But the Broncos would turn the tables in the 8th.

A hit batsman, miscomminication by the filders trying to play a bunt and a walk loaded the bases for Medica and he stayed hot with 2-run laser up the middle past the new reliever, Matt Creel. The two runs were charged to Barry Laird but Wallace made sure he didn’t get a third run by gunning Medica down on an attempted steal of 3rd base. UH was able to get those two runs right back in the bottom of the eighth. 

Presley singled to lead-off the frame and Kelso brought him around with an RBI single. A few batters later, Ramsey brought Kelso home with an RBI groundout. Creel advanced to 3rd on a pass ball and Chris Wallace came up with a chance to tie the game. Wallace grounded out to short so the Coogs headed into the 9th the same way they had started the 8th, down by one run.

Presley, who had a hell of a game, kept hope alive with a miraculous diving catch on a line-drive to right with a runner on 1st. If that ball got by Presley, it would’ve brought in the insurance run but, since he made the snag, the Cougars were still alive when David Murphy came to the plate with one out.

Murphy was batting in Cokinos’ spot in the order and he very bearly rewarded Coach Rayner Noble for the move. Murphy hit a blast to left-center that looked like s sure homer but the wind kept it in the yard by about 3 feet and Santa Clara dodged a bullet to avoid the sweep.                  

Final Score: 8-7 Broncos.

Insights:

The Coogs are looking good heading into their showdown at Rice on Tuesday. The Owls are playing pretty well also with three straight wins in their annual Rice Invitational for their first 3 wins of the year.

UH would’ve won all 3 this weekend as well if they wouldn’t have stranded 11 runners, especially the bases loaded situation in the 2nd. The Coogs are swinging the bats pretty well though with an average of over 9 runs per game in this series and hte pitching is looking better and better.

This game with the Owls won’t tell us as much as the upcoming weekedn in Minute Maid but bu next Sunday Coog fans should have a good idea of what we’re going to see from this year’s squad.

See you at Minute Maid,

Multatuli  

Houston 7 (2-4)

Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
——————————————————
Joel Ansley cf………..  4  1  0  0   1  1  2  0   3
Blake Kelso ss………..  5  2  4  3   0  0  0  4   0
Matt Creel 1b/p……….  5  1  3  0   0  0 11  0   1
Caleb Ramsey lf……….  4  1  0  1   1  1  0  1   1
Chris Wallace c……….  3  0  0  0   1  2  6  5   1
Austin Gracey 3b………  2  0  0  0   0  2  1  0   2
Jake Runte 3b………..  3  0  1  3   0  0  1  0   0
M.P. Cokinos dh……….  5  1  1  0   0  0  0  0   0
Ryan Still 2b…………  3  0  0  0   0  1  1  2   2
Matt Murphy ph……….  1  0  1  0   0  0  0  0   0
Taylor White pr………  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Zak Presley rf………..  4  1  1  0   1  0  5  0   1
Eric Brooks p…………  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Chase Dempsay p………  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Barry Laird p………..  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  2   0
David Murphy 1b………  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals………………. 39  7 11  7   4  7 27 14  11

Rice sent sophomore stud. Taylor Wall, to the hill. Wall had a rough outing his first start this year but he was the best pitcher for the Owls last year as a freshman but he didn’t protray that in the first two innings.

Boomer Collins and Adam Bailey both singled to start the game and advanced to scoring position on a passed ball. They were brought home by a Patric Tolentino single for a 2-0 lead for the Huskers. In the second, Kale Kiser came up with a 2-out double and DJ Belfonte brought him home with a single. It could’ve easily been a much bigger inning if it had not been for a great play by Anthony Rendon at 3rd. But with the three-run deficit, the Owl was up to the task.

Rendon walked to lead-off the frame and DH Chase McDowell survived a 12-pitch battle with P Michael Mariot before shooting one between 1st and 2nd for a single. Abe Gonzales came to the plate and crushed an RBI double off the rightfield wall and Rick Hague brought McDowell in with a sac fly to center to make it 3-2 Nebraska.

In the third inning, Wall found his groove on the mound and began to shutdown the Husker bats. True freshman, Michael Ratterree, kept the Owl offense rolling with a solo job in the bottom of the third to even the score at 3.

3-3 after 3.

I  like the symmetry of that last sentence and, appparently, so did Wall. He even decided to add a 3-up, 3-down to it and convinced the Rice hitters to do the same in their half of the 4th. Wall continued to roll along in the 5th as he sat down 10 consecutive hitters. Nebraska’s pitcher, contrarily, loaded the bases for McDowell when Rice came up to bat but McDowell couldn’t deliver so the score stayed tied.

In the 6th, a pair of Husker runners reached thanks to an error and a hit-by-pitch but Wall stayed focused and got out of the jam. This time it was Rice’s turn to go 3-up, 3-down.

3-3 after 6.

The next nine batters were all retired easily so that brings us to the bottom of the 8th with the Owls batting and the middle of the order came through for Wall to get him the win.

Michael Fuda hit a grounder deep in the hole and easily beat it out for an infield hit. He probably would’ve stolen 2nd but he didn’t have to risk it because a balk moved him into scoring position for Rendon. Rendon didn’t make him run hard to get home because he drilled a double to deep right-center for the winning run. 

All that was left was for Tyler Duffey to complete his 2-inning which he did without surrendering a hit.           

Final Score: 4-3 Owls.

Insights:

I’ll take guys named Wall to play sports on my team any day. Taylor Wall if it’s baseball and John Wall if it’s basketball. Garage-door-wall if it’s tennis and Great Wall if it’s distance running.

Yes, this is a half-ass effort (read: eighth-ass effort) but it’s 3:00 in the morning and the Coogs play at 1:00 pm tomorrow. I have to get to the gym before that so I’m calling it a night.

Feel free to write your own “Insights:” this time,

Multatuli 

Rice 4 (2-4)

Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
——————————————————
Michael Ratterree 2b…..  4  1  1  1   0  2  0  2   0
Chad Mozingo rf……….  4  0  1  0   0  1  1  0   0
Michael Fuda lf……….  3  1  1  0   1  1  1  0   0
Anthony Rendon 3b……..  2  1  2  1   2  0  0  3   0
Chase McDowell dh……..  4  1  1  0   0  1  0  0   4
Steven Sultzbaugh cf…..  4  0  0  0   0  2  4  0   0
Abe Gonzales 1b……….  3  0  1  1   1  0 10  0   0
Jimmy Comerota 1b…….  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0
Rick Hague ss…………  3  0  0  1   0  2  0  4   2
Craig Manuel c………..  3  0  0  0   0  0 10  1   1
Taylor Wall p…………  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Tyler Duffey p……….  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals………………. 30  4  7  4   4  9 27 10   7

This game would be no different for UT. Both teams came out ready to go and the physicality was tremendous on both ends. As a result, neither could get going offensively; after almost 8 minutes of play, the count was 4-4. Newcomers to the game, like Khris Middleton, were struggling with the physical pounding being delivered all over the court and it was still only 9-7 A&M halfway through the half.

But another freshman, Ray Turner, was actually the spark that ignited teh Aggies. He came in and went right to work with 6 straight points for A&M, including 2 huge dunks. He fueled an 11-2 run and 3J Holmes added some big shots and assists to push the Aggies out to a big lead.

31-23 A&M at the half. (ESPN Highlights) 

23 points was the lowest total by the Horns this season for a half and they didn’t do much better in teh 2nd. Even though Texas made a concerted effort to force the ball inside to Dexter Pittman and Damion James, the Aggies prepared for the challenge and collapsed on the bigs, daring the perimeter players to make jumpers for UT. The Longhorn guards couldn’t get the job done but the Aggiee guards had no issues on their end.

Donald Sloan hit a ridiculous, running hook to push the bulge to 10 points at 41-31. A few minutes later, Naji Hibbert jumped a passing lane and took off the other way with a steal. He was unable to finish the layup but David Loubeau ran hard behind and dunked the rebound.  Even the frail frame of Khris Middleton got used to the style of play and he gave A&M a 15 point lead with 2 free throws just before the 10:00 mark. From there the Aggies almost allowed it to become a game again though.

The home team went 3:30 without a basket and a 4-point play by J-Covan Brown brought the lead down to 9 at 53-44. The Aggies collected themselves though behind their senior leadership of Sloan and Davis and stopped the run right there by running patient offense and getting quality shots down the stretch. Texas could not make enough jump shots to get all the way back and they couldn’t manage anything in the paint against the ferocious Aggie defense.        

Final Score: 74-58 Aggies!

J’Covan Brown is stable and will probably have to spend the night in the hospital with a stinger but his neck injury is not thought to be serious at this point. BJ Holmes sprained his foot and will be sore for a few days but has no major injuries. Houston Sports Scene sends our thoughts to these players and their families and wishes them the best.

Insights:

On www.aggieathletics.com the headline reads: Texas A&M Topples Texas. I understand the alliteration and tools like that people use to draw attention but why would you refer to it as “toppling” when the Aggies are the better team?

Maybe “..Takes Care of..,” or “..Tops..” or something else that doesn’t imply that it was an upset. A&M is better than Texas, better than Texas Tech and better than Missouri. They are the fourth best team in the best conference but they are not being talked about at all by the national media. They got basically nothing from Bryan Davis in this game because of foul trouble and they still “tossed” Texas around all game, holding Damion James, the best rebounder to ever play Big 12 basketball, to one rebound. They “tore up” Texas on the perimeter (7/12 from deep) and they “tripped” Texas up with 10 steals…. You know what, I just realized what the website should have used to describe this game.

Texas A&M Tramples Texas would’ve sounded much better. If the Aggies have found their shooting stroke, which it appears they may have, they are capable of beating anyone in the country. They had Kansas on the ropes before some bad bounces and really, really bad calls by the officials cost them the game. I guarantee nobody wants to meet this team in the tournament because the opponent really doesn’t have any say in how the game turns out.

If A&M makes shots, they are going to win. It’s taht simple. They are going to lock you down and take you out of everything you want to do on offense so all you can do is hope they miss shots. Otherwise your season is over.

I know the, “Nobody respects us mantra” is usually a joke but the Aggies haven’t even been talked about enough to say that. It’s not that A&M is disrespected; it’s that after their run in the Big Dance every year, nobody outside of Texas can remember who knocked BYU out of the tournament.

Expect big things,

Multatuli  

Team Rebounds: 6

UH came right back at Broncos starter, Alex Rivers, in the bottom of the first when the two set-up men, Joel Ansley and Kelso, reached base and Matt Creel picked up right where he left off on Friday. He singled Ansley in from second, not the last time Ansley would use his speed to reach the plate.

In the next frame, Stuckey continued to look shaky as he gave up a two-out double then hit the next two hitters to load the bases. UH got out of the inning but Stuckey would not go more than the 2 innings. Santa Clara had missed a great chance to get runs across but the Coogs would not provide them the same courtesy.

Houston loaded the bases for Ansley and he added an RBI to his stats when he laced a deep drive to right-center for a sacrifice fly to make it 2-1 Coogs. Codey Morehouse came in with a man on 2nd base and no outs in the 3rd but he handled the next 3 guys and held the lead.

2-1 UH after 3.

The Cougar defense was up to the task in the next 3 innings. They seemed to turn a double-play everytime they neeed one but, as good as they were in the field, the runners on the basepaths were equally bad.

In the 5th, Ryan Still and Zak Presley both singled but they were both promptly picked-off at 1st by Rivers. In the 6th, Ansley tripled to lead-off the inning but the Coogs weren’t able to get him across and they would pay for it when the fielding problems resurfaced.

2-1 Coogs after 6.

In the top of the 7th, the Broncos had a runner on 3rd with two outs when Pat Stover rolled a groudner to Austin Gracey at 3rd. Gracey made a clean pickup but the throw to 1st was offline and the run scored on the error to tie the game. Creel moved to the mound to shut the Broncos down for the last 2 innings because the UH offense was sputtering until the bottom of the ninth.

Ansley continued to have a monster day when he bounced a ball between the pitcher and shortstop and beat it out for an infield hit. With one out, it was a matter of when he was going to try to steal 2nd, not if. Sure enough he went on a 1-2 pitch and it was a pitch out so he looked to have picked the wrong pitch to run on. He beat the throw anyway though and, even better, the low throw skidded passed the shortstop and into center field. Ansley hopped up and bolted for 3rd base and his speed made the centerfielder rush to get to the ball. In his hurry, Lucas Herbst took his eyes off the ball and rolled by him and toward the fence as Ansley rounded 3rd and headed home for the game-winning run.           

Final Score: 3-2 Coogs.

Insights:

Good to see that the Coogs can win in a low-scoring game as well as a slugfest. They seem to be gaining confidence with this series but they need to cut out the mistakes. Base-running and fielding have to be cleaned up but the season is young and they will get it together.

See you at the game tomorrow afternoon,

Multatuli

Houston 3 (2-3)

UH started the game hot from behind the arc; their first 9 points all came from deep and it was a good thing too because Maurice McNeil and Kendrick Washington were getting dominated inside. Aubrey Coleman‘s third three put the Coogs up 15-14 but the inside game continued to cost Houston.

Papa Dia scored 9 of SMU’s first 17 points and he got a little help from his perimeter guys. Rodney Clinkscales hit 3 threes to counter Kirk Van Slyke‘s back-to-back threes and the Mustangs were up 32-29 when the Cougars closed the half with a 6-0 run.

39-33 Coogs at thhe half.

Kelvin Lewis and Aubrey Coleman were in double figures for UH and the team was 7/15 from downtown. The Mustangs, on the other hand, were carried mostly by one guy, Dia, who had 16 in the half. The Coogs weren’t going to continue to shoot 50% from the 3-poin tline so they needed to slow down Dia in the second half if they were going to get the road victory. They didn’t.

Sean Coleman and Van Slyke got the nod from Tom Penders out of the locker room. That was obviously a brilliant decision because both of those guys are athletic defenders who are known for shot-blocking and controlling the paint. Needless to say, Dia scored the first 5 points of the half for SMU because he was being defended by two Stick People. He led a 12-5 run to give the home team the lead at 45-44 but, rather than put a guy who may be able to guard him into the game, Coach Penders decided to double him everytime he touched it.

As a result, Derek Williams got plenty of open looks and caught fire with 3 quick threes. The only way UH stayed in the game was that Adam Brown came in the game and immediately stroked 4 threes to tie it at 71 with 5:00 left. But Brown was only delaying the inevitable.

A 7-0 run by the Mustangs gave them the breathing room they needed and they kept the lead at about 6 until just under a minute when UH had a chance to cut it to 3 or 4. It was a must-score situation but nobody told Desmond Wade so he careless dropped the pass of for Brown and it was intercepted by Justin Haynes for a dunk. From there the Coogs wouldn’t get closer than 5.

Final Score: 94-83 Mustangs.

Insights:

Tom Penders for Coach of the Year in the entire country? I think so. Look, I get why Kirk “Andy” Van Slyke was in the game; he drilled 4 threes. But what good does it do to have a guy making shots when your defense is giving up 61 points in a half to allow your opponent to equal their season high in scoring?

SMU scored less than this when they played Houston Baptist University! And Papa Dia went for his career-high of 31 points and only missed 2 shots in the game! So how does Penders justify playing McNeil 14 minutes and Washington 17 minutes while Van Slyke played 26?

If you would’ve told me the Coogs were going to go 15/33 from the 3-point line and 12/12 from the free throw line, I would’ve told you they win this game by 30. But I wouldn’t realize that Penders wasn’t going to allow any defenders to step within 8 feet of the rim. Houston was out-rebounded by 13 with 14 offensive rebounds by SMU.

Oh, and Aubrey Coleman took 22 shots, 2 more than his magic number for a Coog win.

How Does Penders Not See This Stuff?

Multatuli

Baylor’s starting pitcher, Logan Verret, was not very effective in the first couple of innings; he was throwing as many balls as strikes and A&M was hitting him pretty well. The Aggies got two hits in the 1st and Caleb Shofner doubled in the 2nd with one out but. unfortunately, neither inning saw runners cross the plate for the Ags so Verret had a chance to get settled in and he struckout all 3 Aggies he saw in the 3rd to keep it scoreless.

The Bears were scoreless too because Ross Stripling brought his “A” game. He retired the first 5 batters he faced before giving up a single to Raynor “Shine” Campbell. Campbell was thrown out stealing 2nd base by Kevin Gonzales and Stripling mowed down all three guys he faced in the 3rd to face the minimum the first time through the order.

0-0 after 3.   

To start the 4th inning, Matt Juengel was hit in the head by a Verret fastball. He had to come out of the game but he appeared to be okay. Kenny Jackson came in for him but proceeded to get picked off at 1st; this was the second game in a row when A&M has had a guy picked off so they are going to have to clean that up in practice next week. They’re also going to have to work on the fielding.

Last night errors cost the Aggies the game against Western Kentucky and they almost did it again. Andrew Collazo singled in a run to put A&M up 1-0 but the defense was going to make Stripling work to stay eligible for a win.

In the bottom of the 5th, shortstop Adam Smith made a bad throw to 1st that pulled Shofner off the bag. The next Baylor hitter got a single and Tyler Naquin missed the cut-off man on his throw back to the infield. Then a pass ball allowed both runners to advance to scoring position when A&M should definitely have been out of the inning. The Aggies were fortunate to escape without surrendering a run so they moved to the 6th with the lead.

The small-ball approach would do the Aggies well in their half of the 6th. Jackson led the inning off with a single and steal. He was singled in by Shofner to make it 2-0 which was followed bya single by Naquin to put runners on the corners for Gonzales. Naquin also stole 2nd and Gonzo capitalized with a 2 RBI single to stretch it to 4-0. Those 2 insurance runs would prove to be the difference.

Logan Vick opened the 6th for Baylor with a single and the fielding mistakes did cost the Aggies this time. After Gonzales dropped a foul pop-up, Jackson booted a routine double-play ball and a pass ball moved both guys into scoring position. So, rather than 2 outs and nobody on, Stripling was facing runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Max Muncy singled in a run and relief pitcher John Stilson walked Campbell to give the Bears another run before he struckout 2 batters to get out of the inning.

4-2 after 6.

In the last 3 innings, the base-running was about as good as the fielding had been in the 5th and 6th. Collazo reached to lead-off the 7th but he was thrown out at 3rd when he tried to get 2 bases on a sac bunt by Brodie Greene. After Stilson blew the Bears away in the 7th and 8th innings with fastballs as high as 99 mph on the gun, the Aggies got runners on again in the 9th but displayed the same quality base-running.

Smith singled and stole 2nd but then he was caught stealing when he dashed for 3rd on a pick-off move and was easily thrown out by the pitcher. Collazo singled on the very next pitch so Smith’s mistake cost A&M an insurance run. Luckily, it didn’t matter today because Stilson was throwing fire and he took care of the Bears in the 9th fairly easily but  these mental errors have to be addressed immediately or they are going to cost the Aggies some games.

Final Score: 4-2 Aggies.

Insights:

With the kind of numbers the top of this lineup can score, the defense doesn’t have to be perfect but they do have to be better than they’ve been in the last two games. But maybe the best way to keep the fielders from making errors is to just strike everyone out, the approach John Stilson took in this game.

Stilson was electric with 5 strikeouts in his 4-inning save but the timing of the K’s was the most impressive thing. He sat 2 guys down in the 6th with runners in scoring position and made quick work of the Bears in the 7th to shut down any momentum they may have been trying to build. Ross Stripling pitched very well also, going 5 innings and allowing only 1 ER.

With this type of pitching, A&M has to be filling confident in the always tough Big 12. In the month of March, they only play one game away from College Station so I am looking forward to seeing how they can get all the kinks worked out since they will have plenty of practice time.

Multatuli

Texas A&M 4 (4-2)

Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB  Avg.
————————————————————
Collazo, Andrew 2b…….  5  0  4  1   0  0  0  4   0  .375
Greene, Brodie cf……..  3  0  1  0   0  2  2  0   3  .435
Juengel, Matt 3b………  1  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0  .167
Jackson, Kenny pr/3b….  2  1  1  0   0  0  0  3   0  .500
Patterson, Joe dh……..  4  0  1  0   0  2  0  0   0  .565
Shofner, Caleb 1b……..  3  0  2  1   1  0  9  0   0  .381
Hinojosa, Joaquin lf…..  3  2  0  0   1  0  0  0   0  .214
Arthur, Scott lf……..  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0  .158
Naquin, Tyler rf………  3  1  1  0   0  2  3  0   2  .167
Gonzalez, Kevin c……..  4  0  2  2   0  1  8  1   0  .350
Smith, Adam ss………..  4  0  1  0   0  2  4  1   1  .300
Stripling, Ross p……..  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0     -
Stilson, John p………  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0  .273
Totals………………. 32  4 13  4   2  9 27 10   6