***Texas vs. Rice Baseball - Game 1***

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[Aaron Carrara]

Talked to a scout from the Marlins and one from the Angels while at the game tonight.   I asked if there were specific players they were looking at and both responses were "all of them.  On both teams."

 

[joeywa]

Looking at the box score...

- Rice outhit UT 10-6, but Texas turned 3 DP's and stranded 10.

- 4 scoreless for the pen (Duke 2 - Mayes 1 - Culbreth 1).

- McCanna was excellent tonight - retired 10 straight from 1st-4th.

- The three Texas runs came from baserunners that reached via error (2) or BB (1).

- Rice's run was scored by a hit batter.

Tonight's game was really about which team capitalized on opportunities. 

Texas had three opportunities that could have blown the game wide open, but didn't get enough things strung together.

Rice, OTOH, has a few of their own, but we made timely defensive plays to shut down the threat.  CJ defensively is a freaking one-man rally-killer. 

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[joeywa]

Talked to a scout from the Marlins and one from the Angels while at the game tonight.   I asked if there were specific players they were looking at and both responses were "all of them.  On both teams."

This game had all the feel of a Super Regional matchup.....in Game 1 of the season for both teams.  What does that tell you? 

I mean, I realize that Rice is no Holy Cross. 

Tonight's game was the only matchup in the country between two top 15 teams. 

The only other ranked teams that play this weekend are (12) Ok St vs. (24) Ariz St.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[joeywa]

sumbitch...you really might be from texas after all.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[utisdabomb12]

Are we thinking Culbreth might be the closer? I actually liked how he pitched the 9th. Doesn't have a great arm but he works the strike zone. I wouldn't mind seeing Culbreth in the closer position for a few more games. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

This game had all the feel of a Super Regional matchup.....in Game 1 of the season for both teams.  What does that tell you? 

I mean, I realize that Rice is no Holy Cross. 

Tonight's game was the only matchup in the country between two top 15 teams. 

The only other ranked teams that play this weekend are (12) Ok St vs. (24) Ariz St.

 A&M should be ashamed of their nonconference schedule. I'm not just talking Holy Cross either. 

 

[joeywa]

Are we thinking Culbreth might be the closer? I actually liked how he pitched the 9th. Doesn't have a great arm but he works the strike zone. I wouldn't mind seeing Culbreth in the closer position for a few more games. 

I think tonight once French came out of the game, Skip perhaps picked up on something when Duke was in there that Rice was having trouble with something out of left-handed pitchers.  He followed up Duke with LHP Mayes and brought in LHP Culbreth to close it.  I don't know this for certain, but the pattern is there, which leads me to believe that this was the case. 

I don't think that anything is set in stone one game into the season, but I think Skip will be choosy on who he has closing out games.  Today, French faced 20, and gave up 4 hits and a run.  The remaining Ps faced 18, gave up 6 hits, 0 runs.  The LHPs weren't overpowering, but the change from French to Duke to Mayes to Culbreth mixed things up enough that Rice was never able to get into any groove at the plate. 

The key pitching stat for me tonight was 0 BBs. Sure, we had 4 HBPs, but two of those were where Chandler leaned into them, and the Byrd and Reeves ones were very close calls, knicks if you will. 

No walks.  Let that sink in.  No walks-in the first outing of the year, against a top 15 team.  That is damned impressive from our pitchers. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

A couple of more thoughts from tonight. 

1-Texas just needs to pull out 1 of 2 tomorrow during the double header. I'm interested to see how Clemens looks on the mound. Our ace, Hollingsworth, is pitching on Sunday. 

2-Parker French was a little wild early, but settled in nicely. 

3-I'm not sure who our closer ends up being long term, but I loved what Culbreth did in the 9th tonight. Culbreth doesn't have a great arm but he works the strike zone. 

4-Offensively we were actually pretty good. We created scoring chances in about 4 or 5 innings against a good pitching squad. We need to be a little more efficient at driving in runs when we have guys in scoring position. 

5-I think we can score some runs this year with Hinojosa, Barrera, Marlow, Shaw and Johnson. Those guys all had good cuts tonight. 

6-Travis Jones struggled a little bit tonight, but that's expected as a FR. He did work a pretty important walk. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

I think tonight once French came out of the game, Skip perhaps picked up on something when Duke was in there that Rice was having trouble with something out of left-handed pitchers.  He followed up Duke with LHP Mayes and brought in LHP Culbreth to close it.  I don't know this for certain, but the pattern is there, which leads me to believe that this was the case. 

I don't think that anything is set in stone one game into the season, but I think Skip will be choosy on who he has closing out games.  Today, French faced 20, and gave up 4 hits and a run.  The remaining Ps faced 18, gave up 6 hits, 0 runs.  The LHPs weren't overpowering, but the change from French to Duke to Mayes to Culbreth mixed things up enough that Rice was never able to get into any groove at the plate. 

The key pitching stat for me tonight was 0 BBs. Sure, we had 4 HBPs, but two of those were where Chandler leaned into them, and the Byrd and Reeves ones were very close calls, knicks if you will. 

No walks.  Let that sink in.  No walks-in the first outing of the year, against a top 15 team.  That is damned impressive from our pitchers. 

I agree. My only knock on French is sometimes he can be wild. I was impressed with his command tonight. 

I'm interested to see who the closer ends up being. I'm not sure Culbreth has the stuff to be a closer, but I loved how he pitched the 9th tonight. 

Skip definitely needs to have a conversation with the umps. Like you said, two or three of those HBPs were batters leaning into the strike zone.  

 

[joeywa]

For you baseball junkies, Kendall Rogers over at D1 had a nice post-game write-up with contributions from Dustin McComas.

 

[joeywa]

Nice pics Aaron. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

This game had all the feel of a Super Regional matchup.....in Game 1 of the season for both teams.  What does that tell you? 

I mean, I realize that Rice is no Holy Cross. 

Tonight's game was the only matchup in the country between two top 15 teams. 

The only other ranked teams that play this weekend are (12) Ok St vs. (24) Ariz St.

A&M plays 3 series this year in baseball against Holy Cross, Penn State, and Dartmouth. Holy Cross finished 216 in RPI last year, Penn State 235, and Dartmouth 178. That's just flat out embarrassing. 

 

[Donald Boyles]

I think tonight once French came out of the game, Skip perhaps picked up on something when Duke was in there that Rice was having trouble with something out of left-handed pitchers.  He followed up Duke with LHP Mayes and brought in LHP Culbreth to close it.  I don't know this for certain, but the pattern is there, which leads me to believe that this was the case. 

I don't think that anything is set in stone one game into the season, but I think Skip will be choosy on who he has closing out games.  Today, French faced 20, and gave up 4 hits and a run.  The remaining Ps faced 18, gave up 6 hits, 0 runs.  The LHPs weren't overpowering, but the change from French to Duke to Mayes to Culbreth mixed things up enough that Rice was never able to get into any groove at the plate. 

The key pitching stat for me tonight was 0 BBs. Sure, we had 4 HBPs, but two of those were where Chandler leaned into them, and the Byrd and Reeves ones were very close calls, knicks if you will. 

No walks.  Let that sink in.  No walks-in the first outing of the year, against a top 15 team.  That is damned impressive from our pitchers. 

Except Mayes is a RHP..