To Top of Page
Friday May 18th, 2007
12:01amAg Baseball Over the Last Week
I've been working late this last week so I haven't spent much time on the computer. Aggie baseball hit a little slump as we were swept by texas and then dropped our first game of the Big 12 Tournament to Nebraska before beating texas in our second game.
I made it up to College Station last Friday night for the first texas game, which was kind of a frustrating game.
My brother and old man picked me up from work and we were on our way to Aggieland....until we came to a complete stop on HW6 just south of Navasota. Some moron 18-wheeler tried to u-turn on HW6 and put his trailer in the ditch and in the process blocked all northbound lanes. We ended up missing the top of the 1st inning.
Nicholson looked really good for the first 6 innings before texas started to get to him. The bullpen wasn't spectacular. Kirkland Rivers's line looked good (1.2 IP, 0 ER) but he gave up an RBI single that went against Nicholson's line.
We went into the 9th inning with a 4-4 tie and I started to think that we were going to end up with something reminisce of the 2001 game at Olsen. Alas, we fell apart on the mound and on the field. We threw the ball away on several different throws that ended up costing us dearly.
That takes our 9th inning woes to another level. We've lost 13 games and 7 of them were in the 9th inning (5 of'em were a result of multiple run 9th innings). It is so frustrating because we're so close but we just haven't been able to finish. After the game I was a little down but I cheered up when we decided to eat at Texas Roadhouse.
In Austin we threw away another game on Saturday before getting beat soundly on Sunday. That wasn't a good series for us to decide to stink it up in, particularly because we're still working on that Regional host.
Then losing on Wednesday to Nebraska didn't help. I got to listen to a little bit of the game at work but not enough to be able to tell you about it. I do know that we left all sorts of runner on base.
Thursday afternoon we played texas again and I got to listen to 3 or 4 innings. We put up a 5 run 4th inning thanks to a Craig Stinson grand slam and we didn't look back. Kirkland Rivers got his second start of the season and was great, taking into the 7th inning and giving up only 2 runs. Kyle Nicholson came out of the bullpen and was perfect for the final 2.1 innings.
The Big 12 All-Conference teams were announced earlier this week and we were well represented, although there was an incredible injustice.
Coaches 1st Team: Luke Anders-DH, Blake Stouffer-UTL, Kyle Nicholson-P 2nd Team: Parker Dalton-2B, Brandon Hicks-SS HM: David Newmann-P, Ben Feltner-OF, Craig Stinson-C Co-Newcomer of the Year: David Newmann & Brandon Hicks Dallas Morning News 1st Team: Craig Stinson-C, Blake Stouffer-UTL, Kyle Nicholson-P 2nd Team: Parker Dalton-2B, Brandon Hicks-SS, David Newmann-P Pitcher of the Year: Kyle Nicholson Austin American-Statesman 1st Team: Craig Stinson-C, Blake Stouffer-1B, Brandon Hicks-SS, Kyle Nicholson-P 2nd Team: Parker Dalton-2B, David Newmann-P Pitcher of the Year: Kyle NicholsonCongrats to Luke, Craig, Blake, Brandon, Kyle, David, & last but certainly not least, Parker. Parker is the story of the year if you ask me....and not a single person in Aggieland doesn't love that he had such a great season.
My question is how on earth was Adrian Alaniz the Pitcher of the Year by the Coaches?
W-L-S IP H R ER SO/BB HR ERA BAA ====================================================== A.Alaniz..... 12-2-0 94.2 71 28 26 83/28 5 2.47 .208 K.Nicholson.. 11-1-4 112.1 85 27 24 93/18 7 1.92 .230 Big 12 Only W-L-S IP H R ER SO/BB HR ERA BAA ==================================================== A.Alaniz..... 7-1-0 59.0 42 19 18 49/19 4 2.75 .200 K.Nicholson.. 7-0-2 66.2 50 17 15 56/12 3 2.03 .205The coaches missed on this one.
Saturday morning we faced off against Kansas State and won in fairly convincing fashion, despite an alarming number of walks. We were very aggressive on the bases and had some success at the plate. Craig Stinson now has 11 multi-hit games in his l5 games (hitting .466). David Newmann started for us and got us halfway through the game before being relieved by Kyle Thebeau and then, shortly thereafter, Travis Starling. Starling stepped up and was great for us getting us through the end of the ballgame. Our last two games have been wins as a result of two guys stepping up on the mound for us.
texas & Nebraska start in a few minutes and that game dictates whether or not we go to the Championship game tomorrow. We beat texas but Nebraska beat us so if texas beats Nebraska we advance. There is little I hate more than depending on the horns, who are essentially playing for nothing, to win the game. I wouldn't be surprised if Augie threw Johnny Fullstaff and rested his guys for Regionals next weekend. The tournament should not put teams in that sort of position.
It's too bad that texas tech finished dead last in the Big 12 and didn't get invited to the tournament because I would have liked to settle the argument with "Back to the Diamond" from our discussion back on March 4th in the comments section.
There is lots of great sports on TV this Memorial Day weekend.
This morning I watched the A&M/KSU game and the 1st NCAA Lacrosse Semi-Final game between Johns Hopkins and Delaware (JHU won). At 2pm the second semi-final game between #1 Duke and #3 Cornell will be on ESPN2.
Also at 2pm (ESPN) the Fightin' Texas Aggie softball team will be hosting Florida in game 2 of their Super Regional. We won last night so we have two games today to win a game and advance to the Softball College World Series. If game 3 is necessary it will be on ESPN as well.
Then at 3pm the Cubs are on FOX.
Sunday I get the Cubs again at 3pm on WGN and a possibility of the Ags in the Big 12 Championship game (online) at 1pm. The winner of our bracket (Nebraska or us) will play the winner of tonight's Baylor/OU game.
Then on Monday at 11:30am ESPN is having a NCAA Regional Announcement show. I'll certainly be tuned into that. Following that (at noon) will be the Lacrosse National Championship game.
I'm going to be really well rested come Tuesday.