Baseball Semi-Round Up -- Light the Tower Orange!

Through six innings last night, Texas had not played Texas baseball. There were numerous examplese of missed opportunities and poor execution:
Nick Peoples failed to get a sacrifice bunt down in the 6th then grounded into a double play. Kyle Russell was caught stealing second in 5th hurting the chance for a big inning. Josh Prince failed to execute a suicide squeeze in the 4th that would have tied the game. Moreover, Adrian Alaniz just didn't have it. He couldn't find the strike zone, and when he did the Aggies took full advantage.

Listening to this game, however, we got the feeling that the Aggies could not turn to their bullpen, and that is the difference between Texas and Texas A&M baseball. Joseph Krebs was amazing in relief, throwing 4 1/3 innings of shutout baseball. Krebs did not walk a batter and struck out four. Randy Boone came in and did his best Huston Street impersonation, striking out the side on 13 pitches.

It was only a matter of time before Texas would breakthrough after getting past Aggie starter David Newmann. Texas got their chance in the eighth. An Aggie error on a double play ball left Chais Fuller (who is having a fantastic series) on second with two outs. Josh Prince came through in the clutch, scoring Fuller on an RBI single.

It was a huge team win for the Horns. Every Longhorn hitter got a base hit, the bullpen was lights out, they get the chance to go for a sweep against a top ten opponent, Texas clinched the Lone Star Showdown, not to mention clinching the regular season conference title. To honor the Longhorns big win, Texas decided to light the tower orange last night with an 07, which we assume can only signify Texas having won seven straight versus the Ags.

The Horns will try for their 21st conference win and the sweep today at 2 PM CST. No Big XII team has won more than 20 games since Iowa State left the conference in 2002.

Weekend Notes

Texas had a huge victory last night against Texas A&M. The Horns trailed 4-1 through 3 innings but scored a run in the 6th and 2 more in both the 7th and 9th innings. James Russell had a solid outing, going 6 2/3 innings (8 hits, 4 ER) and Joseph Krebs and Randy Boone completed the game keeping the Aggies scoreless.

Kyle Russell hit home run #27 in the top of the first, extending his lead in the NCAA home run chase. Nick Peoples came up huge for the Horns, going 3-4, scoring 2 runs including the eventual game winner.

The win puts Texas one win away from clinching a complete victory in the Lone Star Showdown. Moreover, the Horns have a magic number of 1 to clinch sole ownership of the Big XII regular season championship. A Texas win or a Missouri loss would clinch it. Texas returns to action tonight at 6 PM CST.

Finally, for your weekend viewing pleasure, enjoy the following video. If this doesn't inspire you, you must not have gone to Texas.

Light The Tower Orange...

Like a slightly less important Ryder Cup, Texas needed only 9.5 points to keep the Lone Star Showdown title. With a (relative) victory in the Men's Outdoor Track & Field Big XII Championship, the Longhorns have now accomplished that.

We're a little bit disappointed that it took so long to clinch this year, but the fact remains: the "Lone Star Showdown" is a symbol of inevitability. The University of Texas will occasionally lose to its little stepsister in the occasional single contest. But when taken as a whole, in the combination of all athletic activities in a given school year, aggie simply has no prayer of defeating The University. We have actually often wondered why a&m agreed to this annual confirmation of their inferiority to the Horns in the first place...but now we're certainly glad they did.

As a related side note, in football (obviously the key sport in the rivalry) Texas holds a 73-35-5 record all-time against aggie. Think about that for just a moment. Texas has defeated a&m more than twice the number of times we've lost. The story of Texas versus a&m is one of complete dominance by the Orange and White, and of increasing frustration and jealousy on the part of the farmers. All the Lone Star Showdown does is lend a quantifiable, formulaic brand of proof that this is, and will remain for the foreseeable future, a fact of Texas life.

Hook 'Em!

Weekend Roundup

Baseball
Texas fairly easily took care of UAPB 10-4 on Saturday. The Horns were up 8-0 through 3 innings and cruised after that. Russell Moldenhauer went 3-3 from the plate to lead the Texas offense. James Russell, Adrian Alaniz, Austin Wood, Joseph Krebs and Randy Boone combined to pitch 8 1/3 scoreless innings. The only problem for the Horns was former shortstop Josh Prince giving up 4 earned runs over only 2/3 of an inning. Randy Boone was given the win for pitching a scoreless 9th. Allegedly, Augie decided before the game to give the win to the pitcher who gave up the fewest runs despite Russell making a declared start. Since four pitchers did not give up a run, the Horns drew cards after the game and Boone drew the highest card, giving him the win for the day.

Texas returns to action next weekend against Texas A&M in a series which may have implications far beyond baseball (more on that below). Oklahoma and Missouri split the first two games of their series, giving Texas a magic number of two to clinch the conference outright. Oklahoma State has reentered the picture as well by taking the first two games from Texas Tech. Texas either needs to take 2 of 3 from Texas A&M, have OSU and Mizzou drop 2 of their final 4 games, or a combination of Texas wins and Mizzou/OSU losses. To clinch a share of the title, the magic number is only 1.

Track and Field
Both the women's and men's track and field teams lead Texas A&M through two days. The men are in second place and the women in seventh with many of the running events on the docket for today. As we said earlier, one victory over the Ags would clinch a share of the Lone Star Showdown, two wins would clinch the title outright. We'd really prefer it not all boil down to baseball. Good luck to both teams today.

Football
Finally, a hearty congrats go out to Limas Sweed and Dallas Griffin for being named to the Playboy All-America Team. Limas joins a bevy of former Texas greats, including former offensive stars Roy Williams, Cedric Benson and Ricky Williams. Dallas was named as the Anson Mount Scholar/Athlete, an award which honors "the nation's premier student-athlete in football." Hook 'em and congrats.

We'll be back later today to update the baseball and track and field standings.

Weekend Preview

Baseball takes on UAPB Saturday at 2:00 in Austin. Both Men's and Women's Track and Field have the Big XII Championship in Lincoln. Either team finishing higher than Texas A&M would clinch at least a share of the Lone Star Showdown, and both teams beating the Aggies would give Texas the title outright. We're also big fans of the tower being lit orange, so both squads winning the Big XII title would be cool too. Finally, Men's Tennis began its run today in the NCAA Tournament with a win over Navy. They return to action Sunday against a Boise State squad looking for its second major upset in the last 6 months.

Enjoy the weekend and Hook 'em Horns.

Well...Crap

Way back when we were in school, there were a few things we knew to be true. Oklahoma sucked, Vince Young was the best player in college football history, and Jason Klotz was a mix of Ivan Drago and Connor Atchley...before Connor was Connor Atchley.

I must break you!

Additionally, there was one immutable, unchangeable certainty more rock solid than the law of gravity and theory of evolution (outside of Kansas) combined, and that was that Texas A&M did not beat Texas. Oh, sure, they would get lucky with a half court shot in basketball every once in a while, and they could have women's soccer because soccer isn't a real sport.

But over the aggregate assortment of all sports, Texas had always been and would always be king. We even had Aggy agree to an annual award confirming our dominance over them: the Lone Star Showdown. Texas cruised in the first two years of the award but this year, unbelievably, we're running into trouble.

With last night's softball loss to Aggy, Texas A&M has climbed to within a point (8 1/2 to 7 1/2) of Texas with 3 points left. Odds are we'll win Men's Outdoor Track and Field, which leaves us needing to win either Women's Outdoor Track and Field or baseball to take the cup.

It's pretty unbelievable that we've reached this point. Let us all root for both track and field and baseball to right this wrong. And we can all thank our lucky stars that meat judging wasn't included in the standings, because we'd be screwed if it was.