THE ENTIRE Big 12 Conference experienced a bizarre 2013 season. Teams that pundits picked to finish at the bottom of the Big 12 — such as WVU and Kansas — are near the top of the conference, while teams such as Texas and Baylor sit near the bottom of the standings. This season, fans saw multiple …
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moments where a misplayed ball or bad pitch changed an entire game. And because the Texas baseball team is young, those types of mishaps led only to disaster. As Keith Moreland used to say — and it’s an old baseball adage — “Every day when you go to the ballpark there’s a chance you’ll see something you’ve never seen before.”
I’ve had at least five of those moments this season.
5) Critical Drop at Oklahoma State.
In the second game versus Oklahoma State, the Cowboys were leading 2-0 with two outs. Pitcher Dillon Peters was about to get out of the inning when Oklahoma State hit a fly ball down the left field line on a 1-2 count. With outfielder Ben Johnson chasing down the ball, two things could happen — he could catch the ball and end the inning, or the ball could land foul, leaving Peters one pitch away from ending the inning. What happens?
Johnson misplays the ball and it goes off his glove in fair territory, giving the Cowboys two runs. The entire game shifted.
That kind of play is the type of play I never see happen on a large scale, but they often happen with this team.
4) Four Strikeouts in an Inning.
Sometimes the Longhorns take advantage of odd situations. In a Tuesday night game versus UT-Pan American, Texas had four strikeouts and scored two runs in an inning. The extra strikeout came with runners on second and third. Ty Marlow struck out but advanced to first on a passed ball, and Jacob Felts scored from third. From there the inning played out pretty normally, with three of the next four batters striking out — all swinging.
3) Odd Drops at Kansas.
Texas’ catcher Felts missed a routine catch in a close game against Kansas. Felts had three errors in the series. Despite his lackluster fielding, Felts found his bat that weekend. He batted below .200 in the first part of the season but has increased his average by close to .100 over the course of April.
2) Close at Home, but Runner Advances.
In a Tuesday night game at Houston, the Longhorns took advantage of yet another odd situation. In the sixth, with one out and the bases loaded, Matt Moynihan hit a sac fly to score Johnson from third. Houston catcher Caleb Barker — convinced he made the tag at the plate — started yelling at the home plate umpire. The alterca- tion became so heated that the first base umpire ran in to alleviate the situation. In the commotion, time wasn’t called and Texas moved its base runners up to second and third. I’ve never seen a player in NCAA baseball argue that demonstrably with an umpire and not get thrown from the game.
Texas went on to score two more runs in the inning and the level of competition stayed elevated for the rest of the game. Texas eventually lost 4-3, but when the Cougars came to Austin in April, the Longhorns won 4-0.
1) The Appeal That Got Away.
In the third game of the Kansas State series, Texas led 1-0 in the fourth inning with bases loaded and one out. Kansas State hit a fly-out to the outfield and the runner tagged at third, then ran in to score, making the score 1-1 with two outs. The coaching staff and the play- ers were convinced the runner left before the catch was made. In this situation, the rules allow for an “appeal play” where the pitcher goes to the stretch, steps off and throws to third, and then the umpire rules whether the runner left too early.
Nathan Thornhill stepped off and threw to third.
But we’ll never know if that runner properly tagged the base because Thornhill overthrew Erich Weiss at third. I’ve never seen that before. To make matters worse, the runners at first and second got to move up to second and third. The next batter got a base hit and both runners scored. Texas was down 3-1.
The only thing that could’ve made this season any crazier is if the Longhorns somehow had managed to sneak into the conference tournament by sweeping TCU in their final conference series, and then managed to get an NCAA tournament bid.
Despite the Longhorns having one of their worst regular seasons since 1998, I believe Augie Garrido will turn around this team by next season. He had tough years at Cal-Poly and Cal State Fullerton but won three national championships there. For him, some of the best seasons have come out of disastrous seasons.
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