FINAL
Texas - 6
Air Force - 5
Winning Pitcher: Gage Boehm (1-1)
Losing Pitcher: Sam Hentges (0-1)
BOX SCORE
RECAP
Whew. Nothing like a Tuesday night come from behind walk off win (by a freshman) in extra innings.
After giving up 2 runs in the Top 1st, the Horns quickly responded in the Bottom of the 1st to make it a 2-1 game. Unfortunately, Air Force came right back in the Top 2nd and plated another run to make it 3-1 Falcons. The Horns came right back in the Bottom 2nd to plate a run making it a 3-2 ballgame, a score line that would hold until the Top of the 6th when Air Force tacked on another run after an error, walk, and single to make it a 4-2 game. Thankfully, Heston Tole came in and got a strike out on one of his signature sliders to end the scoring threat.
The Horns failed to answer in the Bottom of the 6th, but they came back in the Bottom of the 7th and got a run back to make it a 4-3 ball game. Powell led off with a single, his first of the day, then Flores struck out swinging. Kimble Schuessler hit a ball down the RF line for a double, put men on 1B and 3B with just one out. Jack O'Dowd grounded out to 2B, but that brought the run home to cut the lead to one.
In the Top 9th, Andre Duplantier gave up a lead off double and then committed a balk, moving the runner over to 3B with no outs. Dre got the next batter swinging, but immediately walked the batter after putting runners on the corners with just one out. Air Force then hit a soft grounder in between 3B and the pitchers mound, which the athletic Dre fielded, but lost his footing and his throw was not only wide, but well late to home plate, allowing the runner from 3B to score to make it a 5-3 ballgame. Duplantier did get out of more trouble though as Air Force tried a double steal of 2B and 3B, but a throw from Kimble to Powell at 3B was JUST in time to tag the runner for the 2nd out. Duplantier then got a strike out swinging to end the Top 9th.
In the Bottom 9th, Dee Kennedy led off with a strike out, but on the very next pitch, Peyton Powell hit a soft liner into CF for a 1 out base runner. Powell advanced to 2B on a passed ball, which was part of a 9 pitch sequence between Gehring and Jalin Flores. On the 9th pitch, a hanging breaking ball at the letters, Flores hit a 2 run blast to LF onto the street (101 off the bat, 403 ft) to tie the game up, giving the Horns new life and momentum. Kimble Schuessler then singled the first pitch he saw into LF, but unfortunately, Jack O'Dowd and Rylan Galvan came up empty to send it to extra innings.
In the Top 10th, Gage Boehm lived dangerously, giving up a lead off walk, but bounced back to induce a 3-2 pop up on a bunt and then got lead off man Sam Kulasingam to ground into a double play that saw the ball get hit back to Boehm who threw to Flores at 2B who then made the relay to 1B despite getting knocked over in the process. The play itself was innocent enough as the batter slid straight into 2B and Flores momentum had taken him into the base path, but a few words were exchanged non the less, leading to Chris Gordon getting ejected from the dugout.
In the Bottom 10th, Gehring was lifted for Hentges who gave up a lead off walk to Porter Brown. Max Belyeu was hit by the second pitch he saw as he tried to lay down a bunt but instead got a 89mph fastball inside that he could not avoid. Air Force quickly went to the bullpen again to bring in Estridge to pitch, but he gave up a single to RF on the second pitch he threw to lead off man Jared Thomas to load the bases with no outs. Air Force decided to sub out an outfielder to put 5 infielders in place, but it did not matter in the end as freshman Dee Kennedy hit the second pitch he saw, lining the fastball into CF for the walk off win.
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BIG MOMENT
Bottom of the 9th with 1 out and Peyton Powell on 2B, Jalin Flores, on the 9th pitch of the at bat, crushed a ball over the Yeti Yard in LF for a two run bomb to tie the game up and swing all the momentum to Texas. Big time Flo!
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INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
Jared Thomas went 4-6 on the night finishing with 4 hits (2 doubles), 1 run and 1 RBI. Not bad for the lead off man who has had some struggles as of late.
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TAKEAWAYS
Gonna keep this one short and sweet since there is a game tomorrow evening. 6 runs on 16 hist with 11 stranded is not great. Good enough, but not good. Horns didn't play perfectly by any stretch of the imagination, but they did enough to hold on and win the game. At the end of the day, a win is a win. Of course no one is going to walk away happy with how it played out, but a win is always better than a loss.
Grades:
Starting Pitching: no grade
Bullpen: B
Hitting: B
Defense: A
UP NEXT
Texas (12-8) will take on Air Force (9-10) again tomorrow at 4pm
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