February 8, 2021

Bob Brockman:
The inside story of Bob Brockman (Forbes)

Don Erksine (1937-2021):
On January 23, Don Erskine passed away.  A native Texan, he graduated from Rice in 1960 where he played freshmen baseball and he met his future wife Sharon Ferguson.  Like his father and grandfather before him, he spent his entire career in the oil and gas industry, working for Tenneco and Shell.  Also, he “always challenged himself both physically and mentally”.  He is survived by, among others, his wife of sixty-one years Sharon.  Click here for the Chronicle obituary.

2021 Spring Practice Tower

SPRING PRACTICE (January 30 - February 19, 2021)

Unofficial Recaps by Roger Tower

February 5, 2021 
Scrimmage

In a scrimmage that reminded me of those early February College Classic games at Enron Field the squads went 7.5 innings.  Coach had the home squad ahead 14-13 on points.  I had the visitors up 7-3 on runs scored.

Home Pitchers:
M. Holcomb   3 shut out innings.  1 hit. 3 SO.  1 BB.
A. C. Plum 2 innings. 2 runs. 2 hits. 2 SO.  2 BB.
R. Gallant 2 innings.  2 runs.  2 hit.  3 BB.
J. Larzabal 1inning.  3 runs.  3 hits.  2 SO.

Visitor Pitchers:
Roel Garcia made his first appearance in a long time going 2 innings of shutout baseball. 1 hit.  3 SO. 2 BB.  It was good to see him on the mound again.
B. Brogdon  3 innings.  2 runs. 3 hits. 3 SO. 3 BB.
D. Wood 2 innings.   1 run.  1 hit.  1 SO.  1 HBP.  3 BB.

Visitor hitting;
J. Long  3 hits.  1 Double
A. Bulman 2 hits.  2 HRs.  4 RBI
C. Walsh    1 hit.   1 Double
B. Comeaux 1 hit
N. Decker   1 hit

Home hitting:
A. Cruz 1 hit. 1 RBI
C. Karp.  1 hit 1 Triple
C. Cienfuegos 1 hit 1 Triple
C. Hannigan 1 hit 1 Double
B. Dukes 1 hit

Defensively the teams combined for 3 infield double plays.  Two by the home squad. One a  4-6-3 and the other was 6-6-3.  The one by the visitors was 3-6-1.  A nice variety of excellent double plays.

February 6, 2021 
Scrimmage

The weather was better today.  It's always good to have outdoor baseball in February.  The Home squad shutout the Visitors 3-0 by my tally in 5 innings.

The 3 Home pitchers were A. DeLeon (3 inn), M. Linskey (1 inn) and J. Hoyle (1 inn).
A. DeLeon allowed no runs, 2 hits (a single up-the-middle to B. Dukes and an infield single to short by W. Burbank), and  no walks with 1 SO.
M. Linskey pitched a shutout inning, no hits, 1 HBP and no SO.
J. Hoyle closed for the Home squad.  No Runs, 1 hit (a single by B. Dukes), and  a HBP.

For the Visitors, M. Davis pitched the first two innings.  He allowed 3 runs, 1 hit (a single by J. Long), 6 walks, and no SO.
W. West relieved and pitched 2 shutout frames.  He gave up 1 hit (a single by A. Bulman), 2 walks, and 2 SO.
C. Cienfuegos pitched the fifth for the Visitors.  No runs, no hits, 1 walk. and 1 SO.

There were no double plays and no extra base hits.   B. Dukes was only player with multiple hits. B.Gneiting and J. Hoyle each had an RBI without a hit.  The other run scored on a WP.

February 9, 2021 
Situation Scrimmages

Today each inning presented s different scenario for the squads to deal with in the scrimmage.

In the first situation, the offense was 2 runs down with runners at the corners and no one out.

D. Wood faced the visiting squad in the first.

B. Comeaux doubled to left-center to score the runner from third.  The runner on first to third.
G. Garibay singled to left-center.  One run scored with Comeaux to third.
A. Bulman followed with a looper to short center.  Comeaux scored.  Garibay to second.
J. Long was the last batter.  He singled to right-center to load the bases.  Offense tied the score.
Visitors get a point.

A. C. Plum faced the home squad in  the first.  No outs.  Runners on the corners.
W. Karp singled to right.  One run scored.  Karp at first and a runner at third. 
Karp stole second.  C. Walsh followed with a single to short center.  Two runs scored.
Connor stole second.  He was out trying to steal third.  1 out.  he returned to second.  He was out once again attempting to steal third.
2 outs.  Sent to the dugout.  A strikeout followed.  Offense had tied the score.  Home gets a point.

J. Larzabal pitched the second.  No outs.  Runners at first and second.  Two run lead.
B.  Gneiting sacrificed the runners to second and third. 1 out.
A. Cruz reached on an infield single.  One run scored.  One runner to third.
D. Hernandez hit fielder's choice RBI grounder.  The second runner scored.  2 Outs.
C. Cienfuegos doubled to right.  Cruz scored.  Visitors scored to lead by one. inning over. Point visitors.

R. Rickett pitched against the home offense.  Same scenario as Larzabal faced.
Karp hit fielder's choice grounder to second to score one run.  Karp to first.  Runner out at second.  1 out.
N. Becker walked.  Karp to second.  Wild pitch moved each runner up a base.
H. Hughes hit sac-fly to score Karp to score the second run.  2 outs.
An infield ground out ended the frame.  Home offense gets the point for tying the score.

Larzbal returned to pitch the next inning with the bases loaded and no outs with a 3 run lead,
A passed ball scored a run and moved the runners to second and third. 
Gneiting hit RBI fielder's choice to score the runner on third for the second run. Runner at third.  1 out.
C. Hannigan walked.
A short fly out to center for the second out. 
The runner on third scored at some point.  Tied the score. 
A ground out ended the inning.  Offense won again.

Rickett pitched for the visitors with the bases loaded no outs with a three run lead.
He retired in the side in order on a pop-out to left, a pop-out to short and a ground out short to first.  Visitors win 4-2. 

Same thing sometime tomorrow. 

February 10, 2021 
Situation Scrimmages

The Visitor's took today's scenario match-up over the Home squad winning more of the scenarios,  Four scenarios were used today.

Scenario #1
Pitchers: K. Bordwine (Home) and C. Cienfuegos (Visitors)
8th inning-up 4-3.  No outs.  No runners.
Team with lead after the inning wins. Team loses if you lose the lead.

K. Bordwine pitched for the first time in almost a year.  He retired three of the four batters he faced.  C. Edwards reached on a two out infield single.  Home held the lead.

C. Cienfuegos held the Home squad scoreless.  B. Comeaux singled through the right side.  He was forced at second on a fielder's choice. A fly tonight and a strikeout followed.  Visitors held the lead.

Scenario #2
Pitchers:  J. Hoyle (Home) and C. Cienfuegos (Visitors)
Top of 8th inning-up 5-3.  No outs.  Runners at 1st and 3rd.
Team with lead after the inning wins.  Lose if you lose the lead.Scenario #3

J. Hoyle pitched a shutout inning.  The runner on first was picked-off.  Tw fly outs ended the inning.  Home holds lead. 

B. Gneiting's sac-fly to left scored the run.The runner on first was caught stealing.
Cienfuegos struck out the last batter to end the inning.  Visitor's held the lead.

Scenario #3
Pitchers:  J. Hoyle (Home) and M. Linskey (Visitors)
Bottom 6th inning up 6-3- no outs Bases loaded.

Cole Latos, in his first AB of the spring, greeted J. Hoyle with a 2 run double down the left field line.
B. Dukes followed with another 2 run double to give the Visitors the lead.  Pop out.  Dukes caught trying to steal. W. Karp walked.  A strikeout ended the rally.  Visitors took the lead.

M. Linskey pitched for the Visitors with the score 6-3 for his team and runners on the corners.
C. Hannigan walked the bases loaded.  A strikeout followed.  A walk to W. Burbank pushed a run in.  A line drive to short and the force of the runner who failed to get back to second finished the inning.  Visitors hold the lead.

Scenario #4
Pitchers:  M. Davis (Home) and M. Linskey (Visitors)

The teams will play a 10th inning with C-USA rule as MLB used this past season. the inning starts with no outs and a runner on second.  The inning will be played to completion of the  inning or pitch count.  Total runs allowed including inherited runs is how it was scored.  Team with most runs wins.

In the top of the tenth, the visitors faced M. Davis with a runner on second. Edwards singled to score the runner on second.  N. Becker singled.  Edwards to second.  H. Hughes walked to load the bases. J. Dunlap also walked.  Edwards scored.  Bases still loaded.  Latos HBP.  Another run scored.  The Visitors were credited with 7 runs.

Linskey continued for the Visitors to pitch with no outs and a runner on second.  A strike out and two pop-outs to second ended the day.  The visitors won that inning by 7 runs.

Visitors take the match.

The teams do it on the weekend.