The Coogs and Owls were tied after nine innings of the second game of the Silver Glove Series. Rice reliever Jackson Tyner was brought in to pitch the 10th. Tyner is a Rice man through and through: his grandfather played for Jess Neely in the 1960’s and Jackson is also a back-up QB on the Owls football team.
Tyner went to work and got Kyle Lovelace swinging on three pitches. After a six-pitch walk to Drew Minter, Tyner induced Jared Triolo into a deep fly ball to centerfield. It only took 11 pitches to get the first two outs. Get Burckel next and the Owls are just a good swing away from winning it in the bottom of the 10th, right?
Baseball can be so cruel: after retiring Triolo, six of Tyner’s next 7 pitches were balls including two wild pitches. He completely lost it and ended up walking Burckel and intentionally walking Davis (on 2 pitches) to load the bases. But no worries, Rice will just go to the pen and now there’s a force at every bag.
In comes Ben Schragger to get that final out. Except he’s got control problems, too: Derrick Cherry walks on 5 pitches to get an RBI, Bielamowicz takes an HBP on the first pitch (and another run scores) and Jonathan Thomas walks on 4 pitches (yet another run crosses).
Schragger’s ineptness is a thing of beauty: he leaves after an impressive 11-pitch, 10-ball outing that plates 3 runs without a single swing of the bat. Schragger doesn’t even register an at-bat against.
Now it’s 5-2 Coogs and freshman Benjamin Content gets the ball. Content throws his first two pitches to Kobe Hyland for strikes but then uncorks two-straight wild pitches to score Cherry and Bielamowicz. The comedy of errors has found a new gear.
After fouling off a couple pitches, Hyland gets the first (and only) hit of the inning as Thomas scores. It’s a six-run inning for UH with just one hit. And really, it started with two outs.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#c62b29″ class=”” size=”20″]Schragger’s ineptness is a thing of beauty: he leaves after an impressive 11-pitch, 10-ball outing that plates 3 runs without a single swing of the bat.
[/perfectpullquote]
Kyle Lovelace walks on 5 pitches because why not and Content is replaced: his line score includes a hit, a walk, and two wild pitches on just two batters faced. There was so much excitement, Hyland had four PBP entries:
Zach Esquivel comes in and immediately throws a wild pitch before issuing a four-pitch walk to Minter. Thankfully for the Owls, Triolo grounds out to the pitcher to end perhaps the craziest half-inning in UH baseball history.
Rice went quietly in the bottom of the 10th and UH won game #2 of the Silver Glove, 8-2.
Notable Numbers:
- At one point, Rice pitchers threw 15 balls in 17 pitches.
- Total pitches for Rice in the inning: 48. Total pitches the 12 UH hitters swung at: 7
- Minter saw 10 pitches in the inning – 8 were balls.
- Jared Triolo made the 2nd and 3rd out – about 30 minutes apart.
- Walks: 7
- Wild Pitches: 5
- HBP: 1
- Tyner’s in-game ERA: 135.00
- Official at-bats: 4
Here’s how the inning looked from a PBP perspective:
K-S
Walk
F8
WP
Walk
WP
IBB
Walk, Run
HBP, Run
Walk, Run
WP, Run
WP, Run
Single, Run
Walk
WP
Walk
1-3
You could live a long, prosperous life and never see anything like that again.
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