Texas finishes sweep of Iowa

This staff is money. The kind of money Trips leaves in g-strings. After this weekend’s four game sweep of Iowa, the team ERA is sitting at 1.89.

Game 1

Pitching: Cole Green was on and looked really comfortable out there. He gave up a single unearned run in the first on a single, three stolen bases and two errors while striking out the side. Iowa only managed three singles and a walk the rest of the game. His backdoor curveball was especially lethal against lefties. The batter will give up on it only to watch it drop in on the outside corner. Take your seat.

Hitting: Bad, but at least they didn’t strike out a lot. Kevin Lusson hit his first home run of the year in the second, and then Texas scratched across single runs in the 4th and 5th. That’s all they needed as Iowa wasn’t going to do anything against Green.

Fielding: Aside from the first inning debacle, they were gold. Freshman Jonathan Walsh got the start at catcher, and Iowa tested him. He threw out the only other Iowa player to attempt a steal in the 3rd. Tant Shepard got an error in the first when his spike caught on the turf while he was trying to set his feet on a throw to first. Fluke, but it allowed the run to score.

Game 2

Pitching: Brandon Workman wasn’t as dominant as he was against Houston, but he still pitched great. Iowa got two runs in the first off of three wuss singles, but he shut them down the rest of the game while striking out 8 in 6 2/3 innings. Andrew McKiran and Stayton Thomas kept Iowa scoreless until the 9th when Chance Ruffin pitched a perfect inning for the save.

Hitting: Brandon Loy went 3-3 with two doubles, and Kevin Keyes and Shephard had two hits apiece. No one else got a hit.

Fielding: A single error in the 4th that didn’t lead to any damage.

Game 3

Pitching: Freshman Hoby Milner got the start, and he pitched ok. He’s pretty freaking skinny at this point and had some problems with his control. But he didn’t allow any runs in 4 1/3. Thomas relieved him and struck out four of the five hitters he faced. Sam Stafford, Kendall Carrillo and Josh Urban got their first action of the year, and they all pitched a scoreless inning.

Hitting: Iowa ran out of pitching. It’s like when nobody at BC wants to write anything so only The General is putting up stuff. But five home runs is five home runs. I can’t really remember the last time we hit five home runs at home. We now have hitting momentum! Or something.

Fielding: Perfect.

This four game series against Iowa was like playing in the losers’ bracket in a tournament. Our pitching was dominant, and they just wore out Iowa. Thomas looks like our setup man, and I think he does a better job than Ruffin of not allowing inherited runners to score. Ruffin just seems to do better starting off an inning rather than coming in during an at bat.

Our middle defense of Loy and Jordan Etier is great. I doubt there is one better in college. Etier is also becoming a pretty good hitter. He’s leading the team in home runs, and he does a good job of working the count in his favor.

Cohl Walla looks like our starting left fielder from here on out. He can hit for power, he can steal bases and he runs like a deer in the outfield. I hope Jonathan Walsh gets more work as well. He looks like a natural line drive hitter.

So now we head to Houston tomorrow night to play Rice before starting conference against Nebraska this weekend in Austin. Should be fun.