Was there tonight. Missed the first two innings. Purple beat the Black, 4-0, behind five innings of two-pitching by Stefan Crichton. He was just plain nasty. One scout said it was hard to get a feel on him because he only threw about nine pitches an inning. Told the players keeping the gun that made things tough on him but was great for TCU.
Just played six innings (possibly because the coaches had been at the stadium since before noon for a high school showcase). Andrew Mitchell tossed a perfect sixth in about 10 pitches.
Brett Johnson laced a bases-loaded triple off the bottom of the wall in right-center for a 3-0 lead in the third (I think). Coach Saarloos cheered when the Black team finally got Johnson out. Then he called Johnson "Mickey Mantle" and told him to get back out in right field.
Purple added another run in fifth on a contact play with a runner at third.
The pitchers I saw for the Black team were freshman righty Riley Ferrell, from A&M Consolidated who gave up the triple to Johnson after loading the bases, Justin Scharf and Nick Frey pitched in that order.
The Black team was what I guess will be the starting infield of Jantzen Witte, Keaton Jones, Derek Odell and Kevin Cron. Kyle Bacak, a transfer from San Jac, caught. Boomer White played left and Kevin Daniels played in the OF somewhere.
The Purple team had Axel Johnson at first, Josh Gonzales at second, Davy Wright catching and Jerrick Suiter was in the outfield. Also playing were Cody Jones, Travis Hennessey and Paul Hendrix.
Jones can absolutely fly down the line. He will put a ton of pressure on third basemen.
NormlFrog watched for while then grabbed the egg salad sandwiches I bought in West today and then left after about three innings.
Saarloos kept challenging Critchton to "beat the barrel" and he did that all night. In the innings that I saw no one hit the ball hard off Critchton.
Asked CJS about who the weekday starter would be and he said there was going to be a good fight for that position.
Not sure when the next game is but I'm hoping there are some next weekend. Might be a game on Tuesday, not sure about that.
Finally, it was a beautiful night for baseball. No clouds, 71 degrees at 7 p.m. on night in Jan. Absolutely gorgeous.