So when he came up to the plate for the third time, he made an adjustment.
Well, he might not have seen it because it was a fastball he took straight to his head, but the first pitch thrown was a fastball.īut in his second at-bat he saw all off-speed pitches and struck out.
Sakura Sushi to feed Rio Bravo, El Cenizo in free event.principal faced smuggling charges, placed on leave Rangel put the ball in play while Linn two batters later did more than that. “It’s pretty much contact, contact, put the ball in play.” “With two strikes it’s different,” Rangel said. The hit came on the fourth breaking pitch Encalada threw to Rangel in the at-bat. He walked him on four pitches in the third inning, and when he came up in the fifth with runners on first and second he never threw him a single heater.īut Rangel picked up on that, and on a 1-2 pitch, while he didn’t nearly make the contact he did on his home run, he hit a ball hard enough to get a big bounce over Alexander’s third baseman and score a run to make it 4-1. 6 hitter the next two times he faced him. With that old saying though, there’s a reason it’s not simply: “Look fastball.” The adjust part is huge and Friday’s game was the perfect example.Īfter giving up the home run to Rangel in the second inning, Encalada was extremely careful with the Longhorns’ No. He started to use his breaking pitches more often and was more judicious with first-pitch fastballs. That’s exactly what he did tossing two scoreless frames over the next two innings to keep the Bulldogs in a ballgame where Sanchez was shoving on the other side. He is a competitor on the mound who can shake off rough innings like that. He isn’t just committed to a Division II school because he has a fastball up to 88 miles per hour and he can pound the strike zone. There’s a saying in baseball circles: “Look fastball, adjust.” United started off Friday’s game looking fastball and it paid off in the early going.īut give credit to Encalada. Sanchez smacked a single through the right side of the infield. United added a run that inning and actually got another base hit on a first-pitch strike when starting pitcher A.J. The two-run homer gave the Longhorns a 2-1 lead they would never give up. The Longhorn first baseman laced a line drive to left field clearing the fence in about three seconds. But that fifth first-pitch strike came back to bite him.įollowing a full-count walk to Alejandro Castillo, Matt Rangel came to the plate and he was sitting first-pitch fastball. “We look for first pitches.”Įncalada came out firing strikes on the first pitch Friday as he threw a first-pitch strike to five of the first six batters of the game.
“We’re very aggressive when it comes to first pitches,” senior centerfielder Josh Linn said. Swinging at the first pitch though is simply part of this team’s habits and Friday night was no exception. In United’s 8-1 win over LBJ on March 22, the Longhorns swung at the first pitch 10 times but only managed to get two hits on those swings. The Longhorns love to attack early in the count - sometimes to a fault. But in the Bulldogs’ 7-2 loss to the Longhorns, it turned out to play into United’s hands. Friday night in Alexander’s matchup with rival United, Encalada started off the game doing just that as he poured his fastball into the zone repeatedly especially early in the count.