-It's hard to sweep a team on the road. Today stings as it was a very winnable game for us and Ga Southern just isn't playing all that well right now. They've got a couple of guys who are really struggling at the plate and who had terrible weekends for them. It set up well for us. This was the fourth time in the last four seasons that we've gone into Sunday with a chance to sweep on the road. Missouri in 2014 was a bit like this one in that we won a very tight game Friday night and then won an easier game in front of big crowd (relatively speaking) on Saturday. We played Sunday morning at 10:00a that weekend. In front of a crowd numbering in the dozens, we didn't play well at all and didn't coach very well either... And we got beat.
2015 at Tennessee we won a tight game on Friday night, then won again Saturday with the Vols playing the worst defensive game I've ever seen. We leadoff the Sunday game with a HR on the first pitch and wound up with the sweep after the Vols played better in the field, but still poorly.
The next weekend at South Carolina, we won a tight game one (which was continued into Saturday after rain on Friday night), then won game in lower stress fashion. We again homered on the first pitch, but just didn't have enough pitching and wound up losing.
I was wondering, driving over to the park, if today would be analogous to any of those, but I didn't feel like it was. You had to figure Ga Southern would get it together a little bit today and wouldn't get worked like they did yesterday. I think that's similar to what we did last weekend, or what we did with the Ole Miss series last year...
-I thought the momentum really changed when Will Procter lead off with a "double" (for his sake, I'm glad it was scored that way, but it really should have gone down an E7).... we had the top of the order coming up and couldn't move Procter off of second base.
-I wish we'd sat Michael Curry today. He looked to pull his hamstring on his first AB yesterday... I was actually surprised he stayed in to catch as long as he did. I'm not sure if he could have beaten me in a race today.... I respect him for gutting it out, but 9 days into the season, I imagine it would be better to let something like that rest.
-Tough weekend for Tucker Maxwell. I understand he was batting that flu last weekend and I imagine he's still getting his strength back. I think he'll be ok at the top of the order, or wherever he hits... it takes time to work back from something like that. That said, I think we need to look at Cam Shepherd at the top.
-Why Blakely Brown isn't pitching is a mystery to me.... and I'm sure I'm not alone. When Zak Kristofak came off today, I noticed that Blakely was still in the dugout, not in the bullpen (I'm 99% sure that's when I noticed Blakely still in the dugout, it was late game).
-I was really impressed with Chase Adkins today. He hit 96 once on the radar gun, but more than that, he really changes speeds well and can throw his curve for a strike. His fastball seems to move, and his changeup is very effective. As a bonus, he fields his position very well also. I've enjoyed seeing him pitch the last two Sundays.
-Jordan Wren had a positively terrible weekend for them. Evan McDonald did too, although that definitely pales in comparison to his getting hurt. That was scary... and I really don't want to think about what would have happened had he not been wearing his batting helmet. That's the second time I've seen ambulance on a baseball field... and that's enough for me. It sounds like he's going to be ok... I can't imagine playing in the game after that. It was hard for me to focus on it as a fan. Both teams looked very flat-footed defensively after the injury. I think Ga Southern slid their 3B over to SS... I noticed he dropped two balls when Ga Southern was throwing it around the horn, their new 3B had a mis-play, we had our issues after that too. The injury did seem to rally Ga Southern at the plate, though.
-The 9th inning was pretty bad for us... I mean, we gave up the winning run and the ball never left the infield... I didn't care much for Stricklin's comment of "we made some mistakes late in some situations that we practice." I think everyone would assume that we practice bunt defense.... Comments like that irritate me as it comes across (to me, anyway) as "that wasn't my fault; I make sure that we practice for that." In close games that we lose, it's too often the case (or seems to be) that he says something to that effect. That 9th inning was one of a few reasons we lost. Scoring 1 run all day was another reason. I wish he would make those kinds of comments more internally and not externally.
-All that said, this was a good weekend. I said last Sunday night that I'd be happy with 2-2 over the next four. We got that... And I do think that we grew up this weekend and that going on the road was good for us. Today was disappointing, but this was a much better drive back to Atlanta than the one I experienced in 2015 (or 2013, for that matter). Kennesaw is going to give us a game on Tuesday, I'm sure... And I understand that UAB's Friday night guy is pretty and that they're a solid team too... I think we should all feel better about things now than we did last Sunday. I know I do.
2015 at Tennessee we won a tight game on Friday night, then won again Saturday with the Vols playing the worst defensive game I've ever seen. We leadoff the Sunday game with a HR on the first pitch and wound up with the sweep after the Vols played better in the field, but still poorly.
The next weekend at South Carolina, we won a tight game one (which was continued into Saturday after rain on Friday night), then won game in lower stress fashion. We again homered on the first pitch, but just didn't have enough pitching and wound up losing.
I was wondering, driving over to the park, if today would be analogous to any of those, but I didn't feel like it was. You had to figure Ga Southern would get it together a little bit today and wouldn't get worked like they did yesterday. I think that's similar to what we did last weekend, or what we did with the Ole Miss series last year...
-I thought the momentum really changed when Will Procter lead off with a "double" (for his sake, I'm glad it was scored that way, but it really should have gone down an E7).... we had the top of the order coming up and couldn't move Procter off of second base.
-I wish we'd sat Michael Curry today. He looked to pull his hamstring on his first AB yesterday... I was actually surprised he stayed in to catch as long as he did. I'm not sure if he could have beaten me in a race today.... I respect him for gutting it out, but 9 days into the season, I imagine it would be better to let something like that rest.
-Tough weekend for Tucker Maxwell. I understand he was batting that flu last weekend and I imagine he's still getting his strength back. I think he'll be ok at the top of the order, or wherever he hits... it takes time to work back from something like that. That said, I think we need to look at Cam Shepherd at the top.
-Why Blakely Brown isn't pitching is a mystery to me.... and I'm sure I'm not alone. When Zak Kristofak came off today, I noticed that Blakely was still in the dugout, not in the bullpen (I'm 99% sure that's when I noticed Blakely still in the dugout, it was late game).
-I was really impressed with Chase Adkins today. He hit 96 once on the radar gun, but more than that, he really changes speeds well and can throw his curve for a strike. His fastball seems to move, and his changeup is very effective. As a bonus, he fields his position very well also. I've enjoyed seeing him pitch the last two Sundays.
-Jordan Wren had a positively terrible weekend for them. Evan McDonald did too, although that definitely pales in comparison to his getting hurt. That was scary... and I really don't want to think about what would have happened had he not been wearing his batting helmet. That's the second time I've seen ambulance on a baseball field... and that's enough for me. It sounds like he's going to be ok... I can't imagine playing in the game after that. It was hard for me to focus on it as a fan. Both teams looked very flat-footed defensively after the injury. I think Ga Southern slid their 3B over to SS... I noticed he dropped two balls when Ga Southern was throwing it around the horn, their new 3B had a mis-play, we had our issues after that too. The injury did seem to rally Ga Southern at the plate, though.
-The 9th inning was pretty bad for us... I mean, we gave up the winning run and the ball never left the infield... I didn't care much for Stricklin's comment of "we made some mistakes late in some situations that we practice." I think everyone would assume that we practice bunt defense.... Comments like that irritate me as it comes across (to me, anyway) as "that wasn't my fault; I make sure that we practice for that." In close games that we lose, it's too often the case (or seems to be) that he says something to that effect. That 9th inning was one of a few reasons we lost. Scoring 1 run all day was another reason. I wish he would make those kinds of comments more internally and not externally.
-All that said, this was a good weekend. I said last Sunday night that I'd be happy with 2-2 over the next four. We got that... And I do think that we grew up this weekend and that going on the road was good for us. Today was disappointing, but this was a much better drive back to Atlanta than the one I experienced in 2015 (or 2013, for that matter). Kennesaw is going to give us a game on Tuesday, I'm sure... And I understand that UAB's Friday night guy is pretty and that they're a solid team too... I think we should all feel better about things now than we did last Sunday. I know I do.
