-Much like last night felt like two different games, this one did too. The good news is obviously Emerson Hancock... how good was he today? I remember Alex Wood's first start down at Stetson in 2011... Hancock was better today than Wood was that day, but both guys just looked so poised and in control. I'm not saying that Hancock is going to be Alex Wood or anything, but he sure looked good today. Mid 90s fastball with a lot of movement, good curveball, good move to 1st base... He checks a lot of boxes for sure. He looks like he's 15 years old out there too... As disappointing as some other things were today, I really wasn't all that pissed off leaving the ballpark, just because of Emerson Hancock... There have been some things said about some freshmen through the years that probably wasn't realistic or fair, but Emerson sure looked like his billing today.
-We've now had 19 strikeouts offensively to this point in the very young season. Gotta clean that up. I do like our lineup a lot though... 1-9 this is as balanced as it's been for Stricklin.
-Not a good day defensively today. I thought that Austin Biggar did a really nice job behind the plate. The error that he took was tough... while it wasn't a great throw, that was one that we still probably should have stopped at 3rd base. But all in all, I thought that Austin had a good day. I was a little surprised that we pinch hit for him.
-We saw their guys today between Shuman and Cohen. We didn't do a lot with those guys and we didn't do much with Eichhorn last night either. I imagine that we'll be able to plate some runs tomorrow.
-On the pitching after Hancock.... this is one of the things that drives me crazy. We had two players making their pitching debuts today in a very tight game, back to back. We threw two of our sophomore relievers last night when the game was already out of control. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? I imagine that if Christian Ryder and Justin Glover were freshman this year, they would been on the mound today instead of last night.... Heck, that's what we did last year with College of Charleston on Sunday. In a tight game late, we threw Tucker Bradley and then Ryder in the 9th inning. Fortunately we got the win that day, but why toss a guy out there in a such a high leverage spot for this first pitching appearance? This seems like one of the reasons why this program hasn't taken a step forward. Last year we bought on Aaron Schunk to pitch at Mercer with the winning run on 3rd base. Schunk hadn't yet pitched in a game and probably hadn't thrown 5 bullpens since he'd been on campus. Why do that there? It seems like some of these decisions are made with the aim of being able to claim "and/ but he's a young guy..." I don't get it... and it's a big reason why we lost today. Not the only reason, but a big reason.
-Rubber game tomorrow. We've beaten these guys two years in a row and we really need to keep it going. I really don't like Georgia Southern.... I don't think they like us very much and I don't think we like them very much either.
-We've now had 19 strikeouts offensively to this point in the very young season. Gotta clean that up. I do like our lineup a lot though... 1-9 this is as balanced as it's been for Stricklin.
-Not a good day defensively today. I thought that Austin Biggar did a really nice job behind the plate. The error that he took was tough... while it wasn't a great throw, that was one that we still probably should have stopped at 3rd base. But all in all, I thought that Austin had a good day. I was a little surprised that we pinch hit for him.
-We saw their guys today between Shuman and Cohen. We didn't do a lot with those guys and we didn't do much with Eichhorn last night either. I imagine that we'll be able to plate some runs tomorrow.
-On the pitching after Hancock.... this is one of the things that drives me crazy. We had two players making their pitching debuts today in a very tight game, back to back. We threw two of our sophomore relievers last night when the game was already out of control. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? I imagine that if Christian Ryder and Justin Glover were freshman this year, they would been on the mound today instead of last night.... Heck, that's what we did last year with College of Charleston on Sunday. In a tight game late, we threw Tucker Bradley and then Ryder in the 9th inning. Fortunately we got the win that day, but why toss a guy out there in a such a high leverage spot for this first pitching appearance? This seems like one of the reasons why this program hasn't taken a step forward. Last year we bought on Aaron Schunk to pitch at Mercer with the winning run on 3rd base. Schunk hadn't yet pitched in a game and probably hadn't thrown 5 bullpens since he'd been on campus. Why do that there? It seems like some of these decisions are made with the aim of being able to claim "and/ but he's a young guy..." I don't get it... and it's a big reason why we lost today. Not the only reason, but a big reason.
-Rubber game tomorrow. We've beaten these guys two years in a row and we really need to keep it going. I really don't like Georgia Southern.... I don't think they like us very much and I don't think we like them very much either.
