-Not a lot to say. It feels catastrophic to get swept in a double header in the SEC. That happened the first weekend of league play last year too. Interestingly enough, both times our opponent's starter went CG in that first one. The difference obviously being that Miss State was the national runner up the year before and Missouri is, well, Missouri. And not to be too negative, but you could see today coming in some ways the way that we've been playing the last two weekends.
-I'm glad that Missouri won the national championship in game one today. That's what the celebration looked like. And I'm sure Reggie "Mayday" McClain had today circled, but a lot of that stuff during the game, and the ball spike at the end... that's just bush league. Someone made a good point afterward. I said "You've gotta act like you've been there before." The other person said "Yeah, well, that's the thing. He hasn't." Mayday did a good job for them and really buckled down when guys got into scoring position. It bugged me that we didn't match his or their intensity in game one. Missouri wanted that first game BADLY. I thought that we played on our heels a little bit in that first one, and I didn't really see that coming.
-Tanner Houck was really good in game two. I thought that was the best "stuff" that I've seen from an opposing pitcher this year. Lots of late movement.... Missouri threw a lot of fastballs today. I was surprised that was the game plan for them, but they did a nice job with it. Houck is going to be a stud in the league going forward if he stays healthy.
-We need to figure out how to score without a home run. They're nice to hit, but we need to do a better job of moving guys over and getting them in without the long ball.
-Once in each game today we screwed up a run down... Thankfully we got an out in the second game anyway, but I'm sure it's not being taught the way that we executed either of them. It's disappointing. They practice those scenarios a lot... at least in the fall, but I'm sure they still do... The mess up in game one cost us a run.
-I don't know if this is Stricklin's call or Corral's, but I'm getting tired of watching us leave pitchers in there too long.... It cost us a few games in the league last season and we're still doing it. We've got great depth with the pitching staff. As good as it's been since 2008. Use it. With our roster, there is no excuse for one guy giving up four runs in an inning, in extras. What was the point of running Ryan Lawlor back out there in the 7th in game one? We continually try to roll the dice with trying to get an extra out or an extra inning from a guy, and it's needless.
-Finally, the umpiring.... The play at 1st in the bottom of the 9th was terrible.... There's a reason that the 1st baseman immediately went home after he caught the throw. He knew King was safe, so did everyone else in the stadium. I don't know that Bell beats the throw, but that's how it should have been decided. Home plate ump, David Yeast, should rob a liquor store next time he wants to steal money. That's was as bad, as unprofessional, as I can remember from a home plate ump since the infamous Rick Darby game in 2006 (Todd Henderson at Kentucky in '11 still holds the crown for all time worst in my opinion, but he was the 3rd base umpire that night). You expect a very poor, moving strike zone from David Savage, but Savage is at least semi professional. Yeast was bad and immature. It deserves better, this level of baseball. I say that a lot. I don't know how Yeast could even claim to see the plate tonight literally being down on one knee and looking over Zack Bowers' shoulder.... Bowers isn't a little guy. How can Yeast get a good view of the plate that way? (Obviously, he couldn't). The last K on Bowers in the 10th was arguably the worst as the last two called strikes were in the same spot as the last two called balls that Cheek threw on what wound up being the bases loaded walk. I can't get inside Yeast's head, but that sure seemed vindictive to me. It just makes you made. Here are 18 guys battling their guts out to win a game, and some little ten cent shitass like David Yeast winds up being playing the biggest role in deciding it. It's a shame, a true shame.
-All that said, we really didn't play well enough in game two to win. I can't say objectively "we deserved to win that game." But still, we should have won it anyway. I am proud of the way that we battled back. It would've been easy to phone in those last couple of innings in game two, but we did a great job to bring it back to even. There's something to be said for that.
-It goes without saying that we really need to win tomorrow. Missouri isn't a bad team but they're not the best that we'll face this year, by a long shot... I'm very much expecting to see our A game tomorrow afternoon.
-I'm glad that Missouri won the national championship in game one today. That's what the celebration looked like. And I'm sure Reggie "Mayday" McClain had today circled, but a lot of that stuff during the game, and the ball spike at the end... that's just bush league. Someone made a good point afterward. I said "You've gotta act like you've been there before." The other person said "Yeah, well, that's the thing. He hasn't." Mayday did a good job for them and really buckled down when guys got into scoring position. It bugged me that we didn't match his or their intensity in game one. Missouri wanted that first game BADLY. I thought that we played on our heels a little bit in that first one, and I didn't really see that coming.
-Tanner Houck was really good in game two. I thought that was the best "stuff" that I've seen from an opposing pitcher this year. Lots of late movement.... Missouri threw a lot of fastballs today. I was surprised that was the game plan for them, but they did a nice job with it. Houck is going to be a stud in the league going forward if he stays healthy.
-We need to figure out how to score without a home run. They're nice to hit, but we need to do a better job of moving guys over and getting them in without the long ball.
-Once in each game today we screwed up a run down... Thankfully we got an out in the second game anyway, but I'm sure it's not being taught the way that we executed either of them. It's disappointing. They practice those scenarios a lot... at least in the fall, but I'm sure they still do... The mess up in game one cost us a run.
-I don't know if this is Stricklin's call or Corral's, but I'm getting tired of watching us leave pitchers in there too long.... It cost us a few games in the league last season and we're still doing it. We've got great depth with the pitching staff. As good as it's been since 2008. Use it. With our roster, there is no excuse for one guy giving up four runs in an inning, in extras. What was the point of running Ryan Lawlor back out there in the 7th in game one? We continually try to roll the dice with trying to get an extra out or an extra inning from a guy, and it's needless.
-Finally, the umpiring.... The play at 1st in the bottom of the 9th was terrible.... There's a reason that the 1st baseman immediately went home after he caught the throw. He knew King was safe, so did everyone else in the stadium. I don't know that Bell beats the throw, but that's how it should have been decided. Home plate ump, David Yeast, should rob a liquor store next time he wants to steal money. That's was as bad, as unprofessional, as I can remember from a home plate ump since the infamous Rick Darby game in 2006 (Todd Henderson at Kentucky in '11 still holds the crown for all time worst in my opinion, but he was the 3rd base umpire that night). You expect a very poor, moving strike zone from David Savage, but Savage is at least semi professional. Yeast was bad and immature. It deserves better, this level of baseball. I say that a lot. I don't know how Yeast could even claim to see the plate tonight literally being down on one knee and looking over Zack Bowers' shoulder.... Bowers isn't a little guy. How can Yeast get a good view of the plate that way? (Obviously, he couldn't). The last K on Bowers in the 10th was arguably the worst as the last two called strikes were in the same spot as the last two called balls that Cheek threw on what wound up being the bases loaded walk. I can't get inside Yeast's head, but that sure seemed vindictive to me. It just makes you made. Here are 18 guys battling their guts out to win a game, and some little ten cent shitass like David Yeast winds up being playing the biggest role in deciding it. It's a shame, a true shame.
-All that said, we really didn't play well enough in game two to win. I can't say objectively "we deserved to win that game." But still, we should have won it anyway. I am proud of the way that we battled back. It would've been easy to phone in those last couple of innings in game two, but we did a great job to bring it back to even. There's something to be said for that.
-It goes without saying that we really need to win tomorrow. Missouri isn't a bad team but they're not the best that we'll face this year, by a long shot... I'm very much expecting to see our A game tomorrow afternoon.
