-Well, I couldn't have been more wrong in my preview when I said to expect a fast game and that Nola wouldn't walk anyone. We're leading the SEC in walks drawn and I thought that we did a fantastic job of not giving in tonight. Nola may not have had his best stuff (difficult to tell from my vantage point), but our offense does deserve some credit for making him work and for grinding some ABs. To Nola's credit though, he really settled in after (I think) the 3rd inning when he gave up the leadoff double to Nelson Ward and then got the next two guys before Ward was CS at 3rd to end the inning. From that point forward, Nola seemed to go in cruise control, but we had already elevated his pitch count sufficiently by then anyway.
-The last three SEC games we've played, our bats have just been stymied. Granted, we've seen some really good guys, but we are having a tough time stringing anything together right now. You've got several guys in the lineup who are fighting it right now. We scored 11 runs against Presbyterian in the mid-week, but if we're being honest, a lot of that was generated off of arms that are below the level that we're seeing now and with the help of defenses that aren't as good as what we're seeing now. This is the second league game in a row where we've struck out 13 times. That's almost half of the outs that the other guy has to get. It's tough to win when you do that.
-LSU is not the 6th best team in the country.... of, if they are, we are #8. We saw their guy tonight, but there's no reason to believe that we can't win this series. We can pitch to their lineup. There are some outs there. We saw their closer tonight (in a very bizarre move by Mainerie) and they probably burned Person for the rest of the weekend too. We should be able to hit Poche' tomorrow. Yeah, it's a big stadium and a tough atmosphere and what not, but I'm telling you, these guys aren't better than we are.... at least not to the level that this series is a shoe in for them. We aren't playing the jersey, we're playing the team in the other dugout... as the game wore on tonight, I really believe that a lot of our players (just like Friday night at Florida State) realized "hey, we can beat this crowd."
-Ross Ripple was huge tonight. We've got the rest of the bullets in our gun for this weekend... You can really get into trouble on Friday night in a losing effort in situations like Ripple had when he entered the game... If he doesn't have it, then you have to get someone else up, then use him, and before you know it, you've had to throw three guys just to finish off losing effort. Ripple did exactly what we needed him to do tonight.
-Nelson Ward really saw Nola great tonight. He hit his first ball right on the screws and Bregman made a good play on it. The next time up, he smashed that leadoff double. I hated it that the 5-4-3 came up.... that and the CS may have marred his night to some degree, but he handled Nola great.
-I think we've got a good game in us and I believe you'll see it tomorrow. Personally, I'm worn out. I didn't get much sleep last night and today was a marathon driving down here.... But I tell you, I wish I could go over to the park for game 2 right now....
-The last three SEC games we've played, our bats have just been stymied. Granted, we've seen some really good guys, but we are having a tough time stringing anything together right now. You've got several guys in the lineup who are fighting it right now. We scored 11 runs against Presbyterian in the mid-week, but if we're being honest, a lot of that was generated off of arms that are below the level that we're seeing now and with the help of defenses that aren't as good as what we're seeing now. This is the second league game in a row where we've struck out 13 times. That's almost half of the outs that the other guy has to get. It's tough to win when you do that.
-LSU is not the 6th best team in the country.... of, if they are, we are #8. We saw their guy tonight, but there's no reason to believe that we can't win this series. We can pitch to their lineup. There are some outs there. We saw their closer tonight (in a very bizarre move by Mainerie) and they probably burned Person for the rest of the weekend too. We should be able to hit Poche' tomorrow. Yeah, it's a big stadium and a tough atmosphere and what not, but I'm telling you, these guys aren't better than we are.... at least not to the level that this series is a shoe in for them. We aren't playing the jersey, we're playing the team in the other dugout... as the game wore on tonight, I really believe that a lot of our players (just like Friday night at Florida State) realized "hey, we can beat this crowd."
-Ross Ripple was huge tonight. We've got the rest of the bullets in our gun for this weekend... You can really get into trouble on Friday night in a losing effort in situations like Ripple had when he entered the game... If he doesn't have it, then you have to get someone else up, then use him, and before you know it, you've had to throw three guys just to finish off losing effort. Ripple did exactly what we needed him to do tonight.
-Nelson Ward really saw Nola great tonight. He hit his first ball right on the screws and Bregman made a good play on it. The next time up, he smashed that leadoff double. I hated it that the 5-4-3 came up.... that and the CS may have marred his night to some degree, but he handled Nola great.
-I think we've got a good game in us and I believe you'll see it tomorrow. Personally, I'm worn out. I didn't get much sleep last night and today was a marathon driving down here.... But I tell you, I wish I could go over to the park for game 2 right now....
