-I said last night, at the risk of sounding negative, that if you'd told me the score would be 11-1 beforehand, I may not have gone into the stadium. That we beat Florida to open the series wasn't a tremendous shock. In spite of our record at Foley, we are still playing at home with our ace on the mound. I think everyone was surprised with just how easy it was, though. Even when it was 1-1, it just felt to me like we were going to win it. Very enjoyable night.
-We have had some games where we were more productive overall than last night, but when you factor in the pitching we saw, I think you'd have to say that last night was our best offensive game of the season and probably the best that we've ever swung the bats under Stricklin. Even with the outs we made last night, we really seemed to grind at the plate better than we have in awhile. Really fun to watch. We looked like a team that was well rested and also mentally refreshed.
-What can you say about David Sosebee? He probably should have been our Friday night for awhile now (and I'm sure he would have been earlier if not for the back injury). He's really been our best guy since Stricklin was hired. His ceiling may not be as high as Robert Tyler's, but mentally he's very advanced and he's been extremely consistent since the start of last season. He works quickly (which the Florida guys did their best to stall) and it's got to be fun playing defense behind him with all the early count ground balls that he gets. He fields his position well, controls the run game well, and he minimizes it when he puts guys on base. Compare what you saw last night to some of his outings his freshman year, all the way back in 2012. Totally different guy.
-I have to say, if you told me we'd have a guy to finish a double short of the cycle, I don't think Mike Bell would have been my first guess based on his last couple of weekends. Some of the outs that we've made at home this year have been frustrating, but I had no problem with sending Bell on his triple.... I really liked the aggressiveness. You wanted to make Florida make a play and to their credit, they did. It's weird though.... it almost felt like sending him and having him thrown out at home probably got everyone a little bit more fired up than if we'd been held at 3rd and stranded there, even though the result was the same.
-Great to see Jared Walsh back at 1st and what a tremendous offensive night for him. Compare his ABs and results last night to what he did as a freshman in 2012. Fantastic night for the "elder statesmen"... and you go back and think about how much both guys struggled as freshmen and you have to realize that someone was able to identify some tremendous potential in each player in spite of their struggles.
-Glad we probably won't have to see Kirby Sneed again the rest of the weekend. That guy really kept our lefties off balance last night. He made one bad pitch to Walsh, but outside that single throw, it didn't appear that our lefites could see him at all.
-Finally, who knows which team the quick turnaround will favor. You can make a case either way. We are going to really have to lock in this afternoon as I expect Florida to play with some urgency. As I'm typing this, I'm sure our players are already at the stadium... I suppose they've got to "flush" last night and hit the reset button now. Not me though... I'm going to enjoy last night for a little bit longer.
-We have had some games where we were more productive overall than last night, but when you factor in the pitching we saw, I think you'd have to say that last night was our best offensive game of the season and probably the best that we've ever swung the bats under Stricklin. Even with the outs we made last night, we really seemed to grind at the plate better than we have in awhile. Really fun to watch. We looked like a team that was well rested and also mentally refreshed.
-What can you say about David Sosebee? He probably should have been our Friday night for awhile now (and I'm sure he would have been earlier if not for the back injury). He's really been our best guy since Stricklin was hired. His ceiling may not be as high as Robert Tyler's, but mentally he's very advanced and he's been extremely consistent since the start of last season. He works quickly (which the Florida guys did their best to stall) and it's got to be fun playing defense behind him with all the early count ground balls that he gets. He fields his position well, controls the run game well, and he minimizes it when he puts guys on base. Compare what you saw last night to some of his outings his freshman year, all the way back in 2012. Totally different guy.
-I have to say, if you told me we'd have a guy to finish a double short of the cycle, I don't think Mike Bell would have been my first guess based on his last couple of weekends. Some of the outs that we've made at home this year have been frustrating, but I had no problem with sending Bell on his triple.... I really liked the aggressiveness. You wanted to make Florida make a play and to their credit, they did. It's weird though.... it almost felt like sending him and having him thrown out at home probably got everyone a little bit more fired up than if we'd been held at 3rd and stranded there, even though the result was the same.
-Great to see Jared Walsh back at 1st and what a tremendous offensive night for him. Compare his ABs and results last night to what he did as a freshman in 2012. Fantastic night for the "elder statesmen"... and you go back and think about how much both guys struggled as freshmen and you have to realize that someone was able to identify some tremendous potential in each player in spite of their struggles.
-Glad we probably won't have to see Kirby Sneed again the rest of the weekend. That guy really kept our lefties off balance last night. He made one bad pitch to Walsh, but outside that single throw, it didn't appear that our lefites could see him at all.
-Finally, who knows which team the quick turnaround will favor. You can make a case either way. We are going to really have to lock in this afternoon as I expect Florida to play with some urgency. As I'm typing this, I'm sure our players are already at the stadium... I suppose they've got to "flush" last night and hit the reset button now. Not me though... I'm going to enjoy last night for a little bit longer.
