-The lineup we used was obviously the big story of last night. I can't say I'm opposed to it, just based on the way we've struggled offensively over the last week. There is a line between being creative and being panicked, and while last night's order ran right up to that line, it was still on the good side, I thought. That's not going to work long term.... Conor Welton isn't a 3 hole hitter and Nelson Ward isn't a cleanup hitter. Walsh isn't a 1, Stephens isn't a 5. Hunter Cole could be a 2, but really fits better at 3 or 4. With Walsh's OBP (currently .338 overall, which is extremely strong in relation to his average) it did make some sense. The main that we we need to do is get Walsh in a groove hitting wise and get Conor Welton going again.... Then we can go back to a more conventional lineup and we'll be better off for it. Zack Bowers coming around will be HUGE as well.
-If you'd told me back in the fall that we'd have two SEC Friday nights in a row where Ryan Lawlor and Jared Cheek are the only two guys to get the baseball, I would have laughed at you. It's great to "find" guys, and I feel like that's what we did with both... Cheek especially (I think that most people figured that Lawlor would play a big role while Cheek was more of an unknown). You can't say enough about that those two. Lawlor has strung together three outstanding starts in a row to kick off conference play. Equally important, he's eating inning. You look at the guy and you don't think "he's good for 110 pitches"... He just doesn't have that big build, but he spots his fastball, throws that biting curve, and just keeps repeating it. It's been fun. It's so important not to tax your bullpen on Friday night in this conference and Lawlor has ensured that we haven't had do, through his first three starts. Cheek just gets outs.... He challenges hitters, keeps his fastball low, and seems to have a great mentality for late games. Even that ball he took off his throwing hand last night, he didn't even want anyone to look at it.... That kind of toughness is contagious. Hard not to like that.
-Two years in a row, Daniel Mengden has just hand cuffed us. I was surprised he ran back out for the 8th last night and when he FINALLY exited, i was just happy that we most likely won't ever have to face him again. We had the guy on the ropes in the 1st inning. He throws 37 pitches and I'm sitting there thinking that we have a chance to knock him out in the 2nd or 3rd inning. It's not that we were hitting him, really, but the HBPs and BBs really got him in the 1st. Guys like that normally get their stuff together in between innings, refocus, and be ok and that's what he did. We helped, though. We lead off the 2nd with a first or second pitch weak grounder to 2nd and Mengden settled right in after that. After 1 inning he had 37 pitches. After 6, he had around 90.
-Going back to our lineup, you know it really only produced 4 hits last night. I know we were credited with 6, but the "hits" that Hunter Cole and Stephen Wrenn were given should have been scored as straight errors (instead of a hit and an error) I thought. We also K'd 11 times. Part of that is the reality of SEC Friday nights.... it typically doesn't rain hits or runs on Fridays, as we all know. Order aside, from the 2nd to the 7th innings last night, it was basically the same problems that we've had over the last two weeks. I'm not trying to diminish the win, not by any stretch.... it was a great game last night.... we've still got a lot of work to do offensively, though.
-I didn't understand why we pinch hit Zack Bowers for Mike Bell in the 9th. Stricklin stated on the post game that when Wrenn got to 3rd, he knew that A&M would walk the next two guys to load the bases. It doesn't make sense to pinch hit for one of the guys you know is getting walked.... if the game goes into extras, you may need Bowers to pinch hit in a "real" at bat later. Also, if A&M had struck out Walsh, I would have MUCH preferred to have Bell with his speed going into 2nd to break up a DP with 1 out than Bowers. There really wasn't a good reason pinch hit Bowers there. I honestly think that he was inserted there so we could raise his OBP a bit as it was well below .200 in league play (and now stands at .190). I know that sounds silly, but that's the best answer I can come up with.
-Really good to win. It was a fun game, we played well defensively and pitched well, and walk offs are always. That was an important one, too... we need to start carding some W's over the next couple of weeks.... quite honestly, had we lost last night, it would have been real back breaker, I think. We're pretty even with Texas A&M, from what I saw last night. I'm expecting a couple more tight contests this weekend.
-If you'd told me back in the fall that we'd have two SEC Friday nights in a row where Ryan Lawlor and Jared Cheek are the only two guys to get the baseball, I would have laughed at you. It's great to "find" guys, and I feel like that's what we did with both... Cheek especially (I think that most people figured that Lawlor would play a big role while Cheek was more of an unknown). You can't say enough about that those two. Lawlor has strung together three outstanding starts in a row to kick off conference play. Equally important, he's eating inning. You look at the guy and you don't think "he's good for 110 pitches"... He just doesn't have that big build, but he spots his fastball, throws that biting curve, and just keeps repeating it. It's been fun. It's so important not to tax your bullpen on Friday night in this conference and Lawlor has ensured that we haven't had do, through his first three starts. Cheek just gets outs.... He challenges hitters, keeps his fastball low, and seems to have a great mentality for late games. Even that ball he took off his throwing hand last night, he didn't even want anyone to look at it.... That kind of toughness is contagious. Hard not to like that.
-Two years in a row, Daniel Mengden has just hand cuffed us. I was surprised he ran back out for the 8th last night and when he FINALLY exited, i was just happy that we most likely won't ever have to face him again. We had the guy on the ropes in the 1st inning. He throws 37 pitches and I'm sitting there thinking that we have a chance to knock him out in the 2nd or 3rd inning. It's not that we were hitting him, really, but the HBPs and BBs really got him in the 1st. Guys like that normally get their stuff together in between innings, refocus, and be ok and that's what he did. We helped, though. We lead off the 2nd with a first or second pitch weak grounder to 2nd and Mengden settled right in after that. After 1 inning he had 37 pitches. After 6, he had around 90.
-Going back to our lineup, you know it really only produced 4 hits last night. I know we were credited with 6, but the "hits" that Hunter Cole and Stephen Wrenn were given should have been scored as straight errors (instead of a hit and an error) I thought. We also K'd 11 times. Part of that is the reality of SEC Friday nights.... it typically doesn't rain hits or runs on Fridays, as we all know. Order aside, from the 2nd to the 7th innings last night, it was basically the same problems that we've had over the last two weeks. I'm not trying to diminish the win, not by any stretch.... it was a great game last night.... we've still got a lot of work to do offensively, though.
-I didn't understand why we pinch hit Zack Bowers for Mike Bell in the 9th. Stricklin stated on the post game that when Wrenn got to 3rd, he knew that A&M would walk the next two guys to load the bases. It doesn't make sense to pinch hit for one of the guys you know is getting walked.... if the game goes into extras, you may need Bowers to pinch hit in a "real" at bat later. Also, if A&M had struck out Walsh, I would have MUCH preferred to have Bell with his speed going into 2nd to break up a DP with 1 out than Bowers. There really wasn't a good reason pinch hit Bowers there. I honestly think that he was inserted there so we could raise his OBP a bit as it was well below .200 in league play (and now stands at .190). I know that sounds silly, but that's the best answer I can come up with.
-Really good to win. It was a fun game, we played well defensively and pitched well, and walk offs are always. That was an important one, too... we need to start carding some W's over the next couple of weeks.... quite honestly, had we lost last night, it would have been real back breaker, I think. We're pretty even with Texas A&M, from what I saw last night. I'm expecting a couple more tight contests this weekend.
