-Not a lot to say. Picked a bad time for our worst game of the year. I read that scouting report from Baseball America this morning. I always enjoy the thoughts from anonymous coaches. On NC State, one said, and I'm paraphrasing that "If Georgia doesn't have some good left handed options from the bullpen, they might be in some trouble." That proved prophetic. To that end, NC State seems like a bad matchup for us with their lefties, and with their willingness to play small ball. They put some pressure on us early in that 2nd inning, and then it obviously unraveled from there.
-I don't think that I've ever seen a worse defensive half-inning from us than than that 2nd today. I figure that we left 7 outs on the field. And then Dillon Carter made one of the best catches of the season to end the inning. How do you figure that?
-I do think that Carter needs to be in the lineup tomorrow. He isn't doing a lot with the bat (though he was great getting on base last weekend), but I think that his defense justifies it. We need to see Paul Toetz tomorrow too.
-I have no idea what's going on with Kolten Smith. You'd have to be a robot not to get frustrated with the home plate ump last weekend and not to get a little bit rattled during the 2nd inning today. But... I don't know, something just seems off. I agree with GFunk's post below on that. Obviously hope that he gets to make another start. And I know it sounds funny to say this, but if we can get to Monday, he might need to throw an inning for us then.
-This one reminded me a little bit of that Michigan State game earlier this year, where we just couldn't do anything right and they couldn't do anything wrong.
-I hated having to burn Chandler Marsh in a game like today, but he did allow us to keep some powder dry. If we can get 5 from Leighton Finley tomorrow, we can fill up the rest, I think.
-NC State isn't going to beat themselves. I think, almost by default, we'll play better tomorrow. But I don't see them as the group that is going to make a lot of mistakes.
-I honestly didn't know that Max DeJong made the postseason roster until they announced the non-starters today. Brandt Pancer and Coleman Willis did not appear to be on it. I assume Pancer is injured. Maybe Willis is too. Nothing against Max, but I would have thought that Coleman Willis would get a spot before DeJong would.
-Our relative lack of HRs has been surprising to me, going back to last weekend. I really thought that we'd hit a few today off of Highfill. But once that 2nd inning happened, I know the whole game changed.
-Better to lose that way than lose a heartbreaker. There will be no "what if" and no emotional hangover going into tomorrow. I think that by around 1:05pm, we'd disengaged, knew we weren't going to win, and just tried to get through the game. We also got to rest some guys. I know that today was jarring, but I believe that we'll bounce back tomorrow and be ready to go. One thing that gives me pause is that we haven't dropped the series opener yet this year and won the next two. But, there's no reason why we can't this weekend.
-We'll worry about next year in the fall. But I really hope that there is more emphasis on defense. It hasn't stung us this year like it did today, but it has been an issue for us all year. But if we just make the routine plays tomorrow, I think that we'll be ok.
-We scored in the 1st inning of each game last weekend. I actually like being the visiting team tomorrow so we can hit first. Set the tone early.
-Bottom line is that we are playing in Super Regional, in Athens, for a reason. This is really good baseball team. We didn't play like that today and I think we all know that's not who we are. If we don't win this thing, I just want us to play our best. That's what irks me about today. It's hard to have peace with an outcome when you know that you're a better team, a much better team, than what was shown. I believe in this group, and I still believe that we are going win this Super.
-I don't think that I've ever seen a worse defensive half-inning from us than than that 2nd today. I figure that we left 7 outs on the field. And then Dillon Carter made one of the best catches of the season to end the inning. How do you figure that?
-I do think that Carter needs to be in the lineup tomorrow. He isn't doing a lot with the bat (though he was great getting on base last weekend), but I think that his defense justifies it. We need to see Paul Toetz tomorrow too.
-I have no idea what's going on with Kolten Smith. You'd have to be a robot not to get frustrated with the home plate ump last weekend and not to get a little bit rattled during the 2nd inning today. But... I don't know, something just seems off. I agree with GFunk's post below on that. Obviously hope that he gets to make another start. And I know it sounds funny to say this, but if we can get to Monday, he might need to throw an inning for us then.
-This one reminded me a little bit of that Michigan State game earlier this year, where we just couldn't do anything right and they couldn't do anything wrong.
-I hated having to burn Chandler Marsh in a game like today, but he did allow us to keep some powder dry. If we can get 5 from Leighton Finley tomorrow, we can fill up the rest, I think.
-NC State isn't going to beat themselves. I think, almost by default, we'll play better tomorrow. But I don't see them as the group that is going to make a lot of mistakes.
-I honestly didn't know that Max DeJong made the postseason roster until they announced the non-starters today. Brandt Pancer and Coleman Willis did not appear to be on it. I assume Pancer is injured. Maybe Willis is too. Nothing against Max, but I would have thought that Coleman Willis would get a spot before DeJong would.
-Our relative lack of HRs has been surprising to me, going back to last weekend. I really thought that we'd hit a few today off of Highfill. But once that 2nd inning happened, I know the whole game changed.
-Better to lose that way than lose a heartbreaker. There will be no "what if" and no emotional hangover going into tomorrow. I think that by around 1:05pm, we'd disengaged, knew we weren't going to win, and just tried to get through the game. We also got to rest some guys. I know that today was jarring, but I believe that we'll bounce back tomorrow and be ready to go. One thing that gives me pause is that we haven't dropped the series opener yet this year and won the next two. But, there's no reason why we can't this weekend.
-We'll worry about next year in the fall. But I really hope that there is more emphasis on defense. It hasn't stung us this year like it did today, but it has been an issue for us all year. But if we just make the routine plays tomorrow, I think that we'll be ok.
-We scored in the 1st inning of each game last weekend. I actually like being the visiting team tomorrow so we can hit first. Set the tone early.
-Bottom line is that we are playing in Super Regional, in Athens, for a reason. This is really good baseball team. We didn't play like that today and I think we all know that's not who we are. If we don't win this thing, I just want us to play our best. That's what irks me about today. It's hard to have peace with an outcome when you know that you're a better team, a much better team, than what was shown. I believe in this group, and I still believe that we are going win this Super.
