at the ballpark. But a good day. I really enjoy the doubleheaders, just being over there all day...
Game One:
-I'll be honest, I really didn't think we could win a 1-0 game against Vanderbilt. I didn't think it was impossible for us to beat them, but I didn't think we could do it that way. Chase Adkins was just terrific. He needed that too after a couple of tough starts. Anytime you hold an SEC lineup, or any major college lineup, to 2 hits in 8 innings, you've had a really good day.
-We had one error (on a bad pickoff through) but even with that I thought it was probably our best defensive game of the year. Cam Shepherd's 6-3 DP stands out, but we made plays around the IF all afternoon. I really hate it for Trey Logan.... It was a little surprising to see him starting today, but it was a very typical Logan game... he's just steady eddie with the glove out there. I really respect that. He's a big reason why it was such a good defensive effort.
-Cam Shepherd was definitely the hitter of the day. As that game rolled along, it became apparent that we probably weren't going to string together too many base hits.... it was probably going to take a long ball to get on the board. There was nothing cheap about Cam's ball either. Just can't say enough good things about that guy.
-I was little surprised to see us go with Kevin Smith to pitch the 9th instead of Blake Cairnes, but Vanderbilt is very left handed heavy and had two lefties coming up in the 9th. Very low stress and low drama for Kevin. After Cam's HR in the 8th, I was thinking that if we managed to lose that game, we may not win again this year... but I'll give Kevin a lot of credit. Very quiet 9th inning. Other than maybe going 1-0 on Kendall, he never gave Vanderbilt any reason to believe.
-I thought that Kyle Wright had better stuff than Patrick Raby last night.... Wright seems to have more movement and his off-speed stuff looks better.... But Raby throws more strikes and repeats it better... at least this weekend. Those guys are a great 1-2 punch.
-Only negative thing about game one was that so few people saw it. The crowd seemed like a 4:00p Tuesday game against Wofford. I get it, with G-Day and all, and there just wasn't much we could do about it given the weather. It seemed like maybe 500 people were there. Maybe less. And I hate that because game one really was a well played game and a very nice win.
Game Two:
-I remember having a DH against Vanderbilt in 2013. We won game one that day and then got beaten pretty soundly in game two.... I remember thinking it really stunk that we didn't get to enjoy that first win for a more than an hour or so. Little bit of the same deal today. You had to figure Vanderbilt was going to swing the bats a little bit better in game two. You also had to figure they'd be a lot more aggressive on the bases (although they didn't have a ton of base runners in game one anyway). I was a little surprised we pulled Zac Kristofak so quickly. It felt similar to the SunTrust game where it seemed like we were managing the pitching staff like it was a post season game.
-It's tough to beat anyone with 7 walks and 4 WP/ PBs. Way too many free bases and that's been the boogie man too much this year.
-The tempo really needs to get better.... it's borderline ridiculous how long it takes us to throw a pitch with men on base.... When people say that we are over-coached, there are several reasons why, but that's certainly one of them.
-How bizarre was that fire alarm? That's a first for me.... It was funny how nobody seemed to react to it either... had there actually been a fire, I imagine a lot of us would have burned out up while we were taking the opportunity to mess around on our phones.
-I wasn't really impressed with Chandler Day, Vanderbilt's starter, but to his credit we had him on the ropes a few times early and he pitched his way out of it. I kept thinking we were about to knock him out of the game.... and I imagine that was the thought in the Vanderbilt dugout too.
-Weird deal on the run counting after the Vanderbilt runner failed to touch 1B. But I guess that's the rule in college, as we didn't seem to argue it much. I was happy to see our dugout on that though... a night after I sarcastically said "is anyone awake in there?" we were obviously paying attention to whether the runner hit 1st base or not... I know I certainly wasn't looking for that.
-Crazy that Mitchell Webb has more HRs than Aaron Schunk in less than half as many ABs. After the fall, I really thought Schunk could be a 7-10 HR guy this spring. He had a good season at plate, absolutely nothing to sneeze at, but it just shook out a little differently than I thought.
-Jaren Kendall is just a really good baseball player. I'm glad we don't have to see him again, but I really respect his game. He's going to make a lot of money in baseball, I believe.
-All in all, it was disappointing to have game three shake out that way.... We basically got hammered twice around a very close win. But at least we got the win in the middle game. We aren't on Vanderbilt's level, but we are closer to them than we've been in awhile, I think. But I was proud of the bounce-back. After last night, the prospects looked bleak. I respect the way this team is able to flush those bad performances.
Game One:
-I'll be honest, I really didn't think we could win a 1-0 game against Vanderbilt. I didn't think it was impossible for us to beat them, but I didn't think we could do it that way. Chase Adkins was just terrific. He needed that too after a couple of tough starts. Anytime you hold an SEC lineup, or any major college lineup, to 2 hits in 8 innings, you've had a really good day.
-We had one error (on a bad pickoff through) but even with that I thought it was probably our best defensive game of the year. Cam Shepherd's 6-3 DP stands out, but we made plays around the IF all afternoon. I really hate it for Trey Logan.... It was a little surprising to see him starting today, but it was a very typical Logan game... he's just steady eddie with the glove out there. I really respect that. He's a big reason why it was such a good defensive effort.
-Cam Shepherd was definitely the hitter of the day. As that game rolled along, it became apparent that we probably weren't going to string together too many base hits.... it was probably going to take a long ball to get on the board. There was nothing cheap about Cam's ball either. Just can't say enough good things about that guy.
-I was little surprised to see us go with Kevin Smith to pitch the 9th instead of Blake Cairnes, but Vanderbilt is very left handed heavy and had two lefties coming up in the 9th. Very low stress and low drama for Kevin. After Cam's HR in the 8th, I was thinking that if we managed to lose that game, we may not win again this year... but I'll give Kevin a lot of credit. Very quiet 9th inning. Other than maybe going 1-0 on Kendall, he never gave Vanderbilt any reason to believe.
-I thought that Kyle Wright had better stuff than Patrick Raby last night.... Wright seems to have more movement and his off-speed stuff looks better.... But Raby throws more strikes and repeats it better... at least this weekend. Those guys are a great 1-2 punch.
-Only negative thing about game one was that so few people saw it. The crowd seemed like a 4:00p Tuesday game against Wofford. I get it, with G-Day and all, and there just wasn't much we could do about it given the weather. It seemed like maybe 500 people were there. Maybe less. And I hate that because game one really was a well played game and a very nice win.
Game Two:
-I remember having a DH against Vanderbilt in 2013. We won game one that day and then got beaten pretty soundly in game two.... I remember thinking it really stunk that we didn't get to enjoy that first win for a more than an hour or so. Little bit of the same deal today. You had to figure Vanderbilt was going to swing the bats a little bit better in game two. You also had to figure they'd be a lot more aggressive on the bases (although they didn't have a ton of base runners in game one anyway). I was a little surprised we pulled Zac Kristofak so quickly. It felt similar to the SunTrust game where it seemed like we were managing the pitching staff like it was a post season game.
-It's tough to beat anyone with 7 walks and 4 WP/ PBs. Way too many free bases and that's been the boogie man too much this year.
-The tempo really needs to get better.... it's borderline ridiculous how long it takes us to throw a pitch with men on base.... When people say that we are over-coached, there are several reasons why, but that's certainly one of them.
-How bizarre was that fire alarm? That's a first for me.... It was funny how nobody seemed to react to it either... had there actually been a fire, I imagine a lot of us would have burned out up while we were taking the opportunity to mess around on our phones.
-I wasn't really impressed with Chandler Day, Vanderbilt's starter, but to his credit we had him on the ropes a few times early and he pitched his way out of it. I kept thinking we were about to knock him out of the game.... and I imagine that was the thought in the Vanderbilt dugout too.
-Weird deal on the run counting after the Vanderbilt runner failed to touch 1B. But I guess that's the rule in college, as we didn't seem to argue it much. I was happy to see our dugout on that though... a night after I sarcastically said "is anyone awake in there?" we were obviously paying attention to whether the runner hit 1st base or not... I know I certainly wasn't looking for that.
-Crazy that Mitchell Webb has more HRs than Aaron Schunk in less than half as many ABs. After the fall, I really thought Schunk could be a 7-10 HR guy this spring. He had a good season at plate, absolutely nothing to sneeze at, but it just shook out a little differently than I thought.
-Jaren Kendall is just a really good baseball player. I'm glad we don't have to see him again, but I really respect his game. He's going to make a lot of money in baseball, I believe.
-All in all, it was disappointing to have game three shake out that way.... We basically got hammered twice around a very close win. But at least we got the win in the middle game. We aren't on Vanderbilt's level, but we are closer to them than we've been in awhile, I think. But I was proud of the bounce-back. After last night, the prospects looked bleak. I respect the way this team is able to flush those bad performances.
