-First, I thought that Tucker Maxwell really set the tone for us in the 1st inning with that long AB, 10 pitches I think, and then the double. That may have been his best AB of the season, all things considered... That opened the door for the big inning in the 1st and it felt so much easier playing with a lead. Honestly, after about two innings, I just didn't really fret this one very much. It was hard to imagine tech keeping us at 3 and hard to imagine them getting past 3, even with all their HRs they'd hit as a team coming in.
-As far as tone setting, Zak Kristofak continues to do some really nice work. He throws harder than you'd think for a guy of his stature, and his ball really moves. I've enjoyed watching him this year. In the Auburn series, I complained about how often we seem to waste a pitch when we get to two strikes. I noticed both hits that Kristofak gave up tonight were on two strike counts (the first was 0-2 and I think the second was 1-2). I can live with that... stay aggressive.
-I thought that this pitching performance tonight was more impressive than what we did to Missouri Thursday night, just because you didn't have to qualify tonight as the other guy having some fatigue from travel issues. 15 strike outs is nothing to sneeze at, and it never really felt like we were getting pushed by the tech hitters. As a staff, we have pitched tech really, really well since 2014. I guess the one exception was the game here in 2015, but we had a number of guys injured at that time. I really wanted the shutout tonight, but we gave up 0 earned runs and that's almost as good. tech is a long way from some of the lineups we've seen from them in the past, but they still have guys and we handled them really well.
-Tonight was probably the best I've seen Drew Moody throw since 2015... he was really lights out... you could tell during his warmup pitches that he had his best stuff tonight. There's a guy who probably earns a bigger role in the bullpen heading into Fayetteville.
-Two more hits for Michael Curry, who is red hot right now at the plate... Behind the plate, maybe not so much... Stricklin was as vocal with him as I've heard him toward one of our catchers in awhile. I think that some of Curry's issues may fester in his head a little bit with the irregular playing time. I don't disagree with how we're handling the catching duties right now. Biggar does need to catch most of the games and Curry's bat has to be in the lineup each day. It's an interesting thing to watch and I do credit Curry for not taking the defensive issues to the plate with him.
-Baseball is a funny game... In the first inning, Tucker Bradley almost over ran what should have been a very routine out in RF to end the inning. I'm still surprised he caught it. Then he made arguably the defensive play of the year in the OF a few innings later with that diving catch.
-Lastly, it's just good to beat tech.... And it's good to see what's happening right now with their program. It doesn't seem like they're going to get back to the level that they were in the late 90s and mid 2000s any time soon and that's just fine with me.
-As far as tone setting, Zak Kristofak continues to do some really nice work. He throws harder than you'd think for a guy of his stature, and his ball really moves. I've enjoyed watching him this year. In the Auburn series, I complained about how often we seem to waste a pitch when we get to two strikes. I noticed both hits that Kristofak gave up tonight were on two strike counts (the first was 0-2 and I think the second was 1-2). I can live with that... stay aggressive.
-I thought that this pitching performance tonight was more impressive than what we did to Missouri Thursday night, just because you didn't have to qualify tonight as the other guy having some fatigue from travel issues. 15 strike outs is nothing to sneeze at, and it never really felt like we were getting pushed by the tech hitters. As a staff, we have pitched tech really, really well since 2014. I guess the one exception was the game here in 2015, but we had a number of guys injured at that time. I really wanted the shutout tonight, but we gave up 0 earned runs and that's almost as good. tech is a long way from some of the lineups we've seen from them in the past, but they still have guys and we handled them really well.
-Tonight was probably the best I've seen Drew Moody throw since 2015... he was really lights out... you could tell during his warmup pitches that he had his best stuff tonight. There's a guy who probably earns a bigger role in the bullpen heading into Fayetteville.
-Two more hits for Michael Curry, who is red hot right now at the plate... Behind the plate, maybe not so much... Stricklin was as vocal with him as I've heard him toward one of our catchers in awhile. I think that some of Curry's issues may fester in his head a little bit with the irregular playing time. I don't disagree with how we're handling the catching duties right now. Biggar does need to catch most of the games and Curry's bat has to be in the lineup each day. It's an interesting thing to watch and I do credit Curry for not taking the defensive issues to the plate with him.
-Baseball is a funny game... In the first inning, Tucker Bradley almost over ran what should have been a very routine out in RF to end the inning. I'm still surprised he caught it. Then he made arguably the defensive play of the year in the OF a few innings later with that diving catch.
-Lastly, it's just good to beat tech.... And it's good to see what's happening right now with their program. It doesn't seem like they're going to get back to the level that they were in the late 90s and mid 2000s any time soon and that's just fine with me.
