-First, great weekend. I really think you'd have to go back to 2015 at South Carolina to find this kind of weekend.... but even then, that South Carolina team was not on a good trajectory.... so maybe go a few weeks earlier to our series win at home over Florida State. At any rate, this one wasn't favorable for us at all on paper.... I really thought we would be fortunate to be 1-2 on Friday at lunch time. But give our guys a lot of credit. They battled every inning this weekend and played really, really well. I wish we could have seen this sooner... and I don't mean this year, but I'm happy to see it now.
-This was similar to the 2015 Kentucky series, although it went in a different order. In 2015, we were beaten on Friday night, came back and won convincingly on Saturday and then really stole one on Sunday. Similar deal this time with us stealing one (albeit in the opener) and winning by a decent margin today. I think this one was a little closer than the final score would indicate, but either way, we had some breathing room in the 9th inning. Really proud of Drew Moody for making the big pitches too.
-With 4 HRs now on the season, it does beg the question of whether Mitchell Webb should have been playing more all along. I know he's not hitting for a very high average, but he does have some pop in his bat. He's been solid defensively too.
-LJ Talley is doing some good things too.... it really looked like Will Procter had taken over that 2B job for good.... Give Talley a lot of credit, he's made the most out of his chances.
-This was a good weekend to be a road underdog.... Alabama swept Auburn at Auburn in what is certainly the most surprising result of the season. I don't follow Alabama all that closely, but it looks like they've been playing better.... Like us, I think they got swept last weekend, but like us, they were close, they weren't getting blown out.... Game three of their series at Auburn started at 5:00p eastern today (4p local, but I'd absolutely hate that start time on a Sunday, even at home).... The game went 15 innings I think, maybe 16, and Alabama pulled it out. Heck of a game, I had it on while I was doing some other stuff and wound up watching a lot of it. That's why this is such a great conference. Last fall, Missouri would have had zero chance of winning a game in Tuscaloosa in football against Alabama. Would not have happened, they could have played 100 times. This weekend you had a team that was in last place in the league, that was starting to flirt with historical futility, and they swept the league leader at their place. Unbelievable.
-So, we've got tech on Tuesday night and tech will be playing for the fourth time in four days. I'm sure they're very thankful that the acc decided to place their clash of the titans with traditional rival Pittsburgh on a Saturday - Monday.... We caught Clemson in a similar spot in 2015 (I think) and beat them pretty soundly. No reason we shouldn't do the same to tech on Tuesday. They're not a good team, and they're not better than we are. But we'll be playing in front of a big crowd at SunTrust for the second time this year, and we really need to play better than we did in the first go-round.
-I posted this over on the main message board, but if Stricklin is retained, this weekend (and winning the season series with tech) will be the first reasons cited. I imagine that, if a decision has not yet been made, that Stricklin's job is safer now than it was 72 hours ago. But still, we are 7-17... Not that 10-20 is a mark to be proud of or anything, but I think getting to double digit conference wins is important.... 10-20 just looks a lot better than 9-21, even thought it's not really much different. We talked earlier in the year and before the season about "showing progress".... this weekend was great to that end, but it doesn't mean much if we go 1-5 the rest of the way.
-I'm excited about Tuesday night. This is as good as we've played all season and we've got a chance to sweep tech in front of a big crowd. We dominated those guys at Turner Field. Let's do it at SunTrust. If you're on the fence about coming, pull the trigger and come on. Parking is only $5 (although for some reason it's $8.10 after fees on Ticketmaster, buncha bastards) and the rumors about the traffic nightmare around SunTrust have been greatly exaggerated. Come out and support these guys!
-This was similar to the 2015 Kentucky series, although it went in a different order. In 2015, we were beaten on Friday night, came back and won convincingly on Saturday and then really stole one on Sunday. Similar deal this time with us stealing one (albeit in the opener) and winning by a decent margin today. I think this one was a little closer than the final score would indicate, but either way, we had some breathing room in the 9th inning. Really proud of Drew Moody for making the big pitches too.
-With 4 HRs now on the season, it does beg the question of whether Mitchell Webb should have been playing more all along. I know he's not hitting for a very high average, but he does have some pop in his bat. He's been solid defensively too.
-LJ Talley is doing some good things too.... it really looked like Will Procter had taken over that 2B job for good.... Give Talley a lot of credit, he's made the most out of his chances.
-This was a good weekend to be a road underdog.... Alabama swept Auburn at Auburn in what is certainly the most surprising result of the season. I don't follow Alabama all that closely, but it looks like they've been playing better.... Like us, I think they got swept last weekend, but like us, they were close, they weren't getting blown out.... Game three of their series at Auburn started at 5:00p eastern today (4p local, but I'd absolutely hate that start time on a Sunday, even at home).... The game went 15 innings I think, maybe 16, and Alabama pulled it out. Heck of a game, I had it on while I was doing some other stuff and wound up watching a lot of it. That's why this is such a great conference. Last fall, Missouri would have had zero chance of winning a game in Tuscaloosa in football against Alabama. Would not have happened, they could have played 100 times. This weekend you had a team that was in last place in the league, that was starting to flirt with historical futility, and they swept the league leader at their place. Unbelievable.
-So, we've got tech on Tuesday night and tech will be playing for the fourth time in four days. I'm sure they're very thankful that the acc decided to place their clash of the titans with traditional rival Pittsburgh on a Saturday - Monday.... We caught Clemson in a similar spot in 2015 (I think) and beat them pretty soundly. No reason we shouldn't do the same to tech on Tuesday. They're not a good team, and they're not better than we are. But we'll be playing in front of a big crowd at SunTrust for the second time this year, and we really need to play better than we did in the first go-round.
-I posted this over on the main message board, but if Stricklin is retained, this weekend (and winning the season series with tech) will be the first reasons cited. I imagine that, if a decision has not yet been made, that Stricklin's job is safer now than it was 72 hours ago. But still, we are 7-17... Not that 10-20 is a mark to be proud of or anything, but I think getting to double digit conference wins is important.... 10-20 just looks a lot better than 9-21, even thought it's not really much different. We talked earlier in the year and before the season about "showing progress".... this weekend was great to that end, but it doesn't mean much if we go 1-5 the rest of the way.
-I'm excited about Tuesday night. This is as good as we've played all season and we've got a chance to sweep tech in front of a big crowd. We dominated those guys at Turner Field. Let's do it at SunTrust. If you're on the fence about coming, pull the trigger and come on. Parking is only $5 (although for some reason it's $8.10 after fees on Ticketmaster, buncha bastards) and the rumors about the traffic nightmare around SunTrust have been greatly exaggerated. Come out and support these guys!
