-First, when you lose a game 7-0, there aren’t going to be a lot of positives. We did have one. I thought that Michael Polk pitched really well. I wish we’d let him go longer, but he’s the guy I want to see in the rotation right now.
-I still think there was more to pulling Liam Sullivan than just the thought that it was time for a change. I think it was Kenny who went out for the mound visit. That’s why I was so surprised when it happened. And a 2-1 count with 2 outs. I didn’t notice Collins being crossed up any… I’ve seen us make a change like that before where a guy throws the wrong pitch and a lot of times it’s apparent from the catcher’s reaction. I wonder from Stricklin’s post game comments if maybe they wanted to Liam to throw something and he didn’t think he could be or didn’t want to. I don’t know. And it’s all speculation on my part anyway. But that was a very odd change.
-I didn’t like going to Jaden Woods when we did. I said last night that we didn’t throw him in game one because we were behind and didn’t want to use him in a game we may not win (and where tech was in their order obviously factored in too). It felt panicked to bring him on when we did. It seemed like the kind of thing you’d do in June. Then, going to him when we did had the trickle down of needing another inning out of Coleman Willis. And I hated that for him as he was good in the 8th and was a missed strike call away from a pretty decent 9th… but ended up with a deceptive line score. I like Willis and I think he can help. He shouldn’t have had to go two innings today.
-Absolutely terrible game offensively. No other way to say it. We drew 7 walks and got shut out. That’s hard to do. tech gave us plenty of chances too with those walks. We were really bad with men on today
-This wasn’t the kind of shutout where we had some hard hit balls but couldn’t strong anything together. It wasn’t the case that the other guy made a bunch of highlight reel plays defensively either. We didn’t have many hard hit balls today. Didn’t square up very much. tech got just under half their outs with strikeouts. The rest were all pretty routine plays.
-There is a lot of hitting talent in those younger classes. Parks Harbor needs to play every day. Garrett Spikes needs to play every day. So does Corey Collins and Cole Wagner. Fernando Gonzalez needs to catch twice on the weekends, and some conference series he may need to go all three. “Everybody else” is always the most popular when you don’t score. But those guys are good hitters and they need to be every day players this year.
-On Spikes, I know he started today and I know he wasn’t very good. His swinging at the first pitch after tech’s pitcher had just thrown like 9 balls in a row wasn’t what you want to see there. Does that happen because he doesn’t know any better, or because he’s pressing? Or some other reason?
-These last three games have been bad. No other way to put it. We are lucky to be 1-2. We aren’t THIS bad, and there is no reason to overreact or panic… but we do need to tune up some things offensively. All three of our Omaha teams had bad stretches. Those were good teams with good leadership, and they got it fixed. So we’ll find out with this group. It’s never as bad as it seems with a game like today.
-Finally, I really hate saying this, but tech is good. They have a very good lineup and Simpson at the top is one of the best we’ll see this year. It absolutely sucks losing to them, but they’re a good team.
-Gotta find a way tomorrow. I really, really expected a strong performance and a W today. I was wrong on that, but I still think we can beat those guys if we play a good game.
-I still think there was more to pulling Liam Sullivan than just the thought that it was time for a change. I think it was Kenny who went out for the mound visit. That’s why I was so surprised when it happened. And a 2-1 count with 2 outs. I didn’t notice Collins being crossed up any… I’ve seen us make a change like that before where a guy throws the wrong pitch and a lot of times it’s apparent from the catcher’s reaction. I wonder from Stricklin’s post game comments if maybe they wanted to Liam to throw something and he didn’t think he could be or didn’t want to. I don’t know. And it’s all speculation on my part anyway. But that was a very odd change.
-I didn’t like going to Jaden Woods when we did. I said last night that we didn’t throw him in game one because we were behind and didn’t want to use him in a game we may not win (and where tech was in their order obviously factored in too). It felt panicked to bring him on when we did. It seemed like the kind of thing you’d do in June. Then, going to him when we did had the trickle down of needing another inning out of Coleman Willis. And I hated that for him as he was good in the 8th and was a missed strike call away from a pretty decent 9th… but ended up with a deceptive line score. I like Willis and I think he can help. He shouldn’t have had to go two innings today.
-Absolutely terrible game offensively. No other way to say it. We drew 7 walks and got shut out. That’s hard to do. tech gave us plenty of chances too with those walks. We were really bad with men on today
-This wasn’t the kind of shutout where we had some hard hit balls but couldn’t strong anything together. It wasn’t the case that the other guy made a bunch of highlight reel plays defensively either. We didn’t have many hard hit balls today. Didn’t square up very much. tech got just under half their outs with strikeouts. The rest were all pretty routine plays.
-There is a lot of hitting talent in those younger classes. Parks Harbor needs to play every day. Garrett Spikes needs to play every day. So does Corey Collins and Cole Wagner. Fernando Gonzalez needs to catch twice on the weekends, and some conference series he may need to go all three. “Everybody else” is always the most popular when you don’t score. But those guys are good hitters and they need to be every day players this year.
-On Spikes, I know he started today and I know he wasn’t very good. His swinging at the first pitch after tech’s pitcher had just thrown like 9 balls in a row wasn’t what you want to see there. Does that happen because he doesn’t know any better, or because he’s pressing? Or some other reason?
-These last three games have been bad. No other way to put it. We are lucky to be 1-2. We aren’t THIS bad, and there is no reason to overreact or panic… but we do need to tune up some things offensively. All three of our Omaha teams had bad stretches. Those were good teams with good leadership, and they got it fixed. So we’ll find out with this group. It’s never as bad as it seems with a game like today.
-Finally, I really hate saying this, but tech is good. They have a very good lineup and Simpson at the top is one of the best we’ll see this year. It absolutely sucks losing to them, but they’re a good team.
-Gotta find a way tomorrow. I really, really expected a strong performance and a W today. I was wrong on that, but I still think we can beat those guys if we play a good game.
