-First of all, great win.... just a very satisfying W.... It's funny the things you remember.... I'm playing 9th grade football many moons ago. We opened up that season against Habersham Central and just beat the tar out of them.... At halftime, we were up big, I can't remember the score, but I remember our coach saying "boys, you've got their heads under water... don't let 'em up... you keep 'em there until they turn blue and stop moving around." That was today.... We got the two spot in the first inning and just never let those guys up for air. Never gave them any reason to believe. It was very relaxed and low stress over the last few innings. That's what a better baseball team does to an inferior baseball team.... even if that inferior team is playing at home, playing front of a record crowd, and has more juniors and seniors in their lineup. We grew up a little bit last night, but we grew up a little bit today too, in a different way. Last night we had to gut it out... today, we just had to assert our will from the start.
-Tony Locey settled in and did a nice job, particularly after the the 1st inning. I still think he's more of a bullpen guy, but he battled today and did a nice job. And Stricklin didn't burn the steak, either. I'm sure it was tempting to run him back out there for another inning, and that wouldn't have been un-precedented, but he came out at the right time.
-I didn't like Cam Shepherd going down the 7 hole today. I think it's too early to do that.
-I was a bit surprised that we went with Tim Elliott to follow Locey... he did a nice job, I just didn't think that was the call we were going to make. We are going to establish roles in the bullpen sooner or later... I think it works best if you know, on a given day, that this is what we're doing with a lead and this is what we're doing if the starter gets bounced early... with so many new faces, I guess it takes some time to establish that. I get the idea that a lot of these guys don't really know their rules at this time. Hopefully that changes soon.
-I meant to post this yesterday, but so far this weekend, we are backing to calling pitches from the dugout. Given the results so far, I imagine that continues. In 2015, when you had a 5th year senior in Brandon Stephens and a 4th year junior in David Sosebee, and wouldn't let those guys call it, it seems a little strange to let a freshman battery (even if they are the inherently qualified "your guys") do that. In the long run, I like the battery calling it.... especially if the pitcher has the option of shaking off the call from the dugout anyway.
-With that said, the worm has turned a little bit with the pitchers... has it not? I thought that the shutout today was huge psychologically. Ga Southern has plenty of older, experienced hitters in their lineup. They didn't scratch today.... For the staff, that's a million times better than winning the game 7-6. We'll show up to the park tomorrow with Chase Adkins, Blakely Brown, Drew Moody, and Zak Kristofak knowing that we are off a shutout on Saturday. That's a huge.
-I wrote this over on the Dawgvent earlier, but Will Campbell's HR.... I mean, it is 390 to CF and the wind was blowing out.... some will look at the HR and say "yeah, but..." I won't. I sure wish he had hit that ball at Foley will with no wind.... it would have been way, way out there too.... That was impressive.
-The defensive play of the year so far goes to Ga Southern's CF Logan Baldwin.... Hopefully his catch makes it onto SportsCenter. What can you do? You just have to tip your cap when a guy makes a play like that.
Edit: Just saw Baldwin's catch made it at #3 on SportsCenter's Top Ten...
-Randy Watkins was the home plate ump today (and was much better than David Savage last night). He also refs high school football games. I went to a Clarke Central game over in Athens last fall where he was the head ref. I got a picture of him talking to Perno. I thought, man, these two guys just can't get away from each other.
-So far, four freshman have the lowest averages of the qualified hitters. I don't think Tucker Maxwell is going to end the year at .176, Cam Shepherd at .200, or Aaron Schunk at .227. I also don't think Tucker Bradley will end at .182, although I think Bradley's future is on the mound. At 3-3 and with the thought being "the offense has carried us" I think it's fair to say that we haven't seen the best of the offense yet...
-Andrew Gist was terrific closing things down today.... He probably needs to play a bigger role on this staff. Very good mentality for that guy. Maybe Ga Southern had conceded things mentally and maybe they hadn't. I don't know. But he really over-matched the hitters he saw.
-It's funny how it works.... in the top of the first, they got two pretty fast, routine outs. Then the infamous two out walk.... Then all of a sudden, we are up 2-0... baseball is a funny game that way. It's tough to skate past a two out walk...
-I went down to the hotel bar for a nightcap tonight. Told the bartender I wanted a Manhattan, my cocktail of choice. He asked me how to make one of those. I told him... My folks gave me a cocktail set and some martini glasses for Christmas (drinking out of the right glass has always been a thing with me), and it occurred me that it was strange that I've been drinking Manhattans for quite some time now, but had never actually made one myself. I don't drink much during the week, but I've gotten some good use out of my set, and without having done that, I wouldn't have been able to tell the bartender how to make the Manhattan (before doing it myself, I'm sure I only could have told him what was in it). The funny part was, he told me it was on the house if I didn't like it... after I'd told him how to make it! Anyway, so I'm sitting there at the end of the bar with my red Georgia shirt on, and some of the ladies at the other end are asking the bartender if Georgia beat Georgia Southern today. The bartender said he thought we won. One of the ladies then asked what happened last night. The bartender said that we won last night. The next question was "so, do they play tomorrow, or is it just, like, best two of three?" For that, the bartender had no answer. So I chimed in and said "Yes, we play tomorrow at 1:00p." That response was met with "So, are you the coach?" It's, like, lady if you only knew...
-Lastly, I got a chuckle out of Ga Southern's uniforms today. They were blue jerseys and said "EAGLES" above an outline of the state of Georgia, with their "GS" logo in the middle. How funny that they have to put their logo in the middle of a state outline to qualify who they are. They're Georgia SOUTHERN. They're not Georgia. And it feels really damn good to ram that home this weekend. Let's sweep these assholes tomorrow.
-Tony Locey settled in and did a nice job, particularly after the the 1st inning. I still think he's more of a bullpen guy, but he battled today and did a nice job. And Stricklin didn't burn the steak, either. I'm sure it was tempting to run him back out there for another inning, and that wouldn't have been un-precedented, but he came out at the right time.
-I didn't like Cam Shepherd going down the 7 hole today. I think it's too early to do that.
-I was a bit surprised that we went with Tim Elliott to follow Locey... he did a nice job, I just didn't think that was the call we were going to make. We are going to establish roles in the bullpen sooner or later... I think it works best if you know, on a given day, that this is what we're doing with a lead and this is what we're doing if the starter gets bounced early... with so many new faces, I guess it takes some time to establish that. I get the idea that a lot of these guys don't really know their rules at this time. Hopefully that changes soon.
-I meant to post this yesterday, but so far this weekend, we are backing to calling pitches from the dugout. Given the results so far, I imagine that continues. In 2015, when you had a 5th year senior in Brandon Stephens and a 4th year junior in David Sosebee, and wouldn't let those guys call it, it seems a little strange to let a freshman battery (even if they are the inherently qualified "your guys") do that. In the long run, I like the battery calling it.... especially if the pitcher has the option of shaking off the call from the dugout anyway.
-With that said, the worm has turned a little bit with the pitchers... has it not? I thought that the shutout today was huge psychologically. Ga Southern has plenty of older, experienced hitters in their lineup. They didn't scratch today.... For the staff, that's a million times better than winning the game 7-6. We'll show up to the park tomorrow with Chase Adkins, Blakely Brown, Drew Moody, and Zak Kristofak knowing that we are off a shutout on Saturday. That's a huge.
-I wrote this over on the Dawgvent earlier, but Will Campbell's HR.... I mean, it is 390 to CF and the wind was blowing out.... some will look at the HR and say "yeah, but..." I won't. I sure wish he had hit that ball at Foley will with no wind.... it would have been way, way out there too.... That was impressive.
-The defensive play of the year so far goes to Ga Southern's CF Logan Baldwin.... Hopefully his catch makes it onto SportsCenter. What can you do? You just have to tip your cap when a guy makes a play like that.
Edit: Just saw Baldwin's catch made it at #3 on SportsCenter's Top Ten...
-Randy Watkins was the home plate ump today (and was much better than David Savage last night). He also refs high school football games. I went to a Clarke Central game over in Athens last fall where he was the head ref. I got a picture of him talking to Perno. I thought, man, these two guys just can't get away from each other.
-So far, four freshman have the lowest averages of the qualified hitters. I don't think Tucker Maxwell is going to end the year at .176, Cam Shepherd at .200, or Aaron Schunk at .227. I also don't think Tucker Bradley will end at .182, although I think Bradley's future is on the mound. At 3-3 and with the thought being "the offense has carried us" I think it's fair to say that we haven't seen the best of the offense yet...
-Andrew Gist was terrific closing things down today.... He probably needs to play a bigger role on this staff. Very good mentality for that guy. Maybe Ga Southern had conceded things mentally and maybe they hadn't. I don't know. But he really over-matched the hitters he saw.
-It's funny how it works.... in the top of the first, they got two pretty fast, routine outs. Then the infamous two out walk.... Then all of a sudden, we are up 2-0... baseball is a funny game that way. It's tough to skate past a two out walk...
-I went down to the hotel bar for a nightcap tonight. Told the bartender I wanted a Manhattan, my cocktail of choice. He asked me how to make one of those. I told him... My folks gave me a cocktail set and some martini glasses for Christmas (drinking out of the right glass has always been a thing with me), and it occurred me that it was strange that I've been drinking Manhattans for quite some time now, but had never actually made one myself. I don't drink much during the week, but I've gotten some good use out of my set, and without having done that, I wouldn't have been able to tell the bartender how to make the Manhattan (before doing it myself, I'm sure I only could have told him what was in it). The funny part was, he told me it was on the house if I didn't like it... after I'd told him how to make it! Anyway, so I'm sitting there at the end of the bar with my red Georgia shirt on, and some of the ladies at the other end are asking the bartender if Georgia beat Georgia Southern today. The bartender said he thought we won. One of the ladies then asked what happened last night. The bartender said that we won last night. The next question was "so, do they play tomorrow, or is it just, like, best two of three?" For that, the bartender had no answer. So I chimed in and said "Yes, we play tomorrow at 1:00p." That response was met with "So, are you the coach?" It's, like, lady if you only knew...
-Lastly, I got a chuckle out of Ga Southern's uniforms today. They were blue jerseys and said "EAGLES" above an outline of the state of Georgia, with their "GS" logo in the middle. How funny that they have to put their logo in the middle of a state outline to qualify who they are. They're Georgia SOUTHERN. They're not Georgia. And it feels really damn good to ram that home this weekend. Let's sweep these assholes tomorrow.
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