-First, we really battled. The game tonight didn't play out quite like the Saturday game at A&M in 2013, when we found ourselves in a somewhat similar spot (that game was marked more by repeated big defensive plays and big pitches at critical times), but the sense of urgency and competitiveness reminded me of that afternoon three years ago. We lost that game to fall to 0-2 in the league and in a lot of ways, I remember that as being the last real stand that the 2013 team was able to make (we did have good wins later on in the year, but we were pretty far under water by that point). Losing that game in College Station took a noticeable toll on everyone. I saw a lot of similar long faces and frustration tonight. We were blown out on Sunday at A&M as the Aggies completed the sweep three years ago. Let's hope that we can stay out of that kind of thing tomorrow. It's hard to know what to expect. Tonight was easily the most crushing loss of the year.
-What can you say about Robert Tyler tonight? No hits allowed, but 6 walks and also a hit batter in 6 innings of work. After the second inning, he really seemed to settle in and pitched nicely. He looked like what we've all expected there in the 4th and 5th inning. It's too bad his pitch count got up there. Miss State really didn't square him up all night. I remember one hard hit ball to Logan and a couple of flys to the OF, but that's about it. Just wish we could have those walks back, early on. We may well be talking about a no hitter right now.
-It's just a grind offensively for us. That's the only word I can think of. Even in the 6th, when we finally did score, we managed to load the bases before we grounded out. When you look up at the averages right now, it's not hard to understand why we have so much trouble stringing hits together.
-I didn't understand why, with the lead in the bottom of the 7th, needing only 9 outs to win, we kept Kieboom in RF and Talley at 3B. It seems to me that you would want to put your best defensive options out there in that situation. But, we didn't do that. We did have a chance to get out of the inning and instead of turning a DP, we make a bad throw and don't get one out, let alone two. It's frustrating to watch that happen, especially when you know that better defensive options are still sitting on the bench (one of whom was inserted the next inning, after we'd lost the lead). I don't want to beat up on Talley, who is more of a 3b than a 2b anyway, but Mitchell Webb is the better defensive 3b.... He has better range, a stronger arm, and a quicker release (I know he's made some errors too, but that's not indicative of what he is defensively). LJ did his job at the plate an inning earlier. He got the sac fly that put us ahead. I sure wish he could have ended his night on that, as opposed to what actually happened. That kind of thing is what I mean when I say we don't often win games from our dugout.
-Home plate umpiring tonight was.... interesting. I will say that Miss State has a lot more to gripe about than we do, which really surprises me given that we are on the road and playing in his environment. There were some mighty low strikes called tonight and a number of really good looking pitches that were balled. The Miss State people sure let blue hear all about it, too.
-I guess Bo Tucker will start tomorrow and that's why we didn't bring him in. Not that Drew Moody did poorly by any stretch, but Bo has been following Tyler for most of this year and I figured 25 would be the play tonight. I don't know how stretched out Bo is right now and how long he can go. In my view, you worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. We may score 8 runs in the 1st inning, we don't know. Last year at South Carolina, in the middle game, we threw Sean McLaughlin in relief, though he was tentatively slated to start on Sunday, in a close game, in order to lock down those last couple of innings and win the series. I thought that was a great move on Stricklin's part as it realized the importance of closing out a game in which we had a late lead and addressing the next game when we played it. To that end, and hindsight is always 20/ 20 when you lose, but I would have thrown Bo tonight and started Conor Jones or Heath Holder tomorrow, had the other one ready to go in relief, and still kept Drew Moody available.
-All in all though, I was really happy with how we played tonight. It was a locked in, focused effort. It's going to be hard to rally emotionally tomorrow afternoon, but it can be done and we slide out of here with one win. I don't want to go back to Athens 1-5, obviously, and tomorrow is critical in terms of staying within striking distance.
-What can you say about Robert Tyler tonight? No hits allowed, but 6 walks and also a hit batter in 6 innings of work. After the second inning, he really seemed to settle in and pitched nicely. He looked like what we've all expected there in the 4th and 5th inning. It's too bad his pitch count got up there. Miss State really didn't square him up all night. I remember one hard hit ball to Logan and a couple of flys to the OF, but that's about it. Just wish we could have those walks back, early on. We may well be talking about a no hitter right now.
-It's just a grind offensively for us. That's the only word I can think of. Even in the 6th, when we finally did score, we managed to load the bases before we grounded out. When you look up at the averages right now, it's not hard to understand why we have so much trouble stringing hits together.
-I didn't understand why, with the lead in the bottom of the 7th, needing only 9 outs to win, we kept Kieboom in RF and Talley at 3B. It seems to me that you would want to put your best defensive options out there in that situation. But, we didn't do that. We did have a chance to get out of the inning and instead of turning a DP, we make a bad throw and don't get one out, let alone two. It's frustrating to watch that happen, especially when you know that better defensive options are still sitting on the bench (one of whom was inserted the next inning, after we'd lost the lead). I don't want to beat up on Talley, who is more of a 3b than a 2b anyway, but Mitchell Webb is the better defensive 3b.... He has better range, a stronger arm, and a quicker release (I know he's made some errors too, but that's not indicative of what he is defensively). LJ did his job at the plate an inning earlier. He got the sac fly that put us ahead. I sure wish he could have ended his night on that, as opposed to what actually happened. That kind of thing is what I mean when I say we don't often win games from our dugout.
-Home plate umpiring tonight was.... interesting. I will say that Miss State has a lot more to gripe about than we do, which really surprises me given that we are on the road and playing in his environment. There were some mighty low strikes called tonight and a number of really good looking pitches that were balled. The Miss State people sure let blue hear all about it, too.
-I guess Bo Tucker will start tomorrow and that's why we didn't bring him in. Not that Drew Moody did poorly by any stretch, but Bo has been following Tyler for most of this year and I figured 25 would be the play tonight. I don't know how stretched out Bo is right now and how long he can go. In my view, you worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. We may score 8 runs in the 1st inning, we don't know. Last year at South Carolina, in the middle game, we threw Sean McLaughlin in relief, though he was tentatively slated to start on Sunday, in a close game, in order to lock down those last couple of innings and win the series. I thought that was a great move on Stricklin's part as it realized the importance of closing out a game in which we had a late lead and addressing the next game when we played it. To that end, and hindsight is always 20/ 20 when you lose, but I would have thrown Bo tonight and started Conor Jones or Heath Holder tomorrow, had the other one ready to go in relief, and still kept Drew Moody available.
-All in all though, I was really happy with how we played tonight. It was a locked in, focused effort. It's going to be hard to rally emotionally tomorrow afternoon, but it can be done and we slide out of here with one win. I don't want to go back to Athens 1-5, obviously, and tomorrow is critical in terms of staying within striking distance.
