Weird series for me personally... I had some stuff to do in Atlanta on Saturday that prevented me from going on Friday night. The plan was to drive over and go Saturday night and today. But then the weather and DH knocked me out of another game. I listened to a chunk of the second game while driving over and was able to make it for the rubber game. This was such a good series, in terms of being really close, that I hate it that I had to miss 2/3 of it.
-Walking into the stadium around 7p yesterday, I certainly didn't expect a 1-0 game.... I mean, the way that UK swings the bats and then we've been pretty productive all year too... I thought we'd be looking at 7-5 or something like that. It's a weird game sometimes.
-There were A LOT of big pitches made yesterday... for a scoreless game, there really were a lot of base runners and a lot of threats.
-Justin Lewis was really good... I wonder why they don't start him on Saturday. His change up is terrific.
-CJ Smith.... I mean, I don't want to over-react, but that guy was tremendous.... He threw some beautiful curve balls.... and his composure too, there was just no panic with the guy. All of our freshman have impressed me with that, this season. Webb and Hancock also pitch like juniors. Having said I don't want to over-react, and I don't, but I almost wonder if CJ Smith would be better suited for the rotation and Webb for the bullpen. Even having closed down the first game and throwing about 25 pitches or so, I thought Webb's stuff was really good too and he seemed to have that late game mentality....
-I thought it was funny.... When Webb came in and got the K and then the flyout, he was really pumped up. He glared pretty hard into UK's dugout and said something and said something (I think) to the hitter.... The next inning, Kentucky's coach calls over and says something the umpire while Webb is warming up. Then the next inning, they make Webb get a new glove, claiming that the one he had was an illegal color. I wonder if that happens without the stuff after the flyout when Webb came into the game.
-Stricklin mentioned on the post game show that it was funny that the ended up scoring on a slow dribbler, infield hit from a guy who has 13 HRs and can't run. Along those lines, I thought it was funny that their first reliever, Jimmy Ramsey a right hander, gave up smashed line drive to Mason Meadows, struck out Tucker Maxwell, induced weak contact from Tucker Bradley, gave up a line drive base hit to Aaron Schunk that was squared up, then got an infield pop out from Keegan McGovern. Just throw righty/ lefty out the door that inning... But all that stuff fit, I thought.... it just wasn't the game anyone was expecting, a lot of weird stuff happened.
-That said, it's hard to get 10 hits and not score. I'm still surprised about that.
-Home plate umpiring (Greg Street, with whom I'm not overly familiar) was...interesting. It was a big strike zone. Tucker Maxwell seemed to catch it the worst and you saw him react in ways that he doesn't typically. And Michael Curry had a really tough game. Offensively, we K'd 11 times, which is pretty high, but again, huge strike zone.
-I don't think I've ever seen a college baseball game with 4 intentional walks. I've seen hundreds and I honestly don't believe I've ever seen that. Heck, it feels like some SEASONS you wouldn't see four... In a scoreless game too. I mean, Kentucky put the winning run on base with an iBB in the 9th inning. That reminded me of 2006... series opener on Thursday night, Kentucky, then coached by John Cohen, did the same thing. Perno, on his post game show, said "I learned better than to do that coaching in legion ball..."
-I wrote this on Thursday, but it bears repeating. Luke Heyer really doesn't look like a home run hitter when he's standing in the box. Kole Cottam? Sure. Heyer just doesn't look that part. Overall, Kentucky is probably the most physically impressive looking team that we've played this year. They're certainly the biggest. Not just in height, but they've got a lot of guys who are just put together.
-Kentucky is a good team. They're very even with us, as this showed. Sure, we were close to sweeping this series, but we were also close to getting swept. The same was true for Alabama several weeks back. So, I think 3-3 in those six games is probably fair. 9-6 is a fine position to be in right now. Heck, we were 6-9 at this point in 2004. We were probably around 7-8 at the halfway point in 2006, also. Perno's teams were different in that they almost always got better as the year went along and Stricklin hasn't really shown that yet, but still, 9-6 is a great place to be. Looking ahead, next weekend at Ole Miss and Florida are going to be really tough. Arkansas is going to be really tough too. 2-7 might be what we're looking at over those three series. Not to be a defeatist, but just being realistic. So, it's critical that we take care of our business against Tennessee and Missouri.... The back half is a lot harder. We're on pace to go 18-12, but I don't think anyone looking at the remainder of the schedule really expects that. Nobody wants to lose series, but we stayed out of a sweep the last two weekends, and that's so important. -1 is a lot easier to deal with than -3. Although it cost me a game, I'm glad that the team will have today off and get rested up before Clemson comes to town. I expect they need it.
-Last thing is this.... We really do need another pitcher to emerge as we're really pounding Kristofak, Locey, Kevin Smith, and Schunk (remember, Schunk is playing every inning at 3b too). CJ Smith may just be the guy... That's a huge positive from that last game yesterday.
-Walking into the stadium around 7p yesterday, I certainly didn't expect a 1-0 game.... I mean, the way that UK swings the bats and then we've been pretty productive all year too... I thought we'd be looking at 7-5 or something like that. It's a weird game sometimes.
-There were A LOT of big pitches made yesterday... for a scoreless game, there really were a lot of base runners and a lot of threats.
-Justin Lewis was really good... I wonder why they don't start him on Saturday. His change up is terrific.
-CJ Smith.... I mean, I don't want to over-react, but that guy was tremendous.... He threw some beautiful curve balls.... and his composure too, there was just no panic with the guy. All of our freshman have impressed me with that, this season. Webb and Hancock also pitch like juniors. Having said I don't want to over-react, and I don't, but I almost wonder if CJ Smith would be better suited for the rotation and Webb for the bullpen. Even having closed down the first game and throwing about 25 pitches or so, I thought Webb's stuff was really good too and he seemed to have that late game mentality....
-I thought it was funny.... When Webb came in and got the K and then the flyout, he was really pumped up. He glared pretty hard into UK's dugout and said something and said something (I think) to the hitter.... The next inning, Kentucky's coach calls over and says something the umpire while Webb is warming up. Then the next inning, they make Webb get a new glove, claiming that the one he had was an illegal color. I wonder if that happens without the stuff after the flyout when Webb came into the game.
-Stricklin mentioned on the post game show that it was funny that the ended up scoring on a slow dribbler, infield hit from a guy who has 13 HRs and can't run. Along those lines, I thought it was funny that their first reliever, Jimmy Ramsey a right hander, gave up smashed line drive to Mason Meadows, struck out Tucker Maxwell, induced weak contact from Tucker Bradley, gave up a line drive base hit to Aaron Schunk that was squared up, then got an infield pop out from Keegan McGovern. Just throw righty/ lefty out the door that inning... But all that stuff fit, I thought.... it just wasn't the game anyone was expecting, a lot of weird stuff happened.
-That said, it's hard to get 10 hits and not score. I'm still surprised about that.
-Home plate umpiring (Greg Street, with whom I'm not overly familiar) was...interesting. It was a big strike zone. Tucker Maxwell seemed to catch it the worst and you saw him react in ways that he doesn't typically. And Michael Curry had a really tough game. Offensively, we K'd 11 times, which is pretty high, but again, huge strike zone.
-I don't think I've ever seen a college baseball game with 4 intentional walks. I've seen hundreds and I honestly don't believe I've ever seen that. Heck, it feels like some SEASONS you wouldn't see four... In a scoreless game too. I mean, Kentucky put the winning run on base with an iBB in the 9th inning. That reminded me of 2006... series opener on Thursday night, Kentucky, then coached by John Cohen, did the same thing. Perno, on his post game show, said "I learned better than to do that coaching in legion ball..."
-I wrote this on Thursday, but it bears repeating. Luke Heyer really doesn't look like a home run hitter when he's standing in the box. Kole Cottam? Sure. Heyer just doesn't look that part. Overall, Kentucky is probably the most physically impressive looking team that we've played this year. They're certainly the biggest. Not just in height, but they've got a lot of guys who are just put together.
-Kentucky is a good team. They're very even with us, as this showed. Sure, we were close to sweeping this series, but we were also close to getting swept. The same was true for Alabama several weeks back. So, I think 3-3 in those six games is probably fair. 9-6 is a fine position to be in right now. Heck, we were 6-9 at this point in 2004. We were probably around 7-8 at the halfway point in 2006, also. Perno's teams were different in that they almost always got better as the year went along and Stricklin hasn't really shown that yet, but still, 9-6 is a great place to be. Looking ahead, next weekend at Ole Miss and Florida are going to be really tough. Arkansas is going to be really tough too. 2-7 might be what we're looking at over those three series. Not to be a defeatist, but just being realistic. So, it's critical that we take care of our business against Tennessee and Missouri.... The back half is a lot harder. We're on pace to go 18-12, but I don't think anyone looking at the remainder of the schedule really expects that. Nobody wants to lose series, but we stayed out of a sweep the last two weekends, and that's so important. -1 is a lot easier to deal with than -3. Although it cost me a game, I'm glad that the team will have today off and get rested up before Clemson comes to town. I expect they need it.
-Last thing is this.... We really do need another pitcher to emerge as we're really pounding Kristofak, Locey, Kevin Smith, and Schunk (remember, Schunk is playing every inning at 3b too). CJ Smith may just be the guy... That's a huge positive from that last game yesterday.
