-First, it's two years in a row that the other guy has gone CG against us in the league opener. Feels much, much better this time around to be on the winning side of it. The innings that we got to Brown, we generally made him pay. Keegan's double doesn't mean a ton in the first inning if Michael Curry doesn't follow up with the RBI single. Curry's RBI single is good, but then Daniel Nichols scores him from 1st on a double of his own (that I really thought was a HR when it left the bat).... and Curry really got on his horse to score there too. Same thing with the 4th inning.... It's amazing what you can do when you string some hits together. Last night was much better than the Kennesaw State game in that regard.
-Had I seen Nichols after the game, I would have tried to shake his hand just to see if I could actually touch it.... Kentucky has to be wondering what they have to do to get a tag on the guy.... I thought he was dead to rights at 2nd base on the steal; the ball definitely beat to him to the bag, but he got in anyway. On the play at home, I got a text message a few minutes afterward that said that the replay clearly showed a tag. But hey, we'll take it.... and it's a good lesson for the younger guys too.... the baseball clearly beat him to the base in each case, but Nichols didn't concede anything, especially there at home. Brown seemed to get a little bit unglued by that... the runs we added that inning after Nichols scored were tremendous. And that's the thing.... we only scored in two innings last night, but we made it count....
-Patrick Sullivan is as good of a defensive 1B as we've had since Rich Poythress.
-We sure did a nice job with Javon Shelby last night. We maximized our chances offensively for the most part. UK didn't. They had base runners all night it seemed, but never could get the big hit. Holding Shelby to 0-4 with 3 strikeouts was huge work by the staff. The top 3 of UK's order was 1-13 with 5 K's last night. You can't expect that again today and tomorrow, but it was great work last night and a big reason why we are 1-0.
-Michael Curry is getting better behind the plate. We're going to have to live with the hitch in his throw back to the mound, but it's gotten better....really, none of his throws were erratic. I still wish he'd stand up to throw back with men on base, though I can live with what he did last night. He does a really good job blocking the plate too, which has been the case since day one. Framing is still a bit questionable I think, but he'll get there. He's done a very job this season of overcoming some issues back there early on, of some poor offensive games, etc. Good mentality there, I think.
-On Robert Tyler. I don't know what to say. Candidly, I haven't had a good read on him his entire career. Every time I think it's a spot where he might struggle, he (like Ole Miss in 2014 or tech earlier that year) he shines. Every time I think he's going to mow down the other guy, it's a grind. I felt extremely confident that we were going to see a gem from him last night, coming off a bad start a week ago and with the SEC opener. And the 1st inning, it sure looked like that's what we were going to see. After that, different story. I don't know how to explain it... I do think he's overthrowing sometimes. He just doesn't seem to locate as well when he's in the mid-upper 90s and I know his ball doesn't move at much. It seems to "explode" when it gets to the plate at 92. It doesn't do that at 96. Georgia Southern, in that opener, got themselves out a lot. They swung at a lot of stuff out of the zone. Robert obviously recognized that and took advantage of it... But since then, we've seen pretty much everyone force him to throw strikes, to come over the plate. And he has done that for the most part, but it's making him throw a lot of pitches and get bounced earlier that you'd like for a Friday night. Since Ga Southern, he's thrown 21 1/3 innings, struck out 26, walked 10, and allowed 16 hits. That's still a really good WHIP, but it's just not as many innings as we were probably expecting to see.... So, I don't know.... I don't know what the answer is, but he just hasn't been as sharp the last couple of outings as you'd expect. This is going to be a big week for him, I think.
-Drew Moody did a great job last night. Far cry for his other career outing against Kentucky, his freshman year (and last night was a far cry from that game, as well).... Moody doesn't screw around. He goes right after the hitter... he'll give up some HRs doing that, but you can live with it.... He did exactly what he needed to do last night, and kept tossing up the zeros....
-I'm not convinced that Bo Tucker isn't the best pitcher on the staff right now. Last night was another outing in which he just overmatched everyone he saw. He reminds me of Rip Warren a little bit, just for the number of weapons that he has....
-Finally, it's great to be 1-0.... And it'll be even greater if we can get that W again today. I think it's going to take a huge effort from us this afternoon. Beggs for UK has really been locked in this year and you've got to think that UK's hitters will bounce back. Zach Brown left them their entire bullpen too.... But that's how it goes.... great game last night and what an opportunity today to go ahead and win the series and officially get this thing started off on the right foot...
-Had I seen Nichols after the game, I would have tried to shake his hand just to see if I could actually touch it.... Kentucky has to be wondering what they have to do to get a tag on the guy.... I thought he was dead to rights at 2nd base on the steal; the ball definitely beat to him to the bag, but he got in anyway. On the play at home, I got a text message a few minutes afterward that said that the replay clearly showed a tag. But hey, we'll take it.... and it's a good lesson for the younger guys too.... the baseball clearly beat him to the base in each case, but Nichols didn't concede anything, especially there at home. Brown seemed to get a little bit unglued by that... the runs we added that inning after Nichols scored were tremendous. And that's the thing.... we only scored in two innings last night, but we made it count....
-Patrick Sullivan is as good of a defensive 1B as we've had since Rich Poythress.
-We sure did a nice job with Javon Shelby last night. We maximized our chances offensively for the most part. UK didn't. They had base runners all night it seemed, but never could get the big hit. Holding Shelby to 0-4 with 3 strikeouts was huge work by the staff. The top 3 of UK's order was 1-13 with 5 K's last night. You can't expect that again today and tomorrow, but it was great work last night and a big reason why we are 1-0.
-Michael Curry is getting better behind the plate. We're going to have to live with the hitch in his throw back to the mound, but it's gotten better....really, none of his throws were erratic. I still wish he'd stand up to throw back with men on base, though I can live with what he did last night. He does a really good job blocking the plate too, which has been the case since day one. Framing is still a bit questionable I think, but he'll get there. He's done a very job this season of overcoming some issues back there early on, of some poor offensive games, etc. Good mentality there, I think.
-On Robert Tyler. I don't know what to say. Candidly, I haven't had a good read on him his entire career. Every time I think it's a spot where he might struggle, he (like Ole Miss in 2014 or tech earlier that year) he shines. Every time I think he's going to mow down the other guy, it's a grind. I felt extremely confident that we were going to see a gem from him last night, coming off a bad start a week ago and with the SEC opener. And the 1st inning, it sure looked like that's what we were going to see. After that, different story. I don't know how to explain it... I do think he's overthrowing sometimes. He just doesn't seem to locate as well when he's in the mid-upper 90s and I know his ball doesn't move at much. It seems to "explode" when it gets to the plate at 92. It doesn't do that at 96. Georgia Southern, in that opener, got themselves out a lot. They swung at a lot of stuff out of the zone. Robert obviously recognized that and took advantage of it... But since then, we've seen pretty much everyone force him to throw strikes, to come over the plate. And he has done that for the most part, but it's making him throw a lot of pitches and get bounced earlier that you'd like for a Friday night. Since Ga Southern, he's thrown 21 1/3 innings, struck out 26, walked 10, and allowed 16 hits. That's still a really good WHIP, but it's just not as many innings as we were probably expecting to see.... So, I don't know.... I don't know what the answer is, but he just hasn't been as sharp the last couple of outings as you'd expect. This is going to be a big week for him, I think.
-Drew Moody did a great job last night. Far cry for his other career outing against Kentucky, his freshman year (and last night was a far cry from that game, as well).... Moody doesn't screw around. He goes right after the hitter... he'll give up some HRs doing that, but you can live with it.... He did exactly what he needed to do last night, and kept tossing up the zeros....
-I'm not convinced that Bo Tucker isn't the best pitcher on the staff right now. Last night was another outing in which he just overmatched everyone he saw. He reminds me of Rip Warren a little bit, just for the number of weapons that he has....
-Finally, it's great to be 1-0.... And it'll be even greater if we can get that W again today. I think it's going to take a huge effort from us this afternoon. Beggs for UK has really been locked in this year and you've got to think that UK's hitters will bounce back. Zach Brown left them their entire bullpen too.... But that's how it goes.... great game last night and what an opportunity today to go ahead and win the series and officially get this thing started off on the right foot...
