-You really don't deserve to win when you only get 3 hits in 9 innings and have a couple of defensive miscues to go with it. We can say it was a game we should have won in the 9th inning and taking only that inning, that's right. But it really wasn't a game overall that we deserved to win. That doesn't make it any more or less painful, just an observation.
-Obviously with that output, you've had a hard time getting on track. The freshman for Ga Southern hung right in and did a nice job, but his stuff didn't look overwhelming by any means and we just missed some very hittable pitches. But that happens. Offense is contagious, as they always say.
-I thought that Heath Holder did a nice job yesterday. He didn't miss as many bats as Robert Tyler did the night before (very few will), but Heath controlled everything nicely and kept us in striking distance when things weren't going well at the plate. He also did a nice job of fielding his position. I was a bit surprised to see him get up to 94 pitches. He did throw that no hitter in summer league ball last June and I think he was around 115 in that one... 94 just seems like a high number right out of the gate, though. To be fair, it never looked like he was laboring and it never looked anything flattened out. It was a very nice outing overall. Pitcher W/L is a meaningless stat as far as I'm concerned, but I was happy for him that he didn't walk away with a loss yesterday.
-I thought that Andrew Gist looked fantastic yesterday. He threw a lot of strikes and really hit his spots. Ga Southern is very aggressive in their lineup. Gist did a good job with that yesterday and I think you'll see Kevin Smith come after them today too.
-I thought Drew Moody was going to run over someone after he got the final out there in the 9th inning.... I can't remember ever seeing him that excited.
-It was an intense game yesterday.... You could tell that both dugouts wanted that one, badly. It certainly did not have a February feel to it.
-On the 10th inning.... When Nichols got on, it wasn't a no brainer to pinch run for them then. He's really been our best hitter out of the gate this year and you don't want to take him out. But when he got to 2nd or 3rd, I would have pinch run. I didn't buy coach's explanation that we didn't have a lot of depth to address that. Stricklin has labeled Michael Bell as the best base runner on the team, previously. I don't think that Bell is hurt right now. No reason not to use him as a runner. I don't know if Nichols got a bad read on the Sasser liner. It looked like he may have thought it was going to drop in front of the RF. I believe strongly that Bell's speed and acceleration would have won us the the game right there. You also had Trey Logan or Cody McCance if you didn't want to use Bell. You could use Patrick Sullivan in the DH spot if Nichols' spot came around in the order again. If you just didn't want to to pinch run, say that.... I thought the citation of depth was a bit questionable, though.
-Ryan Cleveland is really the only guy in their order who can beat us in that spot in the bottom of the 10th. I sure wish we could have that 3-2 pitch back....
-Through 18 innings, we've seen some good things and we've seen some not so good things. It'll be interesting to see what we do in a couple of places today. We'll see better lineups down the road than Ga Southern, but I'm very happy with the pitching so far. We've got a lot of options on that pitching staff... Once we get Wrenn back and get some things stabilized, and once league play rolls around, I think you'll see a lot of 4-1 and 5-3 type of ball games. It's very early, but it feels like our staff is going to give us a chance each time out.
-In 2013 and 2014, we got CLOCKED in the rubber game against these guys. Those were ugly, painful losses that seemed impossible to flush overnight. I don't think that Ga Southern is capable of a double digit win against us today. And I think it's pretty clear that this is the weakest of the 4 Ga Southern teams we've seen. This is a big one today. We've dropped our last five home series... We can end a couple of bad streaks this afternoon.
-Obviously with that output, you've had a hard time getting on track. The freshman for Ga Southern hung right in and did a nice job, but his stuff didn't look overwhelming by any means and we just missed some very hittable pitches. But that happens. Offense is contagious, as they always say.
-I thought that Heath Holder did a nice job yesterday. He didn't miss as many bats as Robert Tyler did the night before (very few will), but Heath controlled everything nicely and kept us in striking distance when things weren't going well at the plate. He also did a nice job of fielding his position. I was a bit surprised to see him get up to 94 pitches. He did throw that no hitter in summer league ball last June and I think he was around 115 in that one... 94 just seems like a high number right out of the gate, though. To be fair, it never looked like he was laboring and it never looked anything flattened out. It was a very nice outing overall. Pitcher W/L is a meaningless stat as far as I'm concerned, but I was happy for him that he didn't walk away with a loss yesterday.
-I thought that Andrew Gist looked fantastic yesterday. He threw a lot of strikes and really hit his spots. Ga Southern is very aggressive in their lineup. Gist did a good job with that yesterday and I think you'll see Kevin Smith come after them today too.
-I thought Drew Moody was going to run over someone after he got the final out there in the 9th inning.... I can't remember ever seeing him that excited.
-It was an intense game yesterday.... You could tell that both dugouts wanted that one, badly. It certainly did not have a February feel to it.
-On the 10th inning.... When Nichols got on, it wasn't a no brainer to pinch run for them then. He's really been our best hitter out of the gate this year and you don't want to take him out. But when he got to 2nd or 3rd, I would have pinch run. I didn't buy coach's explanation that we didn't have a lot of depth to address that. Stricklin has labeled Michael Bell as the best base runner on the team, previously. I don't think that Bell is hurt right now. No reason not to use him as a runner. I don't know if Nichols got a bad read on the Sasser liner. It looked like he may have thought it was going to drop in front of the RF. I believe strongly that Bell's speed and acceleration would have won us the the game right there. You also had Trey Logan or Cody McCance if you didn't want to use Bell. You could use Patrick Sullivan in the DH spot if Nichols' spot came around in the order again. If you just didn't want to to pinch run, say that.... I thought the citation of depth was a bit questionable, though.
-Ryan Cleveland is really the only guy in their order who can beat us in that spot in the bottom of the 10th. I sure wish we could have that 3-2 pitch back....
-Through 18 innings, we've seen some good things and we've seen some not so good things. It'll be interesting to see what we do in a couple of places today. We'll see better lineups down the road than Ga Southern, but I'm very happy with the pitching so far. We've got a lot of options on that pitching staff... Once we get Wrenn back and get some things stabilized, and once league play rolls around, I think you'll see a lot of 4-1 and 5-3 type of ball games. It's very early, but it feels like our staff is going to give us a chance each time out.
-In 2013 and 2014, we got CLOCKED in the rubber game against these guys. Those were ugly, painful losses that seemed impossible to flush overnight. I don't think that Ga Southern is capable of a double digit win against us today. And I think it's pretty clear that this is the weakest of the 4 Ga Southern teams we've seen. This is a big one today. We've dropped our last five home series... We can end a couple of bad streaks this afternoon.
