-Obviously an embarrassing performance all around. This is two games in a row now where we looked very disinterested in playing. It's hard to know why that is. I certainly didn't see it coming this way, especially after the start we got off to. I said Sunday that hopefully that was the low point and that things would start getting better. Today was decidedly worse. Mercer typically puts a respectable team on the field, and they're not awful, but this was still an 11-11 baseball team that we were playing tonight. And had it not been for a full count, 2 out, 3 R homer, they beat us by 15 runs.
-Ryan Avidano had a bad night. He got two relatively easy outs to start the game, but then things went sideways for him. I didn't agree with running him back out there in the 2nd. You'd already warmed up Moody in the 1st inning, and Avidano had shown you that he just didn't have his stuff tonight. So after the predictable lead off double to start the innings, we bring in Moody, who was also ineffective, and by the time he's pulled the game is basically academic at that point.
-I was proud of Austin Wallace for tossing up a zero. He made the most of his chance tonight and was the most effective of several guys that we threw.
-Normally I'd be more than happy to complain about David Savage, but I didn't think that any our walks tonight were his fault.
-Last weekend Zack Bowers went 0-13 with 8 strikeouts. It was a bad weekend for him, to say the least of it. Regardless of what the score was tonight or the desire to "send a message" with the mass substitutions, wouldn't it be prudent to get Bowers some ABs? On that note, I thought that the mass subs were nothing short of reckless, to be honest. We pulled Bowers and Weber at the same time. If something had happened to Brandon Stephens, who for all the world looked like he caught a concussion about 72 hours earlier, we wouldn't have had a catcher. You've got Josh Day at that point, though I'm not sure he can throw a baseball right now, and that's it. I'm not sure if Aaron Rzucidlo was even on the trip, but the plan appears to be redshirt him. Stephens obviously didn't get hurt and had a career night offensively, but I still thought that we put ourselves in a needless predicament should he have gotten hurt, and again, he had to leave the game the last Saturday.
-On Stephens, it's a weird game sometimes... If you'd told me that he would have 4 hits including a 3 R HR, I'd have bet my last dollar that we win 16-4 instead of losing by that margin. Really good night for Stephens and a testament to grinding every at bat. He's never going to win a silver slugger award, but he's a tough out regardless of the situation or his current average. There's a lot to be said for that.
-On the Mitchell Webb play.... That was unfortunate.... I haven't seen anything from Webb to this point to suggest that he's that kind of guy. I'm sure there was a large measure of frustration for him regarding the game tonight and his overall offensive issues here lately, and it probably got the better of him. The Mercer kids had a right to be pissed and the umpires did a nice job in preventing for escalating too much further. It looked like Mercer's coach said something to Webb, which rightfully pissed off Stricklin, who was then yelled at the Mercer coach... I'm not sure if Webb was ejected or if Stricklin just took him out. All of the mass subs that had been done to that point meant that we had to stick Keegan McGovern in LF and Morgan Bunting in CF.... I'm not sure why we didn't put Sean McLaughlin in LF (assuming he was down there, though I don't remember seeing him) and Keegan doesn't appear to be healthy right now.... The whole with Webb was, again, very unfortunate... To his credit, and this is absolutely worth pointing out, he apologized to the Mercer player in the handshake line after the game. Hopefully that's the end of it and everyone can take a lesson from it.
-Not that we played well or with much passion, but we didn't get any breaks at all tonight either.... Mercer hit a number of bleeders and ground balls that found holes. Other than the Stephens HR, it seemed like all of our best hit balls went for outs... Daniel Nichols and Jared Walsh both scalded a ball in the middle innings with nothing to show for it. Just that kind of night I guess.
-We've still never won a game in our new road gray uniforms that we got last year. Of course, we are 4-21-1 away from home since the start of last year, so we don't win consistently in any jersey away from Foley, but the fact that we are still winless in those road grays is something of an oddity... Those uniforms would look a heck of a lot better with black numbers, too.
-Finally, Stricklin didn't address the team in RF tonight. I believe that's the first time this year that was the case. Don't know what that means, or if it means anything. After the game was over, everyone packed their bags up and headed straight for the bus. I'd imagine that it's a very quiet ride back to Athens tonight.
-Ryan Avidano had a bad night. He got two relatively easy outs to start the game, but then things went sideways for him. I didn't agree with running him back out there in the 2nd. You'd already warmed up Moody in the 1st inning, and Avidano had shown you that he just didn't have his stuff tonight. So after the predictable lead off double to start the innings, we bring in Moody, who was also ineffective, and by the time he's pulled the game is basically academic at that point.
-I was proud of Austin Wallace for tossing up a zero. He made the most of his chance tonight and was the most effective of several guys that we threw.
-Normally I'd be more than happy to complain about David Savage, but I didn't think that any our walks tonight were his fault.
-Last weekend Zack Bowers went 0-13 with 8 strikeouts. It was a bad weekend for him, to say the least of it. Regardless of what the score was tonight or the desire to "send a message" with the mass substitutions, wouldn't it be prudent to get Bowers some ABs? On that note, I thought that the mass subs were nothing short of reckless, to be honest. We pulled Bowers and Weber at the same time. If something had happened to Brandon Stephens, who for all the world looked like he caught a concussion about 72 hours earlier, we wouldn't have had a catcher. You've got Josh Day at that point, though I'm not sure he can throw a baseball right now, and that's it. I'm not sure if Aaron Rzucidlo was even on the trip, but the plan appears to be redshirt him. Stephens obviously didn't get hurt and had a career night offensively, but I still thought that we put ourselves in a needless predicament should he have gotten hurt, and again, he had to leave the game the last Saturday.
-On Stephens, it's a weird game sometimes... If you'd told me that he would have 4 hits including a 3 R HR, I'd have bet my last dollar that we win 16-4 instead of losing by that margin. Really good night for Stephens and a testament to grinding every at bat. He's never going to win a silver slugger award, but he's a tough out regardless of the situation or his current average. There's a lot to be said for that.
-On the Mitchell Webb play.... That was unfortunate.... I haven't seen anything from Webb to this point to suggest that he's that kind of guy. I'm sure there was a large measure of frustration for him regarding the game tonight and his overall offensive issues here lately, and it probably got the better of him. The Mercer kids had a right to be pissed and the umpires did a nice job in preventing for escalating too much further. It looked like Mercer's coach said something to Webb, which rightfully pissed off Stricklin, who was then yelled at the Mercer coach... I'm not sure if Webb was ejected or if Stricklin just took him out. All of the mass subs that had been done to that point meant that we had to stick Keegan McGovern in LF and Morgan Bunting in CF.... I'm not sure why we didn't put Sean McLaughlin in LF (assuming he was down there, though I don't remember seeing him) and Keegan doesn't appear to be healthy right now.... The whole with Webb was, again, very unfortunate... To his credit, and this is absolutely worth pointing out, he apologized to the Mercer player in the handshake line after the game. Hopefully that's the end of it and everyone can take a lesson from it.
-Not that we played well or with much passion, but we didn't get any breaks at all tonight either.... Mercer hit a number of bleeders and ground balls that found holes. Other than the Stephens HR, it seemed like all of our best hit balls went for outs... Daniel Nichols and Jared Walsh both scalded a ball in the middle innings with nothing to show for it. Just that kind of night I guess.
-We've still never won a game in our new road gray uniforms that we got last year. Of course, we are 4-21-1 away from home since the start of last year, so we don't win consistently in any jersey away from Foley, but the fact that we are still winless in those road grays is something of an oddity... Those uniforms would look a heck of a lot better with black numbers, too.
-Finally, Stricklin didn't address the team in RF tonight. I believe that's the first time this year that was the case. Don't know what that means, or if it means anything. After the game was over, everyone packed their bags up and headed straight for the bus. I'd imagine that it's a very quiet ride back to Athens tonight.
