Friday night we're going to see what is probably the best team of the three this weekend in South Alabama. The Jaguars won the regular season Sun Belt title a year ago, but were beaten by Louisiana Lafayette in the Sun Belt Tourney final and did not advance to a regional. While hardly unprecedented, that's never seemed fair to me. Last year South Alabama finished 1.5 games better in the league than UL Lafayette, took 2/3 from UL Lafayette on the road in the regular season, but that was washed away by one extra inning game played on a neutral site in front of an announced crowd of 955 people.
South Alabama's head coach, Mark Calvi, has been a hot name in the off-season the past few seasons and was considered by some as the favorite to replace Sunny Golloway at Auburn.
Friday night, we'll see Kevin Hill, a 5th year senior righty from Oklahoma City. Hill is Baseball America's #9 ranked prospect in the Sun Belt. It's hard to explain why he wasn't drafted last year, but I guess 6'0 righties don't always move the meter. Hill was a perfect 10-0 on the season last year in 13 appearances, all starts, and threw 4 complete games. He posted a 1.73 ERA and allowed only a .208 average against. In 93 2/3 innings, he allowed only 14 extra base hits. with 107 strike outs and 38 walks. He was named the Sun Belt pitcher of the year in 2015 and is #12 on the career strikeout list at South Alabama, despite only pitching there for two seasons (was a JC transfer).
Cole Billingsly should play CF for the Jaguars. He's rated as the #2 draft prospect in the Sun Belt this year by Baseball America. Billingsly hit .345/.437/.444 a year ago with 2 HRs and was a sterling 30/34 in stolen bases. On that note, South Alabama ran a lot last year, converting 80 of 105 steal attempts. Last weekend though they only attempted 3 steals (and converted 2) in an easy sweep of Evansville.
South Alabama doesn't replace as much offensively as Georgia Southern did a week ago, but they have plenty of new faces in their order.
I really wish that we were just playing these guys three times.
Cincinnati has left things TBA for Saturday. The Bearcats were swept last weekend in Baton Rouge, though they took LSU to extras on Opening Night. A person named Mitch Patishall got the Saturday start in Red Stick a week ago. The senior righty did not fare well, collecting only 4 outs, allowing 3 hits, 1 walk, and uncorking 2 wild pitches. AJ Kullman, a giant freshman righty from Powell Ohio came on in relief and did a nice job, collecting 7 ground ball outs. That may well be the guy that we see on Saturday.
LSU pitched the Bearcats very effectively last weekend, allowing only 17 hits and 9 runs, though Cincy did homer twice. The Bearcats were also 3/5 in steals. Cincinnati went 15-41 a year ago and has finished at least 10 games under .500 in the conference four years in a row. The Bearcats do not have a player amoung Baseball America's top 20 draft prospects for the 2016 draft in Baseball America, nor do they have a player in the top 10 for the 2017 draft.
Sunday we'll face off with Western Kentucky, coached by a familiar face in John Pawlowski. I continue to think that this guy is a good coach. I respected what he did at Auburn and they way he was able to adapt his plan to his roster. I thought he got a raw shake two years ago and while Auburn saw some success under Golloway, I wonder now if they consider that a worthwhile move on the Plains.
Western has announced Ryan Thurston as the starter for the Sunday game. Thurston is a junior lefty from Madison Indiana. Thureston did not post great numbers last year, going 1-2 in 9 appearances, 6 starts, with a 6.00 ERA. The opposition his .291 against him and in 36 innings, he struck out 19 hitters, but allowed 19 walks. He was solid last weekend though, going 5 innings and allowing 1 hit, no runs, and 5 strike outs against 1 walk.
Western Kentucky was only 24-28 a season ago and finished 10-19 in Conference USA. The Hilltopers do return their top two hitters from a year ago and a decent amount of pitching as well. Last weekend they took 2/3 from our friends at Youngstown State.
You never know this early in the year. When we did this deal two years ago, I thought that Western Carolina was the best team that we'd face, but North Florida ended being the best of the bunch. I think it's pretty clear that South Alabama is the class of the visiting opposition this weekend, but it looks like Western should be better than they were a year ago, as well. As far as non-conference opposition goes, we're seeing two good, experienced arms on Friday night to start the year... that can only serve us well one league play rolls around.
South Alabama's head coach, Mark Calvi, has been a hot name in the off-season the past few seasons and was considered by some as the favorite to replace Sunny Golloway at Auburn.
Friday night, we'll see Kevin Hill, a 5th year senior righty from Oklahoma City. Hill is Baseball America's #9 ranked prospect in the Sun Belt. It's hard to explain why he wasn't drafted last year, but I guess 6'0 righties don't always move the meter. Hill was a perfect 10-0 on the season last year in 13 appearances, all starts, and threw 4 complete games. He posted a 1.73 ERA and allowed only a .208 average against. In 93 2/3 innings, he allowed only 14 extra base hits. with 107 strike outs and 38 walks. He was named the Sun Belt pitcher of the year in 2015 and is #12 on the career strikeout list at South Alabama, despite only pitching there for two seasons (was a JC transfer).
Cole Billingsly should play CF for the Jaguars. He's rated as the #2 draft prospect in the Sun Belt this year by Baseball America. Billingsly hit .345/.437/.444 a year ago with 2 HRs and was a sterling 30/34 in stolen bases. On that note, South Alabama ran a lot last year, converting 80 of 105 steal attempts. Last weekend though they only attempted 3 steals (and converted 2) in an easy sweep of Evansville.
South Alabama doesn't replace as much offensively as Georgia Southern did a week ago, but they have plenty of new faces in their order.
I really wish that we were just playing these guys three times.
Cincinnati has left things TBA for Saturday. The Bearcats were swept last weekend in Baton Rouge, though they took LSU to extras on Opening Night. A person named Mitch Patishall got the Saturday start in Red Stick a week ago. The senior righty did not fare well, collecting only 4 outs, allowing 3 hits, 1 walk, and uncorking 2 wild pitches. AJ Kullman, a giant freshman righty from Powell Ohio came on in relief and did a nice job, collecting 7 ground ball outs. That may well be the guy that we see on Saturday.
LSU pitched the Bearcats very effectively last weekend, allowing only 17 hits and 9 runs, though Cincy did homer twice. The Bearcats were also 3/5 in steals. Cincinnati went 15-41 a year ago and has finished at least 10 games under .500 in the conference four years in a row. The Bearcats do not have a player amoung Baseball America's top 20 draft prospects for the 2016 draft in Baseball America, nor do they have a player in the top 10 for the 2017 draft.
Sunday we'll face off with Western Kentucky, coached by a familiar face in John Pawlowski. I continue to think that this guy is a good coach. I respected what he did at Auburn and they way he was able to adapt his plan to his roster. I thought he got a raw shake two years ago and while Auburn saw some success under Golloway, I wonder now if they consider that a worthwhile move on the Plains.
Western has announced Ryan Thurston as the starter for the Sunday game. Thurston is a junior lefty from Madison Indiana. Thureston did not post great numbers last year, going 1-2 in 9 appearances, 6 starts, with a 6.00 ERA. The opposition his .291 against him and in 36 innings, he struck out 19 hitters, but allowed 19 walks. He was solid last weekend though, going 5 innings and allowing 1 hit, no runs, and 5 strike outs against 1 walk.
Western Kentucky was only 24-28 a season ago and finished 10-19 in Conference USA. The Hilltopers do return their top two hitters from a year ago and a decent amount of pitching as well. Last weekend they took 2/3 from our friends at Youngstown State.
You never know this early in the year. When we did this deal two years ago, I thought that Western Carolina was the best team that we'd face, but North Florida ended being the best of the bunch. I think it's pretty clear that South Alabama is the class of the visiting opposition this weekend, but it looks like Western should be better than they were a year ago, as well. As far as non-conference opposition goes, we're seeing two good, experienced arms on Friday night to start the year... that can only serve us well one league play rolls around.
