-I didn't have much time when I got up here yesterday. Traffic wasn't an issue in Atlanta for me, but it got REALLY thick around Chattanooga.... and it was around 3p when I hit that, so I thought I was early enough to skirt through it. At any rate, I missed the first five outs of the game... It looked/ sounded like we did a good job minimizing things in the bottom of the 1st.
-I thought Andrew Gist was really good last night.... I think we probably left him in there for two hitters too long, but it was a good night for him. I think Gist lets you know when he's getting tired, moreso than some other pitchers, and this was really the second weekend in a row where we didn't read that correctly. Coach talks about needing to make plays to win... he's not wrong about that, but he absolutely needs to manage things better on his end too. We're 11-16/ 1-6.... it's never one thing that is getting us beaten, but our head coach, who has been doing this for a decade plus, needs to hold up his end as much as a group of a freshmen do.
-We had way too many empty at bats and innings last night. I guess that goes without saying when you only get four hits. The top of the 7th really irritated me... we'd given up the 3 spot in the bottom of the 6th and had been out on the field for a long time that inning. We didn't just go 3 up and 3 down in the 7th, but it seemed like we only saw about 10 pitches... Then it's just right back out there....
-I thought Shaefer Shepard pitched well again last night. He's a guy who we might need to look at as having a bigger role. He's been effective each time I've seen him this season.
-I'm surprised that teams don't run on us more, given how effective the opposition has been stealing bases this year. Again, I really think that's more on the pitchers than the catchers. As much as we throw over, we seem to lose track of the runner more than you'd think.... Or, maybe, we throw over so much that our moves to first are so obvious that the runner knows exactly when to go. I don't know... but a lot of these, the catchers have no chance at throwing out the runner. It's frustrating.... just way too many free bases that we've given up this year.
-The rally in the 9th was good, but we did all that with one hit.... I told Miss RedRain walking out of the stadium that I would have felt a lot better about that push if we'd done it with hits instead of walks and HBPs and a passed ball strikeout. Given where Tennessee is right now, I can't imagine that angst in their dugout during that inning... And again, I'm not trying to be too negative here, but I really wish that we'd done more to take that 9th inning than Tennessee did to give it to us, if that makes sense. On that note, I really didn't understand pinch hitting Tucker Bradley for Will Campbell... Was Campbell hurt or something? I don't know.... that's about the only way that I think you can justify that.... You have Campbell hitting 5th for a reason. And I know he's been scuffling a bit here lately, but that guy has a lot of ability.... either he needs to be in the middle of the order or he doesn't, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to write him in there and then pinch hit for him with the go-ahead run on base.
-I didn't think Jeff Moberg's HR wasn't questionable as far as being fair or foul. It was about 50 feet to the right of where the "home run" was hit on Saturday up here in 2011... I figured Stricklin's argument was more geared toward trying to fire up our dugout...
-The reality is that Tennessee just beat us last night. We didn't really beat ourselves, they were just better. The final score, to me, didn't really justify how the game went. Just like I would have felt better with some hits in the 9th, in a weird way I'd feel better if we just played a sloppy game last night and beat ourselves.... At least then we could say that we'll clean it up tomorrow and be ok... It bugs me that we got outplayed by a team that has struggled so much the last two weekends. Last night wasn't a case where our starting pitcher didn't give us a chance, it wasn't a case of too many walks or errors, it wasn't a case of some bizarre bad luck, and it wasn't a case of running into a front line starting pitcher. It was just a case of getting beaten by a better team, who was the only winless team in the conference coming in. Again, I swear I'm not trying to be too negative here.... last night just bugged as much as any loss we've had this year.
-I thought Andrew Gist was really good last night.... I think we probably left him in there for two hitters too long, but it was a good night for him. I think Gist lets you know when he's getting tired, moreso than some other pitchers, and this was really the second weekend in a row where we didn't read that correctly. Coach talks about needing to make plays to win... he's not wrong about that, but he absolutely needs to manage things better on his end too. We're 11-16/ 1-6.... it's never one thing that is getting us beaten, but our head coach, who has been doing this for a decade plus, needs to hold up his end as much as a group of a freshmen do.
-We had way too many empty at bats and innings last night. I guess that goes without saying when you only get four hits. The top of the 7th really irritated me... we'd given up the 3 spot in the bottom of the 6th and had been out on the field for a long time that inning. We didn't just go 3 up and 3 down in the 7th, but it seemed like we only saw about 10 pitches... Then it's just right back out there....
-I thought Shaefer Shepard pitched well again last night. He's a guy who we might need to look at as having a bigger role. He's been effective each time I've seen him this season.
-I'm surprised that teams don't run on us more, given how effective the opposition has been stealing bases this year. Again, I really think that's more on the pitchers than the catchers. As much as we throw over, we seem to lose track of the runner more than you'd think.... Or, maybe, we throw over so much that our moves to first are so obvious that the runner knows exactly when to go. I don't know... but a lot of these, the catchers have no chance at throwing out the runner. It's frustrating.... just way too many free bases that we've given up this year.
-The rally in the 9th was good, but we did all that with one hit.... I told Miss RedRain walking out of the stadium that I would have felt a lot better about that push if we'd done it with hits instead of walks and HBPs and a passed ball strikeout. Given where Tennessee is right now, I can't imagine that angst in their dugout during that inning... And again, I'm not trying to be too negative here, but I really wish that we'd done more to take that 9th inning than Tennessee did to give it to us, if that makes sense. On that note, I really didn't understand pinch hitting Tucker Bradley for Will Campbell... Was Campbell hurt or something? I don't know.... that's about the only way that I think you can justify that.... You have Campbell hitting 5th for a reason. And I know he's been scuffling a bit here lately, but that guy has a lot of ability.... either he needs to be in the middle of the order or he doesn't, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to write him in there and then pinch hit for him with the go-ahead run on base.
-I didn't think Jeff Moberg's HR wasn't questionable as far as being fair or foul. It was about 50 feet to the right of where the "home run" was hit on Saturday up here in 2011... I figured Stricklin's argument was more geared toward trying to fire up our dugout...
-The reality is that Tennessee just beat us last night. We didn't really beat ourselves, they were just better. The final score, to me, didn't really justify how the game went. Just like I would have felt better with some hits in the 9th, in a weird way I'd feel better if we just played a sloppy game last night and beat ourselves.... At least then we could say that we'll clean it up tomorrow and be ok... It bugs me that we got outplayed by a team that has struggled so much the last two weekends. Last night wasn't a case where our starting pitcher didn't give us a chance, it wasn't a case of too many walks or errors, it wasn't a case of some bizarre bad luck, and it wasn't a case of running into a front line starting pitcher. It was just a case of getting beaten by a better team, who was the only winless team in the conference coming in. Again, I swear I'm not trying to be too negative here.... last night just bugged as much as any loss we've had this year.
