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Thoughts on the W....

TheRedRain

War Daddy
Gold Member
May 6, 2005
28,846
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-First, we were lucky to win that game. If Cincinnati makes a couple plays at 1st early in the game and then makes a play at 2nd in the 8th inning, we are going home with an L. But, much like Wednesday night, we found a way to win when we didn't play particularly well. There's something to be said for that, I think. The last two days show think that we are going to need to make some improvement before league play rolls around, but we've got a couple of more weeks before that gets here.

-Heath Holder was good today. I thought his stuff looked a little better against Ga Southern, but he hung in and did a nice job. Later in the year, I'm sure he goes back out there for the 5th inning. Cincinnati made him work a little bit and I thought that he responded well today.

-I don't think there's much question that was our worst defensive game of the young season. You have to qualify Mercer given the high wind down there.... We just looked a little flat footed defensively today... Even some plays that we did make weren't as routine looking as they should have been. Who knows why, those things happen during a long season and I don't think it's a huge deal. My feeling is that everyone took the loss last night a little harder than I would've thought and it's possible there was some let down today after that... Of maybe it was just not a crisp defensive game and there's no reason.

-Two times now Drew Moody has looked great in his first inning of work and given up some hard hits and runs in his second inning. Maybe he's just a one inning guy... That's fine if he is, and it's good to learn that now.

-Andrew Gist looks great... I don't know how his bounce back is with his arm, but it wouldn't shock me to see him get the baseball against tech or Clemson later on this year.... He's definitely an "A" guy in the bullpen though.... Coming over the top, it's hard to describe, but he seems to hide the ball pretty well. It's hard to see it out of his hand.... He really keeps that fastball down too. Getting what we did was huge from him tonight as it allowed us to save Goodman and Brown (and Tinder, for that matter) until tomorrow.

-Was disappointed that we gave up that out at home on LJ Talley's pinch hit.... That's two Saturday games in a row we've had a baserunning issue in the 9th in a tie game. I don't know if that's on Daeley or the runner today, but we didn't really give ourselves a chance trying to score there.

-I was stunned that Cincinnati pitched to Daniel Nichols there in the 10th. Given that his run didn't matter and you had a base open, I was certain they'd walk him to load it, put a force at every base, and pitch to Trey Logan. I was really happy for Nichols too. Like Talley, the quality of his ABs aren't reflected on the scoreboard right now. You're seeing more leadership and emotion from Nichols too, more than I've noticed in his first three years. Good moment for him today. It's funny, last night I wrote about how South Alabama's squeeze reminded me of South Carolina's having done the same thing against us on Friday night in '12. I was thinking about that driving over the park this morning and remembered the next day, Joey Delmonico hit a walk off for us that scored the runner from 3rd, in extras to beat the Gamecocks.... I can't remember if Delmonico's ball was caught or not, but I do remember as soon as it left the bat jumping up because I knew the game was over... whether it was caught or not, it was plenty deep enough. Same thing with Nichols shot today. As soon as he hit it, game over. That's good stuff.

-Good to see Adam Sasser get his first HR today... Two inches less, and it's off the wall.... But, that's certainly the farthest a lefty can go to hit one out in our stadium.... So far the book on Sasser working well around the base is on the money (and the same for Patrick Sullivan).

-I'll be honest. There were days last year and in 2014 when I didn't think there was anything Michael Bell could do to get out of the lineup. He was our 3 hole hitter on Opening Day last year. Now, he's only made two starts and has been pulled in each of them. I felt like he was really pressing in a couple of his ABs today, especially the last one. When you're not playing every day and you're trying to win a position back, I'm sure it's hard not to press.

-Logan Moody's catch in, I think, the 8th inning was probably the under-rated play of today... He doesn't come down with that, Cincinnati probably gets two more that inning...

-Finally, I thought that Skyler did a really nice job behind the plate today. I wasn't in Macon on Wednesday, so this the first time I've seen him catch a game since early in his freshman year. I know that catcher is his favorite position and that he was really hoping to move back there this year. Thought he framed things up well, and nothing got to the screen.... He'll throw some runners out too, though he didn't today, with his release. Nice work for him.

-It's funny how it goes.... We win today, so we are going into tomorrow saying "hey, tough game Friday night, we overcame some things Saturday and won, now we've a chance to get two for the weekend on Sunday." If we lose today, it's "Well, we got beaten last night, then played worse today, and this weekend can turn into an absolute catastrophe on Sunday." Just win, baby.... Happy we pulled that thing out today and we've got a chance to make it a successful weekend tomorrow.
 
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