-First, it's good to win. I'm not going to be choosy about how it gets done. Today was a very important game for this team, and I think, for this program. 3-7 and a home series loss to UAB would be a little difficult to bounce back from. I was proud of the poise today.
-This is two Saturdays in a row where we've pitched a shutout. I thought that Locey looked A LOT better today than he has in his first two starts. He mixed it up much more effectively today than he has before. There was a steak against College of Charleston where he threw something like 25 straight fastballs. You can't do that at this level. We saw a MUCH better guy today than we did two weeks ago.
-Andrew Gist is turning into a big piece on the bullpen. Where he came on today, two runners on, no outs.... how many times have we lost the game or given up the lead in that spot the last three years? Gist didn't let them get a breath... For all intents and purposes, it felt like we won the game in the top of the 7th. You had to feel like UAB wasn't going to get another chance like that today. This is two Saturdays in a row where #5 has totally overmatched the opponent. He doesn't throw 95, he doesn't have some funky, deceptive delivery.... he just knows how to pitch. I'm a big fan of that.
-Solid defensive game today. We make a lot of plays in the IF. Aaron Schunk has two "ability errors" at 3rd... you can see that he's not over his head at that position. Now, with that said, if we are going to play both him and Mitchell Webb, I'd rather see Webb at 3rd and Schunk at 1st. Mitchell is about two inches shorter.... to me, it makes sense to have the taller guy at 1B.
-I still think that Tucker Bradley's future is on the mound long term, but he's looked really good at the plate this weekend... And to that end, Tucker Maxwell has looked terrific... looks like a different player from last weekend.
-I appreciated Stricklin's candor regarding the offense. This wasn't like beating Vanderbilt 2-0... I thought that Ruggles, their starter, competed hard... But he just didn't have a lot of stuff. I kept thinking "I can't believe that we don't have more runs on the board than this..." But I do think that the bats will get going... I agree with Stricklin totally that Cam Shepherd and Aaron Schunk will heat up... Once that happens, we'll be in business. We know that Keegan McGovern is going to hit and we know that Michael Curry will also.
-How bad is it offensively for UAB? Their catcher, Ressmeyer, had three errors today... they didn't take him out until he got in scoring position in the 7th, presumably because he'd gotten 2 of their 4 hits on the day. These guys really struggle at the plate... but we only had one walk today and Locey hit two batters... but that's it. They don't hit for power and the only way they can really score is to string some singles together, unless we give them free bases. I know these guys, and Ga Southern last weekend, aren't great teams offensively, but we've done what we needed to do on the mound.
-Let's win this series tomorrow. I really like Chase Adkins a lot and feel like he's going to be a good matchup for them. If we win tomorrow, we can be +.500 going into next weekend if we take care of Xavier in the mid-week.
-This is two Saturdays in a row where we've pitched a shutout. I thought that Locey looked A LOT better today than he has in his first two starts. He mixed it up much more effectively today than he has before. There was a steak against College of Charleston where he threw something like 25 straight fastballs. You can't do that at this level. We saw a MUCH better guy today than we did two weeks ago.
-Andrew Gist is turning into a big piece on the bullpen. Where he came on today, two runners on, no outs.... how many times have we lost the game or given up the lead in that spot the last three years? Gist didn't let them get a breath... For all intents and purposes, it felt like we won the game in the top of the 7th. You had to feel like UAB wasn't going to get another chance like that today. This is two Saturdays in a row where #5 has totally overmatched the opponent. He doesn't throw 95, he doesn't have some funky, deceptive delivery.... he just knows how to pitch. I'm a big fan of that.
-Solid defensive game today. We make a lot of plays in the IF. Aaron Schunk has two "ability errors" at 3rd... you can see that he's not over his head at that position. Now, with that said, if we are going to play both him and Mitchell Webb, I'd rather see Webb at 3rd and Schunk at 1st. Mitchell is about two inches shorter.... to me, it makes sense to have the taller guy at 1B.
-I still think that Tucker Bradley's future is on the mound long term, but he's looked really good at the plate this weekend... And to that end, Tucker Maxwell has looked terrific... looks like a different player from last weekend.
-I appreciated Stricklin's candor regarding the offense. This wasn't like beating Vanderbilt 2-0... I thought that Ruggles, their starter, competed hard... But he just didn't have a lot of stuff. I kept thinking "I can't believe that we don't have more runs on the board than this..." But I do think that the bats will get going... I agree with Stricklin totally that Cam Shepherd and Aaron Schunk will heat up... Once that happens, we'll be in business. We know that Keegan McGovern is going to hit and we know that Michael Curry will also.
-How bad is it offensively for UAB? Their catcher, Ressmeyer, had three errors today... they didn't take him out until he got in scoring position in the 7th, presumably because he'd gotten 2 of their 4 hits on the day. These guys really struggle at the plate... but we only had one walk today and Locey hit two batters... but that's it. They don't hit for power and the only way they can really score is to string some singles together, unless we give them free bases. I know these guys, and Ga Southern last weekend, aren't great teams offensively, but we've done what we needed to do on the mound.
-Let's win this series tomorrow. I really like Chase Adkins a lot and feel like he's going to be a good matchup for them. If we win tomorrow, we can be +.500 going into next weekend if we take care of Xavier in the mid-week.
