-I've gotta say, that was about the weirdest Opening Day game that I can recall. We beat Eastern Illinois pretty bad in the opening in 2015... probably by about 13 runs or so, but that one was much different... It's hard to believe that at one point tonight we were down 7-2 and already in our bullpen. It's not often that you can just roll off 15 unanswered runs....
-To me, the game turned on Patrick Sullivan's AB in the 5th inning. At that point, we were down 7-5 and had 2 outs. And I believe it was an 0-2 count on Sullivan. They he gets hit to load the bases, Mason Meadows walks on four straight, it's 7-6 and then we take the lead on Tucker Maxwell's bleeder into CF.... That was really a disastrous inning for Southern as they had an error that put Tucker Bradley aboard, then gifted us another runner in Sullivan... They gave us chances, and to our credit we took full advantage. It sounds funny to say, but I'm not sure that we win if they K Sullivan there and get out of the inning at 7-5.
-I thought that Stricklin/ Kinney made the right call in not running Kristofak back out there after that 5th. He'd been sitting in the dugout for a long time.... No more pitches than he threw, we'll probably see him again this weekend.
-Good defense tonight (outside of one position)... there were no adventures, no miraculous plays, just very sound, confident defense.
-We certainly weren't shy about testing Georgia Southern's OF arms... I thought that Daeley was very aggressive in the 3b box tonight and he called everything right. It's not that Southern is bad in the OF, but they lost a couple of good defensive players in Baldwin and Wren from last year and they definitely looked a little shakey tonight. I'm interested to see if that aggression carries over to tomorrow and Sunday as I don't see their OFs throwing us out very often.
-How about Tucker Maxwell laying down that drag bunt in his first AB?
-Cam Shepherd... man, have a day...
-We drew 10 walks at the plate and also K'd 10 times. It really felt like we drew more walks and had much less strikeouts.
-Pitching wise, good to see us only walk 2... I didn't think that we pitched all that great tonight, but like everything else, it was kind of weird.... I mean, Kevin Smith has 2 outs and and nobody on base in the 3rd inning, then all of a sudden we're down 4-0. I do think that we'll pitch a little better of the rest of the series, at least not allowing 7 runs when the game is still contested. You can see with Ga Southern that it's really their top four guys in the lineup... it looks a lot easier once you get past Mason McWhorter... We're much more balanced in our lineup than they are, but those first four guys they have are good hitters.
-Lot of toughness and a lot of enthusiasm tonight. That's one of the brightest spots, I think.... definitely seems like a harder nosed mentality.
-Lastly, as much fun as tonight was, it's 0-0 again tomorrow and they've got a good pitcher on the mound... I don't think that we saw a lot of their "A" guys out of the bullpen tonight, either. I'm excited to see how we come out tomorrow and I'm also interested to see how Georgia Southern looks. They really didn't play well after the 4th inning tonight. We had a lot to do with that, but they made some mistakes that I doubt they'll make again tomorrow or Sunday.
I'm glad we're playing at 1pm... I really want to get back over there as soon as possible!
-To me, the game turned on Patrick Sullivan's AB in the 5th inning. At that point, we were down 7-5 and had 2 outs. And I believe it was an 0-2 count on Sullivan. They he gets hit to load the bases, Mason Meadows walks on four straight, it's 7-6 and then we take the lead on Tucker Maxwell's bleeder into CF.... That was really a disastrous inning for Southern as they had an error that put Tucker Bradley aboard, then gifted us another runner in Sullivan... They gave us chances, and to our credit we took full advantage. It sounds funny to say, but I'm not sure that we win if they K Sullivan there and get out of the inning at 7-5.
-I thought that Stricklin/ Kinney made the right call in not running Kristofak back out there after that 5th. He'd been sitting in the dugout for a long time.... No more pitches than he threw, we'll probably see him again this weekend.
-Good defense tonight (outside of one position)... there were no adventures, no miraculous plays, just very sound, confident defense.
-We certainly weren't shy about testing Georgia Southern's OF arms... I thought that Daeley was very aggressive in the 3b box tonight and he called everything right. It's not that Southern is bad in the OF, but they lost a couple of good defensive players in Baldwin and Wren from last year and they definitely looked a little shakey tonight. I'm interested to see if that aggression carries over to tomorrow and Sunday as I don't see their OFs throwing us out very often.
-How about Tucker Maxwell laying down that drag bunt in his first AB?
-Cam Shepherd... man, have a day...
-We drew 10 walks at the plate and also K'd 10 times. It really felt like we drew more walks and had much less strikeouts.
-Pitching wise, good to see us only walk 2... I didn't think that we pitched all that great tonight, but like everything else, it was kind of weird.... I mean, Kevin Smith has 2 outs and and nobody on base in the 3rd inning, then all of a sudden we're down 4-0. I do think that we'll pitch a little better of the rest of the series, at least not allowing 7 runs when the game is still contested. You can see with Ga Southern that it's really their top four guys in the lineup... it looks a lot easier once you get past Mason McWhorter... We're much more balanced in our lineup than they are, but those first four guys they have are good hitters.
-Lot of toughness and a lot of enthusiasm tonight. That's one of the brightest spots, I think.... definitely seems like a harder nosed mentality.
-Lastly, as much fun as tonight was, it's 0-0 again tomorrow and they've got a good pitcher on the mound... I don't think that we saw a lot of their "A" guys out of the bullpen tonight, either. I'm excited to see how we come out tomorrow and I'm also interested to see how Georgia Southern looks. They really didn't play well after the 4th inning tonight. We had a lot to do with that, but they made some mistakes that I doubt they'll make again tomorrow or Sunday.
I'm glad we're playing at 1pm... I really want to get back over there as soon as possible!
