Undefeated streak

[msstate7]

13-0

Upcoming games...

Ark PB
San Diego x 3
WKU x 2
Bama x 3

How long can we go before we lose?

[missouridawg]

None of those teams are as talented as us. Not predicting us to sweep all 9, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

[Ralph]

I could see losing one to San diego against their stud pitcher.

[Jack Lambert]

I try not to think about it. Just win your series.

[MetEdDawg]

I'll be honest, I still don't know what to think about this team yet. I kind of wished we had played a little better competition up to this point, but it's very hard not to be impressed with the way we've played all facets of the game to this point.

I still don't know what this thing will look like in a month or month and a half so it's tough for me to make a judgment on what going undefeated or losing 1 game against this schedule actually means. Obviously it's very tough to do regardless of who you play, but there are still some concerns for me.

I think our first loss comes that Wednesday against Western Kentucky. We play Tuesday/Wednesday mid week against them before our Bama series and Wednesday is going to be a lot of non weekend guys playing because we should be resting our main core of guys, especially from the pitching staff, for the weekend. It wouldn't shock me if we lost that Wednesday game to WKU right before Alabama.

[Dawg496]

We could easily drop one against Western Kentucky or San Diego and it's never easy to sweep an SEC team. I think we lose one this weekend and probably another against Alabama and sit at 20-2 at the end of that stretch.

[maroonmania]

I could see us struggling against some teams with very solid pitching and sound defense that make you earn your runs. Right now we are depending a lot on walks and HBPs to get guys on and then being active on the bases to get them around. If a team can play very sound in the field and make us get guys around with hits they could slow us down. I was disappointed that we had single digit hits in all 4 games this weekend especially for the 2 games against Samford's pitching. On the flip side, our pitching was really solid this weekend and really has been all year. The only guy to really get hit pretty well over the weekend was Laster and he spread out the hits enough to avoid giving up very many runs.

[Ralph]

We could easily drop one against Western Kentucky or San Diego and it's never easy to sweep an SEC team. I think we lose one this weekend and probably another against Alabama and sit at 20-2 at the end of that stretch.

My thoughts as well. I'd be pretty damn happy with 20-2 over that stretch.

[Dawg496]

My thoughts as well. I'd be pretty damn happy with 20-2 over that stretch.

I figure we need 40 wins to host and probably like 45 for a national seed. With 9 SEC series + 6 non-conference games left after that (33 games), it's gonna be tight squeezing out 20 more wins.

[chef dixon]

I figure we need 40 wins to host and probably like 45 for a national seed. With 9 SEC series + 6 non-conference games left after that (33 games), it's gonna be tight squeezing out 20 more wins.

If our pitching is as good as we think it is, 20 should be expected out of that.

[Dawg496]

If our pitching is as good as we think it is, 20 should be expected out of that.

Very true. I'm trying to keep my expectations down just because of the level of competition we have played. Western Kentucky and San Diego are decent tests, despite the lack of brand name, so we will learn a bit more soon. Even then, @ Kentucky is our first real test.

We need to sweep one/both of Alabama and Auburn at home. @ Tennessee is another candidate. South Carolina, Florida, and LSU are obviously the toughest series and all are at home.

[smootness]

If our pitching is as good as we think it is, 20 should be expected out of that.

Exactly what I was thinking. If you go 20-2 against pretty much any competition, you should be expecting to win at least 2/3 of your remaining games.

As for our upcoming games, it's baseball, so I could see us losing any of them. My prediction is also that we lose 2 out of that stretch. If we lose fewer than that, then this team is really good.

I agree that I would have liked to see us hit a little more against Samford, but the first game we were still missing most of our power hitters, and the second game was Michael Smith's first game back and Humphreys was still out. This was also Rea's first weekend back, so he may have been a tad rusty even though he hit really well.

We have to remember that we only had one preseason All-American guy, and he still hasn't played at all. Once Collins is back and gets in a groove, along with Smith, Rea, and Humphreys, you throw those guys into a lineup with Robson, Heck, and Gridley, and suddenly you have an extremely dangerous lineup.

I was far more pleasantly surprised by our pitching this weekend than I was disappointed in the offense.

[smootness]

Also, if our RPI is looking good, we could always reschedule that SWAC game if we needed the extra win.

[HancockCountyDog]

This is as good as I have felt about our baseball team since we made our CWS a two years ago. I think we are a top 5 team in the country right now, and I think we are on our way to a national seed. We are 13-0 and we haven't been playing our best ball. Read that sentence again.

[smootness]

This is as good as I have felt about our baseball team since we made our CWS a two years ago. I think we are a top 5 team in the country right now, and I think we are on our way to a national seed. We are 13-0 and we haven't been playing our best ball. Read that sentence again.

Yep, and Cohen's teams always seem to start a little slow and pick it up during the SEC schedule to peak at the end of the year. The CWS team had a similar start to this one, though they didn't play anybody as good as Arizona and then finished the OOC schedule with back-to-back losses to Central Arkansas. I do think this team can definitely have a better regular season than that team did, though that team just played unbelievably well late in the year. We have the potential to do that, though. The pitching on this team is just so deep. The 2013 team essentially relied on Graveman, Girodo, Mitchell, and Holder to carry them.

[Dawg61]

13-0

Upcoming games...

Ark PB
San Diego x 3
WKU x 2
Bama x 3

How long can we go before we lose?

Dude you just jinxed us! It's like a no-hitter. You don't talk about it while it's going on. Rookie

[maroonmania]

Also, if our RPI is looking good, we could always reschedule that SWAC game if we needed the extra win.

Keeping the RPI up is always better than padding a win total and bringing the RPI down. We DON'T need to reschedule. We've got plenty of SWAC games already.

[Todd4State]

I could see us struggling against some teams with very solid pitching and sound defense that make you earn your runs. Right now we are depending a lot on walks and HBPs to get guys on and then being active on the bases to get them around. If a team can play very sound in the field and make us get guys around with hits they could slow us down. I was disappointed that we had single digit hits in all 4 games this weekend especially for the 2 games against Samford's pitching. On the flip side, our pitching was really solid this weekend and really has been all year. The only guy to really get hit pretty well over the weekend was Laster and he spread out the hits enough to avoid giving up very many runs.

That's the good thing though- we don't have to get three hits in a row to score a run. We just have to get on and then we can steal bases or do whatever we do. That's why I like having speed and guys that can bunt well in a lineup- sometimes that can be the difference in a close game against dominant pitching. Now, I like having power too because if you have all singles hitter, sometimes they can get overpowered and sometimes you get into a slugfest- but we have the personnel to cover that as well if we get into one. So, it goes both ways. Interestingly enough sometimes if you have all power guys- you end up with a bunch of guys that strike out a lot and they can be really streaky. Like the Braves last year.

I feel like if you have some of both 4-5 power guys and 4-5 speed guys you get the best of both worlds and you can adapt a little bit better. Of course good pitching and defense are constants.

You mention that someone will play a clean game against us defensively and beat us- you are right. Laws of averages- but I guarantee you we won't make it easy on them unless someone comes out and strikes out like 21 of our hitters or something.

You also mentioned us walking a lot- that's because we have really good plate discipline and unlike last year we aren't trying to do too much at the plate. You never know, but I don't see that trend changing with us this year.

[Todd4State]

Also, if our RPI is looking good, we could always reschedule that SWAC game if we needed the extra win.

I will be shocked if that game is played. The only conceivable way I could see that happening is if Valley is the best SWAC team ever and swept Alabama, Arkansas, and Memphis and somehow got their RPI up to 100. And I'm not really even sure if that's mathematically possible for them to be honest with you.

[Todd4State]

Yep, and Cohen's teams always seem to start a little slow and pick it up during the SEC schedule to peak at the end of the year. The CWS team had a similar start to this one, though they didn't play anybody as good as Arizona and then finished the OOC schedule with back-to-back losses to Central Arkansas. I do think this team can definitely have a better regular season than that team did, though that team just played unbelievably well late in the year. We have the potential to do that, though. The pitching on this team is just so deep. The 2013 team essentially relied on Graveman, Girodo, Mitchell, and Holder to carry them.

People talk a lot about Stratton, but Graveman was a really good ace for us. Very underrated pitcher by some of our fans IMO. Lindgren was pretty good until the Vandy series- and I think they got into his head for some reason and he really wasn't the same the rest of the year. Pollorena was pretty gutsy too- as was Bracewell.

[Todd4State]

Keeping the RPI up is always better than padding a win total and bringing the RPI down. We DON'T need to reschedule. We've got plenty of SWAC games already.

The only way we would need another win is if we were like 28-27 going into the SEC Tournament. Assuming we made the SEC Tournament which considering our OOC win total thus far my guess is we wouldn't have made it.

[Todd4State]

13-0

Upcoming games...

Ark PB
San Diego x 3
WKU x 2
Bama x 3

How long can we go before we lose?

I know it's clich?, but we need to focus on Arkansas Pine-Bluff and San Diego first. And then go from there.

[State82]

I know it's clich?, but we need to focus on Arkansas Pine-Bluff and San Diego first. And then go from there.

Exactly. Remember, we beat Alabama A&M 2-1. And we were lucky to get that.

[smootness]

I know it's clich?, but we need to focus on Arkansas Pine-Bluff and San Diego first. And then go from there.

Obviously the team does, but I'm ok with looking ahead and speculating.

I doubt we make it through that Alabama series undefeated, though. Of course, I doubted we would be undefeated at this point as well. It would require some good fortune, but we should at least win a large majority of them.

[Bothrops]

We know how baseball is and we could lose 3 or 4 games between SD, WKU and Bama. Let's just hope we don't look ahead and concentrate on winning one game at a time. Sounds cliche, but it's human nature to lose focus in the midst of success. We can win all, or nearly all of these games if we keep that one game approach mindset. Tough to do sometimes.

[msstate7]

Anyone remember this thread? God, it seems like 23 years ago haha

[BulldogBear]

......softball game to resume at 10:20 pm!!!

Who saw this night comin' back yonder?

[msstate7]

......softball game to resume at 10:20 pm!!!

Who saw this night comin' back yonder?

I certainly did not. I thought we were a good team. I was wrong