Todd4State
03-30-2016, 12:38 AM
I have a special dislike for USM baseball ever since they tried to arrest Ron Polk for arguing with an umpire. So, I always enjoy beating the ever living crap out of them.
We have some bullpen issues- but we also have some potential solutions in Rigby and Humphreys. Both need to pitch more. If that means DH Humphreys from here on out, so be it. And I like Kruger a lot- but we have more issues with the bullpen than we do with the offense right now. Rigby was lights out tonight- and he proved he could go three against a RH heavy lineup. Humphreys was the pleasant surprise to me in that he was able to go two and dominate. That is potentially HUGE for us if he can eat up 3-4 innings weekend as opposed to 1-2. Tatum is STILL keeping the ball up in the zone too much- and it's as straight as an arrow. He's a fly ball pitcher at this point. I did feel bad in that he had some bad luck on the check swing hit that we should have eaten up in hindsight- but I have no problem with us trying to make that play at that point in the game. Tatum is allowing WAY too much solid contact lately. I'm no pitching guru- but my guess is Tatum needs to get his arm up a little more to get the ball to go DOWN. Sorry for going RogueDawg on everyone there for a second with mechanics.
Pilkington did a good job. Tonight was his chance to show that he was ready for the SEC- and while I can't say he failed the test, I can't say he passed it either. He just didn't go quite deep enough and he was pretty much done by the fourth inning. Don't get me wrong- he pitched well overall and did a good job. He's just not ready yet- like a freshman QB wouldn't be ready either. If we do throw him on Sunday's, we're going to have to manage it like we did tonight with the exception of using Tatum. Everyone sees the result, and it may very well get down to that.
Also- no walks and 11 K's. It doesn't get a lot better than that.
Everyone that started on offense had a hit tonight except for Cody Brown- and even he had good at bats and walked twice and part of that was because USM matched up a lot of his AB's. One thing that stood out to me was how well we ran the bases. Honestly, it was probably the best I have ever seen under Cohen. That's one reason why we were able to put pressure on them. I will say that USM's OF's weren't very good defensively- and we took FULL advantage of it. And at the risk of this turning into another long ridiculous thread- we bunted the ball VERY well tonight. The squeeze play by Gridley was beautiful and I think it swung momentum back into our favor. THAT is why I like bunting- because if you use it properly you can do things like that sometimes. Two other times we bunted to lead off an inning- so that obviously wasn't a SAC situation. We did have a SAC bunt- and we cashed it into a run. Good execution on our part there as well. When you combine small ball with the power that we now have added to the lineup, we all see the results and it's pretty good. I was also very impressed at how we took quality at bats throughout the game even though they threw a lot of different pitchers at us.
Marrero is really good- he has had his issues defensively but most of that is being a freshman and not being all that familiar with our pitchers as he will when he is a junior. Very good hitting approach as well.
GREAT to see Nate Lowe have a good night at the plate after all the rotten luck he has had. The "double" he had USM's LF lost the ball I guess- and their SS did a great job to even get a glove on it. I thought Gavin had the key play of the game turning a double play in the first inning on a rocket that could have put USM up a couple of runs with one out. He doesn't make that play three weeks ago- and he looks so much better than he did even against Oregon. Kudos to whomever is hitting him ground balls in Starkville because no doubt they are spending hours doing it.
Gridley was outstanding tonight- he had several key hits and did a great job on the squeeze play. He did make an error but I can live it because we were up by several runs and it was a really tough play to make. Holland did OK- he does look better defensively to me than he did last year.
Mangum is playing very well. He did a nice job in the first inning getting Robson home and that along with Robson's triple set the tone for us. I'll be honest- I thought Robson was about to have ANOTHER inside the park home run. A little surprised we stopped him. No worse for wear though. Robson also had the SAC bunt- which is not the worst idea because he is more likely to beat it out than anyone else on our team. Cody had a tough night- but still battled. I wish he had made the over the shoulder diving grab when Tatum was pitching but that was an extremely tough play. Even when he doesn't get a hit, I LOVE the way he plays.
Humphreys had two of the worst AB's for us early- but to his credit he picked it up later and came up with some big hits. He has improved a lot.
Next up is Ole Miss in Starkville. It's going to be tough because they will sell their wives to beat us. See their football recruiting as exhibit A. They've played pretty well this year up until last week and they play Memphis at Autozone tomorrow. We need to keep doing what we are doing- and hopefully we find someone that can pitch on Sunday.
Finally- good to see Ross Mitchell throw out the first pitch tonight.
Hail State my friends.
We have some bullpen issues- but we also have some potential solutions in Rigby and Humphreys. Both need to pitch more. If that means DH Humphreys from here on out, so be it. And I like Kruger a lot- but we have more issues with the bullpen than we do with the offense right now. Rigby was lights out tonight- and he proved he could go three against a RH heavy lineup. Humphreys was the pleasant surprise to me in that he was able to go two and dominate. That is potentially HUGE for us if he can eat up 3-4 innings weekend as opposed to 1-2. Tatum is STILL keeping the ball up in the zone too much- and it's as straight as an arrow. He's a fly ball pitcher at this point. I did feel bad in that he had some bad luck on the check swing hit that we should have eaten up in hindsight- but I have no problem with us trying to make that play at that point in the game. Tatum is allowing WAY too much solid contact lately. I'm no pitching guru- but my guess is Tatum needs to get his arm up a little more to get the ball to go DOWN. Sorry for going RogueDawg on everyone there for a second with mechanics.
Pilkington did a good job. Tonight was his chance to show that he was ready for the SEC- and while I can't say he failed the test, I can't say he passed it either. He just didn't go quite deep enough and he was pretty much done by the fourth inning. Don't get me wrong- he pitched well overall and did a good job. He's just not ready yet- like a freshman QB wouldn't be ready either. If we do throw him on Sunday's, we're going to have to manage it like we did tonight with the exception of using Tatum. Everyone sees the result, and it may very well get down to that.
Also- no walks and 11 K's. It doesn't get a lot better than that.
Everyone that started on offense had a hit tonight except for Cody Brown- and even he had good at bats and walked twice and part of that was because USM matched up a lot of his AB's. One thing that stood out to me was how well we ran the bases. Honestly, it was probably the best I have ever seen under Cohen. That's one reason why we were able to put pressure on them. I will say that USM's OF's weren't very good defensively- and we took FULL advantage of it. And at the risk of this turning into another long ridiculous thread- we bunted the ball VERY well tonight. The squeeze play by Gridley was beautiful and I think it swung momentum back into our favor. THAT is why I like bunting- because if you use it properly you can do things like that sometimes. Two other times we bunted to lead off an inning- so that obviously wasn't a SAC situation. We did have a SAC bunt- and we cashed it into a run. Good execution on our part there as well. When you combine small ball with the power that we now have added to the lineup, we all see the results and it's pretty good. I was also very impressed at how we took quality at bats throughout the game even though they threw a lot of different pitchers at us.
Marrero is really good- he has had his issues defensively but most of that is being a freshman and not being all that familiar with our pitchers as he will when he is a junior. Very good hitting approach as well.
GREAT to see Nate Lowe have a good night at the plate after all the rotten luck he has had. The "double" he had USM's LF lost the ball I guess- and their SS did a great job to even get a glove on it. I thought Gavin had the key play of the game turning a double play in the first inning on a rocket that could have put USM up a couple of runs with one out. He doesn't make that play three weeks ago- and he looks so much better than he did even against Oregon. Kudos to whomever is hitting him ground balls in Starkville because no doubt they are spending hours doing it.
Gridley was outstanding tonight- he had several key hits and did a great job on the squeeze play. He did make an error but I can live it because we were up by several runs and it was a really tough play to make. Holland did OK- he does look better defensively to me than he did last year.
Mangum is playing very well. He did a nice job in the first inning getting Robson home and that along with Robson's triple set the tone for us. I'll be honest- I thought Robson was about to have ANOTHER inside the park home run. A little surprised we stopped him. No worse for wear though. Robson also had the SAC bunt- which is not the worst idea because he is more likely to beat it out than anyone else on our team. Cody had a tough night- but still battled. I wish he had made the over the shoulder diving grab when Tatum was pitching but that was an extremely tough play. Even when he doesn't get a hit, I LOVE the way he plays.
Humphreys had two of the worst AB's for us early- but to his credit he picked it up later and came up with some big hits. He has improved a lot.
Next up is Ole Miss in Starkville. It's going to be tough because they will sell their wives to beat us. See their football recruiting as exhibit A. They've played pretty well this year up until last week and they play Memphis at Autozone tomorrow. We need to keep doing what we are doing- and hopefully we find someone that can pitch on Sunday.
Finally- good to see Ross Mitchell throw out the first pitch tonight.
Hail State my friends.