Todd4State
04-10-2016, 11:53 PM
I can't overstate how huge that series win was for us, and it's GREAT to see the MSU nation excited about this team probably moreso than any other time since our CWS run. Florida is legit team and is very talented- and our guys not only hung in there with them, we played them pitch for pitch and actually outplayed them. We'll certainly be top five with all of the other things that happened around the country if I had to guess. I actually wished that Florida had pitched AJ Puk today because I think we would have lit him up since he is left handed and we typically hit them pretty well. O'Sullivan had the same thought as me. I did miss the game Saturday because I had to go to the French Quarter Festival- but once I saw that we won I gave a nice fistpump on the street car. People probably thought I was insane or had too much to drink. Worth it though.
Dakota has been so good it's shocking when he gives up a run. I think he will rebound pretty quickly though- he wasn't really hit that hard plus our defense let us down some on Friday- and you can't do that against Florida in Gainesville. It was pretty apparent that their gameplan was to try to work Hudson and Sexton's pitch count up and get into the bullpen. I was worried about Sexton because of his home/road splits- he is MUCH better at home but at the same time we have won every game he has pitched this year except one against FAU. Sexton looked good for a couple of innings and then we got the big lead- but unfortunately he stopped getting people out. Great job by Cohen of getting him out of there before Florida made a game of it. I thought Konnor Pilkington pitched his tail off today- but the thing that scares me is he is not going to go deep into the game at least at this point. He battled and found a way to do what Daniel Brown and Keegan James weren't able to do the past three weeks- and that's not give up runs and give us a chance to win the game.
I guarantee you Florida thought that they were going to beat up on our bullpen. Rigby, Houston, and Humphreys messed that up for them. Rigby had one of the key plays in the series when he got a double play and then a strike out to keep our lead at six and keep Florida off the board. He was a warrior all night long Saturday night. Houston maybe has turned the corner. He was outstanding in relief today- getting out of a jam and basically allowing us to not have to piece together our bullpen to win. I also thought Jacob Billingsley pitched well for his one inning on Friday night- getting a K and a double play. Humphreys did a good job too- he got out of a HUGE jam and I don't mind the solo shot home run he allowed in that situation- you HAVE to throw strikes there and he did. And then he got the next guy out- just as he got the Florida announcers excited only to rip their little hearts out. If Rigsby, Houston, and Billingsley keep pitching like they are our bullpen is going to be viable going forward. I wouldn't be surprised if Tatum and Blake Smith follow suit as well. And then we have Ethan Small too.
Elih Marrero has been incredible this year- he just needs to clean up his defense a little bit. But he's hitting a LOT better than I anticipated. He has a really good approach at the plate and isn't afraid to go opposite field. Thank goodness he didn't hurt himself on the obstruction no call. Poor judgement by their third baseman. To me it was a bad call not because of the fake tag but because it looked like Elih tripped over India's foot- which by definition is obstruction. If the announcers weren't such homers they would have picked up on it. I think because Elih tripped- that was why his slide wasn't pretty. Elih was 6 out of 14 with a double and a triple and is now over .300
Nate Lowe continues his surge and went 5 for 13 with a double this weekend. He got royally screwed when the umpire called him out looking on a pitch that was a crossup and was actually in the other batters box. Anyway, all of a sudden he is up to .323. Gavin was solid again- he made a key play on a HIGH chopper where the runner was called out but was probably safe. But I'll give him credit since we were on the short end of the stick multiple times this weekend. Nice game Saturday by him.
Stovall didn't have a hit but I still think he should start over Holland. I would complain about Holland's no home run but I don't know the ground rules off that ballpark. Rooker HAS TO score on that play. Most ballparks have a yellow line, but not Gainesville. Gridley's home run was HUGE today- it gave us the lead and some confidence. He was eaten up by some balls but he also made some nice plays and is solid for us at SS.
Reid had a nice game at the plate Saturday with a couple of doubles- he is good for that at least once a weekend. Jake Mangum is a badass. 6 for 14 with a triple of the weekend and he's hitting over .400. He's starting to play more under control too. Cody Brown made a HUGE throw to gun down their runner at the plate and his grand slam got us rolling on Saturday. If Jake Mangum is a badass then Cody Brown is his father. Brent Rooker had a double and eventually scored the winning run although it seemed like pulling teeth to get him in. Even though we did fine without him, we need to get Robson back ASAP. I expect him back by SBW or by the time we play ULM in Biloxi. We need to find a way to get Kruger involved too.
Looking ahead we have RPI killer Memphis on Weds. They are currently at 215 as I type this. The thing about them is if you look closely they have only won one midweek game this year- that was to Arkansas-Pine Bluff by a score of 6-5. We HAVE TO win that game. They do play a respectable Austin Peay team the day before so they probably will have to use some pitching to get through that game. The interesting thing to me is going to be who are we going to pitch against them as far as who is going to start against them. My guess would be Kale Breaux or Keegan James. If Houston and Rigby keep pitching like they have- we should be fine. It would be good to get Tatum. Smith, and Daniel Brown going again too though. This is our last home midweek game of the year and if the rest of our OOC opponents maintain their RPI- ULM and Troy are top 100 and Ole Miss is top 5 our RPI should take care of itself if we take care of business.
And then we have Texas A&M for SBW. They're a solid team and now thanks to us they actually have a better record at home than Florida does. They struggled with Florida and then lost to a good Rice team on the road before kicking Georgia's ass in this weekend. In light of the fact of who we have beaten this year, we are no doubt capable of winning the series against them. But it's not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination either. With all due respect to the other teams that are coming to Starkville, A&M is probably the most difficult that we have left as far as home opponents go. They're a good hitting team so we're going to need Hudson and Sexton to get back to their old form to shut them down. We're going to need the bullpen to keep doing what they are doing and we need Pilkington to pitch like he did today. If we get Robson back it would be helpful too. We just have to keep doing what we are doing and just work on improving our defense a little bit.
But the biggest thing we need to do as fans is break the attendance record for SBW. These guys have certainly earned it.
Dakota has been so good it's shocking when he gives up a run. I think he will rebound pretty quickly though- he wasn't really hit that hard plus our defense let us down some on Friday- and you can't do that against Florida in Gainesville. It was pretty apparent that their gameplan was to try to work Hudson and Sexton's pitch count up and get into the bullpen. I was worried about Sexton because of his home/road splits- he is MUCH better at home but at the same time we have won every game he has pitched this year except one against FAU. Sexton looked good for a couple of innings and then we got the big lead- but unfortunately he stopped getting people out. Great job by Cohen of getting him out of there before Florida made a game of it. I thought Konnor Pilkington pitched his tail off today- but the thing that scares me is he is not going to go deep into the game at least at this point. He battled and found a way to do what Daniel Brown and Keegan James weren't able to do the past three weeks- and that's not give up runs and give us a chance to win the game.
I guarantee you Florida thought that they were going to beat up on our bullpen. Rigby, Houston, and Humphreys messed that up for them. Rigby had one of the key plays in the series when he got a double play and then a strike out to keep our lead at six and keep Florida off the board. He was a warrior all night long Saturday night. Houston maybe has turned the corner. He was outstanding in relief today- getting out of a jam and basically allowing us to not have to piece together our bullpen to win. I also thought Jacob Billingsley pitched well for his one inning on Friday night- getting a K and a double play. Humphreys did a good job too- he got out of a HUGE jam and I don't mind the solo shot home run he allowed in that situation- you HAVE to throw strikes there and he did. And then he got the next guy out- just as he got the Florida announcers excited only to rip their little hearts out. If Rigsby, Houston, and Billingsley keep pitching like they are our bullpen is going to be viable going forward. I wouldn't be surprised if Tatum and Blake Smith follow suit as well. And then we have Ethan Small too.
Elih Marrero has been incredible this year- he just needs to clean up his defense a little bit. But he's hitting a LOT better than I anticipated. He has a really good approach at the plate and isn't afraid to go opposite field. Thank goodness he didn't hurt himself on the obstruction no call. Poor judgement by their third baseman. To me it was a bad call not because of the fake tag but because it looked like Elih tripped over India's foot- which by definition is obstruction. If the announcers weren't such homers they would have picked up on it. I think because Elih tripped- that was why his slide wasn't pretty. Elih was 6 out of 14 with a double and a triple and is now over .300
Nate Lowe continues his surge and went 5 for 13 with a double this weekend. He got royally screwed when the umpire called him out looking on a pitch that was a crossup and was actually in the other batters box. Anyway, all of a sudden he is up to .323. Gavin was solid again- he made a key play on a HIGH chopper where the runner was called out but was probably safe. But I'll give him credit since we were on the short end of the stick multiple times this weekend. Nice game Saturday by him.
Stovall didn't have a hit but I still think he should start over Holland. I would complain about Holland's no home run but I don't know the ground rules off that ballpark. Rooker HAS TO score on that play. Most ballparks have a yellow line, but not Gainesville. Gridley's home run was HUGE today- it gave us the lead and some confidence. He was eaten up by some balls but he also made some nice plays and is solid for us at SS.
Reid had a nice game at the plate Saturday with a couple of doubles- he is good for that at least once a weekend. Jake Mangum is a badass. 6 for 14 with a triple of the weekend and he's hitting over .400. He's starting to play more under control too. Cody Brown made a HUGE throw to gun down their runner at the plate and his grand slam got us rolling on Saturday. If Jake Mangum is a badass then Cody Brown is his father. Brent Rooker had a double and eventually scored the winning run although it seemed like pulling teeth to get him in. Even though we did fine without him, we need to get Robson back ASAP. I expect him back by SBW or by the time we play ULM in Biloxi. We need to find a way to get Kruger involved too.
Looking ahead we have RPI killer Memphis on Weds. They are currently at 215 as I type this. The thing about them is if you look closely they have only won one midweek game this year- that was to Arkansas-Pine Bluff by a score of 6-5. We HAVE TO win that game. They do play a respectable Austin Peay team the day before so they probably will have to use some pitching to get through that game. The interesting thing to me is going to be who are we going to pitch against them as far as who is going to start against them. My guess would be Kale Breaux or Keegan James. If Houston and Rigby keep pitching like they have- we should be fine. It would be good to get Tatum. Smith, and Daniel Brown going again too though. This is our last home midweek game of the year and if the rest of our OOC opponents maintain their RPI- ULM and Troy are top 100 and Ole Miss is top 5 our RPI should take care of itself if we take care of business.
And then we have Texas A&M for SBW. They're a solid team and now thanks to us they actually have a better record at home than Florida does. They struggled with Florida and then lost to a good Rice team on the road before kicking Georgia's ass in this weekend. In light of the fact of who we have beaten this year, we are no doubt capable of winning the series against them. But it's not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination either. With all due respect to the other teams that are coming to Starkville, A&M is probably the most difficult that we have left as far as home opponents go. They're a good hitting team so we're going to need Hudson and Sexton to get back to their old form to shut them down. We're going to need the bullpen to keep doing what they are doing and we need Pilkington to pitch like he did today. If we get Robson back it would be helpful too. We just have to keep doing what we are doing and just work on improving our defense a little bit.
But the biggest thing we need to do as fans is break the attendance record for SBW. These guys have certainly earned it.