Todd4State
04-24-2016, 08:08 PM
It was GREAT to get another road series win in the SEC! You know we are playing well against LSU when Manieri gets his panties in a wad and starts throwing his players under the bus while at the same time belittling our pitcher's stuff. Hilarous to see Lange stare down our dugout down two and hilarious to watch the Jordan brothers try to fire up their team while our guys just ram strikes down their throats. I have seen LSU play in person against ULL and when I saw them I thought we would win the series. The only thing that gave me cause for pause was Sexton's hamstring- but he answered that question for me which was why I predicted 1-2 last weekend. A healthy Sexton I would have gone 2-1 us. Glad I was wrong and that's why I don't gamble- eve with vcash.
Dakota struggled some- but I wouldn't read too much into it. A LOT of their hits weren't hit hard and to their credit they are one of the better hitting teams in the SEC. Also, three of Hudson's runs came because we left him in with a big lead trying to get through the game and he just lost his command and then Rigby allowed a grand slam which caused Dakota to be charged with three of those runs. The team that we face from here on out don't hit as well as LSU- and I think Auburn's stats are skewed by playing a lot of SWAC teams plus their ballpark, plus they have the leading hitter in the SEC. He'll be better- as will all of our pitchers- after facing the gauntlet that we have been going through.
Sexton pitched one of the best games I have seen this year. Especially considering his hamstring and how he has performed the last two games. His change up was flat out nasty. He attacked the zone all night and just frustrated LSU all night and nearly gave Manieri a heart attack and also nearly causing LSU's first baseman to get cut from the team. When his change up is really on, it just seems to explode. Ben McDonald thought he was missing his spots- I think Sexton just had THAT much movement plus Elih needs to work on framing pitches a little bit better.
I thought Pilkington pitched really well and then the defense let him down. I may get some disagreement here- but I think the defense let us down more than our pitching did. Our defense not getting outs forced us to use the bullpen more and got us in bad situations all day long. We made four errors- scored and mental- and all except one allowed a run to score. That said, Pilkington still hasn't been able to get deep into a game yet- and the most he has thrown this year is 5 against Mississippi Valley State. We need to let Zac Houston try to be the Sunday guy IMO- and he probably will be auditioning for that Tuesday.
Reid Humphreys was a baller all weekend on the mound. He is the closer- and now he has apparently picked up a cutter. Daniel Brown continues to look good. Ryan Rigby had a rough weekend- although he looked better today than Friday. He's looking more like a one inning guy lately. Hilarious that the announcers thought he was hitting guys because of the "LSU atmosphere". Yeah- that totally explains why he was nailing the outside corner even when he was struggling. It was a mechanical issue- and one that looks like we fixed based on today. I thought Jacob Billingley did a good job yet again. He needs to pitch more. Obviously I like Houston better as a starting pitcher- I've seen a couple of his bullpens before games and he just takes a long time to get loose. If he does happen to get loose- see Sunday vs. Florida. Tatum walked his guy but he kept the ball down at least. He's not there yet- but that's some progress. Paul Young needs to challenge hitters more and trust his stuff. Good to get Breaux, Keegan, and Small into the game as freshmen even though they took some lumps today.
Elih is going to be one of the best catchers we've ever had a MSU by the time he leaves in two years. LSU leads the SEC in steals and for the most part he controlled their running game and threw some guys out. But today he showed that he is still a freshman throwing a ball into CF when he should have held on to it and sometimes he doesn't get his body in front of balls. Those are things that are going to be fixed with experience and reps. But the worst thing is he is not hitting at all right now. If he keeps hitting like this, we're going to have to go to Kruger once Robson comes back and we have to move Rooker to DH.
Nate Lowe had a really good series- his grand slam got us going. He keeps getting better and better at the plate. Of course he screwed up the pop up on the infield- and I don't know what happened there. But uncharacteristic of him. There was probably some miscommunication on that play as well. Gavin was solid all weekend- his error today was tough because he slipped. He had a key double in game one and he has been a great leader for us all year long. He will be hitting over .300 by the end of the year.
Hunter Stovall is kind of like Elih in that he has a lot of talent and is going to be really good- but he had some freshman moments as well. He let a ball go through his legs and he has been swinging at everything that they throw up to the plate that is in the area code. But again, like Elih he did some good things like getting a huge double Friday night. Those are things that get cleaned up with reps and AB's. I like the fact that he is 6/6 on stolen base attempts this year. He's going to get even better at that as time goes along too. Gridley was really solid all weekend long and made some really nice plays. He looks like he is starting to get out of his slump too. He is another guy that will be over .300 by the end of the year too. We need to get LA back healthy because even with an injured hand he has a home run and a single and he is our best infielder defensively.
Rooker had a solid weekend- he had a double today and he gunned out a runner at the plate. Mangum is probably LSU's public enemy number one right now. On the "routine play" where LSU's first baseman had his foot off the bag- Mangum was hustling and it caused the play to be rushed which led to that. He also had a triple on Saturday and then had a couple of RBI's today. He went 6/13 for the weekend. The announcers compared him to Ichiro in that he makes things happen when he is at the plate. The only flaw I see in his game is he needs to work on his drag bunting a little bit. Hopefully he and Robson are hanging out and working on that some in practice. Reid still gets caught looking too much- which is why I think he will be a pitcher in pro ball. He did drive in the winning run Saturday on a SAC fly which was good hitting on his part. He also had three RBI's today and scored three runs on Friday- all of that despite having only two hits on the weekend. Kruger looks better at the plate right now- his home run got us going on Saturday and it got LSU on their heels. He also did a good job going opposite field on a single today to get a rally started.
Right now we are in the middle of the National Seed converstion- which is where you want to be right now and we are in good shape at the moment. Some of our fans don't want to believe it because they keep bringing up EKU. But the fact of the matter is we have series wins on the road against Vanderbilt, Florida, LSU, and a home series win over Ole Miss. And then you throw in OOC wins over USM and South Alabama for good measure- that's a pretty impressive resume'. We're at the point now where we have to take care of business. And even though the schedule lightens up- it's not going to be easy.
First up is Ole Miss in the Governor's Cup. Last year we were embarrassed in this game. We just didn't compete at all. Ole Miss is a pretty good team this year and with their RPI being high it would be huge for us to win this. We're going to get their best shot because they hate us. This is probably our most difficult OOC game this year. We'll see how Cohen plays it, but my guess is we will go with Houston on the mound to start with. Ole Miss hasn't seen him yet and he did a good job starting in Biloxi last week. Plus he didn't throw very many pitches today. I'm sure we are going to throw a lot of guys- and this may end up being Houston's audition for the Sunday job. Also- if you are going to the game, the game time is 6:00. My tickets say 6:30- so a heads up on that.
Then on Thursday we play Alabama and they are a very good team despite the fact that they aren't Florida/TexaA&M good. Their pitching staff is one of the best in the SEC. But they were dead last in hitting coming into this weekend. We are going to need Hudson and Sexton to be on to win the series because I don't think we will sweep them with our Sunday pitcher situation the way it is right now. To me, they're a very dangerous team and it's going to be tough for us on the road even though we have played better on the road. But at the same time having played some of the better hitting teams in the SEC in Florida, A&M, and LSU is going to pay off for us and I think we will see that sooner than later these last four weekend series.
Great weekend overall and Hail State!
Dakota struggled some- but I wouldn't read too much into it. A LOT of their hits weren't hit hard and to their credit they are one of the better hitting teams in the SEC. Also, three of Hudson's runs came because we left him in with a big lead trying to get through the game and he just lost his command and then Rigby allowed a grand slam which caused Dakota to be charged with three of those runs. The team that we face from here on out don't hit as well as LSU- and I think Auburn's stats are skewed by playing a lot of SWAC teams plus their ballpark, plus they have the leading hitter in the SEC. He'll be better- as will all of our pitchers- after facing the gauntlet that we have been going through.
Sexton pitched one of the best games I have seen this year. Especially considering his hamstring and how he has performed the last two games. His change up was flat out nasty. He attacked the zone all night and just frustrated LSU all night and nearly gave Manieri a heart attack and also nearly causing LSU's first baseman to get cut from the team. When his change up is really on, it just seems to explode. Ben McDonald thought he was missing his spots- I think Sexton just had THAT much movement plus Elih needs to work on framing pitches a little bit better.
I thought Pilkington pitched really well and then the defense let him down. I may get some disagreement here- but I think the defense let us down more than our pitching did. Our defense not getting outs forced us to use the bullpen more and got us in bad situations all day long. We made four errors- scored and mental- and all except one allowed a run to score. That said, Pilkington still hasn't been able to get deep into a game yet- and the most he has thrown this year is 5 against Mississippi Valley State. We need to let Zac Houston try to be the Sunday guy IMO- and he probably will be auditioning for that Tuesday.
Reid Humphreys was a baller all weekend on the mound. He is the closer- and now he has apparently picked up a cutter. Daniel Brown continues to look good. Ryan Rigby had a rough weekend- although he looked better today than Friday. He's looking more like a one inning guy lately. Hilarious that the announcers thought he was hitting guys because of the "LSU atmosphere". Yeah- that totally explains why he was nailing the outside corner even when he was struggling. It was a mechanical issue- and one that looks like we fixed based on today. I thought Jacob Billingley did a good job yet again. He needs to pitch more. Obviously I like Houston better as a starting pitcher- I've seen a couple of his bullpens before games and he just takes a long time to get loose. If he does happen to get loose- see Sunday vs. Florida. Tatum walked his guy but he kept the ball down at least. He's not there yet- but that's some progress. Paul Young needs to challenge hitters more and trust his stuff. Good to get Breaux, Keegan, and Small into the game as freshmen even though they took some lumps today.
Elih is going to be one of the best catchers we've ever had a MSU by the time he leaves in two years. LSU leads the SEC in steals and for the most part he controlled their running game and threw some guys out. But today he showed that he is still a freshman throwing a ball into CF when he should have held on to it and sometimes he doesn't get his body in front of balls. Those are things that are going to be fixed with experience and reps. But the worst thing is he is not hitting at all right now. If he keeps hitting like this, we're going to have to go to Kruger once Robson comes back and we have to move Rooker to DH.
Nate Lowe had a really good series- his grand slam got us going. He keeps getting better and better at the plate. Of course he screwed up the pop up on the infield- and I don't know what happened there. But uncharacteristic of him. There was probably some miscommunication on that play as well. Gavin was solid all weekend- his error today was tough because he slipped. He had a key double in game one and he has been a great leader for us all year long. He will be hitting over .300 by the end of the year.
Hunter Stovall is kind of like Elih in that he has a lot of talent and is going to be really good- but he had some freshman moments as well. He let a ball go through his legs and he has been swinging at everything that they throw up to the plate that is in the area code. But again, like Elih he did some good things like getting a huge double Friday night. Those are things that get cleaned up with reps and AB's. I like the fact that he is 6/6 on stolen base attempts this year. He's going to get even better at that as time goes along too. Gridley was really solid all weekend long and made some really nice plays. He looks like he is starting to get out of his slump too. He is another guy that will be over .300 by the end of the year too. We need to get LA back healthy because even with an injured hand he has a home run and a single and he is our best infielder defensively.
Rooker had a solid weekend- he had a double today and he gunned out a runner at the plate. Mangum is probably LSU's public enemy number one right now. On the "routine play" where LSU's first baseman had his foot off the bag- Mangum was hustling and it caused the play to be rushed which led to that. He also had a triple on Saturday and then had a couple of RBI's today. He went 6/13 for the weekend. The announcers compared him to Ichiro in that he makes things happen when he is at the plate. The only flaw I see in his game is he needs to work on his drag bunting a little bit. Hopefully he and Robson are hanging out and working on that some in practice. Reid still gets caught looking too much- which is why I think he will be a pitcher in pro ball. He did drive in the winning run Saturday on a SAC fly which was good hitting on his part. He also had three RBI's today and scored three runs on Friday- all of that despite having only two hits on the weekend. Kruger looks better at the plate right now- his home run got us going on Saturday and it got LSU on their heels. He also did a good job going opposite field on a single today to get a rally started.
Right now we are in the middle of the National Seed converstion- which is where you want to be right now and we are in good shape at the moment. Some of our fans don't want to believe it because they keep bringing up EKU. But the fact of the matter is we have series wins on the road against Vanderbilt, Florida, LSU, and a home series win over Ole Miss. And then you throw in OOC wins over USM and South Alabama for good measure- that's a pretty impressive resume'. We're at the point now where we have to take care of business. And even though the schedule lightens up- it's not going to be easy.
First up is Ole Miss in the Governor's Cup. Last year we were embarrassed in this game. We just didn't compete at all. Ole Miss is a pretty good team this year and with their RPI being high it would be huge for us to win this. We're going to get their best shot because they hate us. This is probably our most difficult OOC game this year. We'll see how Cohen plays it, but my guess is we will go with Houston on the mound to start with. Ole Miss hasn't seen him yet and he did a good job starting in Biloxi last week. Plus he didn't throw very many pitches today. I'm sure we are going to throw a lot of guys- and this may end up being Houston's audition for the Sunday job. Also- if you are going to the game, the game time is 6:00. My tickets say 6:30- so a heads up on that.
Then on Thursday we play Alabama and they are a very good team despite the fact that they aren't Florida/TexaA&M good. Their pitching staff is one of the best in the SEC. But they were dead last in hitting coming into this weekend. We are going to need Hudson and Sexton to be on to win the series because I don't think we will sweep them with our Sunday pitcher situation the way it is right now. To me, they're a very dangerous team and it's going to be tough for us on the road even though we have played better on the road. But at the same time having played some of the better hitting teams in the SEC in Florida, A&M, and LSU is going to pay off for us and I think we will see that sooner than later these last four weekend series.
Great weekend overall and Hail State!