Todd4State
04-10-2017, 01:32 AM
Well, Brent Rooker had a pretty good week at the plate. It's good to end the SBW curse. I was in attendance when we beat Ole Miss in 2014 the last time we won before this weekend and so I thought maybe I should try going back since I haven't been to a SBW since then- and sure enough on Saturday we had another memorable game with me there. I'm going to take the credit for that.
Brent Rooker was absolutely incredible. He was just absolutely locked in and it was impressive to see him on Saturday in person. We're down 3-2 and up steps Rooker against a LH pitcher that had an ERA of 2.22 and the bases loaded and he hits a ball to Tupelo. That really swung the momentum in our favor and I think changed the series. We had just split with FIU and then lost a tough game the night before and were down to a good team and that one blow changed everything. Then he hits two more. Including one off of their relief pitcher who was throwing 94 and had an ERA just north of 1.00. And on top of that he's playing really well at first base too.
It's incredible what Gary Henderson has been doing with our pitching staff. No one pay attention to our ERA because it's not going to tell the whole story here. We literally have to throw guys out there and see who sticks since the only really consistent guy is Price. And we have to be careful not to overwork him. That was one of the bad things about the FIU series- you knew going in that we were going to have to use our big gun relief pitchers and couldn't let them rest. Thankfully we don't have to do that anymore- and I hope that going forward the only time we play a game on Weds is before SEC play. If we're going to do Tues/Weds during SEC play I hope the Weds game is against a SWAC team. It's water under the bridge now. Pilkington needs to get deeper into games for us. He pitched well, but he walked too many guys and their hitters worked him out of the game and got into our bullpen. My hat is off to Trey Jolley, Peyton Plumlee, Riley Self and after the first inning Cole Gordon. They were all great this weekend. And Price nailed down the four out save. Hopefully we can rest him up this week until the South Carolina game. Barton needs to get back into his groove. I thought Denver McQuary was good for an inning or so. We need to get Billingsley and Ashcraft back ASAP- maybe even this week.
Lovelady has done a good job with the pitching staff. He needs to do a better job blocking/catching balls sometimes. He had a passed ball on a strikeout- we have to be leading the NCAA in that category- which kept an inning going Friday night and hurt us. That said, he has been hitting better than he ever has in his career- even though he has cooled off some and only had one hit this weekend which was a double. Maybe some AB's against Valley will get him going again. I'd split Tuesday between him and Skelton to give Lovelady some rest and also to get Skelton some action.
It was good to see Stovall back and I was worried that his bat would take a few games to crank up- but he hit well all weekend. He actually got his average up to .327 and added a double. He makes us better on the infield and the outfield because it allows us to move Cody Brown back to his natural position. And even better- he played full speed with no hamstring issues. I thought LA looked better than he did last time I saw him in Memphis. He had a couple of singles and he was solid for us defensively. I think his bat will get better and better as the season goes along. Gridley has been hitting better and has had three multiple hit games in his last four games and he is on a four game hitting streak. I enjoyed his two out two RBI single after Rooker was intentionally walked on Saturday.
No one noticed but Cody Brown had a really good weekend too. He hit a couple of home runs including an inside the park home run and he hit .500 for the weekend. Every good team has a Cody Brown on it. Jake Mangum didn't have the best weekend for him- he hurt his hand and got hit hard on the mound- but he still made a lot happen and hit .300. He scored on a passed ball in game one, got hit by pitches twice setting up Rooker to do some damage and then he had a triple which gave us a three run lead after he came around to score on an error. He made a very nice diving play in CF on Saturday too. The other outfield spot is a revolving door but Elijah MacNamee should probably start in RF right now. He hit .500 this weekend and had a three hit game on Saturday. Congrats to Harrison Bragg on his first home run today. Hopefully he will take over as the DH and keep his average up over .300.
We had a good week all things considered. I think this team was dragging because of the emotion from the Ole Miss series and then having to play two midweek games- but I think Rooker's performance kind of re-energized the team. We're tied for first place in the SEC- and heck with a healthy pitching staff we might be 12-0 in the league right now for all I know. But it is what it is. We have a big week this week but the midweek should be easier with Valley. We don't want to underestimate them because losing to them would be catastrophic and probably kill our hopes at hosting. Valley has four wins- but one is over Arkansas State. Hopefully we'll see some of our pitchers like Billingsley (crossing fingers), Ford, and Mahoney throw and have a solid game. Then we have to play one of the teams that we're tied for first place with on the road in South Carolina. That's going to be tough because they have the best ERA in the league and one of the legit aces in the league on Friday night. It's going to take Pilkington pitching his best game all year to beat him I think. Another impressive thing about us this past week was we basically went toe to toe with the top hitting team in the SEC- and we pitched well enough to beat them. South Carolina is in the middle of the league in hitting- but they still have some dangerous hitters. If we win the series against them on the road- our chances of hosting improve quite a bit. Right now we're a high two seed if the season ended today if I had to guess. We'll see what happens this weekend.
Hail State!
Brent Rooker was absolutely incredible. He was just absolutely locked in and it was impressive to see him on Saturday in person. We're down 3-2 and up steps Rooker against a LH pitcher that had an ERA of 2.22 and the bases loaded and he hits a ball to Tupelo. That really swung the momentum in our favor and I think changed the series. We had just split with FIU and then lost a tough game the night before and were down to a good team and that one blow changed everything. Then he hits two more. Including one off of their relief pitcher who was throwing 94 and had an ERA just north of 1.00. And on top of that he's playing really well at first base too.
It's incredible what Gary Henderson has been doing with our pitching staff. No one pay attention to our ERA because it's not going to tell the whole story here. We literally have to throw guys out there and see who sticks since the only really consistent guy is Price. And we have to be careful not to overwork him. That was one of the bad things about the FIU series- you knew going in that we were going to have to use our big gun relief pitchers and couldn't let them rest. Thankfully we don't have to do that anymore- and I hope that going forward the only time we play a game on Weds is before SEC play. If we're going to do Tues/Weds during SEC play I hope the Weds game is against a SWAC team. It's water under the bridge now. Pilkington needs to get deeper into games for us. He pitched well, but he walked too many guys and their hitters worked him out of the game and got into our bullpen. My hat is off to Trey Jolley, Peyton Plumlee, Riley Self and after the first inning Cole Gordon. They were all great this weekend. And Price nailed down the four out save. Hopefully we can rest him up this week until the South Carolina game. Barton needs to get back into his groove. I thought Denver McQuary was good for an inning or so. We need to get Billingsley and Ashcraft back ASAP- maybe even this week.
Lovelady has done a good job with the pitching staff. He needs to do a better job blocking/catching balls sometimes. He had a passed ball on a strikeout- we have to be leading the NCAA in that category- which kept an inning going Friday night and hurt us. That said, he has been hitting better than he ever has in his career- even though he has cooled off some and only had one hit this weekend which was a double. Maybe some AB's against Valley will get him going again. I'd split Tuesday between him and Skelton to give Lovelady some rest and also to get Skelton some action.
It was good to see Stovall back and I was worried that his bat would take a few games to crank up- but he hit well all weekend. He actually got his average up to .327 and added a double. He makes us better on the infield and the outfield because it allows us to move Cody Brown back to his natural position. And even better- he played full speed with no hamstring issues. I thought LA looked better than he did last time I saw him in Memphis. He had a couple of singles and he was solid for us defensively. I think his bat will get better and better as the season goes along. Gridley has been hitting better and has had three multiple hit games in his last four games and he is on a four game hitting streak. I enjoyed his two out two RBI single after Rooker was intentionally walked on Saturday.
No one noticed but Cody Brown had a really good weekend too. He hit a couple of home runs including an inside the park home run and he hit .500 for the weekend. Every good team has a Cody Brown on it. Jake Mangum didn't have the best weekend for him- he hurt his hand and got hit hard on the mound- but he still made a lot happen and hit .300. He scored on a passed ball in game one, got hit by pitches twice setting up Rooker to do some damage and then he had a triple which gave us a three run lead after he came around to score on an error. He made a very nice diving play in CF on Saturday too. The other outfield spot is a revolving door but Elijah MacNamee should probably start in RF right now. He hit .500 this weekend and had a three hit game on Saturday. Congrats to Harrison Bragg on his first home run today. Hopefully he will take over as the DH and keep his average up over .300.
We had a good week all things considered. I think this team was dragging because of the emotion from the Ole Miss series and then having to play two midweek games- but I think Rooker's performance kind of re-energized the team. We're tied for first place in the SEC- and heck with a healthy pitching staff we might be 12-0 in the league right now for all I know. But it is what it is. We have a big week this week but the midweek should be easier with Valley. We don't want to underestimate them because losing to them would be catastrophic and probably kill our hopes at hosting. Valley has four wins- but one is over Arkansas State. Hopefully we'll see some of our pitchers like Billingsley (crossing fingers), Ford, and Mahoney throw and have a solid game. Then we have to play one of the teams that we're tied for first place with on the road in South Carolina. That's going to be tough because they have the best ERA in the league and one of the legit aces in the league on Friday night. It's going to take Pilkington pitching his best game all year to beat him I think. Another impressive thing about us this past week was we basically went toe to toe with the top hitting team in the SEC- and we pitched well enough to beat them. South Carolina is in the middle of the league in hitting- but they still have some dangerous hitters. If we win the series against them on the road- our chances of hosting improve quite a bit. Right now we're a high two seed if the season ended today if I had to guess. We'll see what happens this weekend.
Hail State!