Todd4State
04-24-2018, 11:56 PM
Honestly, probably the most exciting Governor's Cup I have ever been to since I've been going in 1985. I could nitpick a lot of things much like I could nitpick the 1999 Egg Bowl as it wasn't always pretty- but as Lee Corso said in 1999 about that Egg Bowl- "Yeah, but this is more exciting this way". I would say the same about this Governor's Cup.
The Ole Miss fans around me went from talking shit to leaving after we took a brief lead to coming back with more nachos to having to deal with me celebrating in front of them. They looked like someone ran over their designer khakis and set them on fire. It was priceless! I can't say that this is the most exciting baseball game I have ever been to since I went to the 2011 World Series and our Omaha run in 2013...but this was very nice.
First time for us to win the Governor's Cup three years in a row since 1996-1998 to equal our longest run. Hopefully we break that next year. And we did it with three different coaches.
The pitcher that impressed me the most was the one who pitched the least- JP France. He needs to pitch more and taking him out was I thought questionable. I just thought he looked like he was in a groove and Smith had struggled against Arkansas. McQuary was typical. I hope he has a good summer and takes a rotation spot. Keegan was good as well and along with Neff did a good job of holding them at bay. Happy that Cole Gordon got the win. I'd like to see France start and had he started tonight I don't think this game would have been as exciting. But see Lee Corso above.
Gilbert had a good night behind the plate. He threw out a guy by a mile and his home run was key for us. Especially on a night where balls didn't seem to quite go out of the yard for us. Tanner Allen stepped up and his triple late in the game was huge. Stovall had a solid night and was steady. Westburg had a double stolen from him on a blown call but I really like him and his ceiling. He started a key double play on a run down play that a lot of freshmen would have screwed up when Ole Miss got a little aggressive when he had to take the ball from McQuary catch it and then run the guy down. LA was the hero tonight for us again. Against their closer who throws 95 he had a GREAT at bat and roped it into the gap to win the game. He has had his struggles at the plate and I am happy to see him do well for us. I hope this is a boost for him at the plate for the rest of the year. Rowdey had a good hit early in the game and was solid. Mangum had a good night again- what do you expect, it's Ole Miss. He missed the cut off man and that cost us a run but he made up for that by making several web gems in CF. He had a key double early that got us on the board and I think that kind of set the tone because Ole Miss's starter had started off strong and they had the lead at that time. That double showed Ole Miss that we came to play. Henderson puts Jordan Anderson in to pinch run and of course good things happen- he scores the winning run. MacNamee had a hit and an RBI as well and Foscue did get on base a couple of times.
Two things that I didn't like- the pitching staff management I thought was questionable as I said above. As I said we start France to start the game and I think we may have won comfortably. And the 9th was a mess. We start Neff and then take him out when Ole Miss has a LH hitter coming to the plate? So we go with France who got his guy out and looked good. And then we go to Smith really only because he is the closer? I didn't like that. If a guy like France looks good just stay with him and why leave Neff in to start the inning if you are going to take him out after the first hitter gets on.
The other thing I didn't like is how our players looked physically. We really need to get stronger in the offseason especially with our lower halves. We do that and maybe some of those balls that we hit that didn't quite go out might get over the wall. Our S&C holds us back and we need to fix that in the offseason.
As I said above though- that's nitpicking. This team has fought hard despite losing their coach who was checked out in the offseason and has had to play a ton of games on the road with a freshman dominated lineup and a pitching staff that has been ravaged by Tommy John. And that's why I'm proud of them tonight- they are overcoming a lot. And their confidence is starting to build. I think we not only have a winning season- I think we make it in as a three seed as of now. After that we are going to hand the program over to a legit head coach who will take us to where we want to go and get us a National Championship. If Vic Shaeffer doesn't do it first. This is something that we should have done after 1991 when Polk stepped down. Instead we begged him to stay and then hired Pat McMahon who was OK and just kind of kept us where we were. And then we brought Polk back and ran the program down. Cohen brought it back to where it was before we begged Polk to stay the first time. Now we're going through a two year transition essentially where we made a poor hire from a character standpoint. But we're about to fix all of that- and I look forward to many more Governor's Cup Trophies and going to the Governor's Cup wearing my "Mississippi State Baseball National Champions t-shirt" to the game.
I'm going to enjoy this one for awhile- Hail State my friends. And GTHOM.
The Ole Miss fans around me went from talking shit to leaving after we took a brief lead to coming back with more nachos to having to deal with me celebrating in front of them. They looked like someone ran over their designer khakis and set them on fire. It was priceless! I can't say that this is the most exciting baseball game I have ever been to since I went to the 2011 World Series and our Omaha run in 2013...but this was very nice.
First time for us to win the Governor's Cup three years in a row since 1996-1998 to equal our longest run. Hopefully we break that next year. And we did it with three different coaches.
The pitcher that impressed me the most was the one who pitched the least- JP France. He needs to pitch more and taking him out was I thought questionable. I just thought he looked like he was in a groove and Smith had struggled against Arkansas. McQuary was typical. I hope he has a good summer and takes a rotation spot. Keegan was good as well and along with Neff did a good job of holding them at bay. Happy that Cole Gordon got the win. I'd like to see France start and had he started tonight I don't think this game would have been as exciting. But see Lee Corso above.
Gilbert had a good night behind the plate. He threw out a guy by a mile and his home run was key for us. Especially on a night where balls didn't seem to quite go out of the yard for us. Tanner Allen stepped up and his triple late in the game was huge. Stovall had a solid night and was steady. Westburg had a double stolen from him on a blown call but I really like him and his ceiling. He started a key double play on a run down play that a lot of freshmen would have screwed up when Ole Miss got a little aggressive when he had to take the ball from McQuary catch it and then run the guy down. LA was the hero tonight for us again. Against their closer who throws 95 he had a GREAT at bat and roped it into the gap to win the game. He has had his struggles at the plate and I am happy to see him do well for us. I hope this is a boost for him at the plate for the rest of the year. Rowdey had a good hit early in the game and was solid. Mangum had a good night again- what do you expect, it's Ole Miss. He missed the cut off man and that cost us a run but he made up for that by making several web gems in CF. He had a key double early that got us on the board and I think that kind of set the tone because Ole Miss's starter had started off strong and they had the lead at that time. That double showed Ole Miss that we came to play. Henderson puts Jordan Anderson in to pinch run and of course good things happen- he scores the winning run. MacNamee had a hit and an RBI as well and Foscue did get on base a couple of times.
Two things that I didn't like- the pitching staff management I thought was questionable as I said above. As I said we start France to start the game and I think we may have won comfortably. And the 9th was a mess. We start Neff and then take him out when Ole Miss has a LH hitter coming to the plate? So we go with France who got his guy out and looked good. And then we go to Smith really only because he is the closer? I didn't like that. If a guy like France looks good just stay with him and why leave Neff in to start the inning if you are going to take him out after the first hitter gets on.
The other thing I didn't like is how our players looked physically. We really need to get stronger in the offseason especially with our lower halves. We do that and maybe some of those balls that we hit that didn't quite go out might get over the wall. Our S&C holds us back and we need to fix that in the offseason.
As I said above though- that's nitpicking. This team has fought hard despite losing their coach who was checked out in the offseason and has had to play a ton of games on the road with a freshman dominated lineup and a pitching staff that has been ravaged by Tommy John. And that's why I'm proud of them tonight- they are overcoming a lot. And their confidence is starting to build. I think we not only have a winning season- I think we make it in as a three seed as of now. After that we are going to hand the program over to a legit head coach who will take us to where we want to go and get us a National Championship. If Vic Shaeffer doesn't do it first. This is something that we should have done after 1991 when Polk stepped down. Instead we begged him to stay and then hired Pat McMahon who was OK and just kind of kept us where we were. And then we brought Polk back and ran the program down. Cohen brought it back to where it was before we begged Polk to stay the first time. Now we're going through a two year transition essentially where we made a poor hire from a character standpoint. But we're about to fix all of that- and I look forward to many more Governor's Cup Trophies and going to the Governor's Cup wearing my "Mississippi State Baseball National Champions t-shirt" to the game.
I'm going to enjoy this one for awhile- Hail State my friends. And GTHOM.