Todd4State
06-12-2018, 02:10 AM
The SR era is fairly small compared to the history of college baseball but that SR has to be IMO the most exciting in MSU baseball history to this point. Every SR win is special. The atmosphere from the MSU/Clemson SR was unreal even in the relenting heat. That 2007 SR was pretty important because some baseball experts thought our baseball program was "dead". That SR just proved that it was sleeping. The 2013 Virginia SR was a great SR win also but I wouldn't say it was as exciting as this years or 2007 for that matter although there were certainly some big moments like Brett Pirtle's big plays on defense Adam Frazier going off at the plate and Wes Rea's home run.
But the MSU/Vanderbilt SR had two walk-offs and for the first time in MSU history we went into a game three of a SR and won it. I've seen a lot of baseball through the years and I don't usually get to nervous or whatever but that game last night absolutely drained me emotionally. For me, I felt like we were slighted and should have hosted that SR and would have had we not been building our new stadium. They should have moved the SR to a neutral site. I don't like Vanderbilt's stadium because I believe they have a huge homefield advantage there because of how fast their turf plays. They can go from first to third on almost any ball that is weakly hit through the infield with ease. You can start sliding almost a little bit past halfway between the bases and it seems like runners shoot to the base like they are on a slip and slide. There is no foul territory. The LF wall is actually concave and juts into the field. Basically their field is everything that I don't like about baseball fields topped off with an attention whore fan that takes center stage in the form of the Whistler.
It was a pretty incredible game though. We took the lead early and Vanderbilt came back and got the lead and we tied it up. Then our star player- Jake Mangum hits a go ahead double. We don't stop there and cash in and get two more runs. I felt like we were going to close it out at that point with Self. The thought of him giving up two home runs never really crossed my mind. I felt good because Self throws strikes- and I will say at least he didn't give up free bases with walks. Unfortunately we had to take him out. I was worried about Neff because of his pitch count and the fact that he gave up the walk-off home run the night before. But he stepped up. And then a really neat thing happened- our freshmen stepped up and essentially got on base and drove in what would be the winning runs for us. And then LA capped it off with a bloop single. I was a little more nervous with the four run lead because we had McQuary in the game and Henderson to his credit didn't let him walk the bases full before taking him out. Keegan did a good job and finished them off in order from that point on- although I was a little nervous about him being in the game because he has been a little bit inconsistent as well. But in the biggest situation he has been in so far he stepped up for us. Cole Gordon stepped up for us as well and is a big reason why we won the SR too.
If there is a team that "deserves" to go to Omaha- it's probably MSU. Most programs that have the distractions that this team had typically end up having a losing season. Not only did this team not have a losing season- they're going to Omaha. Hopefully they finish it off for us!
But the MSU/Vanderbilt SR had two walk-offs and for the first time in MSU history we went into a game three of a SR and won it. I've seen a lot of baseball through the years and I don't usually get to nervous or whatever but that game last night absolutely drained me emotionally. For me, I felt like we were slighted and should have hosted that SR and would have had we not been building our new stadium. They should have moved the SR to a neutral site. I don't like Vanderbilt's stadium because I believe they have a huge homefield advantage there because of how fast their turf plays. They can go from first to third on almost any ball that is weakly hit through the infield with ease. You can start sliding almost a little bit past halfway between the bases and it seems like runners shoot to the base like they are on a slip and slide. There is no foul territory. The LF wall is actually concave and juts into the field. Basically their field is everything that I don't like about baseball fields topped off with an attention whore fan that takes center stage in the form of the Whistler.
It was a pretty incredible game though. We took the lead early and Vanderbilt came back and got the lead and we tied it up. Then our star player- Jake Mangum hits a go ahead double. We don't stop there and cash in and get two more runs. I felt like we were going to close it out at that point with Self. The thought of him giving up two home runs never really crossed my mind. I felt good because Self throws strikes- and I will say at least he didn't give up free bases with walks. Unfortunately we had to take him out. I was worried about Neff because of his pitch count and the fact that he gave up the walk-off home run the night before. But he stepped up. And then a really neat thing happened- our freshmen stepped up and essentially got on base and drove in what would be the winning runs for us. And then LA capped it off with a bloop single. I was a little more nervous with the four run lead because we had McQuary in the game and Henderson to his credit didn't let him walk the bases full before taking him out. Keegan did a good job and finished them off in order from that point on- although I was a little nervous about him being in the game because he has been a little bit inconsistent as well. But in the biggest situation he has been in so far he stepped up for us. Cole Gordon stepped up for us as well and is a big reason why we won the SR too.
If there is a team that "deserves" to go to Omaha- it's probably MSU. Most programs that have the distractions that this team had typically end up having a losing season. Not only did this team not have a losing season- they're going to Omaha. Hopefully they finish it off for us!