There we go. RPI up 3 spots. Need a 2/3 weekend now. Kentucky gonna be tough on us because they bunt and run alot. Gotta swing the sticks
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There we go. RPI up 3 spots. Need a 2/3 weekend now. Kentucky gonna be tough on us because they bunt and run alot. Gotta swing the sticks
I find Mike Highfill's tweets today very telling....
This weekend is the most excited I?ve been about a baseball series since we lost the opener to VMI whatever year that was
Just a tidbit. We match the highest offensive output of the season in the first game after, .............. well, you know.
If we can play loose and free this weekend like we did tonight, then we will win the series this weekend.
Nope. Basically talking about how relaxed the team was.
Which was interesting and I can't remember if I made this point last night but I remember hearing Lemonis speak and he got to talking about the pressure that the players face at MSU, the pressure of playing at MSU, the pressure of playing in big moments. Essentially what he would refer to as the Dude Effect. But when I was hearing him talk about it my thought was- you're focusing so much on the pressure and baseball is hard enough to play without pointing out that hey your at bat probably determines whether we host or not. Or hey we really need you to pitch well today because if you don't all 15K of these people are going to be disappointed. It really kind of stood out to me.
Now to contrast that- I have been to some spring training practices and MLB teams focus on pressure completely differently than Lemonis. It was basically all about positive reinforcement that the player can execute and that all the focus was on the moment at a microlevel. Like forget that it's World Series. It's baseball. Just get strike one. But that's the best way to deal with baseball pressure.
So, what happens when baseball players feel a lot of pressure? Well, when they hit a lot of players feel like they need to get a big hit like a home run so a guy like Hunter Hines might you know try to pull everything and hit it 600 feet. Sound familiar? Or a guy might try to do something overraggressive on the bases. It magnifies mistakes and that can kill confidence. And of course it's harder to pitch that way too.
And that tone- that comes from the head coach.
Maybe before the NC he was so hands off that he just didn't talk about it much. He may have been like "well, Jake, Elijah, Rowdey, TA and etc. they've all been there before so they know what to do" but then when they left in an effort to try to develop guys that "know what to do with the Dude Effect" he essentially just made it even bigger than it was and it suffocated the players essentially.
Watch a video of MSU the day we won the NC- Jake Gautreau was literally like "You guys are baseball players. Go do what you know to do." That's the approach you have to have in baseball.
And I don't know what was said today by Parker and Gautreau it was something probably along the lines of what Jake said before the NC game. And look at the result. Against this same team a few weeks ago we only scored 5 runs and I believe it was the same pitcher if I'm not mistaken.