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Opening Day Thoughts
Usually save this for the end of the series but why not?
Worst thing about today is because we beat them so bad we only got to use six pitchers today. I don't think either of our starters got to 70 pitches and both of them had a TON of K's. I suspect there is going to be some emphasis on getting guys on the mound on Sunday so I expect a short outing from Stone Simmons so we can get some guys like Makhai Grant and Dane Burns in. Might want to get Gavin Black, Chase Hungate, and Kevin Mannell an inning just to get their feet wet before we play at USM.
And as you can see this team so far looks and feels different than last year. The pitchers are attacking the zone and the result is strike outs and opponents getting dominated. So much better than what we saw from Foxhall.
Also, I think Gautreau did a great job of making over the offense. In both games our hitters walked 8 times and struck out only 5 times in each game. Last year that probably would have been reversed. Good example of it today- Noah Sullivan comes up with the bases loaded and instead of overswinging and being overaggressive which is what likely would have happened last year he goes with the pitch and punishes the ball which gets in the gap for a bases clearing double. Here's a good example of what I am talking about- Dylan Cupp didn't get a hit today and his OBP is .714. And at the same time we hit four home runs and had 7 doubles while also stealing 4 bases. I love the balance between power and aggressiveness on the bases. We also only made one error today. Hopefully the good defense continues.
Biggest thing as far as the lineup IMO is if Downs and Stallman both hit like they are we're probably going to platoon them because that makes the most sense. Small sample size but Reeves had a bit of a rough day at the plate and there are several guys that are capable of taking over if it turns into a slump like Pulliam, Frei, or Gatlin Sanders.
We'll see how Sunday looks but no question we had a really good day today. Just need to finish the series on Sunday. I do like playing a team like this in weekend one just because you can play a lot of guys and odds are you are going to get some wins under your belt.
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