Official USA Game Thread......

[Dallas_Dawg]

This is how midweek is going to be for us- Preston, Ross and then Lindgren and maybe Holder.

Why would we use our best arms midweek? Keep them in tune for the weekend?

[smootness]

This teams pitching is gonna have to be exceptional this year to accomplish anything. May have to be better than last year. Just too many weak sticks in this line-up.

Haha good grief, dude.

[maroonmania]

Exactly, we used Ross for 4+ innings tonight. Who saves Woodruff's bacon if he has to get pulled in the 2nd or 3rd inning Friday?

[messageboardsuperhero]

Exactly, we used Ross for 4+ innings tonight. Who saves Woodruff's bacon if he has to get pulled in the 2nd or 3rd inning Friday?

Good question. This puts more pressure on Woodruff to step up on Friday (which might not necessarily be a bad thing). I'm hoping that getting Woodruff a start away from home helps him settle down some, plus the weather in AZ will probably be better.

One thing that concerns me is that we play our double header on Friday instead of Saturday, so we better have plenty of pitching saved up.

[Lefthandersrule]

Thought for a second they were gonna bring in Holder! I guess they learned after Memphis!

[Bully13]

Didn't realize till just a while ago that the baseball game was on ESPN 3.

I don't see our game on espn3 at all.. . not on replay or anything

[smootness]

Exactly, we used Ross for 4+ innings tonight. Who saves Woodruff's bacon if he has to get pulled in the 2nd or 3rd inning Friday?

That might tell us that we were more concerned about this game than any this weekend.

[Sandman14]

jeez what a joke about "exceptional to do anything." first off, the pitching IS exceptional. second, I seem to recall a run starting with central arkansas last season of something like 4 losing weekends in a row? no one gave us squat. I knew then we were really good (although Omaha looked bleak, I must admit) and I know now we are really good.

you can't win when you can't score. the majority of innings on SEC weekend will be pitched by guys you rarely score on. great pitching beats great hitting every time, especially in college baseball right now.

we are a top 10 team in the nation. how much better than that? we won't know until we see how much guys buy into cohen's philosphy of being meat grinders at the plate. since I think cohen is the best coach around, I fee very confident we will only get better and better until we are pounding out double digit hits the majority of the games late in the season.

ross will be able to 4 innings on friday if we need him. he's proven that.

[I seen it dawg]

Haha good grief, dude.

Ditto that, damn.

[Todd4State]

Why would we use our best arms midweek? Keep them in tune for the weekend?

They're important games. To me, a lot of times the midweek games are what make or break your resume. Whether that be a National Seed, a host spot, or a just getting in. Ask Arkansas. They not only scheduled a bunch of SWAC teams- but the also lost most of their meaningful OOC games against people like Nebraska.

The rest of our midweek OOC is respectable for the most part:

Southern Illinois (7-3), SEMO State (6-6), USM in Pearl, Alcorn (SWAC), Ole Miss in Pearl, and Jacksonville State (6-4)

And while respectable, we also can't afford an upset.

Now- as far as our best arms: Obviously it's going to be game dependent, but at the very least I suspect that we will see a Preston Brown/Ross Mitchell piggy back combo and then go from there. Obviously if the game is 15-0 MSU we're probably not going to use Lindgren and are going to use someone like Vance Tatum or Zac Houston. Against Alcorn, we might start Sexton or even Hudson- but that's probably going to be a Johnny Wholestaff game.

[Todd4State]

Exactly, we used Ross for 4+ innings tonight. Who saves Woodruff's bacon if he has to get pulled in the 2nd or 3rd inning Friday?

We might see Bracewell Friday. We'll see, but that's my guess.

At any rate it's risky and counterproductive to everyone on our team to keep trotting Woddruff out there against the other teams aces while he is trying to regain full command.

[Todd4State]

Thought for a second they were gonna bring in Holder! I guess they learned after Memphis!

I figured that they would go back to Lindgren just because he had only thrown one pitch in the 8th. Good opportunity to see if he could handle being the closer.

[bully99]

THE game was on espn3 - It was a simulcast of the hailstate feed.

So where are all the great sticks, all you smart people. Doesn't mean you can't have a good year, I just don't see a great offense. All you haters, stop the hate.

[I seen it dawg]

The offense is coming together. Sit back and wait nancy.

[smootness]

THE game was on espn3 - It was a simulcast of the hailstate feed.

So where are all the great sticks, all you smart people. Doesn't mean you can't have a good year, I just don't see a great offense. All you haters, stop the hate.

Haters?

I don't think anyone has said we'll have a great offense, but you don't need a ton of power hitters to score runs. Vickerson, Detz, Pirtle, and Henderson all look like they're going to be very good hitters this year. Rea is Rea. And then we have a pretty good selection of talented young hitters, from which one or two will probably emerge.

It's just funny to see you enter every baseball thread and try to throw cold water on everything. 'To accomplish anything'? That just sounds dumb after this team played for the national title last year. I think at some point you're just going to have to accept that John Cohen is a great coach and this team is really good.

[messageboardsuperhero]

We're averaging over 7 runs/game since we got our lineup and personnel somewhat settled. Our offense probably won't be dynamic or powerful this year- but I don't expect it to be anemic or a hinderance either.

[War Machine Dawg]

We might see Bracewell Friday. We'll see, but that's my guess.

At any rate it's risky and counterproductive to everyone on our team to keep trotting Woddruff out there against the other teams aces while he is trying to regain full command.

Shut it, Todd. You don't know shit about baseball. You're just an armchair coach watching on HSTV. /Goat

[Todd4State]

We're sixth in the SEC in hitting against a pretty difficult OOC schedule and we lead the SEC in stolen bases. We're not the 1927 Yankees but we're not bad either.

[Todd4State]

Shut it, Todd. You don't know shit about baseball. You're just an armchair coach watching on HSTV. /Goat

LOL.

[smootness]

We're sixth in the SEC in hitting against a pretty difficult OOC schedule and we lead the SEC in stolen bases. We're not the 1927 Yankees but we're not bad either.

Nope, judy hitters.