First of all, this was a potentially nice win. It's the kind that might make a difference in seeding later on down the road possibly- USA has a legit ace that I think is going to win them a lot of games in the Sun Belt. They also completely kicked 11-2 USM's ass last week during the midweek.

Which is why- even though it worked- I disagree with throwing our freshmen pitchers out there like it was Alcorn. It was just really risky IMO. If he wants to do that against Alcorn, or any of the other OOC opponents other than Memphis, USM, or Ole Miss that's fine. And on that point, I would have liked to have seen Breaux go a little deeper only like an inning or two more and then bring in Small, and then finish the game up.

And to be fair, there were some good things that did indeed come out of pitching like we did- Beaux at least looks to be about where Daniel Brown is at worst and Ethan Small stole the show. Noah Hughes got hit a little bit- but that was after Collins misplayed a ball again which extended the inning. Cyr looked OK. But the other thing that really excited me was seeing Zac Houston mow their guys down in the 8th. He's building up as a relief guy now- he got out of a big jam against USC and then he did start off with two walks but I think a lot of that was losing his concentration because he didn't get a call. If Zac steps up and becomes another force out of the bullpen for us, we are going to be really, really deep. Blake Smith looked dominant. We need to try to continue to build up and extend Breaux and Small- unless Sexton and Brown straighten up. Rigby pitched better too- other than the balk. Pilkington is looking better as well.

I thought we hit the ball pretty well after looking like kaka in the first few innings. Gavin's first home run really got us jump started, and then it was great to see Rooker come off the bench after he has been struggling come up with a huge double that put us ahead for good. We did a good job manufacturing a run with small ball and then Gavin knocked them out for good. Hopefully he keeps it up. I feel bad for Reid getting a home run stolen from him. Last year, we hit 22 home runs on the entire season. Right now we are at 8.

Marrero made a heck of a play throwing one of their baserunners out. He's going to be legit.

Collins made his typical misplay which again cost us runs- and we need Kruger to move back behind the plate ASAP so that we can put either Humphreys or Alexander there. We probably shut them out had it not been for that play.

Cody Brown did Cody Brown things even though he didn't get a hit- he had three walks, a stolen base and scored a run.

We have our most difficult pre SEC test next up in Oregon- weather permitting. It's a good chance to make some noise and it should get us ready for SEC play if nothing else. We need Sexton and Brown to really step it up. I'm guessing we'll see Breaux and Small start the midweek games next week and then SEC play starts.