Quote Originally Posted by Johnson85 View Post
I don't know that we handled Sims better. Kopps was a 6th year senior. He has had way more time for his body to mature and has less to protect than Sims. So they rode him pretty hard and I don't think it hurt them at all, unless you think pitching Kopps less would have allowed them to develop more bull pen depth. But in the super regional, he pitched two scoreless innings in game 2 and then in game 3, gave up 3 runs in 8 innings. Sounds like they got what they needed out of him and their offense just let them down.
This was my thinking. I don't believe they mishandled how Kopps was used down the stretch. I think they mishandled how he was used in the regular season. He was the only arm they could count on late because they never had put any of their other arms in those high leverage situations. Compare that to us and folks like Stinnett, Brandon Smith, Preston, Hootie, Chase Patrick, and Cam Tullar had all pitched in high leverage situations late in games during the regular season.....and it benefitted us greatly once we got to the tournament.