I'm Pissed Off

[Todd4State]

But it's a lot better to be pissed off because we lost to UCLA in extra innings because of a joke of an umpire rather than a midweek game against Troy or Austin Peay. A lot different too.

Looking at this weekend- it was a good weekend overall for MSU. We made a statement that we are back. We took Arizona State and Virginia Tech to the shed like they were Austin Peay.

One of the biggest things that hurt us against UCLA was our freshmen pitchers not being able to close out those games. They all got shelled this weekend. They're freshmen and I'm not going to rail on them too hard- but they're all going to have to learn how to locate better.

We learned a lot about our team though and I think it was good that we went to this tournament and got us a couple of wins and went toe to toe with the number one team in the country and probably outplayed them in many ways. I think we know our team better now and some of the personnel mistakes we made aren't going to be made again.

The biggest thing is we have to stop using Ben Davis like Kevin Kopps. If we keep extending him past two innings- he is going to end up like KC Hunt eventually. BOC said something about his stuff going down in the third inning so that gives me hope we will stop overextending him. Now, Ben can give us two dominant innings. And that is awesome. At the same time, we need to pitch Webb and Pitzer more. They're both really good. Sweeney is the long relief guy that they want Ben to be and if he can do that it will set us up well every weekend with the bullpen. Gleason has been great too. I think he can give us two innings if not more every time out. Dane Burns needs to work on his command some but he can give us an inning or so too.

McPherson and Valinicus were really good starting. Stone did better than Foster- but my hope is he can go an inning or two deeper into his starts. We need to get Foster right- not sure that Hattiesburg is the place for that though. Might try Jackson Logar or Pitzer on Tuesday instead.

Raymond is taking the catcher job. James is a gamer and I like him, but his defense has to improve some.

The rest of lineup- DEEP. Stallman is a different dude than he was last year and Bevis has played well also. Frei is as advertised and maybe better and Wyers has hit well overall when given the opportunity. Ace has played like a Golden Spikes candidate most of the year although he had kind of a tough weekend in spots and Ryder Woodson has turned it around. Bryce Chance has been maybe our best all around player and he's probably the best 9 hole hitter in the league right now. Teel has played better although he "struck out" four times against UCLA and I think Nunnalee will come around but if not Vytas has played really well and then Jacob Parker had a big home run that should help his confidence. Noah Sullivan came up big a couple of times as well with home runs and he seems to be getting on track.

I really like where we are right now. We're doing a lot of really good things but we have a few things to fine tune. We have to understand our abilities a little bit better and no keep running on elite catchers. And I think we have to understand the abilities of a couple of our guys in the bullpen a little bit better. I think we're going to be a pissed off team going into USM although that will be a very difficult game. If we lose, we have Lipscomb coming up and we can fine tune those things I was talking about and get back on track before Tulane and Arkansas.

[cheewgumm]

Yea on all that.

Fun to watch.

We have a lot of options. Aswe gel more as a team and roles become more defined it?s gonna get really good.

Fired up!!!

[Activated Alpha]

As far as I'm concerned, we wont that game. I know what the scorecard will show, but to me it has an asterisk with it. We outplayed them other than hitting batters and our batters not wanting to get hit. The umpire completely ****ed us over multiple times. I am concerned about Tuesday though because USM has been red hot and we put a lot of effort into this weekend

[Coach34]

Yeah what we are seeing is how green 2/3 of our staff really is. While tremendously talented, we have freshmen getting experience as well as Soph's taking on new roles this season. The pitching staff will get better and better each week as we move on thru the schedule. People also need to remember that most of our staff returns next season as well.

We are the opposite on offense. Lots of veterans and people working to get playing time.

Need to get right and win tomorrow

[maroonmania]

Yep, the home plate ump stole our trophy.

[AlSwearengen]

really really need Foster to get things together and pitch to his potential and with Kirk going down, we need an unexpected freshman to make a big jump.

[Coursesuper]

really really need Foster to get things together and pitch to his potential and with Kirk going down, we need an unexpected freshman to make a big jump.

Maddox Miller looked really good, he has a chance to help more sooner than later. He gave up the big fly Friday but when you are pitching to the white part of the plate that happens. I love what we all saw from him.

[DawgFromOxford]

Am I frustrated we lost a game that felt like we won, 100% BUT we accomplished what we needed to on the weekend and looked good doing it. Our offense did what it does. Fielding was pretty solid overall. Liked the performance from our pitching staff, even the young guys giving up home runs at the end of games. I'd rather see that because they are pounding the zone than them come in and give guys free passes when we are up big. Make the opponent swing the bat and if they hit, they hit.

Biggest concern after this weekend is base running and closer.

I don't know who is coaching our base running SPECIFICALLY STEALS but they are doing an awful job. I've never seen us get thrown out so many times at 2nd. Consistently getting late jumps and bad reads.

Closer, I like Ben Davis. He's the best we have on the staff but he's no sure thing like Landon Sims. Feels like Ben is good to give up at least one long ball in each of his outings.

[maroonmania]

Am I frustrated we lost a game that felt like we won, 100% BUT we accomplished what we needed to on the weekend and looked good doing it. Our offense did what it does. Fielding was pretty solid overall. Liked the performance from our pitching staff, even the young guys giving up home runs at the end of games. I'd rather see that because they are pounding the zone than them come in and give guys free passes when we are up big. Make the opponent swing the bat and if they hit, they hit.

Biggest concern after this weekend is base running and closer.

I don't know who is coaching our base running SPECIFICALLY STEALS but they are doing an awful job. I've never seen us get thrown out so many times at 2nd. Consistently getting late jumps and bad reads.

Closer, I like Ben Davis. He's the best we have on the staff but he's no sure thing like Landon Sims. Feels like Ben is good to give up at least one long ball in each of his outings.

Yep, baserunning has been the only consistent negative issue with this team so far. And yesterday it was frustrating that we hit 6 guys and 2 of those were immediately followed by a 2 run HR. That's how you score 8 runs with only 8 hits. And the UCLA players were more than happy to get hit, none made any attempt to move out of the way.