Good news is

[CadaverDawg]

Arkansas lost at home to A&M tonight, and Bama lost to LSU. Ole Miss won though

[msstate7]

Bad news is we're in a rubber game tomorrow. We're probably gonna have to win without Ross and holder. Need big game outta lindgren. I think he comes through

[engie]

We need Bama and OM to win a few since our projected SOS has taken a major hit the past few weeks. Arky/aTm is an RPI wash for us since we've played them both -- but we don't need Arky to continue faltering this badly. Need them back in the RPI top 50(to stay). Then again, I'm with you in that it helps us in conference standings -- and thus hosting. Basically, today was a zero loss/zero gain day for us overall. Need to win the game tomorrow though.

In other news, there's a chance we could even move up(possibly to #7) in RPI by the end of day today.
- Cal Poly beating Cal St Fullerton going to the 9th 2-1. A win by Poly here likely jumps us over CSF.
- UCLA/Oregon scoreless in the 4th. A UCLA win here might jump us over Oregon.
- Arizona St up 5-3 in the 5th. Valpo has a terrible RPI(in the 240s) and they are playing @ ASU, so this series hurts their SOS either way. Not a foregone conclusion they are going to win here.

[engie]

Bad news is we're in a rubber game tomorrow. We're probably gonna have to win without Ross and holder. Need big game outta lindgren. I think he comes through

Cohen said in the postgame that Holder will be available -- and I'd expect Ross to be as well. He threw 43 pitches on Friday.

That said, I really don't feel that him behind Pollo and Lindgren is putting him in the best position to win... Hitters already settling on lefties like him with better "stuff" in reality. He's done well in the situation, but I just don't prefer it. Ross is ideal coming in behind a starting power RHP -- of which, we have none without their heads up their asses.

[msstate7]

Cohen said in the postgame that Holder will be available -- and I'd expect Ross to be as well. He threw 43 pitches on Friday.

That said, I really don't feel that him behind Pollo and Lindgren is putting him in the best position to win... Hitters already settling on lefties like him with better "stuff" in reality. He's done well in the situation, but I just don't prefer it. Ross is ideal coming in behind a starting power RHP -- of which, we have none without their heads up their asses.

Good news on holder. So engie, do you think fitts earned an inning or two tonight? He was the brightest spot for me tonight

[Todd4State]

I've been calling for Fitts to pitch for awhile now. Glad to see him prove me right.

I'd like to see Bracewell get back out there if we need someone.

But God, we played awful tonight. We just struggle against Auburn for some God unknown reason it seems like even though we have more talent than them.

[CadaverDawg]

Cohen said in the postgame that Holder will be available -- and I'd expect Ross to be as well. He threw 43 pitches on Friday.

That said, I really don't feel that him behind Pollo and Lindgren is putting him in the best position to win... Hitters already settling on lefties like him with better "stuff" in reality. He's done well in the situation, but I just don't prefer it. Ross is ideal coming in behind a starting power RHP -- of which, we have none without their heads up their asses.

Exactly. Ross was great after Evan Mitchell. He is not as effective after a Pollo or Lindgren. We have GOT to gain some confidence in a RHP not named Graveman or Holder. Where has Bracewell gone??

[engie]

Good news on holder. So engie, do you think fitts earned an inning or two tonight? He was the brightest spot for me tonight

Absolutely.

[Drugdog]

T4S, we look so flat. No crowds no energy. Damn that's back to back nights. Lucky to b 1-1.
We need everyone there tomorrow. As Meat Loaf says 2-3 ain't bad.

[Homedawg]

Bad news is we're in a rubber game tomorrow. We're probably gonna have to win without Ross and holder. Need big game outta lindgren. I think he comes through

Ross will be good to go. Rubber arm. Not sure how many pitches holder threw tonight. Probably 25 or so. That makes him questionable. (i see cohen says hes good im ok w that) Big league closers go 3 days in a row from time to time. What's the difference? It's not like we have pitched him to death he's thrown what, 30-35 innings for the year? Haven't looked it up. Either way got to score to win. Hit some balls hard tonight at them. Got to find some holes.

[engie]

I've been calling for Fitts to pitch for awhile now. Glad to see him prove me right.

I'd like to see Bracewell get back out there if we need someone.

But God, we played awful tonight. We just struggle against Auburn for some God unknown reason it seems like even though we have more talent than them.

I'm with you Todd. We need to jump on their ass tomorrow. I'd like to see us build a nice lead and get a few of these guys some work(not that Cohen necessarily would anyway unless it was totally out of hand).

Another thing IMO it doesn't put Holder in the best position to win coming directly behind Bracewell under the same premise. If I could have my cake and eat it too, I go with Lindgren to Bracewell to Ross to Holder but hopefully we don't have to go nearly that deep in the pen. Bout time for Lindgren to get his shit together and really go deep in one for us for a change -- and hand it off to Bracewell or Holder in the 9th...

[Homedawg]

T4S, we look so flat. No crowds no energy. Damn that's back to back nights. Lucky to b 1-1.
We need everyone there tomorrow. As Meat Loaf says 2-3 ain't bad.

No crowds? What? Crowds have been good. I agree we, the crowd didn't have much energy but it was hard to have any. We never had a real rally.

[engie]

Ross will be good to go. Rubber arm. Not sure how many pitches holder threw tonight. Probably 25 or so. That makes him questionable. Big league closers go 3 days in a row from time to time. What's the difference? It's not like we have pitched him to death he's thrown what, 30-35 innings for the year? Haven't looked it up. Either way got to score to win. Hit some balls hard tonight at them. Got to find some holes

Holder threw 16 last night and 20 tonight. He should be good to go if he's needed.

[Homedawg]

Thks. He was really good that's for sure....I know that going into last weekend if u had told me we win 5 of 6 I'd take it. Win tomorrow and that's done.

[engie]

Yeah, just got to win tomorrow. Would have love to sweep here, but that single loss is not the end of the world.

Need UCLA to get 6 more outs here and take 2 of 3 @ Oregon and knock their National Seed hopes down a tier...
CSF lost -- hopefully they lose one of the next 2 as well...for the same reason
Then, we just need one side or the other to dominate the Virginia/FSU series. Preferrably FSU since UVA lost their series last week @ Georgia Tech.

Those 3 things happen -- there is a great chance that we are right on the national seed bubble heading to Nashville...

[engie]

3 outs to get in Eugene

[CadaverDawg]

I'm with you Todd. We need to jump on their ass tomorrow. I'd like to see us build a nice lead and get a few of these guys some work(not that Cohen necessarily would anyway unless it was totally out of hand).

Another thing IMO it doesn't put Holder in the best position to win coming directly behind Bracewell under the same premise. If I could have my cake and eat it too, I go with Lindgren to Bracewell to Ross to Holder but hopefully we don't have to go nearly that deep in the pen. Bout time for Lindgren to get his shit together and really go deep in one for us for a change -- and hand it off to Bracewell or Holder in the 9th...

I think you're right about jumping on their ass tomorrow. We need to get ahead early and put them away. I am starting to get really concerned because Holder and Mitchell are the only 2 guys we're using out of the pen. We need to get about a 8 run lead after 6, so we can get some arms into the game. I would love to see Evan, Bracewell, and either Gentry or Girodo get an inning each.

I was pumped to see Fitts have a good outing tonight. Are you guys expecting Will Cox to start midweek next week? Or could we see an Evan Mitchell sighting? Hopefully we won't see Ross Mitchell again until next weekend.

[engie]

Who knows? Could be Evan, Woody, or Cox...

Personally, I hope Evan Mitchell gets the ball for that one and would love to see Woodruff get about 30 pitches in in relief(assuming that his performance at the Gov's Cup didn't represent a bigger problem with his arm). We need those 2 more than we need Cox at this point in his career IMO...

Those two guys have potential to step up -- and if they could just do that for a few weeks(at the end of a career in the case of Mitchell), we go from a host team to a championship contender IMO. Those 2 guys are the difference IMO(assuming one of them really stepping up would allow us to move Pollo back to the pen)...

[CadaverDawg]

Who knows? Could be Evan, Woody, or Cox...

Personally, I hope Evan Mitchell gets the ball for that one and would love to see Woodruff get about 30 pitches in in relief(assuming that his performance at the Gov's Cup didn't represent a bigger problem with his arm). We need those 2 more than we need Cox at this point in his career IMO...

Those two guys have potential to step up -- and if they could just do that for a few weeks(at the end of a career in the case of Mitchell), we go from a host team to a championship contender IMO. Those 2 guys are the difference IMO(assuming one of them really stepping up would allow us to move Pollo back to the pen)...

Agreed.

I worry about Pollo matching up with Vandy's Ace, Wahl, etc.

Also, I really think we wasted John Marc Shelly this year. Why use him early on if we were just going to quit on him? He has never had a bad outing, and I think he could be a good RHP out of the pen right now while others are getting their heads straight.

[Todd4State]

T4S, we look so flat. No crowds no energy. Damn that's back to back nights. Lucky to b 1-1.
We need everyone there tomorrow. As Meat Loaf says 2-3 ain't bad.

We struggle against pitchers that are wild because we will swing at pretty much anything in the area code. We make contact more often than not- but we make poor contact when we swing at bad pitches, and that usually results in an easy out. We have got to be more patient against pitchers like that.

We also have got to cut out those defensive mistakes and base running mistakes.

We had opportunities, but then crazy things would happen- like an umpire missing a call which I think would have possibly changed the entire complexion of the game because we would have gotten a run there, and then you have Auburn screwing up a 6-4 force out, but Ammirati decides to try to score and he gets gunned down. And then we had the bases loaded and hit into a double play. We're playing one of the worst defensive teams in the SEC, and then they make every freaking play, and when we try to put pressure on them, they even make those plays too.

Just a lot of IF's that didn't work out- and some we have to correct.

Honestly, I think the biggest problem is patience when hitting. If we're playing a pitcher that is wild based on his track record, I'm telling our hitters to take at least the first two pitches. Odds are, we're going to get ahead in the count and force them to throw a strike that we can actually hit, or he is going to walk a bunch of guys and we're going to run the guys count up and get into their bullpen. But NOOOOOOO - ball's in the area code, swing away.

That's why we've actually beaten two of MLB.com's top 50 draft prospects- because those guys are throwing strikes. And it's also why Josh Laxer no hit us for five innings in the Governor's Cup even though he threw maybe seven pitches actually in the strike zone and you have this garbage pitcher for Auburn holding us down to a run.

Rarely does the crowd get the baseball team into the game. It's normally the TEAM that has to get the crowd in the game. You don't do that making sorry mistakes and getting out repeatedly.