Starkville Regional: Know the opponents

[smootness]

CSF has a great program, of course they're going to think they'll win. They likely don't know as much about us as we do. We would be doing the same thing.

[smootness]

Just watched Cohen's interview from today, and he is planning on putting a lot of weight into righty/lefty Matchups to determine our rotation. Said he wants to look at how the SEMO lineup looks in terms of heavy right vs heavy left, & how they hit righty's vs lefty's...as well as potential 2nd game Matchups the same way, to see if that should play into our game 1 choice.

So if anyone wants to do a deep dive on SEMO's batting order (RH vs LH & averages vs RHP & LHP), we might be able to figure out where Cohen's leaning on a starter for Game 1

SEMO's top hitters are as follows (in descending order of BA): L, L, R, S, L, R, R.

So pretty balanced. But their top 3 hitters overall are Osborne, Gandolfo, and Holst, and they're all lefties.

[CadaverDawg]

SEMO's top hitters are as follows (in descending order of BA): L, L, R, S, L, R, R.

So pretty balanced. But their top 3 hitters overall are Osborne, Gandolfo, and Holst, and they're all lefties.

Interesting.

Wish we could get a La Tech, SEMO, & CSF fan to give us a breakdown of their team

[Ifyouonlyknew]

SEMO coach Steve Bieser doesn’t know if ace Joey Lucchesi (10-4, 1.87 ERA) will start against MSU Fri. He threw 119 pitches Fri and 35 Sun.

[maroonmania]

Not sure why matchups would matter. We really only have one left starter (Pilkington) and I would be extremely shocked if he got the start on Friday as a true freshman. Seems we will be starting a righty no matter what. Now I don't know who among Hudson, Sexton and Houston fare better against lefties.

[msbulldog]

I live in W. Monroe 25 mi. from La tech., scrappy team 4-2 against Rice, beat Florida Atlantic at least twice.

[Backspin]

All due respect, their ballpark is like a little league field....

Their field dimensions are 330/380/400 which is larger than Dudy Noble....if you are referring to stadium capacity you would be correct but the game is not played in the stands. Give Osborne his due...he's earned it with 15 bombs.

[I seen it dawg]

If semo is A little on the left then I see us going Pilk.

[JohnnyQuid]

If semo is A little on the left then I see us going Pilk.

I agree - with how cohen loves matchups I'd be shocked otherwise.

eta: or hudson. would hate to have to use him but losing game 1 would be far worse

[Todd4State]

Here is my take:

Cal State Fullerton- They are your typical West Coast baseball team and in fact they are kind of the "model" team for West mid majors. They are similar to Oregon in terms of style- Oregon's coach used to be at CSF- except that they hit the ball better and their pitching is better than the Ducks. They like to bunt- A LOT. 61 sacrifices on the year. We're going to have to shore up our defense ESPECIALLY Collins, Marrero if he catches a game against them, and our pitchers because they will test us with the short game. They try to shut you down with their pitching and then wait for you to make an error on one of their bunts and beat you 2-1. They are probably the worst hitting team in this regional- they only have two guys over .300 and they have one power guy. They like to run some too. That's how they have done it since Augie Garrido was coaching them. I think playing all of those West Coast teams like Oregon, USC, and UCLA is going to pay off for us when/if we play them even though it hurt our RPI. The BEST way to shut down a small ball team like this is to throw a power arm like Hudson and Humphreys and just try to overpower them basically. We can beat them- but WE MUST PLAY GOOD DEFENSE. Runs are going to be hard to come by against all of their pitchers- all of them are sub 3 ERA guys, so we have a very small margin for error.

Louisiana Tech- as everyone has said, they are scrappy- BUT they are ESPECIALLY dangerous to us because they have a LOT of Mississippi connections. Chrisitan Ostrander is their pitching coach and he used to be at Delta State and then was the head coach at Jones JC. Ostrander might be the most respected pitching coach with native Mississippi ties other than Butch Thompson. Jake Wells used to coach for us. But what makes them dangerous to me is the fact that they have a few Mississippi kids- some of whom no doubt wanted to play at MSU and want to prove that we screwed up. They have a literal JUCO all-star team- it's basically their entire roster and I have never seen anything like it. Their best pitcher and hitter- Casey Sutton and Chance Lunsford played at Hinds. I would have to compare them favorably to USM/South Alabama even though USM is a little bit better obviously. They are an up and coming mid major and this is their coming out party.

SEMO State- They are your typical four seed in that they have a solid team and a legit ace. They are going to try to get into a slug fest and they have the most power of any of the regional opponents plus they are statistically the best hitting opponent in field. They will run some on you too. Their ace is a senior who was the OVC pitcher of the year as a junior- and he has only gotten better this year. We have to make sure that we keep the ball down and limit mistakes whomever we pitch. If their ace goes on Friday, I'm going with Hudson because their offense is too good to risk throwing someone that might be off because their ace can shut anyone down. If not, I'd probably go ahead and go with Houston or Pilkington. Since they are LH heavy, I'd have Daniel Brown and Billingsley ready for game one.

[Todd4State]

If semo is A little on the left then I see us going Pilk.

A couple of things about that:

I'd rather have Houston pitching than Pilkington in a championship situation right now.

We have some good LH pitchers that we can use like Brown, Billingsley and then we have RH Blake Smith who has a really good breaking ball that can pitch to both LH/RH. That should take some pressure off of Pilkington if that's the way we go.

[Jack Lambert]

SEMO coach Steve Bieser doesn’t know if ace Joey Lucchesi (10-4, 1.87 ERA) will start against MSU Fri. He threw 119 pitches Fri and 35 Sun.

Our batting average is over 300 and it doesn't matter. Our guys will be focus and put some ball in play.

[GreenheadDawg]

Not being a smartass, this is a serious question. Who has SEMO faced that has the pitching to qualify this team as a "power" hitting team?

[CadaverDawg]

A couple of things about that:

I'd rather have Houston pitching than Pilkington in a championship situation right now.

We have some good LH pitchers that we can use like Brown, Billingsley and then we have RH Blake Smith who has a really good breaking ball that can pitch to both LH/RH. That should take some pressure off of Pilkington if that's the way we go.

Yea, Billingsley is RH, but your point stands

[JohnnyQuid]

I'd rather have Houston pitching than Pilkington in a championship situation right now.

100%.

[Todd4State]

Yea, Billingsley is RH, but your point stands

That's why I am a baseball guru.

[CadaverDawg]

Their field dimensions are 330/380/400 which is larger than Dudy Noble....if you are referring to stadium capacity you would be correct but the game is not played in the stands. Give Osborne his due...he's earned it with 15 bombs.

Yep

[JohnnyQuid]

Their field dimensions are 330/380/400 which is larger than Dudy Noble....if you are referring to stadium capacity you would be correct but the game is not played in the stands. Give Osborne his due...he's earned it with 15 bombs.

that's surprising - never would have thought that was the case. still the quality of pitching he see's 75% of the time wouldn't make an SEC roster. not dogging the guy it's just what it is.

[Jack Lambert]

They have a masher in Osborne, with 15 bombs.

I like our chances.

[CSUFOrange]

Interesting.

Wish we could get a La Tech, SEMO, & CSF fan to give us a breakdown of their team

Glad to oblige! Excited about this regional, and the Titans playing at one of the best facilities and crowds in the nation. (Remodel plans look incredible) It'll be a huge test.

Todd4State summed it up pretty well, the Titans are the prototypical West Coast baseball team, get them on, get them over, get them in. Lots of small ball (sometimes to our fans' displeasure) but we can pitch with anyone in the nation and the #1 Team ERA goes to show it. Seabold and Gavin both pitched in Omaha last season along with quite a few relievers, Eastman just won the Big West championship game on the road at our rival and almost threw a CG in it as a freshman... The list goes on.

The offense has been a question mark, it's either boon or bust. They've shown they can put up huge offensive games (18 runs at UC Santa Barbara) but then put up a head scratching series loss at home against Hawaii. It's going to be interesting to see which Titan team shows up, the team that went through a tough home regional last year and then won 2/3 at Louisville to go to Omaha, or the team that's lost baffling performances to Hawaii, USC, and Maryland.

Looking forward to it! Hoping to meet the Bulldogs in Game 2! Go Titans!