Fayetteville (Super) Regional - 2025 Edition now CWS

[HOGSRUNWILD]

I'm not going to watch it again but last night it looked like he second guessed himself right as he started to dive, hesitated, and then slipped/dove anyway.  Like he had the thought that he could catch it on the hop instead and hold the tying run.

It's a hard catch to make but in the moment you can't be thinking "what if I miss it?".

It really isn't a hard catch for a top Level d1 left fielder that doesn't second guess themselves in the biggest moment.  Likely in a midweek game he makes that catch like it is routine since he is a top level d1 left fielder.

This is far bigger than just this game, this sport and this year and even with the food poisoning, we had plenty of opportunities to be "clutch" and win anyway and we did what Arkansas sports generally do, we spit the bit as the stakes got bigger.  We had the bases loaded multiple times with opportunities to win, food poisoning or not, and simply didn't come up big when we had the opportunity to do so with our biggest players in the spotlight. 

Maybe we will come up big later, who knows, but you know it and I know it over our entire lifetimes, when the stakes get big, Arkansas sports wilt when the lights get bright and have EVERY FUCKING TIME except in 1994 with the exception of track really.  It just happens and I hope they prove me wrong.

As I said in the softball thread.   EVERY FUCKING TIME.  When an Arkansas team has the spotlight on them in the biggest moment, the spit the bit.  EVERY FUCKING TIME.  When it is time to grab the win, they refuse to win.  They just do.  They will do whatever is needed to refuse to win.  Be it refuse to catch a pop-up, refuse to catch a punt, refuse to scoop and score, get tripped by their own lineman, let some nobody have a career night that has never done anything before, you name it, we will do it. You know it, I know it.  It is so ingrained in our psyche that our own teams know it and start thinking about it.

You think that against USCLA in the 9th with a big lead when we started fucking around that we didn't think "holy shit, we are going to blow this" and instead of giving up an error we gave up 3 runs?  Sure, we didn't lose, but it snowballed.  Last night, instead of that one error, that thought turned that one into 3 runs and a loss.  Dave knows it and it 100% influenced his coaching.  You know it, I know it.  It influenced our players too.  They start playing not to fuck up and not to lose instead of just playing to fucking win like they did the other 90% of the game.  That leads to playing tight and that leads to not just seeing the ball, breaking on it and making a fairly routing catch at this level.  Instead, you hesitate, think about it and now you get caught in no-mans land and it fucking gets past you.  Now you are tied.

Then DVH panics and completely loses his mind and with a guy already in scoring position and the game tied and the dude that has already taken you yard at the plate...instead of putting him on so you have forces at all three bags, you let him hit and he walks you off. 

[BASS]

when the field turf is soft due to rain, are there baseball cleats with longer cleats that are allowed to be used?  just thinking about davalan slipping on that routine fly ball.

if so, maybe we should have 2 sets for everyone, shorter cleats for a dry and hard turf, longer for a moist soft turf.

[woodhog14]

quote author=Feral link=msg=182977 date=1750300455]
Yes, it's on Aloy and Davalan for having brain aneurysms and costing us 2 outs, but we went to Gibler (who'd already pitched) instead of guys like Coil or Carter who were fresh and hadn't even seen the field yet in Omaha?

Robinette is the one who got it started with mental errors. If he just goes to first and let's Kozeal field the ball, then there would have been 2 out and nobody on. That was the one that hurt the most IMHO.

[HOGSRUNWILD]

Robinette is the one who got it started with mental errors. If he just goes to first and let's Kozeal field the ball, then there would have been 2 out and nobody on. That was the one that hurt the most IMHO.

Yep, we get that out and the mental part of it never starts likely.  They probably get a K or a routine ground-out on the next guy and it is over.  But with that error they got hope and we start shitting down our leg like we always do.

[Ray Zorback]

EVERY FUCKING TIME.  When an Arkansas team has the spotlight on them in the biggest moment, the spit the bit.  EVERY FUCKING TIME.  When it is time to grab the win, they refuse to win.  They just do.  They will do whatever is needed to refuse to win.

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[woodhog14]

How do you brain fart big enough to not turn that double?   When you play infield you run through every scenario in your head BEFORE every pitch.  You're yelling at an confirming with the other infielders BEFORE every pitch what you're going to do if the ball is hit to you.  I just don't get it.

He never hesitated he was always going for the lead runner.

Exactly. The guy going to 3rd didn't matter. You always want to keep the tying/winning run off of 2nd.

In hindsight it had to be coaching.  Aloy didn't even hesitate on going to third.  He was probably told to do that when they huddled up on the mound right before that. 

There is no way he was told to do that. No coach would ever say get the lead runner going to 3rd if it's hit to SS, when a 6-4-3 double play ends the game.

We don't even coach that in 9U ball. We tell them to go to 2nd.

[HOGSRUNWILD]

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Yeah, in the softball thread I put in the, Except 94, caveat.  Then we promptly in 95 reverted.

[BleedinRed]

Exactly. The guy going to 3rd didn't matter. You always want to keep the tying/winning run off of 2nd.

You understand that the tying run scored from 1st right?

[DRYANKNPULL]

I just sat there and calmly watched it without any anxiety. Mostly just morbid curiosity for how we would figure out how to lose.

[woodhog14]

You understand that the tying run scored from 1st right?

Whatever...you still turn 2 there. No need to get the guy at 3rd.

[Hogfan58]

The silver lining for me (in a very perverse way) is that we ALL know that what happened last night was going to happen today, which would have made it 100% worse than it was. Plus, I don't recall them ever showing during any of our games "the pop-up", which you know they would have if we played tonight. I would not have wanted to see that again, knowing what was about to happen. 

[Hogfan58]

I just sat there and calmly watched it without any anxiety. Mostly just morbid curiosity for how we would figure out how to lose.

Me as well. I was nervous as fuck innings 1-8, calm in the 9th. I guess I just was waiting for the inevitable.

[BleedinRed]

Whatever...you still turn 2 there. No need to get the guy at 3rd.

100% on the double play.  That should happen 100% of the time.

[woodhog14]

100% on the double play.  That should happen 100% of the time.

Yep...still don't understand what Aloy was thinking there.

[DRYANKNPULL]

I think he thought there were 2 outs, which is still a little league mistake.

[Vito Porkleone]

I'm still pissed.  I'll stay pissed for a while.  Then I'll get sucked back in and forget all about it cause I love Hog baseball, and I love DVH.  Now, where can we find a goat to sacrifice?

[BleedinRed]

Yep...still don't understand what Aloy was thinking there.

I think it was just as Dave theorized; he drifted too far to his right and he though the double was going to be a no go so he took the sure out on the lead runner.  Remember, this was right after Robinett fucked up.  Which, by the way was the killer.  We get that out and we are playing tonight.  

[PorkyPig]

Robinette is the one who got it started with mental errors. If he just goes to first and let's Kozeal field the ball, then there would have been 2 out and nobody on. That was the one that hurt the most IMHO.

That's exactly right, and I wasn't thrilled about trotting out the freshman pitcher and then leaving him in when he struggled from the start.

[Feral]

I think he thought there were 2 outs, which is still a little league mistake.

I legitimately think he thought there were 2 outs as well.

As Kyle Peterson said on the broadcast when looking at the slow-mo replay, his body language made it appear like never gave a single thought of going to second.

[DrMongoose]

This was the chance to finally beat LSU in Omaha.

As we see every year, getting the final out in Omaha is the hardest out to get.

But damn, that was stoernover level pain.

as Phil said on the postgame - if not now, then when?

Minus mac, pitching was more than enough.

Basic Baseball fundamentals

Defense and hitting. We have to get better in Omaha but how?