Fayetteville Regional thread—-Baseball

[Spiderham]

Tournaments are interesting because everyone runs out of pitching to some degree.  Despite what some may say here, our pitching staff is deep.  SEMO will certainly not run out a bunch of guys throwing mid-90s today.  We still can.
Even K State, who is sitting pretty, is going to run out their Sunday starter tonight.  After that, I suspect it is not pretty for them either (if we can get them to Monday)

[Feral]

Even K State, who is sitting pretty, is going to run out their Sunday starter tonight.  After that, I suspect it is not pretty for them either (if we can get them to Monday)

The problem is that our lineup has a penchant for making mediocre relievers and back of the rotation starters look much better than they are.

How many times has an opponent trotted out a 5.0+ ERA underclassman who proceeded to mow through our lineup?

Even KSU's starter last night wasn't exactly a quality arm. He was shelled by TCU in his last outing and only lasted 2.2, but somehow was able to outlast and out-pitch Hagen f-ing Smith last night. 

[DirkPiggler]

The problem is that our lineup has a penchant for making mediocre relievers and back of the rotation starters look much better than they are.

How many times has an opponent trotted out a 5.0+ ERA underclassman who proceeded to mow through our lineup?

Even KSU's starter last night wasn't exactly a quality arm. He was shelled by TCU in his last outing and only lasted 2.2, but somehow was able to outlast and out-pitch Hagen f-ing Smith last night. 

But we did eventually get to him.  Our bats are in a good place now...probably the best they've been all year as a whole.   Which means that some dude for SEMO with a 32.98 ERA will no-hit us.

[DirkPiggler]

At this point, we're basically going into a weekend series without Hagan, Tygart, Molina or Gaeckle.

I know they can probably throw a little (except Tygart), but more or less, this is what we're looking at. Some nuts are gonna have to drop in the bullpen for us to win 3.

I'd bet money that if needed Molina and Gaeckle can and will pitch again this series.  And it wouldn't stun me to see Smith in the 9th if we're protecting a lead tomorrow night. 

[Feral]

I'd bet money that if needed Molina and Gaeckle can and will pitch again this series.  And it wouldn't stun me to see Smith in the 9th if we're protecting a lead tomorrow night. 

DVH all but confirmed after the SEMO game that we'd see Gaeckle again this weekend, maybe even in an opener role.

Molina only threw 60 pitches Friday and could come out of the pen today or tomorrow.

Hagen could potentially give us a late inning tomorrow if desperately needed.

[Son of Spam]

Wasn't it SEMO that had a guy throwing like 60 mph and we couldn't hit him?

[Thin Red Swine]

But we did eventually get to him.  Our bats are in a good place now...probably the best they've been all year as a whole.   Which means that some dude for SEMO with a 32.98 ERA will no-hit us.

Agreed on the bats. Contact has been better across the board. We just HAVE to cut out the popups.

Just put it in play. K-State has made 58 errors in 58 games (2 last night) and SEMO has made 63 in 61 games (3 on Friday and 1 on Saturday). For comparison, the Hogs have made 38 errors in 59 games.

[Son of Spam]

The problem with us getting to the starting pitcher this year is that it usually doesn't happen until the seventh inning. That doesn't give you much leeway. In the past, we worked the opposing pitcher's count up pretty quickly. I suppose that could be why we take so many strikes this year.

[Feral]

The problem with us getting to the starting pitcher this year is that it usually doesn't happen until the seventh inning.

Yep.

We're not putting any pressure on opposing pitchers and forcing them to bear down or go to the stretch early in games (or even early in innings), and thus were not forcing them to stretch arms.

We tend to dick around the first 2 times through the order and not get going until the 6th or 7th, at which point we've totally taken the pressure off the opponent's bullpen.

Case in point, we had 5 total base runners in the first 4 innings last night, and all except 1 were with 2 outs.

We seem to have the exact opposite plate approach from our opponents. They make us pitch in the zone and only swing if it's close (thus we're issuing more walks), whereas we tend to watch a few pitches right down Broadway but chase away or in the dirt.

[Thin Red Swine]

The lineup is getting more consistent. It makes sense to give White a break behind the plate on the theory there will be at least one more to play.

You cannot view this attachment.

[DrMongoose]

Amazing number of tickets on stub hub dirt cheap for this game

[Cardiac Hog]

We seem to have the exact opposite plate approach from our opponents. They make us pitch in the zone and only swing if it's close (thus we're issuing more walks), whereas we tend to watch a few pitches right down Broadway but chase away or in the dirt.

SEMO's coach said as much in his postgame comments.  They knew our pictures try to make you chase pitches out of the zone, so they worked all week on only swinging at strikes.  Instead of 5 swings in the cage during drills, then were thrown 5 pitches but could only swing at 2 out of the 5 pitches to work on being more selective. It paid off with 10+ walks on Friday. 

Having to beat SEMO again may prove difficult.  We've got to do a better job at getting their leadoff hitter out each inning and limit the free passes. 

[DrMongoose]

https://x.com/joshteeter01/status/1797108035048845502?s=46&t=6uNMWI6PFOkxijXNhEuvSA

[Thin Red Swine]

We're batting first again.

[Son of Spam]

Here we go. Made it back in time, so Top of the first. We are the visitors again. Wilma (RHP and not Fred Flintstone's wife) on the mound for SEMO. This is the guy that throws slow pitches.

Stovall leads off. Goes down swinging. 1 away.

White flies out to left center. 2 away.

J SLott fouls out behind first.

12 pitch inning for their guy.

0-0 headed to the bottom of the first.

[Sus-Scrofa]

Let's have a nice easy 10-3 win

[Cardiac Hog]

We're batting first again.

Regional rules for home-visitor are silly.  We need to jump on them in the 1st

[Thin Red Swine]

Wasn't it SEMO that had a guy throwing like 60 mph and we couldn't hit him?

Yes. This damn guy.

[DrMongoose]

I am glad DVH was fired up last night but maybe that is the problem as this team plus with zero visible emotion.

They always look like robots



And whoever is in charge of the NCAA commercials is an idiot, they are horrible.
 

[Feral]

Hey look another dogshit inning at the plate capped off by a foul out.