[SuperJon]

We had the opportunities but simply didn't take advantage of them. We'd get a leadoff double and strand him on 2nd or 3rd with no chance to score. Coastal took every opportunity to manufacture runs by stealing, bunting, starting the hit and run, etc. If my math is right, Coastal had 9 stolen bases (10 attempts) and six sacrifice hits while we didn't have a stolen base (one attempt) and only one sac bunt. All of that goes back to the identity of the team. Coastal's identity is that of a small ball team. We are a big inning, string hits together type of team and Coastal was very effective at not letting those hits get strung together.

[Hold My Own]

I'm not sure I've EVER seen a team as good as Coastal in a series. If they got a man on 2nd...chalk it up as a run. They will take advantage of every little mistake you make. It was impressive.


Normally I dont like a guy coming off the mound talking trash when you've lost the first 2 games of the series but I thought that might have been what was needed to get LU fired up again....but Coastal responded both verbally and with the bats...we were only responding verbally

[vthokies20]

coastal widens the gap. We were closer under Royer.

[Hold My Own]

I think the gaps the same...Coastal is simply now an elite team in the nation (only 3 better) and LU is where Coastal was hovering around that 25-35 RPI

[bigsmooth]

agreed HMO. coastal is an elite team. the chants were not an elite team when royer was here. let leave the comparisons out of the discussion. the #4 team just came to town and showed why they are college world series caliber.

[Rooster Cogburn]

I was only able to come Sunday, but what I saw that night was an Omaha bound team. Coastal does EVERYTHING right, they are solid in EVERY position, and their Pitchers are outstanding. This team is stacked with future pros. We got run over by a train, and to those who have been paying attention we are who we thought we were.

[jcmanson]

Well, I guess we need to win our last 4, and then make it to the championship game of the tourney to have a shot at an at large.

[SuperJon]

Well, I guess we need to win our last 4, and then make it to the championship game of the tourney to have a shot at an at large.

We'll need to knock Coastal off at least once in the tourney to get the at large. We have no wins over top 50 teams right now.

[Rooster Cogburn]

So how is it I remember a lot of guys saying last week that even if we got swept and won the rest of our games we'd be in and now it's changed?

[LUnpretty11]

A series sweep will change some fans from optimistic, to pessimistic in a flash.

[bigsmooth]

rooster, i believe we all said we needed to get one win. as jon said we have zero top 50 wins. i do feel like if we win out and get to the championship game of the big south that we get in, but who really knows. it also depends on the other teams performances we are competing against for an at-large.

[Rooster Cogburn]

Here is one, looking for more.

. . . Here's what I think:
0 wins - Not good but not terrible. Doesn't hurt us a ton but we will lack a "good win."
. . . .

[SuperJon]

This sweep doesn't kill us but it doesn't help us. We gave the committee a reason to keep us out. Getting swept was not a good thing. We can still make a great case for ourselves if we win out and get to 41 wins and then win at least three in the conference tournament to get to 44 wins. What we really need the most is to get to those 44 wins and then knock Coastal off once in the tournament to get to 45 wins with a win over a Top 50 team.

[JK37]

We had the opportunities but simply didn't take advantage of them. We'd get a leadoff double and strand him on 2nd or 3rd with no chance to score...All of that goes back to the identity of the team...We are a big inning, string hits together type of team and Coastal was very effective at not letting those hits get strung together.

Certainly, it's easier said than done for a team to change its strategy and identity for one series this late in the season. But I'm curious now: since it's been shown that this identity does not beat Coastal, does it get changed if/when LU meets Coastal in the BSC championships?

[uncafan]

This sweep doesn't kill us but it doesn't help us. We gave the committee a reason to keep us out. Getting swept was not a good thing. We can still make a great case for ourselves if we win out and get to 41 wins and then win at least three in the conference tournament to get to 44 wins. What we really need the most is to get to those 44 wins and then knock Coastal off once in the tournament to get to 45 wins with a win over a Top 50 team.

Gotta disagree here. And not just because i posted this back in March -- but I still think you guys had to take one from coastal to have a shot ( and btw...http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/co ... EM_ID=4800).

Sure you guys are going to end up with 40 wins -- but who did you beat? I'd love to see you guys get in -- because I really don't see how Coastal is going to lose 2 games in the tourny considering their arms -- but I'm just not sure how an argument can be made for a 40 win team that only played 2 top 50 RPI teams all year and was 0-4 against those teams. Especially when your going to be fighting other 'bubble' teams that have 30 wins and are 12-15 in say, the SEC. Just using the SEC as an example, they are going to have 10 teams with 30+ wins. I'm not sure a good argument can be made for LU when they are stacked up against .500 teams that are playing TOUGH in conference schedules.

Anyway, I hope i'm wrong...i really do. Its been too long since the BSC had a 2 bid year. And with Winthrop's facilities we *should* be a 3 bid league...

[SuperJon]

You would have a great case against us if we get to 44 wins with no win over Coastal.

We would have a great case for us if we get to 44 wins with no win over Coastal.

Unfortunately, I believe the committee will go with the case against us if for no other reason than a bigger name will sell more tickets.

[Hold My Own]

Well, if they go by attendance numbers (which I would have to think it would be looked at) we would have to rank fairly high among teams considered right?

[Sly Fox]

If they were considering placing us in Charlottesville, attendance could actually be a help for our cause. There would be an assumption that we would travel up 29 fairly well.

[bigsmooth]

i do not think that would be a factor. UVa is selling out every game and after the allotments went out to each school. i have no doubt that the place would be sold out. im sure LU would repressent, but charlottesville townies are coming out in droves after the world series run last year.

[jenkins]

Coastal is the best team I"ve seen in person this year including GT and UVA. We really didn't play that bad and still got swept. We made a couple errors that hurt us friday and saturday and couldn't get the big hit when we needed it. Our bullpen was rock solid and I was really worried about that going into the series. The bullpen bailed out the starters all 3 games and pitched really well for the most part. Consider that the pen threw almost 15 innings this weekend. Coastal doesn't beat themselves and I disagree that they are a small ball team. They manufacture runs when they need be. If you've watched the in onther games they hit the crap out of the ball with a lot of bombs. We held them in the yard pretty darn well compared to a lot of other teams they have played this year which I think was a credit to our guys that they took them out of their normal power game and they still beat us. That's just a sign of a top 5 "resilient team that doesn't have to rely on any one facet of the game. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see them make a deep run in the World Series. As for us, we will either cower under and limp to the finish line or re-group and salvage as many wins possible. I hate to say it but I have a bad feeling that this weekend is going to linger, I hope I"m wrong.

[Hold My Own]

Yeh, they absolutely rake. I think what some people may be thinking about is they are able to execute (move a runner over by sac, etc) but that's not a small ball team...that's a good team that can do the little things. An example of this is when they have a guy on first, move them over and then the next batter hits a gap. They can hit bombs and I'm convinced if we didnt have the weather we did this weekend (air) we would have seen a lot more.

[SuperJon]

Coastal doesn't beat themselves and I disagree that they are a small ball team. They manufacture runs when they need be. If you've watched the in onther games they hit the crap out of the ball with a lot of bombs.

I may not have described that the right way. Maybe I should've said they're willing to play small ball. What I meant by that is they don't take a single run for granted. They do what they need to do to win.

[therealbodoyle]

I think some people might be confused by the way we won the games. We are capable of winning by playing small ball if we play in a humongous park (uva) or we are capable of mashing the ball if we are in a band box (Watson/Vrooman) or go against poor pitching (most of the Big South). I think that was Gilly's main point in the BA article - talking about how he likes this team because they are not one dimensional. If you stop one thing, we will do it another way.

[larrymac1946]

see my post under ..........final in the coastal series. i don't want to type that much here.

[SuperJon]

I would just like to point out that Coach Toman said basically the same thing I was saying:

“We’re a big-inning team, and we’d rather be a little more consistent, instead of relying on the big inning,” Toman said. “Sometimes that big inning doesn’t come.”

Here is the article that he said it in.

And while there are some people complaining on here, I'd also like to ask you if you've ever been a Division I coach. Your claim is that no one can have an opinion unless they've coached at the Division I level so I'd like to know how seriously we can take that opinion.