This forum is pure hardball. Bring the heat in this discussion of Flames baseball.

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By jinxy
Registration Days Posts
#527877
Got the win, solid work from Mitchell and great work from Clouse and Degroat.

I wasn't crazy about Degroat at the back end before the season but it's growing on me as he looks filthy. The pitching is starting to sort itself out now that we've got Mitchell back in the rotation and Tarantola looking good in mid-week action. It's up to Evans and Bertsch to solidy their positions as starters or i would think Clouse would/should push either. Gaines has done a great job with this group. This for the most part is the same group that couldn't do anything last year outside of quarterly, degroat late & Mitchell in spots. We seem to be attacking the zone and exhibiting much better command.

Hitting continues to be scarce. Outside of Sammy we really don't have anybody that's been hot and only a couple even lukewarm. We need to keep trying to find a few more sticks to go in that lineup.

It would be huge to get a sweep this weekend with Duke and the red hot undefeated Red Storm of St. John's coming in next weekend. If they keep winning they could be undefeated and top 12-15 when they come to town next week. Big time opportunity to make some hay at home the next couple of weeks and put us firmly in position for an at large heading into conference play.
By Sparky Shuffler
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#527886
It was a chilly one out there, but I and a few friends stuck it out.

He may not have had the best night at the plate, but it was good to see Artis back in the lineup, even as a DH. I hope they don't rush him back prematurely though, because we'll need him down the stretch. The pitching continues to be solid and Degroat has been lights out.

Looking forward to game 2!
By LUDad
Posts
#527889
Sparky Shuffler wrote:It was a chilly one out there, but I and a few friends stuck it out.

He may not have had the best night at the plate, but it was good to see Artis back in the lineup, even as a DH. I hope they don't rush him back prematurely though, because we'll need him down the stretch. The pitching continues to be solid and Degroat has been lights out.

Looking forward to game 2!
Team batting average is 236 right now. What's impressive is that opponents are averaging only 220. Over the course of a season a team will tipically hit the average that talent dictates. I thinking that is 275 or higher for this group of guys. So we have a lot to look forward to. I would like to see us ramp up to that average gradually, peaking at tournment time.

The improvment in pitching is obvious. However these coaches are also teaching disipline at the plate. It's nice to win games when not hitting the long ball.
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By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#527910
Agreed LUDad.

Took a look at our schedule/results just now...In our now 7 wins, we have allowed 1,1,4,5,0,1 and 1 runs, but in our 3 losses, we allowed 4, 8 and 10 runs. when the pitching is on, we have a chance to be very VERY good...the other thing...errors. we had 4, 4, and 2 errors in our three losses but we have only had more than 2 errors in 1 of our wins to this point...and the offense pretty much bailed us out in that one as well
By Sparky Shuffler
Posts
#527912
A stellar outing for Evans today. Good to see Shepherd and Barbee with nice days at the plate. Hopefully we can complete the sweep tomorrow to give us some confidence going into this upcoming stretch of tough games.
By krh44
Registration Days Posts
#527953
Flames drop game 3, 9-6.
Morris did have a 3 run hr. Need to get the bats going.
By flamehunter
Registration Days Posts
#527961
krh44 wrote:Flames drop game 3, 9-6.
Morris did have a 3 run hr. Need to get the bats going.
Funny but the 3 run HR was actually a ground rule double that the ump got wrong. But it was good to see Morris get a good whack on the ball regardless.
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By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#527963
Bertsch just didn't have it...got hit real hard. A couple key errors didn't help things either...and the two DPs early really were killer for us. Gotta get that out of our system and get ready for a big midweek matchup on Tuesday
By krh44
Registration Days Posts
#527967
flamehunter wrote:
krh44 wrote:Flames drop game 3, 9-6.
Morris did have a 3 run hr. Need to get the bats going.
Funny but the 3 run HR was actually a ground rule double that the ump got wrong. But it was good to see Morris get a good whack on the ball regardless.

I didn't even see that part about the HR but we will take it.
By krh44
Registration Days Posts
#527968
BJWilliams wrote:Bertsch just didn't have it...got hit real hard. A couple key errors didn't help things either...and the two DPs early really were killer for us. Gotta get that out of our system and get ready for a big midweek matchup on Tuesday

St Johns is going to be a tough weekend series. They normally have a good squad but this year they are 10-1 with their only loss to #9 ECU.
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By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#527973
Agreed...but they cannot look past Duke tomorrow
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By jinxy
Registration Days Posts
#527977
2 moves that would help the offense a ton is playing Morris instead of Barbee and Dhing Grabowski or playing him at 2b and moving Kowalo to 3rd. All the talk about Morris not hitting is BS. Kid has 3 at bats and one of them is a 2b that was ruled a HR. I don't care if he had a bad fall or not, look at his stats and tape last year for a true frosh. Some guys just need game AB's in the early part of the season to look right. Barbee is hitting .205 in 39 at bats.

Also we need to move Clouse into the rotation and if Jackson doesn't want to pitch Bertsch out of the pen then he just might have to sit. He's just not getting it done. He will come around but we don't have time to watch it happen on Sundays getting knocked around during a regional hunt. I know TJ surgery complicates his situation but we're 3 starts in now.
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