A Sea Of Red

I'm late starting the thread this week. My work schedule changed this week and messed with my routine. I hate it when work gets in the way of important stuff like baseball. We predictably dropped out of the top 25 and fell to 63 in the RPI but today's win moved us up to 54.

We've already played our midweek game at Duke. A great win. Score was 9-2 I didn't get to watch but Logan hit a 3 run homer and we put up a 6 spot in the 9th.
Duke had a lot of expectations coming into the season and they were ranked in the pre-season polls. Things haven't gone according to plan as they are now 12-13 and 107 in the RPI after today's game. Any ACC win is a good win. And it looks like Jackson was chasing the win hard pitching Fluharty for several innings early in the game when the score was 3-2.

This weekend we visit the defending ASUN champions down in Jacksonville. They are 12-10 overall and 1-5 in conference but are 74 in the RPI. Their best win is against FSU. This is a pretty good team. They seem offensively similar to Stetson. They don't seem to hit for a lot of power (not that it stopped Stetson from taking us deep several times) and they steal a lot of bases 40-49 on the season. This is a tough series for sure.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates these threads. Thank you.

I would say this was the most impressive win of the year!
Going on the road without 2 of our top bats and leaders, is tough to overcome. A rough start when in the top of the 1st, Hillier hit a 2-out gapper that would have easily scored Gulakowski from first to take an early lead but the ball bounced up against the chain-link fence and squeezed between the padding and the fencing. Forcing a ground rule double. Even the announcer said he had never seen that happen. A lead off bomb in bottom frame made it feel like this is going to be a long day. Yet LU kept grinding with maybe the best possible scenario happening in the top of the 4th. Mathieu hit an 0-2 pitch, oppo to put us up for good. Getting another bat with some pop in the lineup may be the key to stringing more wins together. #55 has been struggling mightily but you have to respect coach Jackson for trusting him to turn it around.
Once we have a lead past the 5th, its nails! This bullpen is dominant right now.
We have all the pieces for a good run into the NCAA's, if they all come together. +Pitching +Defense. If our O catches on, this could get fun!

The only thing that bothers me about this game was the 15 strikeouts we had. That's a ton.

flamehunter wrote: ↑March 30th, 2022, 12:39 pm The only thing that bothers me about this game was the 15 strikeouts we had. That's a ton.

Right! The O is not there yet. We are dependent on the long ball. If we can get some station to station production, it will make the difference in conference and tourney play.

flamehunter wrote: ↑March 30th, 2022, 12:39 pm The only thing that bothers me about this game was the 15 strikeouts we had. That's a ton.

Some eye popping SO rates:

Gulakowski 31 in 92 (34% SO rate)
Foster 28 k's in 84 AB's (33%)
Lazzaro 24 in 53 (45%)
Mathieu 22 in 64 (34%)

As a team: 212 in 774 (27% !!)
We are #125 in OBP (out of 293)

The pitching is carrying this team. #25 in WHIP, #23 in ERA, #12 in K/9, #12 in fewest BB's /9, #6 in K/BB ratio (3.68!)
Fielding % is #25 (This past weekend hurt those numbers greatly)

Starting pitching changes for the weekend:

Horn Friday, Carter Saturday, and Adametz Sunday. Thought this night happen as Gibson and Alba struggle to get to the 4th inning and have high ERAs.

I believe "someone" suggested this very change a couple of days ago.

Wow, coming into the season I would have thought there’s no way a healthy Gibson would lose his weekend starting spot. I think it was definitely time for a change.

Baseball game @JU getting underway. Betts and Orndorff are both in the lineup.

SumItUp wrote: ↑April 1st, 2022, 7:05 pm Baseball game @JU getting underway. Betts and Orndorff are both in the lineup.

Great to see both of them back.

3-0 JU in the bottom of the 6th. They are still threatening. This game is over. We are incapable of scoring 4 runs to win.

if you are scouting LU, game plan should always be to allow 2 runners on with less than 2 outs and they are guaranteed not to score.

Watching other A Sun TV productions makes one appreciate LUFSN. HS Production level tonight

HS production level is a very generous description.

We narrowly avoid the shutout and fall 6-1. The best I can remember we hit 4 balls hard all night. Both of Mathieu’s doubles and Orndorff and Anderson each lined out hard in the infield.

jmclaughlin wrote: ↑April 1st, 2022, 9:39 pm if you are scouting LU, game plan should always be to allow 2 runners on with less than 2 outs and they are guaranteed not to score.

JU successfully used this strategy in the 2nd inning tonight. I’m sure it won’t be the last time they do it.

I’m keeping up with the game on live stats. It says the 4th inning ended with Betts being picked off first with the bases loaded and Orndorff at the plate.
Does anyone know how that happened?
I’m thinking maybe the catcher threw behind him because the first baseman wouldn’t be holding him on. Or maybe just a weird situation that the live stats can’t really capture.

It was a pick-off by the pitcher. Probably caught Betts (and apparently 1B coach) off-guard.

Flames win 6-2! Good job manufacturing runs tonight. Mason was electric in relief.

We lose today 11-7 and the series 2-1 committing 7 errors in the process.
We are now 4-5 in conference play before we’ve even played 1 game against the best 2 teams in the ASUN.

aredd33 wrote: ↑April 3rd, 2022, 4:49 pm We lose today 11-7 and the series 2-1 committing 7 errors in the process.
We are now 4-5 in conference play before we’ve even played 1 game against the best 2 teams in the ASUN.

That 11 is worrisome.

So is the 7, and I don’t mean the runs. Sloppy.

Shouldn't be surprised... Strong start, beating ACC in midweek and then getting embarrassed in conference play. ACC wins don't impress if we continue going 1-2 or even getting swept in conference.