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GTNavyNuke

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Ok, I wasn't going to listen. Come back to check and we are down 0-4 to hot Duke team in the third.

Fourth we cut it to 2-4.

Then in the sixth, we have gotten like 4 in field hits and taken a 7-4 lead after knocking out the Duke starter.

Sorry, guys but this is a lot more interesting than football right now.

Go Beesball!!!
 

AE 87

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Ok, I wasn't going to listen. Come back to check and we are down 0-4 to hot Duke team in the third.

Fourth we cut it to 2-4.

Then in the sixth, we have gotten like 4 in field hits and taken a 7-4 lead after knocking out the Duke starter.

Sorry, guys but this is a lot more interesting than football right now.

Go Beesball!!!

I appreciate these updates. I tuned out after Mercer.
 

GTNavyNuke

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GTNavyNuke

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Roberts got into a little trouble in the 8th - with two out he put two on. But stuck out the third.

Clay comes in the ninth and 1-2-3. GT 7-4 after trailing 0-4.

Nice having a lot of pitchers.

The rally squirrel got us our first run in the fourth after running behind the umpire. It's not superstition if it works.
 

MWBATL

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LOL...the rally squirrel.

Hard to tell what we've got as a team. Pitt by the way had something like an 18 game winning streak on their home field (which came to an end this weekend against UVa when they were no-hit last night). They were 42-17 last year, 18-6 in the Big East and were a whisker away from the NCAA Tournament. So last weekend's sweep was (perhaps) not as embarrassing as it could be. They had after all swept Duke the weekend before.

More beesball to play, and that will tell the tale of our season. I have no ida what to expect. But better starting pitching would sure help us a lot, as our bullpen has solidified. Clay has taken over as the closer by simply out-preforming Isaacs.
 

GTNavyNuke

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We are tied for 8th (with UNC) in the ACC total standings. Top 10 of the 14 teams in ACC standings go to Greensboro. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Atlantic_Coast_Conference_Baseball_Tournament

17 ACC games remaining: Duke 2, FSU 3, Md 3, NCState 3, VT 3, UVa 3. We have played 13 (6-7 record).

So with the new tourney format, we will go if we play 500 ball from here out. That is possible given MD, NCState and VT have losing records in the ACC. What we really want is to be in the top 6 and not have to play the extra games.
 

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The rest of this weekend is key. I can see us going 6-3 against UMd, VPI&SU, and NCState (The first two teams in that group have almost the same conference record we have, for example) ...but I can also seeing us go 1-5 against FSU and UVa (UVa's pitching is lights out. I will be very surprised if we beat them once). That makes us 7-8 in those series.

These next two games are important!

But I am not sure that gets us to 6th place. It will take real improvement to wind up there.
 

GTNavyNuke

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Just need to catch and cage a few squirrels to release at opportune times. From Nolan Alexander:

"The rally squirrel came down and trickled along the concrete top of the where the backstop meets the netting behind home plate closer to the Tech side. I'm not exactly sure how he got down there, whether he walked the rope from the press box down or ran around inside the park.

Nevertheless, once we and most fans noticed him, he ran around the base of the netting to the Duke dugout and startled a coach, then climbed through the edge of the net to the rope extending it to above the press box on the right side and that's all we saw. He left us a couple of runs and of course he factored into the 5 run 6th!"
 

GTNavyNuke

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Gonzalez throws out a runner going home to end the second for Duke. 0-0.

Our D is looking good - we had an error trying to make a tough play though. These kids play hard and make some great plays but some errors too.

In third 0-0........ but Duke has 2 on and 2 out.
 

GTNavyNuke

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I appreciate these updates. I tuned out after Mercer.

No doubt it made sense to tune out after losing to Mercer. Why is it we beat good teams and play well and then stink it up against others? The team is bipolar.

Here's my observation - we suck when it's cold. Against Mercer the reported starting temp was 46F.
  • Below 50F, we are 0-5.
  • 50 to <60F we are 5-1.
  • 60 to <70F we are 7-6.
  • >70F we are 5-1.
It was 68F to start the game today, so who knows? We are leading 3-0 though in the third. No need for the squirrel today I hope.

If Danny Hall were CPJ, I'd want to know why Hall can't recruit players who are good in the cold (tic). As it is, Beesball is our best recent major sport (football, baseball, basketball). (BTW this thread was inspired by Oktoberfest.)
 

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Attached is the chart of the temperature at game time and the runs we scored.

Imagine how we'll do when it get to 90 F?
 

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GTNavyNuke

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For some reason I really like this years team.

So do I. We have pitching depth. I kind of hope for extra inning games where we go deeper into the benches of both teams. We are very young and our hitters / fielders have an attitude that will only get better. (It is an **** you type attitude.)

Plus the beer tastes better when we win.
 

AE 87

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I still think Mercer and Pitt showed what the 1st round of the road to the CWS would look like. I'd buy that we were just bi-polar if it didn't seem to be what Danny Hall has done for us every year: produce a team that can win any game but doesn't win when they need to
 

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Pitt and Mercer are both pretty good teams. Pitt just knocked off #1 ranked Virginia at home, 2-1, to raise their ACC home record to 7-1. They won 42 games last year and just missed the NCAA's. Mercer is 24-7 overall and leads their league, and is a likely NCAA team.

I never know what to expect from GT though, I will agree with that!
 

GTNavyNuke

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I don't know what to expect either, but the potential is there for this team. The fielding is getting much better and so is he pitching. Who would have thought losing King (for how long?), Pitts, and Cruz we'd be doing as well as we are?

We took series from Miami and UNC and now Duke. We lost to Radford, VCU, Ga Southern, Kennesaw State, Mercer.

I'd like to blame it on the temperature ...... there is a correlation there for many of the awful losses but that isn't causation. We don't score as many runs when it's cold - but the other team has to play in it too. I looked quicky at other teams we played and the temperature didn't affect them much. {I'll look at later during the game when there is little else to do - have work to do now!}

I'd hope our team would believe it was the reason since the cold weather is behind us now!
 

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One last thing - the mulch is calling to be spread ....... we are only 1 game out of sixth place. Pittsburgh is 8-6 in sixth and we are 7-7. Go UVa!! Of course, Pittsburgh has the tiebreaker having swept us, but we are definitely in it. Today is the halfway point for the ACC season for us........
 

MWBATL

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The baseball currently being used in NCAA's exaggerates the skills of pitchers. (It is a baseball with distinctly raised seams, which allows the pitcher to grip more easily, and slows the flight of the ball once hit). Next year, the ball returns to a more standard pro baseball with level seams. That should increase offense in the college game, and it will be interesting to see how that affects pitching everywhere.

But for this year, if you can pitch, you fell like you are always in the game because you may fall behind by 2 or 3 runs but you always have hope that you can score that much to comeback and win. I also agree our defense has really improved and been an asset for us...especially in the outfield. Heck, we lead the nation...all of the NCAA's..... in outfield assists!

It is our hitting which is so hard to predict. I had noticed the weather relayed results as well, but was glad you put it together in black and white! Maybe that will be the key? You never know!
 

MWBATL

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Pitt has to go on the road soon, where they are not nearly as good. We have a shot at catching them, imho.
 
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