Radford U - Opening Weekend

[GT33]

My son starts his 14u season on Tuesday otherwise I'd head to the Boro myself to cheer on the boys!

Go Joltin J's!!!

Just a FYI- Take out the 6 run 1st in yesterday's game and our team ERA is 2.18.
Add in the 6 run 1st (5 earned)- it's 4.50

I'll take it!

I also will add that I'm a huge fan of Giesler. During the autograph session post game, he had an extended conversation with my son not only to thank him for his support but he asked him if he plays baseball and when his season starts all the while playing a three hour game and it was in the low 40's. My smile had a grin ear to ear and is stoked to wear his Giesler signed baseball cap to his 14 u practice on Tuesday!
Thanks John from a grateful dad and tech baseball fan!!!

Good luck to your son. I don't make many games, usually 1 or 2 series a year at most but the Team always seems like they love the fans. The kids get a lot of attention. If I lived in Atlanta I'd make a whole lot more games, we have a great venue and a good team to watch.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

..........
Impressed with Cam Jones in relief and at the plate. Demitri is a key bullpen piece, but he was struggling today and PC Matt Taylor had a quick hook and brought Cam Jones in. I thought this was outstanding. Danny Borrell waited until our pitchers were in real trouble expecting them to be like professional ball players. These are college kids. They need encouragement and pulling them early helps their confidence imo so I think the early returns on Matt Taylor are positive.

Managing a professional pitching staff is much different than managing a college staff.
...........

I also will add that I'm a huge fan of Giesler. During the autograph session post game, he had an extended conversation with my son not only to thank him for his support but he asked him if he plays baseball and when his season starts all the while playing a three hour game and it was in the low 40's. My smile had a grin ear to ear and is stoked to wear his Giesler signed baseball cap to his 14 u practice on Tuesday!
Thanks John from a grateful dad and tech baseball fan!!!

Great post and I learned some stuff from it. I'd love to be closer to ATL.

Concerning the hook speed, it was slow under DBo and Howell. I don't remember the PC before that. My point being it could have been a Hall thing; hopefully that has changed in that Taylor has a quick hook or Hall has changed. 100% on the far greater downside risk of leaving pitchers in who then get shelled and step way back. Even if they succeed 3 out of 4 times I think most mere mortals would remember the 1 bad time more than the 2 good times. 80% of pitching is mental and being able to compartmentalize appropriately.

Enjoy this stage with your son. My son and I went to a few games and I wish we had gone to more. Great memories!

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I would say McGuire will start in Statesboro

I hope you are wrong only because that would lead to the conclusion that Hill is hurt and can't pitch. Assuming of course he doesn't come in as a reliever / closer today or Tuesday.

We must have an effective Busse and Hill to take on most of the ACC teams we face this year IMHO. The ranked ACC teams have tremendous pitching and are ranked for good reason. We aren't ranked because of our pitching questions.

 

[FredJacket]

Go Jackets! Go 1-0 today!

 

[FittedJacket]

I hope you are wrong only because that would lead to the conclusion that Hill is hurt and can't pitch. Assuming of course he doesn't come in as a reliever / closer today or Tuesday.

We must have an effective Busse and Hill to take on most of the ACC teams we face this year IMHO. The ranked ACC teams have tremendous pitching and are ranked for good reason. We aren't ranked because of our pitching questions.

Told you all McGuire Tuesday lol.

 

[THWG]

Fantastic pitching today!! My first game in 2 years and the guys played great!

Edit: I also wanted to add on that Patel did not deserve his final line. The sun was brutal today for both leftfielders and Yunger could have caught two balls in that inning where Radford scored 2.

 

[MWBATL]

Ok, it was Radford. But I was still encouraged by our pitching after inning 1 of game 1.

 

[FredJacket]

Ok, it was Radford. But I was still encouraged by our pitching after inning 1 of game 1.

There were 12 pitchers who took mound this weekend. 10 of 12 had good to great outings. I'll take that.

 

[Techcaster572]

Good luck to your son. I don't make many games, usually 1 or 2 series a year at most but the Team always seems like they love the fans. The kids get a lot of attention. If I lived in Atlanta I'd make a whole lot more games, we have a great venue and a good team to watch.

Thank you.
It's our tradition and thankfully right now he's in practice mode so we are able to make most weekend games when he is with me.

 

[Techcaster572]

I totally get that doing back flips over a sweep of Radford may be a bit of an overreaction however, I'm very pleased with our pitching so far through three games. James Ramsey may be one of the best hitting coach's in the country.

I really like our depth in the outfield and infield. All the transfers have looked as advertised.

Payton Green is looking like team mvp so far. I know its early and i'm being a bit facetious but he looks really good. 3 hrs in 3 games

Drew Burress is the real deal. 3 hr's in 3 games

Welcome Cam Hill. I think we've all been waiting to see the summer/cape cod league version of C. Hill and he certainly didn't disappoint. I get that it is against Radford for two innings however 6 up -6 down is impressive. The kid clearly has MLB stuff.

I believe we go as far as Terry Busse and Cam Hill can take us in ACC play as we go up against some really good pitching staffs.

A very pleasant surprise was the dominant performance from Carson Ballard (local kid from Wesleyen - who he helped lead them to a 2022 State Title over my best friends' sons hs team).

I agree with the poster above about Mason Patel. His three runs given up was a bit unfair. The sun was brutal in left field and to blame Yunger is silly because the Radford left fielder also had the same problem so imo Patel really only gave up 1 earned run.

I really like the diversity of our lineup. Speed. Power. Contact. Hitters that work the count.

Obviously we take a big jump in competition as we head to the Boro on Tuesday. Logan Maguire likely gets the start. I feel like they are working him into the weekend rotation and i feel this is step 1 in the comeback from injury process.
Got get em Logan!
Go Jackets!
#3rdBaseCrew@theRustyC

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

The difference so far from the pitching staff is we threw freaking STRIKES! You can’t defend a walk and the past few seasons we couldn’t throw strikes. Ballard is what every pitcher should be - a strike thrower. If they hit a bomb so what. I’ll take a bomb every once in awhile rather than a walk fest. You don’t have to throw 94 to be a solid pitcher. Throw strikes and let them put the ball in play so your defense stays in the game. We wasted some incredible offense the past 2 years because we simply didn’t throw strikes.

 

[Bogey]

The difference so far from the pitching staff is we threw freaking STRIKES! You can’t defend a walk and the past few seasons we couldn’t throw strikes. Ballard is what every pitcher should be - a strike thrower. If they hit a bomb so what. I’ll take a bomb every once in awhile rather than a walk fest. You don’t have to throw 94 to be a solid pitcher. Throw strikes and let them put the ball in play so your defense stays in the game. We wasted some incredible offense the past 2 years because we simply didn’t throw strikes.

^^^^^^
This!

 

[GTNavyNuke]

The difference so far from the pitching staff is we threw freaking STRIKES! You can’t defend a walk and the past few seasons we couldn’t throw strikes. Ballard is what every pitcher should be - a strike thrower. If they hit a bomb so what. I’ll take a bomb every once in awhile rather than a walk fest. You don’t have to throw 94 to be a solid pitcher. Throw strikes and let them put the ball in play so your defense stays in the game. We wasted some incredible offense the past 2 years because we simply didn’t throw strikes.

Great weekend. We are now 1/19th of our regular season done and played the weakest RPI team from last year @ home.

That said, Radford looked good in the field in flashes and their leadoff hitter was really good. Now I hope they win a bunch of games this season; I think they'll win more than 10.

The team can only play the teams scheduled and win the games one at a time. Our pitching had more quality depth than last year, and outside of the memorable first half inning of the year, we look to have enough pieces to move around starting, relieving and closing pitchers. And a new PC who has a quicker hook. Dusty Isaacs said Taylor was calling pitches to our pitchers strengths. Our infield defense looked really good and made close plays that I think would have been hits in recent seasons. And the offense was vicious. So it was a very positive take away. We are a tournament team IFF our pitching continues to do so well; the O and D seem to be there.

Speaking of throwing strikes, Christian Okerholm (Charlotte) pitched 1.1 against VT on Saturday. 3 SO, a FO and gave up one hit (a HR unfortunately) against the top of the VT lineup. WHIP .75. I agree with you @SOWEGAJacket, that throwing strikes (that are hard to hit) is the key.