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.