To THAT PLACE we go…

[Ramble1885]

Tournament time.

 

[CINCYMETJACKET]

Well, let's make the Dawg fans cry their way out of the stadium!

 

[gtbeak]

So what do we know about UNC-Wilmington? Anyone with any first-hand knowledge? I can (and will) look at stats but I don't know anything 1st hand.

It looks like they have two good starters, RJ Sales and Zane Taylor. Both are junior RHP. My guess is that we'll get Sales. He regularly goes 6 innings. Tanner Thack is an infielder with 27 HR and a .330 AVE and an outfielder, Trevor Marsh, who's hitting .360 with 14 HRs. Otherwise not overwhelming on the hitting stats. I have no idea what size park they play in.

 

[78pike]

So what do we know about UNC-Wilmington? Anyone with any first-hand knowledge? I can (and will) look at stats but I don't know anything 1st hand.

It looks like they have two good starters, RJ Sales and Zane Taylor. Both are junior RHP. My guess is that we'll get Sales. He regularly goes 6 innings. Tanner Thack is an infielder with 27 HR and a .330 AVE and an outfielder, Trevor Marsh, who's hitting .360 with 14 HRs. Otherwise not overwhelming on the hitting stats. I have no idea what size park they play in.

It's a decent size stadium 340 feet down the lines 365 in the alleys and 380 to straightaway center.

 

[GT33]

Well, let's make the dwag fans cry their way out of the stadium!

speldid rong

 

[Bogey]

Perfect regional for a chance for us to sweep those leg humpers. I am excited for this opportunity. We will be plenty rested going in. I like our chances but who knows with this team.

 

[Techcaster572]

What's interesting is that Game 1 at 1 pm on Friday is uga-army

The tech v uncw game is at 7 pm.

Never heard of that before.

Anyway, I'm going to try and go. Anyone else heading to Athens? I promise to wear the HR chain

 

[billga99]

What's interesting is that Game 1 at 1 pm on Friday is uga-army

The tech v uncw game is at 7 pm.

Never heard of that before.

Anyway, I'm going to try and go. Anyone else heading to Athens? I promise to wear the HR chain

Gives UGA maximum rest between games. Not surprising. Also since close to summer, chance for thunderstorms late in the day to delay 2nd game and have very little rest before Saturday's game.

 

[Techcaster572]

That's what I was thinking that it was gamesmanship and uga taking an advantage but either way, I would like to go.

Aeden pitched against uga very well, so I hope Cam Jones gets the start on Friday against uncw.
We have the offense and defense to win this regional. We do not have the pitching to come out of any loser's bracket imo.

This isn't top seeded Florida, Vandy, or Tennessee.
Uga is very good but not one of the top teams in the country imo. Their pitching is decent. Their hitting is based primarily on power (Caveman Baseball).

I have no clue about uncw but they are the 2 seed and we will have to bring our A game to beat them. Either way, I look forward to more tech baseball.

 

[Towaliga]

speldid rong

Nope

 

[Lagrangejacket]

Whenever we hosted, I always wondered why we didn't take the first game. I think it's smart.

 

[senoiajacket]

That's what I was thinking that it was gamesmanship and uga taking an advantage but either way, I would like to go.

Aeden pitched against uga very well, so I hope Cam Jones gets the start on Friday against uncw.
We have the offense and defense to win this regional. We do not have the pitching to come out of any loser's bracket imo.

This isn't top seeded Florida, Vandy, or Tennessee.
Uga is very good but not one of the top teams in the country imo. Their pitching is decent. Their hitting is based primarily on power (Caveman Baseball).

I have no clue about uncw but they are the 2 seed and we will have to bring our A game to beat them. Either way, I look forward to more tech baseball.

Well, we have the pitching depth to come out of the losers bracket this year, imho. What I mean is it seems to me we have a significant number of guys that aren’t our 3 weekend starters who have gotten plenty of innings and are capable if not always reliable. We go 12 deep (if you count Stanford) by my count which is much deeper than in the past in a convoluted sort of way. But ………. Let’s just go ahead and blow through the winners bracket anyway.

The rest of what you pointed out doesn’t bode well for us. We give up A LOT of home runs, so a team that like caveman baseball is probably gonna like hitting against our staff.

Aeden pitching well against UGA two months ago ……. Not sure how much stock I would put in that today.

 

[bensaysitathome]

The Internet seems to think the mutts got a break, and were handed the easiest regional of them all. I'd love nothing more than to disabuse them of that notion and make it to supers.

uGA: Friday should have never been played, but we got a break with the cancellation. I'm happy to have another shot at them. While we dropped two, both of those games were very competitive, and we were not outmatched.

The Saturday matchup in Athens was 1-1 until late in the game and they had timely hits. I thought Finateri pitched wonderfully. 6.0 IP, 4 hits, 1 ER, 2 BB.

Sunday was rough. We blew a lead in a game that should have been a runaway. But Ramsey figured out their pitching, we just ran out of arms.

Moral of the story is they weren't able to do a ton of damage to our starters. If we have to play them for game 3 and 4, I'm sweating a little. If we can take care of business and pitch on of our top arms in the winners bracket, it's a very different story.

UNCW: Honestly, they aint played nobody.

They have a handful of games against in-state schools, going 3-4. All midweek games against UNC, NCSU, Wake, ECU, and Coastal.

While those games count the same for wins and loses, it's not the same as beating someone's Friday starter. I don't know how good their weekend starters are, but we'll probably find out. I imagine we see their ace in game 1.

Army: they appear to have a couple good pitchers, but are limited with the bats. Anybody can beat anybody, but I'm not expecting this 4-seed to make a lot of noise.

 

[bensaysitathome]

Well, we have the pitching depth to come out of the losers bracket this year, imho. What I mean is it seems to me we have a significant number of guys that aren’t our 3 weekend starters who have gotten plenty of innings and are capable if not always reliable. We go 12 deep (if you count Stanford) by my count which is much deeper than in the past in a convoluted sort of way. But ………. Let’s just go ahead and blow through the winners bracket anyway.

The rest of what you pointed out doesn’t bode well for us. We give up A LOT of home runs, so a team that like caveman baseball is probably gonna like hitting against our staff.

Aeden pitching well against UGA two months ago ……. Not sure how much stock I would put in that today.

I agree with you re: pitching depth, but this is a good offense. I don't feel good pitching our #9 pitcher against them.

 

[Lagrangejacket]

The Internet seems to think the mutts got a break, and were handed the easiest regional of them all. I'd love nothing more than to disabuse them of that notion and make it to supers.

They should be happy with their draw. Their #2 seed is 15th of 16 by RPI (only ahead of Louisiana). And if you're going to get an ACC team in your regional, GT is probably the easiest - the other options are Duke and Wake, who are great teams.

But, like you say, hopefully we can turn it around on them...

 

[Techcaster572]

Well, we have the pitching depth to come out of the losers bracket this year, imho. What I mean is it seems to me we have a significant number of guys that aren’t our 3 weekend starters who have gotten plenty of innings and are capable if not always reliable. We go 12 deep (if you count Stanford) by my count which is much deeper than in the past in a convoluted sort of way. But ………. Let’s just go ahead and blow through the winners bracket anyway.

The rest of what you pointed out doesn’t bode well for us. We give up A LOT of home runs, so a team that like caveman baseball is probably gonna like hitting against our staff.

Aeden pitching well against UGA two months ago ……. Not sure how much stock I would put in that today.

I agree that we have more depth than in years past, I am just not sure we'd be able to come out of the loser's bracket.
Certainly better than the past though.

Here's why I feel the uga game that Aeden pitched in at foley field two months ago could bode well for him. Caveman baseball isn't very patient and they tend to swing like its a softball game with the kind of off speed stuff that Aeden throws. Either you crush the ball or get very weak contact especially against his palm ball. I like his off speed stuff vs Cam Jones against uga. Just a gut feeling but that's why I'm not the coach.

Tate McKee and Riley Stanford have the best stuff (velo) on the staff but I'm not sure you want to challenge Corey Collins or Charlie Condon with a 95 mph heater down the middle. IJS

 

[Techcaster572]

The Internet seems to think the mutts got a break, and were handed the easiest regional of them all. I'd love nothing more than to disabuse them of that notion and make it to supers.

uGA: Friday should have never been played, but we got a break with the cancellation. I'm happy to have another shot at them. While we dropped two, both of those games were very competitive, and we were not outmatched.

The Saturday matchup in Athens was 1-1 until late in the game and they had timely hits. I thought Finateri pitched wonderfully. 6.0 IP, 4 hits, 1 ER, 2 BB.

Sunday was rough. We blew a lead in a game that should have been a runaway. But Ramsey figured out their pitching, we just ran out of arms.

Moral of the story is they weren't able to do a ton of damage to our starters. If we have to play them for game 3 and 4, I'm sweating a little. If we can take care of business and pitch on of our top arms in the winners bracket, it's a very different story.

UNCW: Honestly, they aint played nobody.

They have a handful of games against in-state schools, going 3-4. All midweek games against UNC, NCSU, Wake, ECU, and Coastal.

While those games count the same for wins and loses, it's not the same as beating someone's Friday starter. I don't know how good their weekend starters are, but we'll probably find out. I imagine we see their ace in game 1.

Army: they appear to have a couple good pitchers, but are limited with the bats. Anybody can beat anybody, but I'm not expecting this 4-seed to make a lot of noise.

Been saying this all year. That uga series was certainly there for the taking and, you are right, that Friday night game should've never been played.
I'd also point out that it was Logan Maguire that held them in check for 6 innings at CoolRay field. In addition, we left many risp while also putting up 9 runs. My son and I were at that game and many mutt fans left before the 6th inning as they thought it was over. We held Condon in check overall.

Uga is clearly the favorite but to say that we have no shot is just plain silly. Our offense matches up with their pitching. Our defense is better. Their offense is their strength.

I'd also point out that Cam Jones wasn't a starter when we played them and no John Giesler either. We are a much better team that when we played them last. They are at full strength just as their were when we played them.

 

[senoiajacket]

I agree that we have more depth than in years past, I am just not sure we'd be able to come out of the loser's bracket.
Certainly better than the past though.

Here's why I feel the uga game that Aeden pitched in at foley field two months ago could bode well for him. Caveman baseball isn't very patient and they tend to swing like its a softball game with the kind of off speed stuff that Aeden throws. Either you crush the ball or get very weak contact especially against his palm ball. I like his off speed stuff vs Cam Jones against uga. Just a gut feeling but that's why I'm not the coach.

Tate McKee and Riley Stanford have the best stuff (velo) on the staff but I'm not sure you want to challenge Corey Collins or Charlie Condon with a 95 mph heater down the middle. IJS

Thanks for the logic behind the thought. I think that you are right on about patience being the key when attacking our most of our pitchers. Wait for the mistake and then hammer it. I guess you can say that about any pitcher, but seems like off speed mistakes travel a lot further …..

 

[gtbeak]

FWIW, weather forecast right now looks about as perfect as one could expect for this time of year. Less than 20% chance of rain, and high's in the low 80's.

 

[78pike]

The Internet seems to think the mutts got a break, and were handed the easiest regional of them all. I'd love nothing more than to disabuse them of that notion and make it to supers.

uGA: Friday should have never been played, but we got a break with the cancellation. I'm happy to have another shot at them. While we dropped two, both of those games were very competitive, and we were not outmatched.

The Saturday matchup in Athens was 1-1 until late in the game and they had timely hits. I thought Finateri pitched wonderfully. 6.0 IP, 4 hits, 1 ER, 2 BB.

Sunday was rough. We blew a lead in a game that should have been a runaway. But Ramsey figured out their pitching, we just ran out of arms.

Moral of the story is they weren't able to do a ton of damage to our starters. If we have to play them for game 3 and 4, I'm sweating a little. If we can take care of business and pitch on of our top arms in the winners bracket, it's a very different story.

UNCW: Honestly, they aint played nobody.

They have a handful of games against in-state schools, going 3-4. All midweek games against UNC, NCSU, Wake, ECU, and Coastal.

While those games count the same for wins and loses, it's not the same as beating someone's Friday starter. I don't know how good their weekend starters are, but we'll probably find out. I imagine we see their ace in game 1.

Army: they appear to have a couple good pitchers, but are limited with the bats. Anybody can beat anybody, but I'm not expecting this 4-seed to make a lot of noise.

UNCW is not a pushover. They beat NC State both times they played and they beat Wake as well as taking a weekend series against a pretty good Northeastern team. Two of their three weekend starters have ERA's under 4 and the one that isn't is 6'8" and has an ERA around 5. We have an advantage at the plate as their team batting avg is only .281. There is a reason they are a 2 seed. We will have to play and pitch well to beat them.