Overall, I thought today was a well-played and hard fought game between two very good teams in the ACC.
Positives:
The bullpen
After Mason gave up 5 runs, the pen shutdown a very good offense holding them scoreless in the 5th, 6th, 7th, & 8th.
Great to see Busse out there again.
Brett Thomas a solid inning
Ben King seemed to demonstrate his old form
M. Kovala with another scoreless inning.
I'm not certain our offense gets a chance in the 9th with the bullpen the last few years. My guess is that game likely would've been 11-4 in years past. Big positive as this bullpen seems to be taking shape.
Love the fight our offense brings to the table. Keep on fighting till the very last out.
Not so positive:
Got to do better with RISP. This has been a problem almost the entire year.
I think they were 1 for 10 again today
Bases loaded in the 9th with no outs with only two runs.
Can't wait till the latter innings to get rolling in conference play vs early season games. Much tougher bullpens that we will face in conference play. Duke may have one of the best closers in the country.
Now we may have lost Giesler for the season but just think of our lineup with Giesler as cleanup behind Ellis and in front of Green. Beccheti is a nice transfer piece but imo just not a cleanup hitter.
I like Mason Patel as a starter because he keeps us in games but not certain Friday night starter is his place.
All in all, great start for the team to be 16-5 and 3-1 in the acc.
Need to win at least one to keep the momentum going from the nc state sweep. We have a very winnable series next weekend vs BC so if we can get one this weekend, I think we'll be just fine.