VT

[GTNavyNuke]

Went to the game on a perfect night.

We left 17 on base (2 in the 11th) to win 7-6.

Really great game. Tied several times and VT pulled ahead for the first and only time in the 9th. We answered to tie.

Pitching was 2/3s great. Heddinger was very good in scattering hits and Dusty was lights out for 5 or so innings. Dusty comes in after Clay with the bases loaded and no outs. He strikes out one, VT does an incredibly stupid bunt attempt with all the runners advancing on a missed attempt and then a pop out. That cold have / should have been a massive inning for VT. Clay was hideous - 2 solid hits followed by hit batter followed by walk in run. The good news we have depth pitching.

VT should be in trouble today and tomorrow since they reportedly don't have much of a bullpen and we went through 5 or 6 of their pitchers. You could see the quality of relievers go down after the first starter.

Watching practice I have to say that Justus is just amazing, plus our outfielders and Pabst can really throw the ball. The difference was very stark to VT and their arms in the field. We are a very good fielding team. Except for the one error on Heddinger, we played pretty flawless and may some plays throwing out people that don't show up in the stats. The Heddinger error cost us 3 runs - a bunt followed by bullet to first base that was so hard it bonded off the wall and into center right for a 3 base bunt and two runs scored. The person on third came in on a sac fly as I recall.

Anyway, we desperately needed the win ..... we are in the mix for being top 6 in the ACC if we can sweep the Chokes.

Go Beesball!!

 

[Stinger90]

That was Tech's 8th extra-inning game this year. Most since 7 in 1994 (Hall's first year at GT)

Tech won today 3-1 and will be going for the sweep tomorrow.

 

[awbuzz]

thanks for the updates Nuke. Glad you were able to make it to the game. Was a nail biter for sure.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Aw, NP. Was a really great game on Friday - if we had lost I would have just said exciting.

I'll be at the game today for the first two hours or so ..... then have a dance show to go to. Hopefully we can build a big lead. We need a win today and probably a minimum of one against UVa to hang on to sixth in ACC. It won't be decided probably until two weekends from now when we are dome ACC play and most other teams are still playing each other.

Go Beesball!!!

 

[Squints]

I hate college baseball's, and by extension our coach's, obsession with the sacrifice bunt. I get that the bat change sucked the offense out of the game but come on man. You've got your #3 hitter up and their pitcher is struggling. Why are you going to help him out by willingly give up an out?

 

[awbuzz]

Good game yesterday (GT 3-1 victory).

Rough start to today's game and the Jackets get close with a run each in the 8th and 9th but still lose 7 -6 .

7th place in the ACC a game behiond UNC....

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Went to the game and we played well overall. Yesterday VT out hit us and today we out hit them.

I'll post more -- am tired since I just got back from a dance show.

Well, I think we need 2 out of 3 from UVa to be comfortable in 6th. UNC is ahead of us, but has FSU and Miami in their last series. Call me crazy, but we have beaten the top 2 ACC teams (FSU and Miami) when we played them. This team rises to tougher teams.

I expect that we will still be a #2 seed after taking the series from VT...... we'll see. This team has come a long long way this year. 5 of the 10 starters today are freshmen....

 

[Stinger90]

UNCheat plays FreeSeafoodUniversity at home and @Miami. Duke 2.5 games ahead of us plays Miami at home and @FreeSeafoodUniversity

It will be very interesting to see what happens..we still need to win our series against UGotArrested just because. #THWg

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Just took out North Florida 9-6- pitched our highest ERA pitcher (Phillips) but had to put in Dusty to slam the door.

All is good, set up for UVa Friday. Tomorrow, UVA plays Liberty. My co-workers son is pitching for Liberty. Small world.

Let's hope we can get back into ACC 6th place and then hang on as others play ACC ball in two weeks.

We will go to the ACC and NCAA tourneys, just would be nice to win them.

 

[Stinger90]

Liberty is no push over team. They've got a good program to be the size that they are. It is a small world, the guy I do business with used to pitch for Liberty before two Tommy John surgeries ended his career in the minors.

UVa is currently rank #1 in most polls. Like you said Nuke, we have done well against high ranked teams. This would be(e) another time to do it again.

 

[crl85]

Nuke,

Why are you so confident that we'll be in the NCAA tourney? I like you projection, I'm just a little worried. I think we still have some work to do.

 

[Squints]

Current projection is that we'll be a two seed somewhere in the southeast. Our RPI is in the 30's vs a top 10 strength of schedule I think which should be more than enough to get us in as an at large.

 

[MWBATL]

The risk is if we get swept at Virginia. Then our RPI will wind up in the low 40's (and if we lose to UGa, in the mid 40's) and our recent results would look very weak (4-8 in our last 4 ACC series) plus we would then have to play a play-in game in the ACC Tournament, which, if we lose, would hurt us even more. In fact, if we get swept, it is still possible for us to miss the ACC Tournament (although it is highly unlikely, imho).

So, I think we MUST win 1 at Virginia ,and taking 2 would restore my confidence. I was very disappointed that we did not sweep VPI&SU. They are not a good team, have a staff ERA of well over 5 and had lost, what, 13 ACC games in a row before beating us on Sunday? That was a bad loss.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Nuke,

Why are you so confident that we'll be in the NCAA tourney? I like you projection, I'm just a little worried. I think we still have some work to do.

We are currently seeded 3rd in BaseBallDaily projections http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com...CollegeBaseballDaily+(College+Baseball+Daily) I get free e-mails from this site to stay up on College Baseball - they also have a top 30 which we aren't in.

We have been second for a while. I don't think this has our win over North Florida included. But anyway, the reason I'm confident is that we have good pitching, fielding and reasonable hitting. We left tons (non-subjective term) of people on base against VT and still won 2 of 3. Another reason is that I watched our team play two days and watched the warm up on the second day. We are loose and have a good attitude. Watching the kids warm up, I can tell you that the in fielders, out fielders and catchers arms are very good and the reason we lead in double plays (I think we lead the NCAA but know we lead the ACC.) Justus is a monster at SS. We are patient at the plate and getting walks / working the pitchers / getting some hits. They just aren't all at the right time.

I think we would have won the last VT game with a few more bunts with people on third. So I like small ball with this team. It's what we are built for - defense first and offense second. Kind of like UVa. UVa has a fabulous pitching staff and defense and not much offense. But they are #1. It's the way of college baseball with the rules / equipment right now.

The two best teams we have played this year - Miami and FSU - lost weekend series to us. Miami has a total of 5 ACC losses this year and two are to us.

MWBATL is right. If we totally tank, we won't make the NCAAs. But I'm confident that that won't happen. These kids are playing very sound fundamental baseball and have too much swagger and play loose IMHO. I saw Danny Hall in the warm up coaching and messing around with the players. He is loose so they are loose. He knows we have a very young team and this is the beginning of the road for most of this group and not the end. But if I am wrong, there is always self medication available .......

 

[MWBATL]

Good stuff Nuke.

Just one correction ...the one thing we do very poorly as a team is draw walks. Our team BA is 3rd in the 14 team ACC, but in terms of walks drawn, we are 13th out of 14 ACC teams. Our OB % is therefore down to 10th in the 14 team league. My personal WAG is that this may be because we have so many young players in the lineup...but that is merely a guess as I have not studied who is (and who isn't) drawing walks on our team.

Our pitching is decent, but has not been noteworthy. We are 8th in the league in team ERA at 3.30, which is over a full run higher than Virginia (2.27). Our walks allowed per game is 10th in the league, so we are walking too many opponents, and our batting average allowed is also 10th in the league, which is likely leading to the ERA problems.

Our defense has indeed been superb. We do lead the entire nation in DP turned and that has helped our otherwise mediocre pitching to look more effective than it really has been. Of course, our pitching staff has also lost 3 upperclassmen for the year (Pitts, Cruz, and King) all of whom were expected to be major contributors and we are really down to 6 pitchers (Heddinger, Stanton, Grimes, Isaacs, Clay and Roberts) plus one freshman (Parr)

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Thanks. I didn't look at the stats, just what I was seeing for walks. Is there any way to see how we are doing in the last 6 weeks? Early in the year - like the first month - we were not as patient at the plate. But then again, maybe other teams are just more patient.

Team performance through the season is not static, it gets better or worse. Now is the time to put it all together!

 

[MWBATL]

That's a good question Nuke, and you are correct, teams do progress through the season...I will see if I can figure this out....

 

[Squints]

We are currently seeded 3rd in BaseBallDaily projections http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/2014/05/06/2014-ncaa-regional-projections-may-6th/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed: CollegeBaseballDaily (College Baseball Daily) I get free e-mails from this site to stay up on College Baseball - they also have a top 30 which we aren't in.

We have been second for a while. I don't think this has our win over North Florida included. But anyway, the reason I'm confident is that we have good pitching, fielding and reasonable hitting. We left tons (non-subjective term) of people on base against VT and still won 2 of 3. Another reason is that I watched our team play two days and watched the warm up on the second day. We are loose and have a good attitude. Watching the kids warm up, I can tell you that the in fielders, out fielders and catchers arms are very good and the reason we lead in double plays (I think we lead the NCAA but know we lead the ACC.) Justus is a monster at SS. We are patient at the plate and getting walks / working the pitchers / getting some hits. They just aren't all at the right time.

I think we would have won the last VT game with a few more bunts with people on third. So I like small ball with this team. It's what we are built for - defense first and offense second. Kind of like UVa. UVa has a fabulous pitching staff and defense and not much offense. But they are #1. It's the way of college baseball with the rules / equipment right now.

The two best teams we have played this year - Miami and FSU - lost weekend series to us. Miami has a total of 5 ACC losses this year and two are to us.

MWBATL is right. If we totally tank, we won't make the NCAAs. But I'm confident that that won't happen. These kids are playing very sound fundamental baseball and have too much swagger and play loose IMHO. I saw Danny Hall in the warm up coaching and messing around with the players. He is loose so they are loose. He knows we have a very young team and this is the beginning of the road for most of this group and not the end. But if I am wrong, there is always self medication available .......

I don't put much stock in College Baseball Daily's regional projections. Last week they didn't have Miami as a host, had six hosts in Texas and Louisiana, and 11 of 14 teams from the SEC getting in.

Even if we get swept by Virginia I think we're fine. To have a good shot the RPI has to be at least 45 and unless we lose the series to USF that's not gonna be a problem. Also according to BA the selection committee is deemphasizing conference tournaments so a 1 and done probably wouldn't be a big deal.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

That's a good question Nuke, and you are correct, teams do progress through the season...I will see if I can figure this out....

I went to http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings/change_sport_year_div and looked at current BB data where we are #118 with 3.7 walks a game (170 BB/ 48 g). Back on 3/9 about a month in, we were actually better - ranked #90 but with 3.5 walks a game (56 BB / 15 g).

We did face better pitching recently but I still must have the gold colored glasses effect ........

Regardless, we are going to be just fine closing out the season. {ray}

 

[augustabuzz]

I went to http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings/change_sport_year_div and looked at current BB data where we are #118 with 3.7 walks a game (170 BB/ 48 g). Back on 3/9 about a month in, we were actually better - ranked #90 but with 3.5 walks a game (56 BB / 15 g).

We did face better pitching recently but I still must have the gold colored glasses effect ........

Regardless, we are going to be just fine closing out the season. {ray}

The problem is plate discipline over the last several weeks. I saw it earlier in the season with the freshmen as expected. But, lately the freshmen seem to be better while some others have regressed. We better be on our game this weekend as UVa pitching will take advantage of that deficiency.