Western Carolina this weekend

[MWBATL]

Have to share a few observations and opinions after another day of glorious GT baseball and beautiful weather at the Rusty C.

1. Carter Hall, my goodness! Looks like he could be THE ANSWER in CF. Not only did he hit the ball hard all day (his outs were on a bunt attempt and a drilled liner to left, a rope that was caught), but he made the defensive play of the game running 40 feet to his left to snag a well hit ball in right center. Likely saved at least a run and (arguably) the win. Let's see more of him in CF!
2. Jonathon Hughes can pitch but also does look like a freshman at times. He seemed to get a little rattled a couple of times today, bouncing a throw to home for a WP to advance a runner, for example. I don't know the kid so could be totally off base, but I *thought* he simply didn't look as confident as his first two starts.
3. Ben Paar was lucky to get out of his inning scoreless. (see #1 above, and he still left 2 guys on base).
4. Matthew Gorst gave up a legitimate earned run (two sharply hit balls) in the 9th and the tying run got to 3rd base, but to his credit he left him there on a grounder to 2B to end the game...but he definitely looked like was having some control problems and did not have his best stuff.
5. Zac Ryan can't come back too soon...it will simply be nice to have another great proven arm in the bullpen for the FSU series.
6. Kel Johnson drilled a couple of base hits, and seems better to my untrained eye. We'll see against better pitching next weekend. Overall, I thought we hit some balls hard right at 'em, but was still disappointed that they shut us down 2 out of 3 games with as weak of a pitching staff as we're likely to see the rest of this year. It bodes ill for our offense as we hit league play and see better pitching than we saw this weekend.

In general, my early season optimism is a bit tempered after this weekend's series. I still am perplexed by the base running issues (did not see any today at least) and less confident overall in our pitching and hitting, which both seemed downright human this series.

On the other hand, Virginia got beat by Monmouth and FSU lost to St. John's today, so, this is baseball and strange things happen in baseball. Maybe I am being too harsh. We ARE still unbeaten at 11-0.

 

[ChasonBaller]

Who is our SS? I went to the game on Saturday and was really impressed. He was so smooth in everything he did.

 

[augustabuzz]

Who is our SS? I went to the game on Saturday and was really impressed. He was so smooth in everything he did.

Connor Justice has been one of the better fielding shortstops Hall has had at Tech. And, I am well aware of his predecessors.

 

[MWBATL]

Not to put a damper on things, but I just looked up our RPI and strength of schedule....our SOS is #242 in the country, while that means our RPI (even at 11-0) is #56. Ouch.

I am sure Hall wanted to get some easy series out there given last year's team and the number of young players we had on the roster, but I guess this is a warning that we shouldn't take the unbeaten record too seriously just yet....

On the other hand, Florida State has a SOS of #187 and an RPI of #146, so who knows, right?

 

[MWBATL]

Some other interesting stuff......

1. UMBC, after yielding only 19 tuns in three games inAtlanta vs GT 2 weeks ago, gave up 35 this past weekend against James Madison on the road. Hmmmmmm
2. Western Carolina, whom we just swept and we scored 23 runs on the three games, had yielded 34 runs the previous weekend against Louisiana-Monroe and 32 in their opening weekend tournament against 3 weaker teams (St. John's, Richmond and UNC-Wilmington).

It is impossible to tell much from our single games results against other teams. VCU has lost some other games since they lost to us to teams like Eastern Kentucky and Longwood and UNC-Wilmington (OK, UNC-W isn't weak, they are 8-1). Georgia Southern has bounced back well enough after starting 1-3 vs us and the Dawgs as they are now 7-5. Georgia State is 6-5. But Western Michigan is still winless at 0-9 and Purdue is 2-8.

All signs suggest our offense is maybe not as strong as I had hoped. I expect that we will see some very tight, low scoring games in Tallahassee this weekend.....3-2 or 4-3 type games. Our defense and pitching will (as is usually the case in baseball) need to win for us.

 

[ball4life66]

Some other interesting stuff......

1. UMBC, after yielding only 19 tuns in three games inAtlanta vs GT 2 weeks ago, gave up 35 this past weekend against James Madison on the road. Hmmmmmm
2. Western Carolina, whom we just swept and we scored 23 runs on the three games, had yielded 34 runs the previous weekend against Louisiana-Monroe and 32 in their opening weekend tournament against 3 weaker teams (St. John's, Richmond and UNC-Wilmington).

It is impossible to tell much from our single games results against other teams. VCU has lost some other games since they lost to us to teams like Eastern Kentucky and Longwood and UNC-Wilmington (OK, UNC-W isn't weak, they are 8-1). Georgia Southern has bounced back well enough after starting 1-3 vs us and the Dawgs as they are now 7-5. Georgia State is 6-5. But Western Michigan is still winless at 0-9 and Purdue is 2-8.

All signs suggest our offense is maybe not as strong as I had hoped. I expect that we will see some very tight, low scoring games in Tallahassee this weekend.....3-2 or 4-3 type games. Our defense and pitching will (as is usually the case in baseball) need to win for us.

Feels like older guys like Peurifoy, Innis and Pabst(though he did get 2 hits yesterday) are really struggling from the plate. This looks like our best hitting lineup.

SS Justice .465
2B Bailey .370
3B Gonzalez .326
C Bart .429
1B Gold .316
LF Kel .372
CF Carter .600
RF Stallings .313

A lot of younger guys on that list but all those guys are batting over .300. Will be interesting to see how they do against better competition. Funny thing is Hall said it wouldn't be a stretch to say Tristin English was the best hitter on the team...hopefully he can get it going soon.

 

[ChasonBaller]

Connor Justice has been one of the better fielding shortstops Hall has had at Tech. And, I am well aware of his predecessors.

why is he not in the pros yet? his hands and glove work reminded me of andrelton simmons.

 

[augustabuzz]

why is he not in the pros yet? his hands and glove work reminded me of andrelton simmons.

I don't think he is eligible 'til this years draft. Also, this is the first time that I remember him having this much pop in his bat.

 

[ChasonBaller]

I don't think he is eligible 'til this years draft. Also, this is the first time that I remember him having this much pop in his bat.

okay thanks! hopefully the braves can snag him

 

[awbuzz]

Feels like older guys like Peurifoy, Innis and Pabst(though he did get 2 hits yesterday) are really struggling from the plate. This looks like our best hitting lineup.

SS Justice .465
2B Bailey .370
3B Gonzalez .326
C Bart .429
1B Gold .316
LF Kel .372
CF Carter .600
RF Stallings .313

A lot of younger guys on that list but all those guys are batting over .300. Will be interesting to see how they do against better competition. Funny thing is Hall said it wouldn't be a stretch to say Tristin English was the best hitter on the team...hopefully he can get it going soon.

If we can keep those numbers once we start conference play I'll be very happy. Unfortunately, don't think that'll happen.