Concerns/keys to victory this weekend....

[thekimmer]

Concerns: My biggest concern is if we have learned how to win on the road. We had one true road game in the regional that we won but it was frankly due to a huge miracle. Yes we did make the play but 99% of the time you lose that game. Now we have to play what is essentially an SEC weekend road series (except for the fact you gotta win one of the first two). We won just one road sec series the entire season vs last place bama. Came close a couple of times with AU and Mizzou. Vandy lost just one home series vs USC. Another concern is defense due to our unfamiliarity of the playing surface.

Keys to victory: After what we pulled off this past weekend I am not going to say we have to win friday but conventional wisdom would say you do. Obviously we have to score runs and the earlier the better but no big changes in the lineup. I think I would shake up the pitching rotation a bit. I go with Small on Friday for sure. Then maybe pilk on Sat but would give serious consideration to France on sat or sun if necessary. I would not insert Gordon with runners on base or without at least a 4 run lead because, while he can pitch effectively, he generally makes one or two mistakes a game that land in the cheap seats. His redemption performance last week was no exception. We also cannot give them free outs on either side. Got to have solid defense and base running. Hence my concern with the playing surface above.

Lastly, somebody accidentally hit the whistlers in the mouth with a heavy object.

 

[Philly Dawg]

It will come down to the pitching staffs.

 

[thekimmer]

It will come down to the pitching staffs.

Well if you look at the series we had earlier in the year our issue was definitely hitting more than pitching. We only managed 0, 1, and 3 runs vs vandy. Vandy scored 5, 10, and 4 runs. The 10 runs came in a game Small started but it was none of his doing. He pitched 6.1 innings with 4 hits 1 run and 8 SO. What happened after that was one of the first of our infamous bullpen collapses surrendering a 7 spot in the 8th. It was led by (not picking on him, just stating fact) Gordon who surrendered 5 runs on 5 hits and mcquary who gave up the other 2 runs on 2 hits.

Our break point this season appears to be 5 or 6 runs. In games we score 5 or more runs we are 28-5 and in games we scored less than 5 runs we are 7-21. Incidentally prior to April 1st we averaged 4.7 runs per game. After April 1 we have average 6.3 runs per game. Before April 1st we surrendered 5.15 runs per game and after April 1st 5.5 RPG.

 

[GloryDawg]

It will come down to the pitching staffs.

Here recently it looks as if our batters can hit anyone.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

Looking at their schedule

Vandy has lost several mid week games (also).

Which sort of indicates they don't have much pitching outside of their base weekend guys.

And so, we have recently had some guys starting to strut their stuff, under real pressure.

And we are just hitting the ball better, than back then.

 

[bulldogcountry1]

Playing on turf is always a slight concern, since it isn’t normal, defensively.

 

[thekimmer]

Playing on turf is always a slight concern, since it isn’t normal, defensively.

I agree. Hopefully we've been able to take a lot of ground balls off of that stuff this week.

 

[Seinfeld]

As much as folks are saying that pitching is the wild card, I don’t know that there’s much that can be done to fix that reality at this point in the season, so I think we’ve got to operate under the assumption that we’re going to give up 5-8 runs each game. In other words, we need to be aggressive at the plate and score some runs this weekend. I just done see a 4-2 game happening

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

We also need to be conservative on base running. In the regional, we had more innings where we scored 3 or more runs than innings where we only scored 1 run. We aren't going to win this series with a bunch of small ball runs and scores of 2-1. We left a run on the table against Samford due to Jake getting picked off, which fortunately did not come back to bite us.

 

[Shamoan]

we stranded 30 baserunners when we played vandy earlier this season. cant do that again and expect to win.

 

[Len2003]

I do think that’s a good point about the walk off being a miracle, but it always takes a dose of good luck to make a post-season run. That’s why teams that look perfect on paper end up getting “upset.” A lot of improbable teams make post-season runs evey year, especially in baseball. I think we have a 50/50 chance of getting to Omaha, and it will largely depend on our pitching being consistent and not imploding. Right now, we can get enough run support 9/10 times. The issue will be the pitching. We have shown we can pitch very well, but we have also self-imploded on the mound.

 

[aTotal360]

Timely hitting...