- Well that was a fun weekend. Stressful, but a lot of fun to see two pretty incredible comebacks by TTU. I wish we weren't down 7-1 and 4-0 so darn early, but they fought back and swept a team they should have.
- The number one concern that everyone has, and rightfully so, is the two piss-poor outings by Bryce Bonnin and Austin Becker. You just have 2 guys with that much talent combine for 2 total innings pitched in a weekend series. I tend to give a little more leeway to the Becker outing Sunday just because of the weather conditions, but he was not good at all. Gotta have those guys pitch well to win weekend series against good teams.
- I have a hunch that Micah Dallas may slot in to one of those weekend spots against WVU, but dammit he's a freaking weapon to use multiple times in a weekend. Completely pitched lights out in both game 1 and 3 this weekend and was a huge reason you won.
- The stat lines this weekend were so wonky to me. Saturday you gave up 19 hits, and I believe that 14 of those were singles. Just a day where EVERYTHING seemed to find a hole. Crazy that all 6 Red Raider pitchers gave up runs. And on Sunday, you were down 4-0 before you could blink and Rice only had one hit. Put way too many guys on base yesterday.
- Jung, Conley, Carter, Rombach, Marusak, and Rumfield all had really good moments at the plate this weekend as well. As good as Rombach was to start this year, I think Conley could end up having the best season out of all the young guns. He's silky smooth at shortstop, makes all the plays you ask him too, and is just a menace at the plate.
- As good as the lineup was this weekend, the pitching staff has been borderline unhittable and I think this weekend was more of an anomaly than something to be overly concerned about. The Red Raiders are striking out over 12 opponents a game.
Pitchers of the weekend - Micah Dallas - 5.0 IP, 7 K's, 1 hit allowed/Clayton Beeter 6.0 IP, 12 K's, 6 Hits allowed.
Player of the weekend - Brian Klein - 5/11 with 4 walks and 6 runs scored.
Newcomer of the weekend - Cal Conley - 7/12 with 2 walks and 9 RBI.
Mississippi State (10-4)
- Mississippi state enters this midweek slate at 10-4 overall and just swept Quinnipiac over the weekend. They were closer games than I thought they would be and they outscored the bobcats only 18-9. (TTU Scored 19 runs Saturday alone.) A little surprising considering they are 1-11 and it was at home for MSU.
- The 4 losses come @Oregon State, at home to Texas Southern, and a 1-2 weekend @LBSU. The TSU loss is the only one that kinda jumps off the page a little bit. Long Beach and Oregon State are both good baseball programs.
- Offensively, the bulldogs don't have as much pop as they have the past few years. Jake Mangum was the leader of this ball club and he's gone. Also gone are Dustin Skelton and Elijah MacNamee, who combined for 17 of their total HR's in 2019. They will need Justin Foscue, Rowdey Jordan, and Jordan Westburg to all have really nice years if they want to be consistent offensively. Because after 4 everyday guys, the batting averages fall off of a cliff.
- They hit .255 as a team and only slug .380, compared to .338 and .556 for the Red Raiders. The bulldogs don't run a ton, but when they have, they haven't been overly successful. They are 10/16 on the year on the base paths. This is a team that has to single you to death to score a bunch of runs, because the 3 run swings just simply haven't come very often thus far in 2020.
- Their pitching staff is by far the strength of this team. They sport an overall ERA of 3.05, and teams are hitting a measly .195 against them. Their 1-2 punch of Christian MacLeod and Eric Cerantola can match up with just about anybody. The 2 have combined for a 5-1 record, 38 IP, 26 hits allowed, and 57 strikeouts.
- With that being said, I have zero doubts that the two midweek starters are better than what Mississippi State will throw against Tech. Montgomery has just as much an argument as anyone to get a weekend starting spot. The 4 other guys that have started a game outside of MacLeod and Cerantola all have ERA's above 5.40. Carlisle (5.40), Ginn (6.00), Harding (6.75), and Hunt (16.20) have not been impressive so far.
- The one thing that may affect these two games is that TTU had to throw Dobbins on Sunday, albeit only for 19 pitches, so I'm not certain who they will go to as the starter of the Wednesday ballgame. Tadlock may look to use it as a bullpen of sorts to get Bonnin and Becker 25-30 pitches to see if they can get right. Montgomery eating up 5-6 innings tomorrow will be important. My feel is a guy like Connor Queen starts Wednesday.
- This is a battle between two programs at the top of the sport right now, and will be a massive RPI boost if TTU can win 1 or both of them. Look for Tech to try and get some movement on the base paths against the bulldogs, as opponents have stolen 15 out of 19 bags so far in 2020 against them. Neuse, Conley, Carter, Marusak, Klein, Jung, on and on, the list of guys who can go get a bag is pretty impressive.
My heart says that TTU wins both of these games, especially if Dobbins starts on Wednesday. Again, he only threw 19 pitches on Sunday, but it's absolutely on the table for him to get the nod. Ah, hell, I'll say Tech wins em both. They played just about as poorly as they could for two days this weekend and still won both games. I expect a much cleaner line from our pitching staff in Mississippi.
Wreck Em
- The number one concern that everyone has, and rightfully so, is the two piss-poor outings by Bryce Bonnin and Austin Becker. You just have 2 guys with that much talent combine for 2 total innings pitched in a weekend series. I tend to give a little more leeway to the Becker outing Sunday just because of the weather conditions, but he was not good at all. Gotta have those guys pitch well to win weekend series against good teams.
- I have a hunch that Micah Dallas may slot in to one of those weekend spots against WVU, but dammit he's a freaking weapon to use multiple times in a weekend. Completely pitched lights out in both game 1 and 3 this weekend and was a huge reason you won.
- The stat lines this weekend were so wonky to me. Saturday you gave up 19 hits, and I believe that 14 of those were singles. Just a day where EVERYTHING seemed to find a hole. Crazy that all 6 Red Raider pitchers gave up runs. And on Sunday, you were down 4-0 before you could blink and Rice only had one hit. Put way too many guys on base yesterday.
- Jung, Conley, Carter, Rombach, Marusak, and Rumfield all had really good moments at the plate this weekend as well. As good as Rombach was to start this year, I think Conley could end up having the best season out of all the young guns. He's silky smooth at shortstop, makes all the plays you ask him too, and is just a menace at the plate.
- As good as the lineup was this weekend, the pitching staff has been borderline unhittable and I think this weekend was more of an anomaly than something to be overly concerned about. The Red Raiders are striking out over 12 opponents a game.
Pitchers of the weekend - Micah Dallas - 5.0 IP, 7 K's, 1 hit allowed/Clayton Beeter 6.0 IP, 12 K's, 6 Hits allowed.
Player of the weekend - Brian Klein - 5/11 with 4 walks and 6 runs scored.
Newcomer of the weekend - Cal Conley - 7/12 with 2 walks and 9 RBI.
Mississippi State (10-4)
- Mississippi state enters this midweek slate at 10-4 overall and just swept Quinnipiac over the weekend. They were closer games than I thought they would be and they outscored the bobcats only 18-9. (TTU Scored 19 runs Saturday alone.) A little surprising considering they are 1-11 and it was at home for MSU.
- The 4 losses come @Oregon State, at home to Texas Southern, and a 1-2 weekend @LBSU. The TSU loss is the only one that kinda jumps off the page a little bit. Long Beach and Oregon State are both good baseball programs.
- Offensively, the bulldogs don't have as much pop as they have the past few years. Jake Mangum was the leader of this ball club and he's gone. Also gone are Dustin Skelton and Elijah MacNamee, who combined for 17 of their total HR's in 2019. They will need Justin Foscue, Rowdey Jordan, and Jordan Westburg to all have really nice years if they want to be consistent offensively. Because after 4 everyday guys, the batting averages fall off of a cliff.
- They hit .255 as a team and only slug .380, compared to .338 and .556 for the Red Raiders. The bulldogs don't run a ton, but when they have, they haven't been overly successful. They are 10/16 on the year on the base paths. This is a team that has to single you to death to score a bunch of runs, because the 3 run swings just simply haven't come very often thus far in 2020.
- Their pitching staff is by far the strength of this team. They sport an overall ERA of 3.05, and teams are hitting a measly .195 against them. Their 1-2 punch of Christian MacLeod and Eric Cerantola can match up with just about anybody. The 2 have combined for a 5-1 record, 38 IP, 26 hits allowed, and 57 strikeouts.
- With that being said, I have zero doubts that the two midweek starters are better than what Mississippi State will throw against Tech. Montgomery has just as much an argument as anyone to get a weekend starting spot. The 4 other guys that have started a game outside of MacLeod and Cerantola all have ERA's above 5.40. Carlisle (5.40), Ginn (6.00), Harding (6.75), and Hunt (16.20) have not been impressive so far.
- The one thing that may affect these two games is that TTU had to throw Dobbins on Sunday, albeit only for 19 pitches, so I'm not certain who they will go to as the starter of the Wednesday ballgame. Tadlock may look to use it as a bullpen of sorts to get Bonnin and Becker 25-30 pitches to see if they can get right. Montgomery eating up 5-6 innings tomorrow will be important. My feel is a guy like Connor Queen starts Wednesday.
- This is a battle between two programs at the top of the sport right now, and will be a massive RPI boost if TTU can win 1 or both of them. Look for Tech to try and get some movement on the base paths against the bulldogs, as opponents have stolen 15 out of 19 bags so far in 2020 against them. Neuse, Conley, Carter, Marusak, Klein, Jung, on and on, the list of guys who can go get a bag is pretty impressive.
My heart says that TTU wins both of these games, especially if Dobbins starts on Wednesday. Again, he only threw 19 pitches on Sunday, but it's absolutely on the table for him to get the nod. Ah, hell, I'll say Tech wins em both. They played just about as poorly as they could for two days this weekend and still won both games. I expect a much cleaner line from our pitching staff in Mississippi.
Wreck Em
