The first thing I'd like to say is that both the games Friday and Saturday were about as close to CWS type games you will see. UT is every bit as good as I'd read for the first month+ of the year. A walkoff steal of home plate and a walk off grand slam by the same person in 24 hours is the craziest thing you'll ever see. Spielberg couldn't write a script like that.
- TTU did win the series, and that's what it needed to do, but I think that most can still understand that UT pounded the ball all over the yard off of our pitching staff. Stehle and Melendez are both incredible hitters. They combined to go 18/25 on the weekend........ holy smokes. TTU was outhit 49-22 on the weekend but still managed to scratch two dubs.... just pretty wild stuff.
- I can't say enough about how different this team looks with Easton leading off and not Dillon Carter. Dillon is an incredible defensive CF, but he is just lost at the plate right now. He went 0/10 with 5 SO and no BB this weekend. Murrell is a much better option for us right now leading off.
- This is pretty off topic, but can we all discuss why Pierce has UT wearing those darn wrist bands? You can talk to your catcher directly.... what on earth could possibly be so complicated about the game of "hit it where they're not", that you have to have a QB play sheet on every guys arm? It's tacky and incredibly dumb IMO. Michigan wears them around their belt buckle, and Cal Baptist had them too. When I played in college, we had a guy that had to change gloves mid inning because the rawlings logo was gold.... and now a starting pitcher can have a massive plastic/white wristband on? Just dumb.
- Jace is a guy that you love to have on your team, and hate him if he's not. Dude flat out carries himself like a stud, and I wish he would dial it back but just a touch. Not that I didn't enjoy him hitting a ball onto mars and letting UT know.... just puts the rest of the guys in a spot of, "am I about to get drilled because of that?"
- As much praise and attention as the UT pitching staff garnered this offseason and up to now, their lineup might be better... they hit .319 as a team. 1-7 that might be as good of a lineup as I've watched since our 2018 lineup of Holt-Little-Jung-Warren-Rheams-Klein-Farhat-Michael Davis. They put good swings on Morris/Parrish/Girton/Birdsell. They fouled off pitches. But my biggest takeaway was how hard they hit Birdsell on Saturday. He was 95+ with a good slider and a good changeup, but just got hit hard all day.
- UT's closer Aaron Nixon had not allowed a single run this season until they showed up to Lubbock. He leaves, shoulding 5 ER and one of the most bizarrely unaware plays in history. A runner steals home and rumor has it that he's still staring at his shoes on the mound for some reason.
- I still worry that Jace will continue to get walked in big situations. Our best two hitters, Jace and Washburn have been walked 45 times, hit 6 times, and even with the weekend he had.. Kurt Wilson is carrying a ton of pressure to protect Jace when you don't want to stack two LH batters in the middle of your lineup.
- I thought Cole Stillwell played much better this weekend. I hope that continues because we won't see a pitching staff like UT, from top to bottom, until the post season. OSU is good, TCU is good, but the quality of arms coming out wearing burnt orange was pretty high. It bodes well that he saw the ball well this weekend and had some good AB's.
- I am extremely curious about how much longer the leash is for Dillon Carter out in CF. I've mentioned it already but you simply can't strike out 40 times in 81 at bats. Is there a solution somewhere to play Vooletich/Reynolds out there. I would vote to slide Murrell into CF but he's already missed time with a limp hamstring.... just frustrating because Dillon roams CF out there with just about anyone I can think of in TTU history. Farhat comes to mind as a great CF. Devon Conley too.
- Keep stacking up series wins, we need to sweep KU this weekend because they're not very good and Tech has some head scratching series' losses over the years. But make no mistake, taking two of three from UT this weekend was bigly big. Like, hugely big. Especially when you consider they outplayed us outside of about 4 innings all weekend long. Baseball is funny like that.
I'll keep digging through the games from this weekend on DVR and post more stuff.
Whorns down.
- TTU did win the series, and that's what it needed to do, but I think that most can still understand that UT pounded the ball all over the yard off of our pitching staff. Stehle and Melendez are both incredible hitters. They combined to go 18/25 on the weekend........ holy smokes. TTU was outhit 49-22 on the weekend but still managed to scratch two dubs.... just pretty wild stuff.
- I can't say enough about how different this team looks with Easton leading off and not Dillon Carter. Dillon is an incredible defensive CF, but he is just lost at the plate right now. He went 0/10 with 5 SO and no BB this weekend. Murrell is a much better option for us right now leading off.
- This is pretty off topic, but can we all discuss why Pierce has UT wearing those darn wrist bands? You can talk to your catcher directly.... what on earth could possibly be so complicated about the game of "hit it where they're not", that you have to have a QB play sheet on every guys arm? It's tacky and incredibly dumb IMO. Michigan wears them around their belt buckle, and Cal Baptist had them too. When I played in college, we had a guy that had to change gloves mid inning because the rawlings logo was gold.... and now a starting pitcher can have a massive plastic/white wristband on? Just dumb.
- Jace is a guy that you love to have on your team, and hate him if he's not. Dude flat out carries himself like a stud, and I wish he would dial it back but just a touch. Not that I didn't enjoy him hitting a ball onto mars and letting UT know.... just puts the rest of the guys in a spot of, "am I about to get drilled because of that?"
- As much praise and attention as the UT pitching staff garnered this offseason and up to now, their lineup might be better... they hit .319 as a team. 1-7 that might be as good of a lineup as I've watched since our 2018 lineup of Holt-Little-Jung-Warren-Rheams-Klein-Farhat-Michael Davis. They put good swings on Morris/Parrish/Girton/Birdsell. They fouled off pitches. But my biggest takeaway was how hard they hit Birdsell on Saturday. He was 95+ with a good slider and a good changeup, but just got hit hard all day.
- UT's closer Aaron Nixon had not allowed a single run this season until they showed up to Lubbock. He leaves, shoulding 5 ER and one of the most bizarrely unaware plays in history. A runner steals home and rumor has it that he's still staring at his shoes on the mound for some reason.
- I still worry that Jace will continue to get walked in big situations. Our best two hitters, Jace and Washburn have been walked 45 times, hit 6 times, and even with the weekend he had.. Kurt Wilson is carrying a ton of pressure to protect Jace when you don't want to stack two LH batters in the middle of your lineup.
- I thought Cole Stillwell played much better this weekend. I hope that continues because we won't see a pitching staff like UT, from top to bottom, until the post season. OSU is good, TCU is good, but the quality of arms coming out wearing burnt orange was pretty high. It bodes well that he saw the ball well this weekend and had some good AB's.
- I am extremely curious about how much longer the leash is for Dillon Carter out in CF. I've mentioned it already but you simply can't strike out 40 times in 81 at bats. Is there a solution somewhere to play Vooletich/Reynolds out there. I would vote to slide Murrell into CF but he's already missed time with a limp hamstring.... just frustrating because Dillon roams CF out there with just about anyone I can think of in TTU history. Farhat comes to mind as a great CF. Devon Conley too.
- Keep stacking up series wins, we need to sweep KU this weekend because they're not very good and Tech has some head scratching series' losses over the years. But make no mistake, taking two of three from UT this weekend was bigly big. Like, hugely big. Especially when you consider they outplayed us outside of about 4 innings all weekend long. Baseball is funny like that.
I'll keep digging through the games from this weekend on DVR and post more stuff.
Whorns down.
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