Big Win vs. #9 Arizona State!

[vubballfan]

Big win for baseball vs. #9 ranked team in the country! Good to see the team rebound from the first two games. Perhaps this will be the turning point for the team and they can make a run to finish the season. We knew they had the talent this year -- just need to put it all together.

[Dave_2010]

Outstanding game today. Two straight weekends that you can take positives from (outside of 2 or 3 innings they had a great showing in Youngstown...too bad they couldn't complete the sweep).

Unfortunately, the regular season Horizon championship is probably out of the question. However, if they can pull out a 9-3 or 10-2 record the second time around the HL schedule they should have some good momentum headed into the league tournament where anything can happen.

In spite of a couple of rough outings this weekend (ASU will do that to you) the pitching has been solid all season. They need the bats to play up to their talent to get back to NCAA regionals.

[Valposter]

Freshman Lundeen with a big win on the hill today!  Karch with the save in a high-pressure 9th.  Burns with a big triple.  Great signature win today for Valpo Baseball!

[valpotx]

Good victory!  Great to see that our baseball program can still beat ranked teams.  If only our basketball teams can pick up the trend 

[jetz]

About to leave for the airport here in PHX, so for those that weren't here I thought I'd toss in my two cents on the weekend here:

ASU is a free swinging, fastball hitting team from 1-9.  Cole Webb kept us relatively close in the beginning of game one, but we didn't hit well enough to compete early.  Then the bullpen gave up a huge inning and that one was done.  In game two, we actually hit their best pitcher decently, and won the last five innings 3-2.  Unfortunately we lost the first three innings 13-0. DeBoo struggled with his breaking ball, and when he had to throw FB they punished it.  Haas came in and pitched 2.1 scoreless innings to stop the bleeding before giving up a couple in the fifth, and I don't think that was mentioned in the recap.  He did a great job in a tough spot for a freshman.  I think the team felt that even after the huge game two loss, they saw that they could play with this team over the last few innings--and ASU still had their starters in.  Game three was a much better pitching matchup for us.  They fall off the cliff pitching wise after Saturday (which in my opinion will be their doom in the tourney), and Lundeen is a lefty who relies on breaking balls for strikes.  They don't hit that near as well as fastballs.  After a tough first two batters, Lundeen found the right formula to keep them from a big inning.  They hit a few balls hard but those found our gloves this time unlike the first two games.  We pounded their pitching and executed like a good team should.  Valpo fans thought, "This is the team that we were waiting for all year."  We stole bases (without the sac bunt!) and that led to big innings.  Cribbs executed a textbook hit and run.  Manning had a great series at the plate.  Valpo runners were circling the bases and ASU was stunned.  I know they feel like they lost to a bad team based on our record, but really we finally played the way we can for the first time all year. 

Packard Stadium is terrible at dusk.  After the Thursday night practice, our players said they couldn't see the ball coming off the bat.  In each of the two night games, our outfielders never saw routine fly balls, and it cost us four runs total.  That just isn't baseball.  The field isn't lit up enough, and too dark for night games--that's why the NCAA must bring in temporary lights for Regional games when they have them.  ASU moves to the old Oakland A's spring training field in Mesa in 2015.

Overall, if we were told before the series we'd win one and lose two, we probably would have taken it.  We came out of it OK, though obviously the pitching needs to improve against quality teams, and I think it will.  Karch was great and still has a 0.00 ERA.  I hope we run more and put up some more big innings offensively.  I look for a very good second half of the HL after this springboard win.  GO VALPO!   

[Valposter]

All good points Jetz.  I too get the feeling that we are starting to figure some things out about who we are, what we are, and what we are not as a team.  I think we are gradually building and will be playing our best ball by far at tourny time.  I expect a much stronger second half showing in conference play.  I still think this team has what it takes to win the HL tourny and get back to the NCAA Regionals.