The opener is upon us and the buzz is picking up for 2012 baseball. "Game notes" have been published for the series at Murray, and we're going with Deetjin, Wormington, and Wild as opening weekend starters. On paper a huge advantage for Valpo as the 'Breds first two starters had losing records and ERAs over 6 last season. The Sunday guy did not pitch for Murray last year. All are RHPs. Deetjin (4-7/ 4.19) is a LHP for us, while Worm (8-1/ 2.67 ERA at Connors State) and Wild (2-2/ 5.64)are righties. Murray is picked ninth in the OVC in the coaches preseason poll, so we need to win this series. Weather: Looks good for tomorrow at 56 and sunny. Shaky Saturday with 50% chance for rain and temps around 50. Low 40s and sun on Sunday. Murray has a nice natural grass field but only grass berms to sit on last I was there. Bring a chair if you're coming. PLAY BALL! :thumbsup:
I would hope we can sweep this series based on all the information I read earlier today on our website. They seem to have a good hitting team, but their pitching is terrible. The unfortunate thing about baseball is that anything can happen in any given game. That was shown when we beat the #1 team in the nation at the time (Notre Dame) in 2000-2001, though I always told my teammates that they definitely should not have been a #1...
I think we will go 2-1 for this series.
Looks like jetz and valpotx will keep us updated on all things baseball this year! Thanks, and looking forward to another improving year!
Baseball opens their season today at 2. I looked, and there is no radio coverage, so the only way to follow is thru the Murray St. live stats link.
http://www.sidearmstats.com/murraystate/baseball/scoreboard.aspx (http://www.sidearmstats.com/murraystate/baseball/scoreboard.aspx)
Valpo up 1-0 on a 1 out single to right by John Loeffler, dh, with runners on 1st & 2nd in the top of the 4th inning.
Great to get up on home team Murray State in this game.
Elliott Martin, 3b, moved to third on Loeffler's single. Martin is 2 for 2 with 2 singles. Will Hagel, who walked with 1 out scored the Valpo run.
Valpo now up 2-0 as Billy Cribbs, c, singled to right center and scored Martin from third. Loeffler went to third and Cribbs moved to 2nd base on a throwing error. Still only 1 out.
Looks like Deetjen is going strong! He wasn't/isn't a strikeout pitcher, so it is good to see him with 4 k's through 5 2/3. All you have to do is throw strikes on the outer portions of the plate. It always amazes me when pitchers walk so many people...
Quote from: valpotx on February 17, 2012, 03:42:26 PM
Looks like Deetjen is going strong! He wasn't/isn't a strikeout pitcher, so it is good to see him with 4 k's through 5 2/3. All you have to do is throw strikes on the outer portions of the plate. It always amazes me when pitchers walk so many people...
Sometimes watching major league games I catch myself thinking the same thing - "Why can't they put it over the plate - they're major leaguers for ..."
Down to the last strike and he can't hold it. Darn.
Sweet mobile site, by the way. Works great on my Android.
The game has gone to extra innings. Deetjen went 7 innings. He gave up 4 hits, walked one, and struck out 4. Jarad Miller came in and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits in the 8th and 9th innings. It's tied at 2.
In terms of the pitching down the middle, I think it's because of how the strength has changed, homers have been more important to the fans, and some pitchers come up the ranks being told to corner paint or stay high or low, never right in the wheelhouse. valpotx might have a better insight on that, but that's just something I've noticed over the years.
I only threw in the low 80's at most after my surgery, and as a lefty, relied on my offspeed pitches while painting the corners with the fastball. I could get away with throwing down the middle in HS when I was more towards mid-80's, but always threw a lot of strikes. People that throw in the 90's can get away with it to an extent in college, but the good teams will hit it.
Looks like we threw a guy out at home with no outs! Guy singles with a runner on second and no outs, and we get out of the 10th unscathed! Let's win this!
We go on to the 13th inning now. Still tied at 2. I like the fight to get some good spring momentum going in this game. I just hope we don't use up all the fight in this game, and have nothing left for the rest of the weekend.
Quote from: valporun on February 17, 2012, 05:16:27 PM
We go on to the 13th inning now. Still tied at 2. I like the fight to get some good spring momentum going in this game. I just hope we don't use up all the fight in this game, and have nothing left for the rest of the weekend.
Game suspended due to darkness.
I wondered what happened to my live stats. Hopefully we take the suspended game and game 2 tomorrow!
Yeah, I wondered what was going on there, but good work, and hope they can get the full game in tomorrow without worry of light.
I saw on the Valpo website that today's game will resume at noon, and the second game will start at 1, if the first game ends by then. Otherwise, it will start shortly thereafter.
Quote from: valporun on February 17, 2012, 05:16:27 PM
We go on to the 13th inning now. Still tied at 2. I like the fight to get some good spring momentum going in this game. I just hope we don't use up all the fight in this game, and have nothing left for the rest of the weekend.
Saw your post at around 6:18 and thought, "Hey it might be interesting to watch the live stats of this game", went to the live stat link and... BLANK... Wondered what happened, seems rather strange though to blank out the stats because the game was suspended.
Last night's game has resumed. We have runners on 1st and 2nd. Still tied at 2.
We now hold a 3-2 in the 13th. Bobby Martin scored on a fielder's choice.
Add two more runs to our lead going to the bottom of the 13th. First run scores on a double steal. Billy Cribbs steals home on the play. The second run scores on a Tanner Vavra single to center scoring Spencer Mahoney. Need the closer to hold onto this cushion. 5-2 Valpo in the bottom of the 13th.
Started out on a good note with the W!
Will Robinson, don't call him Willy/Willie Robinson, comes in to close out the first game of the season throwing three ground outs to end the game. Final Score: Valpo 5, Murray State 2. Robinson gets the victory in this game. 2nd game to start shortly.
Robinson actually got the save, Mahar the win. The pitching substitution wasn't made until the bottom half of the inning, so Maher was still technically in the game when we went ahead.
Ah, forgot about that, with the suspension of the game, plus still pondering how CSU could lay such a huge egg today, besides not having D'Aundray Brown in the lineup at all.
Good win again today to start the season with a 2-1 series win! Much better than starting 0-17 or whatever it was last year. If we can end up 25-32 last year after starting that way, earning these early season wins will lead to another winning record! Very rare to come by in the midwest for baseball due to playing on the road the first 1 1/2-2 months :)
I was at Murray for Saturday and Sunday and have some early impressions to share. Just want to give those of you that don't have a chance to see the games a little more info. Just my take and nothing earth-shaking. Here goes with my letter grades:
Pitching: A- The starters were outstanding. Deetjen went 7 and allowed only 4 hits. He was cruising through the last couple innings, having no trouble with the 'Breds hitters. Mid 80s fb, good breaking ball and left handed. Wormington was excellent as well. 86-87 fb in the cold at Murray. Went eight innings and did not look tired. Both Deetjen and Wormington threw 98 pitches. Coach Schmack had a 100 pitch limit on the starters. Wild did a fine job on Sunday. Also mid 80s fb. I think we walked 3 or 4 all weekend. Starters gave up 11 hits over 20 IP and 1 ER. Impressive. Since Wormington is a transfer, I believe that the HL coaches didn't know what we had when they picked us third. With starting pitching like this, we'll contend for a title.
Bullpen: B- Former All-American closer Miller struggled in his first outing in over a year, but regained his old form with a quality save on Sunday. Hopefully that bodes well for him going forward. Mahar made his first collegiate appearance in game one and looked nervous early but settled down to pitch three good innings. Robinson looked decent in two appearances, getting the save in game one and taking a loss in game two. Jacobs is a crafty lefty, but struggled in game two. He was hit hard and I wonder if the cold affected his breaking stuff. I checked the radar gun and he was at 58-60 (!), obviously likes to throw junk. In fairness, we dropped a fly ball for an error that led to the winning run against him and would have had him out of the inning unscathed.
Offense: B- Stranded a bunch in game one and struck out 12 times. Did not get an extra base hit in games one or two. The conditions were tough--cold with a gusty wind blowing in. No one threatened the fence for either team in games one or two. In fact, Manning's homer in game three was one of only two balls to come near the fence all series. His dinger went over the right field wall (he's swings righty) about 350 feet away. Our 1-2-3 guys took a while to get going, but finally did in game three. It looked a lot like the first series of the year for our hitters, but I'm sure they'll be alright. Vavra was mister up and down this series--he struck out more than he would like, but had the big 2 RBI triple in game three in the ninth. He's plenty fast but got picked by the pitcher in his one steal attempt. I thought he tried to bunt for base hits too much, but again the cold weather and wind blowing in may have had a lot to do with that. If he gets it rolling he'll be tough at the leadoff spot. Hagel and Cribbs put good swings on the ball a lot of the time I thought. Room for improvement with the bats as a team, but not a bad start to the season. We'll definitely see tougher pitching.
Baserunning: C I think we stole one base, and that was because our runner was caught off first and took off for second. Failed on our one squeeze play, but the pitch was in the dirt and tough to get at. Not a ton of chances to run, but not much happened when we did have an opportunity it seemed. I would guess that our team speed is average to slightly above. We do have a couple of guys who can run, so hopefully we can make a few runs that way as time goes on.
Defense: B+ A couple of errors in game one but then pretty good. Vavra made a web gem at 2B, Cribbs was solid with no passed balls and one for two on throwing out base stealers. Martin looked good at third and freshman Mahoney got his feet wet with a decent series at short. Mahoney is almost 6'5", so if he takes anything off his throw it tends to sail. Hagel bailed him out at first a few times, but Mahoney's glove work was solid. If he turns it loose on the throw, he'll be fine. Manning saved game one when he threw out a runner at the plate, and Scoby made a nice catch at the wall in right in game three. Bain is a natural infielder moving to left, and he was just OK out there but should get better with some experience. As a team, we made nearly all the routine plays--impressive for a first series.
The team chemistry was great. Guys picked each other up and stayed positive. I think Coach Woodson commented that he hasn't seen that kind of excitement in the dugout for a while. While I'm sure they thought they should've won all three, everyone is satisfied with a series win. Every game was decided in the ninth or later, but Valpo dominated for most of the series. Overall grade for the team: B+.
Good job guys...GO VALPO! :twocents:
Thanks for the in-depth analysis! Surprising that we have a 6'5" SS!
In regards to Jacobs, that had to have been his offspeed pitches if they were 58-60?!?! There is no way someone can pitch D-1 ball throwing that slow as a fastball :). After my Tommy John surgery, I only threw 77-82 from the left side depending on the weather, and also had to rely on my offspeed pitches. You can get away with that speed if you have good offspeed pitches, but anything less would be trouble. Either the gun wasn't working correctly, or he was throwing a changeup.
No, it was definitely a breaking ball, but that was all he threw in this outing. He didn't throw any fastballs that I remember. I was next to the gun and that's where he was consistently.
His deal is just go out there and throw stuff up there that's a total change from what the hitters have been seeing. I think he's normally good at hitting his spots, but in this first outing in the cold he left balls over the plate or they weren't breaking as much as he wanted. In any case, Murray hitters were able to barrel the ball up. We still had a few arms left in the pen after the series was over, so besides Jacobs we'll see others get spot duty. The starters will be challenged at Arkansas, and while I hope we don't have to, Valpo faces the possibility of using all of the pen this weekend.
Yes, it will be a tough series this weekend, but I think we will show up ready to play from the sound of it. I will be at the Saturday/Sunday games, so will try to do a similar analysis if you aren't going to be there as well.
Deetjen was rewarded with HL Pitcher of the week, good job Tyler!
I'll be there. Look for the Valpo flag. I always carry it with me to games and will hang it on the fence somewhere. Congrats to Tyler--go get the Hogs!