Now that the football season is over (just joking, of course ... maybe)
it's back to baseball and game 3 of the Fall Black/Gold World Series.
Game 3 was a tit-for-tat, back-and-forth, seesaw, yoyo pendulous affair as Black prevailed 6-4 after scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 5th to break the tie.
Gold only got 3 hits but were awarded 5 walks and 1 HBP that allowed them to score 3 runs in the 3rd and make a game of it. That inning started with 3 consecutive walks issued by Corbin Brooksbank followed by a SAC fly, Infante error, and another SAC fly.
[Speaking of Corbin, it's a good thing Coach has the nickname Corbs or otherwise there could be some confusion when someone says "You threw it to the wrong base, Corbin" or "You better learn how to field a bunt, Corbin, or you'll never play for this team" during practice.]
Two freshmen started the game, Jake Eder (our #1 pitching recruit according to the rankings) for Black and Aaron Brown for Gold. Aaron is from Mt. Juliet and had quite a contingent of fans in the stands cheering him on led by his mom. Jake is from Florida (I think) and I detected no family members present for him. Same for Austin Martin, who is also from Florida. [You can tell Austin is from Florida because he has a fantastic tan. Either than or he's what Judge Moore down in Alabama refers to as "brown people."]
Both Eder and Brown pitched pretty well except for Brown giving up a HR to Gonzalez (something a lot of opposing pitchers will end up doing as well) and Eder having control issues in walking 2 batters and hitting another. Despite that, no runs were scored off Eder who got out of the bases loaded jam in the 2nd by Alonzo Jones to ground out into a force play at 3rd.
Brooksbank followed Eder to the mound and I've already told you what happened to him so I hope you remember because I'm not repeating it.
AJ Franklin relieved Brown and had a rocky 3rd and gave up 3 runs. He hit Martin, walked Kaiser, Clarke singled, Gonzalez walked (not necessarily a bad thing to do to him), then got a double play ground ball but 2nd baseman Garrett Blaylock made a wild throw to 1st on the relay. Walker Grisanti and Harrison Ray followed with singles but the inning ended with a 4-6-3 DP ball hit by Canadian Cooper Davis. [I'm still waiting for Oh Canada! to be played right after the national anthem. Grammatical note: "national anthem" is not capitalized as it merely refers to a song, any of hundreds from around the world; you would, however, capitalize The Star Spangled Banner as that is the song that is referred to when we speak of the US national anthem.]
Freshman Tyler Brown (we have 2 Browns and 2 Kaisers on the team this year) then came on to pitch the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings for Black and he pretty much shut Gold down even though they did score 1 run. For his 3 innings he only allowed 2 hits, walked 1, and struck out 3 and, quite deservedly, got the win.
Again, Gold only got 3 hits so they didn't really have any batting stars BUT Pat DeMarco did get a hit and score 2 runs and Ethan Paul had an RBI single. Unfortunately, Alonzo Jones went 0-4 and is now 0-11 for the Series. Ty Duvall and Garrett Blaylock lead the Gold team in hitting at .429 and Alex Brewer is close behind at .375. DeMarco is .333
Black pounded out 7 hits highlighted by another Pedro Alvarez-like home run ball that went over the bleachers in left center field off the bat of Jayson Gonzalez. Harrison Ray finally got his bat going and had 2 singles. Six other guys got 1 hit apiece. For the Series the Black team has very balanced hitting with everyone having at least 2 hits, 4 guys with 3 hits, and Walker Grisanti with 7 hits. Top averages for Black are:
Grisanti .717
Philip Clarke .500
Jayson Gonzalez .375
Harrison Ray .375
JJ Bleday .333
Julian Infante played yesterday but did not bat. He was 0-4 in games 1/2 and apparently has some hand or wrist issue. He also made a fielding error on a ball that he 99% of the time gets so I'm just guessing it's his fielding hand and not his hitting hand. Perhaps Chris can get more info on this development. He did play so I don't think it's anything too serious.
It is now clear that Jayson Gonzalez will be an everyday player, either at 3rd or as DH. Walker Grisanti is certainly making a case for being in left or DH. He (and others) have struggled with the sun in left/3rd during the series as it is just above the press box looking in from the field.
At the risk of getting yelled at here's my current opening day line-up (it changes daily):
1B Infante
2B Paul
SS Kaiser
3B Gonzalez
LF Grisanti
CF Bleday
RF DeMarco
C Duvall/Clarke platoon
DH Brewer
While I'm at it, here's my opening day line-up for the 2019 season:
1B Solomon
2B Blaylock
SS Martin
3B Gonzalez
LF some freshman
CF Bleday
RF DeMarco
C Duvall/Clarke platoon
DH Brewer
It's difficult to tell much of anything about pitching other than Gillis, King, Stover and Conger all looked very good on Thursday/Friday and the freshmen, as a group, look promising (we've seen all of them except Erik Kaiser), primarily Eder, Tyler Brown, and Aaron Brown.
Other than Raby and Fellows, it's way too early to be making decisions about who is a starter and who has a relief role or closer on this team. Plenty of guys have demonstrated the skills to be a starter or a reliever.
Game 4 takes place Wednesday night at 6 pm. Since only 3 guys have yet to pitch -- Raby, Fellows, Kaiser -- my guess is we'll see our #1 and #2 guys go at it, Drake Fellows for Gold and Pat Raby for Black. I'd expect a tight, low-scoring affair but you never know.
it's back to baseball and game 3 of the Fall Black/Gold World Series.
Game 3 was a tit-for-tat, back-and-forth, seesaw, yoyo pendulous affair as Black prevailed 6-4 after scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 5th to break the tie.
Gold only got 3 hits but were awarded 5 walks and 1 HBP that allowed them to score 3 runs in the 3rd and make a game of it. That inning started with 3 consecutive walks issued by Corbin Brooksbank followed by a SAC fly, Infante error, and another SAC fly.
[Speaking of Corbin, it's a good thing Coach has the nickname Corbs or otherwise there could be some confusion when someone says "You threw it to the wrong base, Corbin" or "You better learn how to field a bunt, Corbin, or you'll never play for this team" during practice.]
Two freshmen started the game, Jake Eder (our #1 pitching recruit according to the rankings) for Black and Aaron Brown for Gold. Aaron is from Mt. Juliet and had quite a contingent of fans in the stands cheering him on led by his mom. Jake is from Florida (I think) and I detected no family members present for him. Same for Austin Martin, who is also from Florida. [You can tell Austin is from Florida because he has a fantastic tan. Either than or he's what Judge Moore down in Alabama refers to as "brown people."]
Both Eder and Brown pitched pretty well except for Brown giving up a HR to Gonzalez (something a lot of opposing pitchers will end up doing as well) and Eder having control issues in walking 2 batters and hitting another. Despite that, no runs were scored off Eder who got out of the bases loaded jam in the 2nd by Alonzo Jones to ground out into a force play at 3rd.
Brooksbank followed Eder to the mound and I've already told you what happened to him so I hope you remember because I'm not repeating it.
AJ Franklin relieved Brown and had a rocky 3rd and gave up 3 runs. He hit Martin, walked Kaiser, Clarke singled, Gonzalez walked (not necessarily a bad thing to do to him), then got a double play ground ball but 2nd baseman Garrett Blaylock made a wild throw to 1st on the relay. Walker Grisanti and Harrison Ray followed with singles but the inning ended with a 4-6-3 DP ball hit by Canadian Cooper Davis. [I'm still waiting for Oh Canada! to be played right after the national anthem. Grammatical note: "national anthem" is not capitalized as it merely refers to a song, any of hundreds from around the world; you would, however, capitalize The Star Spangled Banner as that is the song that is referred to when we speak of the US national anthem.]
Freshman Tyler Brown (we have 2 Browns and 2 Kaisers on the team this year) then came on to pitch the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings for Black and he pretty much shut Gold down even though they did score 1 run. For his 3 innings he only allowed 2 hits, walked 1, and struck out 3 and, quite deservedly, got the win.
Again, Gold only got 3 hits so they didn't really have any batting stars BUT Pat DeMarco did get a hit and score 2 runs and Ethan Paul had an RBI single. Unfortunately, Alonzo Jones went 0-4 and is now 0-11 for the Series. Ty Duvall and Garrett Blaylock lead the Gold team in hitting at .429 and Alex Brewer is close behind at .375. DeMarco is .333
Black pounded out 7 hits highlighted by another Pedro Alvarez-like home run ball that went over the bleachers in left center field off the bat of Jayson Gonzalez. Harrison Ray finally got his bat going and had 2 singles. Six other guys got 1 hit apiece. For the Series the Black team has very balanced hitting with everyone having at least 2 hits, 4 guys with 3 hits, and Walker Grisanti with 7 hits. Top averages for Black are:
Grisanti .717
Philip Clarke .500
Jayson Gonzalez .375
Harrison Ray .375
JJ Bleday .333
Julian Infante played yesterday but did not bat. He was 0-4 in games 1/2 and apparently has some hand or wrist issue. He also made a fielding error on a ball that he 99% of the time gets so I'm just guessing it's his fielding hand and not his hitting hand. Perhaps Chris can get more info on this development. He did play so I don't think it's anything too serious.
It is now clear that Jayson Gonzalez will be an everyday player, either at 3rd or as DH. Walker Grisanti is certainly making a case for being in left or DH. He (and others) have struggled with the sun in left/3rd during the series as it is just above the press box looking in from the field.
At the risk of getting yelled at here's my current opening day line-up (it changes daily):
1B Infante
2B Paul
SS Kaiser
3B Gonzalez
LF Grisanti
CF Bleday
RF DeMarco
C Duvall/Clarke platoon
DH Brewer
While I'm at it, here's my opening day line-up for the 2019 season:
1B Solomon
2B Blaylock
SS Martin
3B Gonzalez
LF some freshman
CF Bleday
RF DeMarco
C Duvall/Clarke platoon
DH Brewer
It's difficult to tell much of anything about pitching other than Gillis, King, Stover and Conger all looked very good on Thursday/Friday and the freshmen, as a group, look promising (we've seen all of them except Erik Kaiser), primarily Eder, Tyler Brown, and Aaron Brown.
Other than Raby and Fellows, it's way too early to be making decisions about who is a starter and who has a relief role or closer on this team. Plenty of guys have demonstrated the skills to be a starter or a reliever.
Game 4 takes place Wednesday night at 6 pm. Since only 3 guys have yet to pitch -- Raby, Fellows, Kaiser -- my guess is we'll see our #1 and #2 guys go at it, Drake Fellows for Gold and Pat Raby for Black. I'd expect a tight, low-scoring affair but you never know.
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