Finally, some decent baseball weather arrives today after a chilly, chilly start to the home season.
While many will look at yesterday's 3-1 to the Rainbow Warriors and say "Vandy can't hit" I look at yesterday's game and say "that curly-haired-Goldilocks-looking starting pitcher for Hawaii and their closer did a tremendous job of pitching."
We had Goldilocks on the ropes in the first few innings -- he was wild, inconsistent, and totally vulnerable. He even balked once. He walked 2 in the first, AMar hit a scorcher to LF that was nabbed, runners got to 2nd and 3rd. But then J-Henry struck out on 3 pitches.
In the 2nd we got runners to 2nd and 3rd again but we left then stranded when Davis struck out on 4 pitches. His two inning pitch count was 24 balls, 23 strikes -- project that out (47 pitches, 2 innings) and he'd only have lasted, at most, 4 innings, and would have walked beau coup batters.
Instead he ended up going 6 innings, yielding no runs on just 2 hits, one of the infield variety.
Gotta hand it to Goldilocks, he clearly had gotten a good night's sleep on a Perfect Serta (small bed, perhaps, but one can always curl up to fit the bed if it's comfortable) and had plenty of porridge for breakfast. [Maybe I have that backwards, not sure, been 30 years since I last read The Three Bears to my daughter.] After navigating through those 2 innings he coasted as Vandy only got 2 total base runners in the 3rd-4th-5th-6th innings. But even so, some of those were well-hit balls that they fielded with aplomb in the field.
Hawai'i is actually a pretty solid team in addition to being a great place to vacation with the family or wife or new bride. [but never your in-laws]
So, in retrospect, if we'd had any clutch hits in innings 1 and 2 we'd be up 4-1, or at least 3-1, surely 2-1. In face, we were 0-3 with RISP with 2 K's. Such is baseball -- good pitching trumps good hitting most all the time, or so I've heard. For the game our RISP was 1-9, .111. That's clearly too many 1s.
Despite our offensive struggles our pitching kept us in the game. Thomas Schultz looked quite good. He threw lots of strikes (74% for the game with 6 K's, 3 called, 3 swinging.)
Unfortunately, he walked the lead-off guy in the first. I attribute that to:
-- he's a freshman
-- it's his first college start
-- he only found out Saturday morning that he'd be starting after only appearing in 2 previous games as a few-pitch reliever (where he'd performed masterfully both times)
-- he's from near Williamsport, PA, home of the Little League so that's a lot of pressure
-- his family was on hand (they surprised him by showing up for the weekend having brought a bit of a tear to his eyes he was so surprised; who'd've not done the same?) [Personally speaking only, I like men who will shed a tear from time-to-time -- it shows they are really human after all which, for people like my Uncle Icky, seems a far-fetched conclusion. Yes, I'm not lying, my uncle's nickname is "Icky" and there's lots of evidence to back that up from his childhood. It wasn't his siblings that concocted that nicknam -- IT WAS HIS PARENTS!. He's dead now, but it was a beautiful funeral -- not at all icky, just Icky.]
Hawai'i plays small ball well and they have lots of team speed on the base paths, and they parlayed that lead-off walk into a run with a Sac bunt, and a blooper hit to short right that plated the run. Schultzy went on to only allow two base-runners after that before departing after 5 innings. Great job, Tommy Boy, you're going to have a stellar colelge career and go high in the '22 MLB Draft I'm thinking.
So now we jump to the 6th. Vandy trails 1-0. Not ideal but certainly still winnable.
Mr. Little League All-star comes on to pitch and their best hitter, KiK (Kale Ivan Kofer, not the App), greets him with a double. There's a lot of speed on the Hawai'i team. That runner then scores on an infield hit that did not even leave the pretend-grass area. After that Chris retired the last 5 batters he faced with 3 K's and two easy flies. Unfortunately, it's now 2-0 and the VandyBoys are trailing going to the 7th.
Hawai'i has brought on their set-up reliever. Ray greets him with a single, followed by two K's. Then Cooper slaps a single up the middle and Ray scores (he'd stole 2nd and was on 3rd for some reason I can't quite recall -- bad throw to try to catch him stealing I'm thinking.) Then CJ hits a scorcher to LF but a great fielding play near the wall leaves it 2-1 Hawai'i. Still winnable for the Dores, however.
Both teams have gone to their hot-shot closers in the 8th. Brown is unscatched in the 8th, with 2 K's and a harmless single. Hawai'i's guy yields a sharp lead-off single to left by AMar and I'm thinking, "Now we're in business!" But then their hot-shot closer K's Duvall and Noland again with AMar at 2nd on a SB and then 3rd on a catcher's throwing error. This would end up being the 4th runner Vandy had left at 3rd in the game. Get those guys in and you win the game; don't, and you lose as is what happened.
The game got away in the T9 when Brown yielded 3 singles, two of the infield variety and one that squeaked through the right side. One guy scored. Now it's 3-1 Hawai'i and looking bad for the home team. {Hint: it was.}
The Rainbow's finished off the game 1-2-3 against the bottom of our line-up and the large crowd for such a chilly day wend home sad, depressed, giving up on the season, cursing the baseball Gods.
I'm kidding. No Vandy fan ever panics after a home loss to a mid-major team in March. Well, some do, but there's always the outlier in the audience even when Dave Chappelle is bringing down the house with his humorous albeit profane observations on life. Ever notice how much profanity a comedian gets away with in his job that, if we normal people did that in our job we'd be fired on the spot? Life is not fair. Who'd've thunk it?
There were a lot of K's yesterday by both teams. Part of this is attributable to the worst HP ump we've seen all year. But he was at least equally bad for both teams. Seriously, the guy should never work a college game again. Little League I'm thinking.
[this is my 3rd reference to Little League -- Pennsylvania, McElvain, and the ump. funny how that happens sometimes in life -- a sort of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon but without the bacon and a baseball instead. For the time being I'll call it Six Degrees of Lamade.]
Hawai'i is a pretty good team, truth be told. We knew going in they had 4 good starters (they played 4 game weekend series both weekends and sported an overall 7-3 record) and had 5 quality hitters. There's still some SEC teams that can't make those claims (Missouri and Kentucky, I'm thinking -- Alabama has stepped it up a notch so far this year.)
While I did predict a sweep I must argue, in my defense, that I did not know Kumar would not be pitching this weekend. Had Kumar been pitching yesterday we'd have won 1-0 (maybe, Brown still would have needed to close out the game and he's failed at that already 3 times this year. I'm not worried about him but I have entered the "concerned" zone pending further information.)
So today it's Eder for Vandy and who knows for Hawai'i as they still have 2 starting pitchers left. Their coach has stuck with his previous rotation so far. BUT, his #3 guy has an ERA of 4.76 and his #4 guy (who pitched last Sunday) has an ERA of 0.00. If I were him I'd pitch the #4 guy.
But I'm not him which is sad because otherwise I'd have a home overlooking the beach and ocean and perhaps the volcano and my binoculars out scoping out the girls on the beach.
P.S. Please don't tell my wife of 44 years I said that as I have HUGE plans for our 45th anniversary. A TRIP TO HAWAI'I AT THE HONEYMOON SUITE ON WAIKIKI BEACH! Woohoo, Junior will be feeling his oats for sure!]
While many will look at yesterday's 3-1 to the Rainbow Warriors and say "Vandy can't hit" I look at yesterday's game and say "that curly-haired-Goldilocks-looking starting pitcher for Hawaii and their closer did a tremendous job of pitching."
We had Goldilocks on the ropes in the first few innings -- he was wild, inconsistent, and totally vulnerable. He even balked once. He walked 2 in the first, AMar hit a scorcher to LF that was nabbed, runners got to 2nd and 3rd. But then J-Henry struck out on 3 pitches.
In the 2nd we got runners to 2nd and 3rd again but we left then stranded when Davis struck out on 4 pitches. His two inning pitch count was 24 balls, 23 strikes -- project that out (47 pitches, 2 innings) and he'd only have lasted, at most, 4 innings, and would have walked beau coup batters.
Instead he ended up going 6 innings, yielding no runs on just 2 hits, one of the infield variety.
Gotta hand it to Goldilocks, he clearly had gotten a good night's sleep on a Perfect Serta (small bed, perhaps, but one can always curl up to fit the bed if it's comfortable) and had plenty of porridge for breakfast. [Maybe I have that backwards, not sure, been 30 years since I last read The Three Bears to my daughter.] After navigating through those 2 innings he coasted as Vandy only got 2 total base runners in the 3rd-4th-5th-6th innings. But even so, some of those were well-hit balls that they fielded with aplomb in the field.
Hawai'i is actually a pretty solid team in addition to being a great place to vacation with the family or wife or new bride. [but never your in-laws]
So, in retrospect, if we'd had any clutch hits in innings 1 and 2 we'd be up 4-1, or at least 3-1, surely 2-1. In face, we were 0-3 with RISP with 2 K's. Such is baseball -- good pitching trumps good hitting most all the time, or so I've heard. For the game our RISP was 1-9, .111. That's clearly too many 1s.
Despite our offensive struggles our pitching kept us in the game. Thomas Schultz looked quite good. He threw lots of strikes (74% for the game with 6 K's, 3 called, 3 swinging.)
Unfortunately, he walked the lead-off guy in the first. I attribute that to:
-- he's a freshman
-- it's his first college start
-- he only found out Saturday morning that he'd be starting after only appearing in 2 previous games as a few-pitch reliever (where he'd performed masterfully both times)
-- he's from near Williamsport, PA, home of the Little League so that's a lot of pressure
-- his family was on hand (they surprised him by showing up for the weekend having brought a bit of a tear to his eyes he was so surprised; who'd've not done the same?) [Personally speaking only, I like men who will shed a tear from time-to-time -- it shows they are really human after all which, for people like my Uncle Icky, seems a far-fetched conclusion. Yes, I'm not lying, my uncle's nickname is "Icky" and there's lots of evidence to back that up from his childhood. It wasn't his siblings that concocted that nicknam -- IT WAS HIS PARENTS!. He's dead now, but it was a beautiful funeral -- not at all icky, just Icky.]
Hawai'i plays small ball well and they have lots of team speed on the base paths, and they parlayed that lead-off walk into a run with a Sac bunt, and a blooper hit to short right that plated the run. Schultzy went on to only allow two base-runners after that before departing after 5 innings. Great job, Tommy Boy, you're going to have a stellar colelge career and go high in the '22 MLB Draft I'm thinking.
So now we jump to the 6th. Vandy trails 1-0. Not ideal but certainly still winnable.
Mr. Little League All-star comes on to pitch and their best hitter, KiK (Kale Ivan Kofer, not the App), greets him with a double. There's a lot of speed on the Hawai'i team. That runner then scores on an infield hit that did not even leave the pretend-grass area. After that Chris retired the last 5 batters he faced with 3 K's and two easy flies. Unfortunately, it's now 2-0 and the VandyBoys are trailing going to the 7th.
Hawai'i has brought on their set-up reliever. Ray greets him with a single, followed by two K's. Then Cooper slaps a single up the middle and Ray scores (he'd stole 2nd and was on 3rd for some reason I can't quite recall -- bad throw to try to catch him stealing I'm thinking.) Then CJ hits a scorcher to LF but a great fielding play near the wall leaves it 2-1 Hawai'i. Still winnable for the Dores, however.
Both teams have gone to their hot-shot closers in the 8th. Brown is unscatched in the 8th, with 2 K's and a harmless single. Hawai'i's guy yields a sharp lead-off single to left by AMar and I'm thinking, "Now we're in business!" But then their hot-shot closer K's Duvall and Noland again with AMar at 2nd on a SB and then 3rd on a catcher's throwing error. This would end up being the 4th runner Vandy had left at 3rd in the game. Get those guys in and you win the game; don't, and you lose as is what happened.
The game got away in the T9 when Brown yielded 3 singles, two of the infield variety and one that squeaked through the right side. One guy scored. Now it's 3-1 Hawai'i and looking bad for the home team. {Hint: it was.}
The Rainbow's finished off the game 1-2-3 against the bottom of our line-up and the large crowd for such a chilly day wend home sad, depressed, giving up on the season, cursing the baseball Gods.
I'm kidding. No Vandy fan ever panics after a home loss to a mid-major team in March. Well, some do, but there's always the outlier in the audience even when Dave Chappelle is bringing down the house with his humorous albeit profane observations on life. Ever notice how much profanity a comedian gets away with in his job that, if we normal people did that in our job we'd be fired on the spot? Life is not fair. Who'd've thunk it?
There were a lot of K's yesterday by both teams. Part of this is attributable to the worst HP ump we've seen all year. But he was at least equally bad for both teams. Seriously, the guy should never work a college game again. Little League I'm thinking.
[this is my 3rd reference to Little League -- Pennsylvania, McElvain, and the ump. funny how that happens sometimes in life -- a sort of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon but without the bacon and a baseball instead. For the time being I'll call it Six Degrees of Lamade.]
Hawai'i is a pretty good team, truth be told. We knew going in they had 4 good starters (they played 4 game weekend series both weekends and sported an overall 7-3 record) and had 5 quality hitters. There's still some SEC teams that can't make those claims (Missouri and Kentucky, I'm thinking -- Alabama has stepped it up a notch so far this year.)
While I did predict a sweep I must argue, in my defense, that I did not know Kumar would not be pitching this weekend. Had Kumar been pitching yesterday we'd have won 1-0 (maybe, Brown still would have needed to close out the game and he's failed at that already 3 times this year. I'm not worried about him but I have entered the "concerned" zone pending further information.)
So today it's Eder for Vandy and who knows for Hawai'i as they still have 2 starting pitchers left. Their coach has stuck with his previous rotation so far. BUT, his #3 guy has an ERA of 4.76 and his #4 guy (who pitched last Sunday) has an ERA of 0.00. If I were him I'd pitch the #4 guy.
But I'm not him which is sad because otherwise I'd have a home overlooking the beach and ocean and perhaps the volcano and my binoculars out scoping out the girls on the beach.
P.S. Please don't tell my wife of 44 years I said that as I have HUGE plans for our 45th anniversary. A TRIP TO HAWAI'I AT THE HONEYMOON SUITE ON WAIKIKI BEACH! Woohoo, Junior will be feeling his oats for sure!]
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