Bulldogs4

USM seems to be taking care of business here late in the season. You cannot control the schedule with respect to how your opponents perform. Ole Miss-Bama is a huge series as well. I like Ole Miss to win two of three. Bama is good but I think their ranking/RPI is higher than the team is actually on the field. They have lost 17 games so they are not unbeatable at all. And then it goes without saying that State@A&M is another big series. Most likely will be a 2-1 series and represents a great opportunity for State to steal one on the road where we have surprisingly played better in the conference this season. State was 7-8 at home in the conference which is befuddling at best. Who says the regular season does not count… Georgia-Auburn should be really good as well!

I said before the season I did not think we were a top five/ten team. Much improved over last year and a top twenty/fifteen perhaps team, for sure. We are capable of beating any team in the country in a given game but we are not consistent enough to win a series against the top tier teams. All that to say I am still excited about this team and look forward to playing at A&M and seeing how we fare against them. Realistically one win is probably what we will get but two would sure be nice. After that we will see how it goes.

Reese had the big hit but him getting out on the play killed our momentum and seem to give life back to Auburn. Nonetheless it was a well played game by both teams. Our pitching should be in good shape tomorrow especially if McPherson can give us 2-3-4 innings (depending on the pitch count and how he performs). Don’t know Auburn and what they have left. I suspect it will be a close game. Lets Go Diamond Dawgs!

Davis pitches well but it seems he finds a way to throw one beach ball that turns out to be costly. State with three outs left to try to tie or win it.

Excellent win for State. Really played well and took great advantage of our opportunities especially in the first inning. That dang Chance with back to back grand slams in conference play. Let’s Go Diamond Dawgs!!

I think you throw your best arms one day early. Honestly, I don’t see that being a problem. Each is getting 5 full days of rest. Many years ago MLB starters were pitched every fourth day. These guys are 19-20-21 years old. Fatigue should not be a problem. I am curious to see if McPherson pitches a little this weekend. It would seem possible that he might throw an inning or two if the circumstances dictate it. 83, I am not quite as high on Auburn as you are. Yes they are an excellent team but they do have 14 losses and have the same conference record as State. I think it will be two of three series that could go either way. They are not unbeatable by any means. And I think our bullpen will bounce after a rough inning on Sunday. Ole Miss needs to win two and I think USM sweeps. Alabama took a crucial loss last night losing to Troy. They could be teetering on losing out on a host bid. They are @SCAR (who is no longer an automatic win) and then Ole Miss at home (which will be a tough series as each will be battling for a host spot). We will see how the weekend shakes out. In a way I am glad State is playing a THU-SAT series. A&M has a FRI-SUN series so that could work to our advantage next week.

Well it gets overlooked but your OOC games count. State was 23-2 this year in OOC games. Only two losses were one run games (UCLA-neutral) and (USM-road). Both games were very winnable as well. Very impressive and as Coach mentioned earlier, teams around the country were canceling games tonight because of RPI. Our players wanted to play and did against a good Nichols team. Yes the SEC games are the most important but you better take care of these early season and midweek games too. They all count in the record at the end of the regular season. And they definitely affect the potential to host a Regional and/or a SR. So job well done by the Diamond Dawgs!

Regardless of how this game turns out, seeing Oak with some fire and protecting his player is the best thing that has happened. He let his guys know that he will go to bat for them.

BB/HBP’s will kill you. Yesterday we played with fire but got away with it. Today we got burned.

Well that did not last long. Got our work cut out for us now.

Which Charlie Foster shows up today? The Good version will give us an excellent chance to win. The bad version means we will have to score and score and score some more and that still may not be good enough. Plus we have got to play better defense. We will see. I like OM & USM to win today.

Man, Texas left the bases loaded four innings in a row. And only scored three runs out of all those opportunities. Tremendous win for State. Stone and Bauer were excellent today. Wyers with a huge three run homer with two outs to give us some cushion. Maybe Texas’ Sunday starter will be more human and we can scratch some runs and win the series.

Texas’ pitching was outstanding. We had several opportunities but just didn’t get the clutch hit and on the other hand Texas did get a couple of clutch at bats and hits and that was the difference. Their pitchers made zero mistakes. Even the ball Frei hit out was a quality pitch. Definitely need to win at least one this weekend. We will see how it goes tomorrow.

USM blows a 5-0 lead at Tulane. That one stings. Especially with them on the bubble to host. Needed that win. Southern definitely needs to sweep this weekend. State & Ole Miss need win one at the minimum and two wins would obviously make for a tremendous weekend.

Broadcast definitely improved throughout the evening. Big win for State 7-3. Dane Burns was impressive in the last two innings. Much needed after the abysmal 6th inning. Go Dawgs!

Huge game tonight for State-Ole Miss. Both pitching staffs are beleaguered after an exhausting weekend. Will be interesting to see each coach manages his respective staff. Obviously it will be Johnny Staff unless a younger seldom used pitcher pitches really well for 3-4-5 innings. It is always going to be a competitive game. Let’s Go Diamond Dawgs!!!

I remember that sweep very well from 1985. We also won the SECT in BTR that year with three straight wins. In those days, we played home - home against OM, Bama, Auburn and LSU. So you played 24 conference games and the two top teams from the East & West played for the Championship. Over Spring Break that year we went to Hawaii and played for a week. Returned home late on a Thursday. Promptly went to Auburn and got Swept by Bo Jackson and Co. And we lost two of three against LSU in BTR early in the season as well. Later in the season we caught fire and that sweep propelled us from six games down in the standings to finishing one game behind LSU in the regular season. All that to say that surprises me that it has been 41 years since we swept LSU in a baseball series. And we still lead the overall series by 25 games.

State does it again. Bauer with an excellent outing sans one pitch. And that dang Parker with a grand slam. I see shades of Clark/Palmeiro in that swing. A sweep today would be huge. But I know it is going to be another hard fought game. Ole Miss with a split sets up another big game today. And USM goes for the sweep today at USA. They have seemed to have righted ship recently and are playing good ball. Will be an excellent weekend if all three can finish today.

And Davis wears out. I fault the Coaching staff here. After the first base hit he should have been pulled. He pitched great but he was out of gas. 35-40 pitches is the max for him.

Baseball is very quirky. State-LSU is the biggest baseball rivalry in the SEC. So I fully expect to see LSU at its best this weekend. Forget the fact that they have been struggling. They will play hard and better against State. All that said, we have to got to rise up to the occasion and play better than them. Need two at the very least and as you said 83 a sweep is really the goal. Georgia @ Ole Miss has the makings of a good series. I know Georgia swept us but I think that weekend may be an outlier when we look back on the season. They are good but I like Ole Miss to win two of three. USM is at USA who is always good in baseball. If Southern can win 2 there that will be a good weekend.

Why pitch him again after he threw 43 pitches Friday night? Webb was awesome. Davis has good stuff but he is inconsistent. He was very lucky that he didn’t give up a three run HR in the eighth. And that it was only a single as well. Glad for the win and a much needed sweep. Still have a big mountain to climb though. USM with a big win and Ole Miss lost but still won the series. So overall a good weekend for all three teams.

I have zero confidence in Davis. We should be behind right now. Very fortunate that we are only tied 3-3 in the ninth inning.

State & USM desperately need sweeps today! Ole Miss is in good shape either way.

I know it is South Carolina but today’s win is the way we should win against a team like them. Really need a sweep tomorrow to offset the disaster of the last two weekends. At least a small part of it.

Agreed. Wins are always good. For State we just needed to win. Period. Now can we build on this. I have been of the mindset if we can just win one game then the pressure drops precipitously and we can just play baseball again. We will see what happens.