Bulldogs4

Timely hitting is the most important aspect of baseball as long as you get solid pitching and defense. We have struggled mightily at times with that facet of the game. And quite frankly that is the biggest challenge for most teams. Hopefully at Vandy we can get some of those big hits when we need them. Definitely a must win series for Ole Miss and a huge series for USM at ULL. They are in a precarious position and really need to win two there to get their RPI back up in a better spot.

Parson seems like a guy who could flourish in Lebby’s system. Kind of hard to judge off a spring game. I would suspect that the practices themselves would be the better gauge of his ability. We will see though. Hopefully he can be a solid #2 QB. I keep thinking back to Moorhead bringing in a QB transfer that was supposedly talented who completely tanked. And we had a QB (Keytaon Thompson) who was maybe a bit less talented but had the confidence of the team and who would have won a few games that year that we lost.

Well he is slowly, painstakingly getting there…

Keyshawn Murphy is coming back to State. That is great news!! If he can stay healthy and improve on the defensive end, the sky is limit for him. I just think he can be a star in the SEC. If Jans can pick up a few more guys in the portal, then next year’s team could be looking good. We will see.

Ole Miss played much a stronger OOC schedule so they still have a chance. State continues to make it hard on ourselves but this was a huge win. The last inning is always excruciating especially for the road team and especially when a team is struggling like Auburn. Just like last Saturday when I knew State was going to lose to Ole Miss. This evening you knew Auburn was going to lose this game. Notice I said Auburn was going to lose. And not as much as State winning the game. But I digress, as I said 10-8 is so much better than 9-9 but still a long way to go.

Honestly the next game is the most critical game of the season. The difference between 10-8 and 9-9 is huge. Especially with road trips to Vandy and Arkansas upcoming. We will see.

For State it is Ole Miss & LSU. For Ole Miss - State and Arkansas. Which makes good sense. Both are good traditional baseball rivals.

A bit of throwback today in reverse. Prior to 1992, conference series were a DH - 7 innings each on Saturday followed by a single 9 inning game on Sunday. Today we will have a twin bill of 7 inning games. We know Auburn can score but their pitching is suspect. So we will see what will happens later. At least the rain has moved out. Will be cool but sunny this afternoon. Prior to SC/Arkansas joining the SEC, baseball was completely split E-W. Meaning State played 24 conference games. H-H against Aub, Bama, OM & LSU. Only played the E teams in the SEC Tournament. The format varied over the years. The top two teams advanced and then top four and then the top six towards the end. In 1992, the current schedule format was implemented playing F-S-S and the schedule going to 30 games. Still playing the W teams and then rotating the E teams. I am not sure what the future scheduling for baseball will be once OK and TX join next year.

And probably need to play a DH today. Forecast for tomorrow looks like cold rain.

Yawn. This is nothing new. When I was in HS in the 1970’s another school stole our best basketball player by setting the father up with a cushy job and taking care of their moving expenses and gave them a new vehicle or two as well. And it was perfectly legal to do so. Of course all of the above was done unofficially. The school was a couple of counties over so not in the same district but in the same general region.

Ditto for State.. Terrible start for Ole Miss after last weekend. USM is in kind of the same boat as State. Playing a bad ULM at home and they need to sweep as well. And they did get win number one. Getting the games in this weekend could be dicey especially tomorrow with the rain that is coming.

Crucial weekend for State & Ole Miss. Ole Miss heads to UGA. Georgia is a decent team but beatable. Will this past weekend serve as a turning point for Ole Miss? Sadly, it appears that the Ole Miss faithful hope it was not because they are ready to move on to a new HC. At 5-10, they need to win at least two this weekend. State plays a 2-13 Auburn at home for SBW. Quite frankly, a sweep is necessary because we have let three very winnable games turn into losses. Two wins is always the goal but in this case three are needed to steal one back. Will it happen? Who knows? This team has proven to be resilient. But will last Saturday prove to be the point where we went over the waterfall? We will see starting this weekend. In other action, A&M is at Bama, LSU @ Missouri, Tenn @ UK, FL @ Vandy and Arkansas @ USCe. So some good match ups.

He appears to be a player that will help State. Obviously, the Miami season stats don’t look good but hopefully the potential is there for him to take a step forward. We will see.

Kendall said they would drop some. In the big picture it is not a big deal. The next 15 conference games plus the GC, Memphis and UNA will tell the tale. 18 games. I would say we need to win the three NC games and be 9-6 in the conference games plus win a game or two in the conference tournament to be comfortably in a regional. I am not sure that happens but we will see.

Agree with you that the specialization of sports has hurt baseball badly. Travel ball, spring, summer and fall ball put far too much stress on a pitcher’s arm. Some years back, an excellent pitcher at State flat told the pro scouts not to draft him. He had been playing baseball nonstop for 18 years (age 4 to 22) and he was done. His arm was worn out. He went onto his career in life. Had he not had baseball shoved down his throat for almost 20 years , he may very well have gone on to a MLB career. He was talented enough to do have done so. Pitchers need down time for their arms to rest, recover and get stronger. The other thing is when I was youngster (age 6-13) the coaches would NOT allow you to throw a curve ball. 14 was the minimum age and even then it was a moderate curve ball designed to put less stress on your elbow and arm. Of course today everything is about analytics and that is the holy grail of baseball. However, to me, common sense is much more valuable when it comes to teaching the basic fundamentals and mechanics to pitching. I cringe when I watch the LLWS and 11-12 year old kids are throwing curveballs. I fear they are damaging their arms but it won’t show until down the road when it catches up to them. It just appears to me that we see a lot of arm injuries and surgery’s with pitchers these days. If it is not from overthrowing and too much on the arm, then what is it from?

So what gives? State’s recruiting class in 2022 was in the top ten. 2023 in the top 15. 2024 to this point is in the top 25. But still a ways to go. Theoretically, we should be playing better baseball than the record indicates. Are we like Florida State in football from years ago? All the stars look good but on the field they completely flop? Now I understand the transfer portal has skewed everything the last couple of years. If we can Lemonis this year, who are your picks to succeed him? Burroughs? Or are there other options that we could make a run at?

No need to be Thelma & Louise… Let the season play out and go from there. Before the season had we said State would be 7-8 at the half way mark of the conference season we would have been okay with that. So here we are.

I called it that Ole Miss was going to win the series just because it was time. Eventually they were going to take a series.

Nope Ole Miss with the win and you could see it coming.

Can we get three outs without giving up a run?

Long goes long and then goes long into the locker room because he is a d*** a**.

State takes an 8-7 lead but this game is still a long way from being over.

Ole Miss comes back after being down 7-3 in the eighth inning. Rivalry games bring on screwy games.

LOL, last year we were run ruled at least once every weekend or more or so it seemed. This year’s competitiveness has been refreshing. I think we have only been blown out a couple of games all year, the other losses being closely contested games.

And on the other diamond the State ladies run ruled #4 Tennessee last night. Which was a first ever for the program over a top five team. Again it is only one game but this team if they continue to play at this level are putting themselves in position to host a regional.