Bulldogs4

But no weekend is ever easy. Missouri may not be very good but if we don’t stay focused, we could easily drop a game or two during that series. We swept A&M but two of the games were one run victories (including extra innings in the first game). Then the last series is @Bama. They are much improved this year. One positive there is we will probably have more fans in the stadium than they will. Plus it is still a rivalry (they actually lead the overall series though 214-199-4) so there are no guarantees except play one game at a time. I do agree State has put ourselves in a good position to this point and I like the way we are playing. Winning today would be great though we know sweeping a SEC team on the road is tough.

I sure hope Hoglund is okay. Just hate to see any injuries to any player but especially pitchers. Ole Miss has been kind of snake bit this year. I remember several years ago State having a bunch of pitchers injured that really threw a wrench into the season. Does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to why injuries happen but is just unfortunate to the players who are hurt. Tremendous win last night for State and McLeod easily had his best outing of the year. On the road, you always want to win two so I hope we can sustain the momentum today and get another victory. Not all is lost for Ole Miss. I look for you guys to bounce back and win today and tomorrow and still take two of three. A&M is better than their record indicates.

Dub, I know you did not ask me but IMO, Douglass has stabilized the program and there was definite improvement last year. We still have a ways to go but it seems the old culture is getting back in place. I agree with Mout that our OL/DL are still question marks but the overall attitude of the team and the direction is definitely going up. I think we may be close to where we were in 2003-04. OG was clearly better than us then but we were starting to close the gap. This year will be similar. I think we can be competitive with OG but beating you will be a tall order. I think making the playoffs this year is very attainable but a deep run would be unlikely. At the very least there is excitement among the Wildcat faithful again and I think our attendance will increase dramatically this year.

Kylin Hill was a good college RB but I don’t think he is going to make it in the NFL. OTOH, I think Atlanta got a steal in signing Errol Thompson. He is going to make the team and surprise some people.

A&M’s record is 5–16 in the conference but all three games were tight (finally in the 7th inning of the third game we opened up a lead). So for OM on the road if you win two of three that will be a good series although you guys are certainly capable of a sweep. @USCe is a good opportunity for State to beat a good team on the road.

Back when Natchez was 6A, it was a 197 mile trip from Meridian. A long trip indeed. But Natchez like Corinth is just one those cities that is a long way from anywhere. Way back in the day, Corinth was a member of the Big 8 and that was a long trip for anyone beyond Tupelo or Columbus (and even CBus is a ways from Corinth). Plus much of the highways then were two lane. Nowadays, four lane highways make these trips much more manageable and obviously safer as well. Overall I don’t think it is a big issue today. Starting games at 7P makes it tougher for visiting fans to get the stadium in time for kickoff as compared to the 730 kickoff times but that is about the only obstacle for fans these days.

I think Errol Thompson is a sleeper in this draft. He has always been underrated. But he just seems to have a nose for the football. I think whoever drafts him will get a steal and he will be a pleasant surprise for them.

Well that is exactly my point. The propensity for it being me first is much greater than it being team first. Which is sad, because these guys can help themselves much more by playing together as a team and making a deep run in the tournament. Most certainly the ingredients are there for this to be a great team. But my hopes are much tempered by us having similar talent in 2012 and 2020 and seeing both teams grossly underperform due to selfishness on the individual players part.

Disappointing that we did not get the win today after having a 4-zip lead. Vandy is really good and like Arkansas they take great advantage when you make a mistake. The first inning was huge because even though we scored 3 runs, we could have scored 5-6 runs and then the game has a different feel to it. We let them off the hook by not taking more advantage of what could have been. I was concerned after that just because I knew that was not going to be enough to win this game. Any word on how Cerantola is coming along? If he gets back to form that could be the difference come post season. But overall like you said 83, we needed at least one win this weekend and we did get that. Going forward, a sweep over A&M would be great but it is tough to sweep any SEC team. 2/3 is always the RX on any given weekend. Certainly some concerns for OM but the huge comeback against LSU could spark you guys on a run now. That kind of a game can do wonders for your psyche.

Lot of talent for 2021-22. The big question is, will it gel enough to be a Tournament team that potentially could go a long way or will it denigrate into a bunch of selfish me first players and waddle between mediocre and great from night to night? We will see what happens.

But even then, he was careful with his pitch count. I know it is hard to do but he will sacrifice some in the short term for the long term when it comes to our pitchers and I am glad that he does so. Very seldom will one of our starters exceed 100 pitches under him. I think Ethan Small may have a couple times but overall it is a rarity for it to happen. A couple of keys today. Just throw strikes and continue to play good defense. I believe we will score some runs. But just pound the strike zone. If they beat us by getting 15 hits with zero BB/HBP/errors so be it.

The seventh inning was a bit strange. Johnson usually has good control but I wonder if his focus drifted a bit with the six run lead. The BB and HBP gave Vandy an open door and they took advantage. But after Sims settled in, he pitched very well the rest of the way. He threw 38 pitches. That is a lot. I think he might could throw one inning today but Lemonis is conservative with our pitchers (which I appreciate and I think that has helped our recruiting with pitchers because he does not overthrow them). In any case, hopefully everybody that pitches will throw well and we can pick up a win.

WOW, great comeback by OM to salvage the weekend. State beating Leiter tonight was huge for two reasons. One , he is a great pitcher. Second, it gives us a chance to win the series. We have plenty of arms to throw tomorrow so hopefully we can win the series. Would be huge to do so.

Me too. The Captcha Bot system kept blocking me so I felt like I was in exile for the last three weeks. I finally was able pass through the metal detector to get on board. Glad the old MST is back. Hopefully we can have some fun interactions.

Well I am finally out of exile. The bot (Captcha) system kept denying me access (I guess it did not believe that I was a real person and was a robot instead) but finally I was able to be accepted. Heck of a series this weekend. Both Friday and Sunday's games could have gone either way. The homefield definitely gave State an advantage there and as has been discussed, the deeper bullpen was a difference as well. That said, timely hitting along with great pitching are the two keys to winning big games. Simply put, State had a couple more timely hits than did Ole Miss and that was ultimately the difference. Ole Miss has a very good club though and it is going to be an interesting 5 weeks coming up. Arky, OM and State are all capable of winning the West. I maybe in the minority but I like State's chances to win 2 games in Nashville this weekend. It certainly may not happen but this club is built for games like this. I like our grit even though great pitchers can and have shut us down (Nikhazy pitched a whale of game Saturday and was totally dominating). In any case it should be a great series. Look for tight low scoring game throughout the weekend. The big thing for both clubs is taking one game/one series at a time. Every SEC club is capable of beating another on a given night. Sweeps can happen but it is paramount to win 2 of 3 against the lower level teams and at least one against the top teams. State losing three against Arky was tough but the fact that happened early in the season was huge and the team has rebounded nicely since then.