Dawg83

Weird deal, a lot of the arms Southern threw tonight were some of the same guys that had a lot of success against State in Hattiesburg. Granted, State was without Teel and Milewski in that game, but even so. More impressed with the pitching than the offense, TBH. The bullpen has had a strong last seven days after a lot of folks were very concerned with them coming out of the Arkansas series. They’ll definitely be needed to keep it going as long as McPherson is out.

So he apparently had TJ surgery once before in 2023. Not impossible to tear your UCL a second time but pretty dang hard to do. My uniformed guess is maybe a forearm strain? Now even just that could keep him out a month or more. But maybe not a season ender.

Run rule win and a sweep for State today. First they’ve swept Vandy since before Corbin came to Nashville. I think Vandy is a young team with some injury issues right now, but pretty emphatic weekend for State. Now everyone holds their breath waiting for updates on McPherson. USM won a close game against Troy to take their series. State-USM rematch on Tuesday in Starkville.

State has taken the first two games against Vandy. Valincius was incredible tonight, good relief pitching on the back end by Sweeney too. Going for the sweep tomorrow. Ole Miss with a huge series win today. That’s a good Kentucky team they beat. We are on track for a big State-OM series in Oxford next weekend. USM evened the series against Troy, rubber game tomorrow.

Friday night: South Carolina loses 22-4 at home Saturday morning: Paul Mainieri fired. Did anyone at any point think that hire was a good idea? Seemed dumb from the start and actually ended up going far worse than even I expected. His SEC record was 6-28. This is a program who was the elite of the elite 15 years ago, mind you. and even recently they hosted and made it to a Super Regional a couple of times in the last decade.

Bizarre game for State’s bullpen. Gave out eight free passes, but only one hit and one run in 5 innings. But not going to argue with a win in a night where your starter got hurt and the offense was pretty quiet after a couple of early homers. USM dropped its opener to Troy. Ole Miss and Kentucky set for a rubber game on Saturday.

Ugh you gotta be kidding me… Ryan McPherson cruising through 4 innings and had to be pulled during some of his warmup tosses for the 5th. Hoping this is not anything long term.

After watching Jacob Parker for a month and knowing that his brother was a Top 10 draft pick, gonna need someone who knows high school baseball to explain to me how anyone ever beat Purvis last year. Jacob is going to be a superstar. Maybe sooner rather than later. It feels like he has won a corner outfield spot for State, at least against right handed pitching, and that happened a lot quicker than I thought it would.

If Milewski is working his way back in, I think catcher will be fine. He missed about 3 weeks with an injury. Started the first Saturday game this week. Doubleheader maybe the only reason he didn’t start the second one. He’s more of a boom or bust power guy at the plate but thought to be the best defensive catcher State has.

I think State will have opportunities to win road series (looking at you, South Carolina), but a little unfortunate for both State and OM to start on the road with Top 5 teams. 1-2 is definitely not the worst possible outcome.

I definitely underestimated Arkansas State. Good to see that they seem to be a program with a pulse now after frankly they weren’t at all until the last year or so. OM didn’t follow up the win on Friday well, got spanked on both Saturday and Sunday. Still can’t complain much about salvaging one game in Texas. But obviously some health questions now about the weekend rotation. Forgettable weekend for all three MS teams. State hosts Vandy next weekend, Ole Miss hosts Kentucky (who swept Bama this weekend), USM hosts Troy who has underwhelmed so far but still a talented team, I know they won a midweek game against Georgia if nothing else.

Double whammy for OM yesterday, lost the game and also Townsend left with a shoulder injury. He’d been one of the best Saturday starters in the country to this point, hopefully it’s not anything long term. Rubber game in Austin today too. I still view it as OM playing with house money, having the win from Friday already in hand is sufficient but finding one more win would be a potentially huge deal for them.

State drops the second game of the DH and Arkansas takes the series. Just didn’t play particularly well in Game 3, several defensive blunders and the bats went quiet after the second inning. Still think State is in a good spot overall, I’m not going to pretend that only salvaging one game in Fayetteville is the end of the world.

The OM Cinderella run ends in overtime. Hat tip for the last few days, though. Did not think they had that in them. Speaks to Beard being a really good coach.

Valincius was outstanding today for State. Getting one this weekend was the bare minimum expectation and they have that now. We will see what happens this evening. Both teams have Sunday starters they really like.

What a win for Ole Miss. Down 4 in the 9th, grand slam to take the lead, eventually won in extras. First loss Texas has taken all year.

Arkansas walks off State after State tied it on a two run homer in the top of the 9th. I don’t have any real takeaways beyond that, it looked like two very good teams going neck and neck to me, very similar to the UCLA and USM losses that State took Doubleheader tomorrow, those can get weird. I think if you can just earn a split tomorrow and salvage a game on the weekend, you’re probably in a fine spot. Getting swept would be disappointing, but also State famously has a track record of getting swept by Arkansas and still going on to have great seasons.

Ole Miss basketball on one of the most confusing tourney runs I can ever recall lol. They’d won one single game since mid January before Wednesday, and now have won three in a row in Nashville and are bizarrely two wins away from stealing an NCAAT bid.

It’s being reported that K-State is hiring Belmont’s coach, so thus ends that watch for Jans and Beard.

I don’t think that’s been resolved yet.

Mercifully, this State hoops season is finally over. Just a total mess of a team. Back to the drawing board for Jans, this roster has to get significantly better if they want to get back to competing for the NCAAT. Ole Miss decided to play well and upset Texas yesterday. Might knock UT out of the tourney. OM gets Georgia this evening, who they did beat early in the year. So who knows. It’s obviously win the SECT or bust for OM but maybe they can make it interesting for another day or two.

I actually remember listening to that game on radio way back when. State’s offense did nothing all day then out of nowhere hit a two run double to go ahead and then held on for dear life.

2007, Polk’s second to last year. I think State is flat out better than Arkansas this year, but I won’t be surprised if UA wins the series. It’s just one of the toughest places to play that there is. I have Texas winning 2 of 3 against OM. I do think OM’s pitching should keep them in it, but at the moment Texas is probably my pick to win the whole thing. Loaded on the mound and have hit the ball well so far, too. I’m just going go ahead and predict USM to win every series they play in the Sun Belt. Only question in several of those is sweep or no sweep. At Louisiana a little later will be tough, but USM is clearing 40 wins in the regular season easily, IMO.

It’s interesting, USM and OM are actually VERY similar teams from a roster standpoint. Both have deep pitching staffs, veteran position player groups, if there’s a weakness for both it’s probably the ability to manufacture runs consistently, but you feel like they have enough offense to get by in a lot of games thanks to how good the pitching can be. Both have HR power that can be a little scary for other teams. State on the other hand is kinda the opposite. Elite offense, but the concern is pitching depth beyond its weekend starters and top one or two bullpen guys.

USM won 2-1 via walk-off single. Excellent pitcher’s duel.