College Baseball Season Thread

[Dawg83]

10 hours ago, MSTSatchmo said:

State needs to run the table.  Lol. 
 

Seriously though, with HS recruiting and transfer classes being ranked high, player development must be an issue.  A serious issue.  

Getting hard to argue otherwise. At first I thought it was an issue of they just missed on a pitching recruiting class a couple of years ago. That’s probably part of it. But most of the new guys on this year’s team have struggled too.

 

I continue to believe Lemonis will be here in 2024, but very possible that it will be with a new pitching coach.

[MSTSatchmo]

I remember some State fans gave all the credit for the first CWS appearance to Cannizaro and Henderson when State wasn’t super impressive in the short Covid season.   The next year they started with a couple early losses then went on the NC run, so they backed off the Lemonis criticism.  

It appeared anyone could win at State.  Cohen went to a CWS,  Henderson and Lemonis twice.  However, something is up.  Lemonis was getting a pass last year because of the injuries.  
 

It makes it even more crazy that OM was ready to move on from Bianco with all the success he’s had as late las year as the SECT.   

Edited March 6, 2023 by MSTSatchmo

[Bulldogs4]

Typically, ignorant fans want to jump off a cliff after a loss or two. I have always liked Coach Bianco and have defended him here numerous times over the years as one of the best coaches in the country. I never understood Ole Miss fan’s wanting him to be run out of town on rails. 
Winning in college baseball is hard. So many colleges have good baseball programs. Small colleges often have as good or some cases better programs than the P5 schools. Delta State and William Carey are two schools who, historically, did compete with the big schools and could today as well if they had the opportunity.Coach Bianco has persevered over the years but if Ole Miss loses some games upcoming, I am sure at least a few fans will be throwing barbs at him. But 

 

Regarding Coach Lemonis, who I think is still a very good coach, the one disturbing thing this year is our fielding defense. I have heard him address on several occasions. Pitching has been very inconsistent. If we throw strikes and get beat , I am fine with that. But BB’s in baseball are similar to missing FT’s in basketball. You are giving the other team a golden opportunity. 
 

You don’t win NC on pure luck. Yes you need some good fortune and some good breaks. But that alone won’t cut it. This idea that he won the NC with another coaches players is BS. That was his third season. We have recruited well overall. I still think last year was an anomaly. I am disappointed so far this year but there is a long way to go. But in no way am I ready to say he should be replaced. That is utterly ridiculous to even think about much less say. 

[Dawg83]

I’m pretty puzzled by what’s happened. There were zero signs of this in Lemonis’s first three years. Some will say that he won big with guys recruited by other coaches, but that implies he can’t get talent to campus himself. That’s not true at all, this State team has a ton of talent on it.
 

Is there a generational talent/leader like Jake Mangum or Tanner Allen? Not at this point. But there’s plenty of talent for this to not be a bad team, it’s arguably a deeper lineup than the one that won a national title. The pitching and defense have just been a fiasco for whatever reason.

 

It was easy to blame injuries last year because you legitimately could. Losing Sims and Simmons lowered that team’s ceiling significantly. This year…. Not sure what the excuse is.

 

 

[rebmus]

3 hours ago, Bulldogs4 said:

Typically, ignorant fans want to jump off a cliff after a loss or two. I have always liked Coach Bianco and have defended him here numerous times over the years as one of the best coaches in the country. I never understood Ole Miss fan’s wanting him to be run out of town on rails. 
Winning in college baseball is hard. So many colleges have good baseball programs. Small colleges often have as good or some cases better programs than the P5 schools. Delta State and William Carey are two schools who, historically, did compete with the big schools and could today as well if they had the opportunity.Coach Bianco has persevered over the years but if Ole Miss loses some games upcoming, I am sure at least a few fans will be throwing barbs at him.

No doubt if Bianco starts losing games there will be a segment of the fanbase wanting him gone. 

I'll add, MSU fans would be no different with Bianco than OM fans have been. Had Bianco taken the MSU job, would MSU stick with him for 14 years before he finally made it to Omaha? 

If anything, the OM administration has been more patient with Bianco than most schools would have been... obviously it paid off last year. 

I've always thought it was a bad idea to fire Bianco, he's missed the postseason 3 times in 21 years (I'm not counting the Covid cancelled season). 

[Bulldogs4]

I am glad the Ole Miss administration stuck with him through the years. It has paid dividends. 

 

And I get it that State fans are frustrated early on this year. I am disappointed too but I guess at my age I tend to have more patience. Like 83 days there is plenty of good talent even there is not a Clark, Palmeiro, Hurst, Rooker, Mangum, Allen etc. on the team. 
 

I do think the pitching woes have contributed to the defensive errors. When you walk as many batters that we have, the players in the field play tighter because they are playing not to make a mistake instead of just letting themselves make the play. They know one error will be critical.

Then you are in a vicious cycle that affects the batters who think they have got to get hit every time they are up. So then they are pressing as well.

 

 The only solution is for our pitchers to start throwing strikes and for us rip off a win streak of 6-8-10 games. Easier said than done though. 
 

Funny thing is, had we won two of these games, we would be 8-2 and things would look better. 
But the 6-4 record feels like 3-7 because of the way we have played. 

[rebmus]

I heard on the way home that OM has only committed 3 errors this season. It's early, but that's pretty impressive though 12 games. 

 

 

[MSTSatchmo]

With State, there seems to be a lot of indecision on who is playing were still.   I’m not as familiar as some of y’all with college baseball, but with fall ball and preseason practice, shouldn’t you have a good idea of what you have?  And did the pitchers have problems throwing strikes before the real games started? 

[rebmus]

31 minutes ago, MSTSatchmo said:

With State, there seems to be a lot of indecision on who is playing were still.   I’m not as familiar as some of y’all with college baseball, but with fall ball and preseason practice, shouldn’t you have a good idea of what you have?  And did the pitchers have problems throwing strikes before the real games started? 

I don't recall many changes in position players, but Ole Miss tweaked the lineup along with pitching rotations a LOT last year before things clicked at the right time. 

 

 

[pancho]

At State, Foxhall has who he wants to be pitching but can't understand why they aren't better or very successful.

[rebmus]

Ole Miss beats Southern Miss 11-5. 

The bats showed up, the pitching was MEH and 2 errors on the day (I jinxed the errors). 

Still, a solid win over #22 USM. 

[Insideradvantage]

13 hours ago, rebmus said:

Ole Miss beats Southern Miss 11-5. 

The bats showed up, the pitching was MEH and 2 errors on the day (I jinxed the errors). 

Still, a solid win over #22 USM. 

Really more like three errors by us last night. One at third, and two at first in the same inning, ground ball right through his legs and then the foul ball pop fly dropped outside the bag. Not sure why they didn't call it three. But nonetheless, I'll take that overall performance every single time. 

[MSTSatchmo]

I wasn’t really expecting them to go all year without an error.  Lol.  3 in your first 13 games isn’t too bad. 

[rebmus]

OM beats Purdue 15-7 to win game 1. 

 

[rebmus]

Purdue gave OM all they wanted today, OM takes the win 7-6 in 10 innings. 

 

[Bulldogs4]

Not surprising that that happens in baseball.

State had a walk off 4-3 win against Lipscomb yesterday. The key is preserving in those games and winning them. 
 

State seems to be a bit better but we are still making too many errors and in yesterday’s second game our pitchers walked 8 batters. Lipscomb is not a bad team but obviously they are well below SEC level. 
 

Tough week ahead. Play two games in BIX against Nicholls and ULL and then go on the road at UK. Desperately need to win the 2 OOC games and take 2 of 3 at UK. Easier said than done however. 

Ole Miss is playing very well going into Conference play. 

 

[rebmus]

Rebs complete the sweep of Purdue with a 6-1 win today.

[rebmus]

Next weekend will start SEC play, which is always a tough slate. 

 

The next 6 weekends for Ole Miss: 

@#7 Vandy

#6 Florida

@#15 A&M

#8 Arkansas

@ Mississippi State

#1 LSU

 

There's also a midweek game with #22 Southern Miss in that mix. 

 

 

[Bulldogs4]

This year the SEC is going to be a war every weekend. There appears to be no weak teams. 
I would think it will be difficult for any team to win 20 conference games. 
State is the worst team in the conference right now but we will not be an easy out for any conference opponent. 
Going to be an interesting season to say the least. 

[rebmus]

11 minutes ago, Bulldogs4 said:

This year the SEC is going to be a war every weekend. There appears to be no weak teams. 
I would think it will be difficult for any team to win 20 conference games. 
State is the worst team in the conference right now but we will not be an easy out for any conference opponent. 
Going to be an interesting season to say the least. 

18-12 may win the SEC this year. I don't see too many sweeps happening, we'll see. 

 

 

 

 

[BrickCity]

13 hours ago, Bulldogs4 said:

This year the SEC is going to be a war every weekend. There appears to be no weak teams. 
I would think it will be difficult for any team to win 20 conference games. 
State is the worst team in the conference right now but we will not be an easy out for any conference opponent. 
Going to be an interesting season to say the least. 

I think that speaks highly of the SEC conference to be that good from top to bottom 

[rebmus]

This midweek pitching for Ole Miss is... yuck. 

Jacksonville State took the game 10-6 tonight. 

 

Once Elliot is healthy, I like the depth to fix this. 

 

 

[Dawg83]

On 3/5/2023 at 12:09 AM, Dawg83 said:

Won’t mince words, State has kinda been a disaster so far. Thought they might be starting to turn the corner after winning the Arizona State series and surviving USM, but they’ve gotten humiliated by two not great teams in Frisco this weekend. And there’s still one more game to go.

Naturally State is now 7-0 since I made this post. Lol.

 

Still not totally bought back in because the recent completion level hasn’t been great, but go win two games in Lexington this weekend and I’ll start to buy in again.

 

SEC play got here in a hurry, didn’t it? State is at Kentucky this weekend, Ole Miss with a big series at Vandy. Either OM-Vandy or LSU-A&M is probably the biggest series in the league on opening weekend.

 

I’ll go ahead and say State probably loses two games and Ole Miss wins two games. I don’t think Vandy is as good as their ranking, I kinda think State beats them in Starkville next weekend as well.

[Bulldogs4]

I was going to say State has quietly won seven games in a row albeit against weak opponents. But when you are bad, any win is a good win. 
 

Not really sure how good Kentucky is but winning two this weekend would be huge. 
I agree that Vandy is not necessarily that good and Ole Miss wins two. I like USM to win two at Texas State. 

[Dawg83]

Hard to say with Kentucky, they’re 15-2 but have played absolutely nobody. Not that State has played murderer’s row but there are at least some major conference teams in there. UK’s toughest series so far is Elon, though they did just win a midweek game against Indiana,

Edited March 16, 2023 by Dawg83