College Baseball Season

[rebmus]

11 hours ago, Dawg83 said:

TN and AR coming in at 1 and 2 in the D1 poll this morning. Ole Miss fell all the way to 10. State still unranked. Can’t really argue with any of that.

I agree, fair enough rankings. 

Still plenty of baseball left for both teams to work themselves up, or down. 

 

[Bulldogs4]

State with a big win. I say that with all seriousness. Every game is IMPORTANT and every win is crucial. 
Down 4-0 and then came back to win 10-4. 
 

Probably the biggest stat is Jackson Fristoe with three innings of one hit and no run relief to earn the save. He has so much potential but has struggled with control. Hopefully this outing gets him going like he pitched at the beginning of last year. With a thin staff, he could be a important cog in the wheel. 
 

Huge series @ Arkansas this weekend. Very crucial to win one game and really two wins could help this team really turn the corner to at least a good season instead of just an average season. 
 

We will see. 

[rebmus]

UT improves to 7-0 in the SEC with a road win at Vandy. 

 

Arkansas improves to 6-1 with an 8-1 home win over MSU. 

 

UT looks to be the cream of the crop in the SEC so far with Arkansas challenging. 

 

Ole Miss picked up a road win at Kentucky 2-1. Road SEC wins are always nice, but I'm not sure this OM team will end up hosting a regional. 

[Dawg83]

To this point it feels like it’s Tennessee, Arkansas, and then everyone else.

 

Ole Miss will be fine and I’ll be surprised if they don’t host. State has some notable issues that are going to be tough to overcome without Landon Sims. This team is just totally different from what their preseason potential was, at least to this point.

[Bulldogs4]

State is a middle of the pack team with the potential to go worse than that or better. With the pitching issues, it is hard to see this team going very far this year at this point.

 

Ole Miss needs to find some pitching depth as well but overall they in good shape though the season has a long way to go. 
 

USM is quietly putting together a good season. The Dallas Baptist sweep hurt them because they are a good team and they had a chance to win two out there. 
 

I do agree Tennessee and Arkansas both look good to this point. An interesting note on the schedule is that Tennessee plays at State the last weekend of the regular season. Could be a similar series to when Florida played at State the last weekend of the season a few years back and State’s whole season turned that weekend. 

[rebmus]

Kentucky whipped OM 9-2 today, rubber match tomorrow.

[Dawg83]

State just getting waxed in Fayetteville to this point. Has felt like a total mismatch. I believe that’s 8 losses in a row to Arkansas going back to 2019, Lemonis has never beaten them a single time, strangely enough.

 

All that being said, find a way to salvage the Sunday game and it’s still a serviceable weekend. I don’t feel terribly optimistic about that happening, but who knows.

 

Big rubber game for OM tomorrow. Strange that as we sit here today, State and OM have identical conference records and not in a good way.

[Dawg83]

Ole Miss handled Kentucky to take the road series. The starting rotation overhaul definitely got off to a successful start. Bama in Oxford next weekend should be another series win.

 

State beat Arkansas in 12 innings to salvage the Sunday game. Still believe 1 of 3 in Fayetteville is a perfectly acceptable result. Next two weekends are big with home series against LSU and Auburn. Feels like 3-3 probably needs to be the bare minimum from those six games, 

[Bulldogs4]

Honestly I think we need to be 4-2. We need to get on the N side of.500 in conference play. 
 

Today was another must win and I am glad we grinded it out. I sure hope Fristoe has turned the corner. This makes two good outings in a row. He could be the closer in the bullpen if he can continue to throw like this. And that would be huge going forward. 
 

Ole Miss with a solid 2-3 on the road. That is always a good weekend. 
 

USM 2-3 over La Tech. They continue to play well. 

[rebmus]

It's too early to call a "must win", but OM and MSU both picked up much needed wins today. 

*Edited to add, that wasn't directed at you B4, your reply wasn't there yet when I was typing*

 

Tennessee moved to 9-0 in the SEC with a sweep at #9 Vandy. UT has two road sweeps over top 10 teams and a home sweep also in the SEC... not to mention 27-1 overall. 

That's an insane start.

Edited April 4, 2022 by rebmus

[Bulldogs4]

Tennessee is playing at another level. But we know baseball is a fickle game and they will probably hit a slump along the way. But to have only one loss so far and be undefeated to this point is incredible. 

[Dawg83]

4 hours ago, Bulldogs4 said:

Tennessee is playing at another level. But we know baseball is a fickle game and they will probably hit a slump along the way. But to have only one loss so far and be undefeated to this point is incredible. 

Going 6-0 in Oxford and Nashville is unreal. And they didn’t trail at any point in either series.

 

I have a hard time recalling a team being this dominant in SEC play. The best conference record I can remember in the modern era is 2013 Vandy going 26-3. Tennessee might challenge that mark this year, strong case to be made that the toughest part of their schedule is behind them now. Who knows what happens in the postseason but they are in a class of their own at the moment.

[rebmus]

Lemonis made a comment about Tennessee baseball ~"They're playing like the best baseball team in the history of the SEC". 

 

Bold statement, but may well be correct. I wouldn't argue against it. 

 

 

[Dawg83]

13 hours ago, rebmus said:

Lemonis made a comment about Tennessee baseball ~"They're playing like the best baseball team in the history of the SEC". 

 

Bold statement, but may well be correct. I wouldn't argue against it. 

 

 

And the thing is they weren’t expected to be THAT great before the year. Preseason No. 19 in D1’s poll. Lost some key pieces from last year and had some big pitching injuries. You’d never know it watching them play this year.

 

They had some absurd margins of victory in nonconference play and I just assumed it was a level of competition thing. I’m sure that was part of it but now they’re killing SEC pitching too.

 

This is one of the more impressive stretches I’ve ever seen. It is incredibly hard to win games at Swayze or Hawkins Field and they swept both series with ease. And Ole Miss and Vandy are both good this year.
 

For context, as good as Arkansas was last year, they only swept two SEC series the whole year. Tennessee already has three and they only play one ranked team the rest of the season.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Dawg83

[MSTSatchmo]

1 hour ago, Dawg83 said:

And the thing is they weren’t expected to be THAT great before the year. Preseason No. 19 in D1’s poll. Lost some key pieces from last year and had some big pitching injuries. You’d never know it watching them play this year.

 

They had some absurd margins of victory in nonconference play and I just assumed it was a level of competition thing. I’m sure that was part of it but now they’re killing SEC pitching too.

 

This is one of the more impressive stretches I’ve ever seen. It is incredibly hard to win games at Swayze or Hawkins Field and they swept both series with ease. And Ole Miss and Vandy are both good this year.
 

For context, as good as Arkansas was last year, they only swept two SEC series the whole year. Tennessee already has three and they only play one ranked team the rest of the season.

That’s insane.  I didn’t know they lost much AND started off with pitching injuries.  Have they been recruiting that well? 

[Bulldogs4]

To this point it is incredible what they have done.

 
But I predict a couple or more of the lower level SEC teams will beat them and maybe even win a series or two before it is all said and done. 

 

When you win this many games in a row eventually you start playing not to lose and the other team is now playing at a higher level because they want to beat you. The pressure becomes greater and greater on a team like Tennessee. Plus you never know when the injury bug might bite you. 
 

For Tennessee it was easy to play the underdog role in Oxford and BNA but now that will not be the case the rest of the season. 
 

But all credit to them right now for playing superior baseball in all phases. 

[rebmus]

UT won again tonight to move to 28-1 overall. 

MSU blew out UT Martin 13-2 at home. 

OM lost to USM 10-7 in Pearl. It's a midweek game, but still... OM pitching continues to be a concern this year. 

 

[Dawg83]

Don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest that USM is the best team in the state this year.

 

I know the games they won against State and OM were midweek games but their weekend rotation is significantly better than the other two teams as well.

[rebmus]

32 minutes ago, Dawg83 said:

Don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest that USM is the best team in the state this year.

 

I know the games they won against State and OM were midweek games but their weekend rotation is significantly better than the other two teams as well.

USM is definitely in the discussion. 

Right now, I don't see any of the 3 advancing out of a regional... but plenty of time for any of the 3 to improve. 

[rebmus]

Arkansas blew out Florida on the road 8-1 tonight. 

 

It's a shame Arkansas and UT don't have a regular season series scheduled this year, that would be a great one. 

[rebmus]

UT won again to improve to 10-0 in the SEC. 

Florida evened the series vs Arkansas tonight, Arkansas still leads the West at 8-3. 

Ole Miss looked like dookie hosting Bama tonight, lost 7-4 at home. 

MSU leads LSU 2-1 in the 9th, the loser has the pleasure of sharing the West cellar with Ole Miss. 

 

[s1nglewing]

18 minutes ago, rebmus said:

UT won again to improve to 10-0 in the SEC. 

Florida evened the series vs Arkansas tonight, Arkansas still leads the West at 8-3. 

Ole Miss looked like dookie hosting Bama tonight, lost 7-4 at home. 

MSU leads LSU 2-1 in the 9th, the loser has the pleasure of sharing the West cellar with Ole Miss. 

 

MSU is kinda like watching the Saints in the old days.

[Bulldogs4]

State has won way more games like last night than we have lost. Baseball can be a cruel game and last night proved just that. Game is not over until you have the third out in the last inning. 
A difficult loss but we will see how this team responds today. 
 

I remember as a little leaguer, one year our team was winless the entire season (almost all players were first year players). In one game, I was pitching and we were up 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning. The other team scored 5 runs after two outs to beat us 6-5. I was devastated but our coach was encouraging to me and said we will keep working, keep improving. Well as I said, we did not win a game but the next year, we had a very good season and finished second in the league only one game behind first place. 
 

As Coach Polk famously has said over the years 

“that’s baseball” 

[Dawg83]

That was another in a long list of WTF losses against LSU. Up there with the Stratton 17 strikeout game that we lost anyway and the 2015 game where the winning run fell down as he rounded third base.

 

I warned you all from early in the season and injuries have not helped… this is a bad State bullpen. They’re not untalented but they’re not in the same ballpark as what you had last year in terms of consistency and reliability.

 

That said, State left what felt like a million dudes on base, and only getting 2 runs out of 10 hits is hard to do.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Dawg83

[Bulldogs4]

I think I read where we have not won a series at home against LSU at home in almost 20 years. We have actually had more success against them in Alex Box over the same period of time. 
And yet we still lead the overall series comfortably. 
 

Absolutely confounding but 83 you are correct. Our bullpen is bad. Well maybe not bad but very inconsistent. At times it has been very good and other times equally bad. 
 

And the season continues like a yo-yo. 
 

Bama is better but that was a bad loss for Ole Miss. Next two are very important for both teams. At home we need to win at least two. Other wise the mountain to climb gets a little bit higher.