We played our first two games last weekend in Louisville against Davis & Elkins College out of West Virginia. Our Sunday doubleheader against Alderson Broaddus University was canceled due to rain, sleet and snow. Though we hoped to play all four scheduled games, getting the two games in gave us a starting point and a good idea of some things to focus on during this week's practices.
We came out of the doubleheader with a split. We won game one 3-2 and lost the second game by a 6-1 score. From a pitching perspective, our starting pitchers did a good enough job to give us a chance to win in both games, and in that respect, they did what we always want starting pitchers to do.
In game one, Shane Armstrong did a very good job of damage control, considering that his first pitch strike percentage was well below our goal and his overall strike percentage hovered at 50%. Taking care of damage control is evidenced by the two double plays that we turned with him on the mound and allowing only three hits in 5 1/3 innings. The double plays, in combination with allowing only three hits, made the low strike percentage and a handful of freebies tolerable and allowed us to give up only two runs and win the game. The bullpen did a great job, as Colin Gerish induced another double play ball after he entered with one out in the sixth and Dan Pochmara struck out three batters in the seventh for the save.
In the second game, Matt Reck pitched very much like Shane had previously done. Matt did a better job at getting first pitch strikes (14 of 21), but like Shane, his overall strike percentage wasn't what it should be. Matt did give us a chance to win, as he did a good job with damage control by also allowing only three hits. He left the game as we trailed 2-1 in the sixth inning after allowing the first two runners to reach base, but when we went to the bullpen, we did not take care of damage control; thus D & E put a rally together in the bottom of the sixth.
We do have to tip our cap to the Davis & Elkins game two pitcher, as he did a nice job of pitching at the bottom of the strike zone, not letting our hitters string together many hits and push runners across the plate.
We were happy to give our head coach Eric Theisen his first college head coaching victory, but he knows as well as the rest of us do that we can play and execute much better than we did in earning the doubleheader split. We have plenty of chances to do that this weekend with four nine-inning games in Louisville and then eight more next week in Florida.
We've only just begun, and the attitudes of our players and their willingness to keep working hard will result in daily and weekly improvements. A week of baseball in the warm weather, with nothing else to think about.....beginning with tomorrow's bus ride.....well, it doesn't get much better than that!
We came out of the doubleheader with a split. We won game one 3-2 and lost the second game by a 6-1 score. From a pitching perspective, our starting pitchers did a good enough job to give us a chance to win in both games, and in that respect, they did what we always want starting pitchers to do.
In game one, Shane Armstrong did a very good job of damage control, considering that his first pitch strike percentage was well below our goal and his overall strike percentage hovered at 50%. Taking care of damage control is evidenced by the two double plays that we turned with him on the mound and allowing only three hits in 5 1/3 innings. The double plays, in combination with allowing only three hits, made the low strike percentage and a handful of freebies tolerable and allowed us to give up only two runs and win the game. The bullpen did a great job, as Colin Gerish induced another double play ball after he entered with one out in the sixth and Dan Pochmara struck out three batters in the seventh for the save.
In the second game, Matt Reck pitched very much like Shane had previously done. Matt did a better job at getting first pitch strikes (14 of 21), but like Shane, his overall strike percentage wasn't what it should be. Matt did give us a chance to win, as he did a good job with damage control by also allowing only three hits. He left the game as we trailed 2-1 in the sixth inning after allowing the first two runners to reach base, but when we went to the bullpen, we did not take care of damage control; thus D & E put a rally together in the bottom of the sixth.
We do have to tip our cap to the Davis & Elkins game two pitcher, as he did a nice job of pitching at the bottom of the strike zone, not letting our hitters string together many hits and push runners across the plate.
We were happy to give our head coach Eric Theisen his first college head coaching victory, but he knows as well as the rest of us do that we can play and execute much better than we did in earning the doubleheader split. We have plenty of chances to do that this weekend with four nine-inning games in Louisville and then eight more next week in Florida.
We've only just begun, and the attitudes of our players and their willingness to keep working hard will result in daily and weekly improvements. A week of baseball in the warm weather, with nothing else to think about.....beginning with tomorrow's bus ride.....well, it doesn't get much better than that!
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