App State vs. Citadel

[asumike83]

Made it out to Friday and Saturday's games. A few observations:

-Very bad weekend for Zumbrook. Hitless at the plate, 3 passed balls on Friday. Dimock got the start today and I think he should stay in the line-up.
-I thought Nunn stayed in about 2 batters too long on Friday. Bounced back after the lead-off HR in the 7th to get a grounder but when the next batter singled, I was hoping to see him pulled. Want to save the pen and trust your ace but he was really laboring. Took two consecutive doubles before he got yanked.
-Marcello appears to have snapped out of the funk he was in. Aside from one walk (after I thought he got jobbed on strike 3), he looked very sharp.
-We really seem to have caught The Citadel at the wrong time. Made us pay for just about every mistake, had a game-changing bloop RBI single on Friday and every call or bounce just seemed to go their way.
-Really struggled to finish innings. 3 of the 4 runs in the 7th Friday came with 2 outs, as did the 3-run homer today.

[asumike83]

Got 2 back in the top of the 5th but a throwing error from Head put a man at 2nd with 1 out. 5-3 Citadel.

[Goapps15]

The main issue for Springs and I have noticed it the more I watch him pitch is the following. He has no out pitch. Sure he has a good fastball but a good fastball is not good enough to beat solid hitting at the collegiate level. His breaking ball always misses low and in to righties and low and away from lefties. He can get ahead of hitters with the fastball, but once they figure out he has no breaking ball they just foul away fastballs all day until he grooves one and it gets hit hard.

It is just not clicking for him. I would do what GSU does and leave the Sunday starter TBA from now on. My preference to start there would be Wilson and let him go as long as he can. If he has to pitch in relief over the weekend then start Farmer there.

4 main issues with the team this season:

1. Pitching depth
2. Lack of clutch hitting
3. Just mental errors and errors in general that give opponents free runs and take away runs from ourselves.
4. The losses of Leach, Frankoff, Zupcic etc for periods of time also does not help.

Still with all these issues we could finish in the top half of the SOCON and if we can get healthy anything can happen in Greenville.

[asumike83]

Maybe I spoke too soon on Marcello. Loads the bases and walks in a run in the 7th. 7-3 Citadel and the wheels are coming off.

[hapapp]

If we lose this game, we will be 2-5 in our last seven games and sitting at .500 in the SoCon. We will have to really be tough at home to close out the season.

[asumike83]

Good news is we play our last 3 series at home but WCU and Elon look real strong. The sweep appears imminent at this point, which really stings after we gave away chances to sweep GSU, UNCG and Davidson.

[asumike83]

Weak chopper hits the bag at third, trickles to left for a double. Second time in as many innings. Pretty much sums up the weekend right there.

Luckily, Thurber pitches around it. Going to the 9th, 7-4 Cid.

[asumike83]

RBI double from Crespo in the 9th. Callaway to the plate with the tying runs at 2nd and 3rd, 1 out. Cid bringing in the closer.

[asumike83]

Double from Callaway! Holmes to the plate, still 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Jaylin on deck and really struggling, need Noah to step up here.

[asumike83]

Tied up on a wild pitch!

[asumike83]

This weekend's wide strike zone continues for the home team. Holmes called out on a 3-2 pitch a good 3-4 inches off the plate. Jaylin flies out to end the threat. Going bottom 9, tied at 7.

[mtnjax]

WTH?!? I'm gonna stay away from the live stats because they've turned it around since i quit following. not gonna check twitter either

[asumike83]

Leadoff single, sac bunt in the 9th. Wild pitch puts him at 3rd. Not looking good.

[asumike83]

Sac fly. Game over, 8-7. Unbelievable.

[AppState1]

Frustrating.

[asumike83]

A win would have been so huge, this one really hurts. Go-ahead run at third, one out, our 3-4 hitters coming up and we stranded him, then lose because of yet another wild pitch. Tough one to take.

[T-Dog]

0-5 this year against Citadel in football, basketball and baseball.

[hapapp]

We are also 0-5 in one run games on the season.

[appfanz]

The Citadel is 37-3 against us in Charleston since Freddy Jordan took over and App hasn't won a series in Charleston since 1973. Maybe it's good we won't be playing them anymore after next year.

[JTApps1]

We haven't won a game in Charleston since 2008! In all fairness they did sweep GSU in Statesboro last week by a 20-2 margin. It looks like the Dawgs might be the best team in the SoCon right now.