Dayton v. UK (Scrimmage)

[Comebakatz3]

I am listening in.

Anu LF
Thrasher - CF
Jump - RF
Estep - 3B
Ritter - SS
Petre - 2b
Plastiak - 1B
C - Rubalcaba
Stupp - P

Interesting lineup to start this one.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Double down the left field line starts this exhibition match for the Flyers. Stupp gets an off speed strikeout for the first out of this one. Ground ball to Plastiak at first and Plastiak commits an error at first trying to get the ball to Stupp covering and the ball sails very high allowing Dayton to score 1-0. Pujols who hit the grounder to first moves over to second on the error as well. Not what you want to see from the new 1B.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Stupp with a three pitch strikeout for the second out of this one. Grounder to third and Estep does well to get it and throw the runner out at first.

I'll give you the full lineup for UK in a few.

 

[CockyCat3]

I think the pitchers are just gonna go an inning each. I wonder what the plan is for position players?

 

[Comebakatz3]

Ritter leads this one off. Interesting decision there. Fly ball to left field on the first pitch goes for the first out. Jump hitting second. Jump with a good at bat here, he fell behind early, and then looks at three straight balls to get to a full count. He then lines one up the middle past the pitcher into center for the first hit for UK this fall. Estep hitting in the 3 hole. Another interesting decision there. Flyer pitcher really struggling to find the strike zone here as he throws three straight balls before finally finding a strike. Estep grounds one to the mound and we see how out of tune these players are as the pitcher goes to second, but the SS isn't covering. I don't know how to score that given that there is no necessarily an error. Either way, UK has them at second and first with 1 out. Plastiak to the dish now. Ball in the dirt and Jump tries to take third and he is thrown out trying to steal. Estep moves up to second and Plastiak then gets hit by a pitch to once again put them at second and first. Anu coming up now. Grounder up the middle on an 0-2 pitch for Anu and that scores Estep and Plastiak gets to third and Anu gets into second on the throw.

1-1

 

[Comebakatz3]

Liebert coming up as the DH for UK. He hammers one to deep right center and it is off the wall in front of the scoreboard and Liebert slides into third with a 2 run triple.

3-1 UK

 

[Comebakatz3]

Thrasher now up. Headrick says there are a lot of fans at the game today, so that is good to hear. Thrasher grounds out to third base to end the UK 1st. Great inning there with hits with 2 outs.

3-1 Cats

Headrick also says this is scheduled for 10 innings.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Stupp back out and he gets a 3 pitch strikeout. Ground out to Ritter for the second out. Stupp working the corners against the 7 hole hitter, he battles back to run it full before giving up the 2 out walk. Single to left field and Anu once again shows why he cannot play in the outfield. That is a routine fly ball but Anu didn't see it well off the bat and it falls in front of him instead of ending the inning. That really has to frustrate Stupp and the UK pitching staff. Also... why is he in left and not right? Grounder to third and Estep takes it himself to end the inning.

On the Anu thing... that is a killer play in an SEC game given that it was the 9 hole that got that hit and it would have flipped the lineup over with a runner in scoring position.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Flyers changing pitchers now. Petre now up. Coaches apparently really like Petre. Kind of interesting that he is starting in this one and not the late addition, Harris. Petre hits a little dying quail out to center but the Flyers CF makes a sliding catch for the first out. Rubalcaba jumps on the first pitch, but it falls short and the RF takes it at the warning track. Ritter up again. Ritter falls behind early, but he singles through the left side for a 2 out hit. Hunter JUMP with a no doubt home run to right field to give UK two more. 5-1 UK

So we go like this to start the fall:

Ritter
Jump
Estep
Plastiak
Anu
Liebert
Thrasher
Petre
Rubalcaba

 

[Comebakatz3]

ESTEP follows Jump with his own round tripper to right field to give UK another run on the board. 6-1.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Plastiak with a standup double. Flyers coach out to talk to this pitcher. He is getting rocked. Plastiak murdered that one down the line as well. Anu up and he works ahead early and gets 3 straight balls before 1 strike and drawing a 5 pitch walk. Liebert to the plate and he goes down on strikes.

6-1 UK as we go to the top of the third. I imagine UK brings in a new pitcher here.

By the way, if you are interested Dayton was 24-27 last year and had an RPI of 123. They did have a couple of Q1 wins a year ago.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Mag Cotto takes over for Stupp in this one. The lefty making his UK debut. He transferred from South Carolina to UK after his freshman year. He was a big time prospect, so it will be good to see him here. He goes 6'4 250 pounds.

First pitch is a grounder to Ritter that Ritter dives for and gets up and skips it to first for out number 1. Amazing play and Headrick is pumped up to see that one. Calls it a Sports Center top 10 play.

Cotto walks the second batter on what sounded like a ball 4 that could have been a strike. Pick off play and UK gets him 1-3-6 for the second out.

Cotto gets a strikeout looking to end the top of the 3rd. Interesting inning right there for Cotto's debut.

6-1 UK going to the bottom half of the third inning.

This is where this might get interesting. Thrasher, Petre and Rubalcaba will get their second at bats, but I am wondering if after that UK starts making some changes in the lineup to get other players some looks.

 

[Comebakatz3]

A new lefty will face UK pitchers here in the third. Dayton coach is going to do this each inning. RS junior who transferred from Winthrop into Dayton.

Thrasher gets a 4 pitch walk. This will be fun here as Thrasher led the nation in steals a year ago. New lefty is struggling to find the strike zone. Thrasher does steal second, his first, but Petre does go down on strikes. Rubalcaba coming up with a runner at second after Thrasher steals a bag. Rubalcaba again first pitch swinging and he lines out to short and Dayton doubles up Thrasher who can't get back to the bag on the lineout.

So UK goes in an unconventional order, but still lead 6-1 going to the 4th. First scoreless inning for UK. have to like that Rubalcaba hit that hard though.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Cotto going to stay out there for another inning for UK. Again, we're going 10. Cotto gets a strikeout in the dirt and Rubalcaba digs it and throws out the runner/hitter. Estep takes a grounder over at third for the second out. Headrick with a weird compliment on Estep as he calls him 'above average,' but I think he is saying that he is elite defensively? Kind of hard to understand there. haha. Cotto with another strikeout to end the top of the 4th. That is 3 strikeouts and just 6 batters faced.

6-1 UK going to the bottom of the 4th.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Ritter and the top of the UK lineup to face a new righty in the bottom of the 4th. He goes down swinging. I still think it is interesting that he is leading off, especially with everyone prior to last season talking about how he needed to develop his bat a whole lot. I dunno, just doesn't really strike me as being a leadoff guy just yet, but we are a long way away from 2022.

Jump walks on 4 straight pitches. He gets caught stealing for the second out.

Estep with a long fly ball into right field, but it finds a glove on the warning track. Just not quite enough power or wind behind that one.

Hudepohl now warming up in the UK pen, so expect to see him in the 5th.

6-1 UK

 

[Comebakatz3]

Fogel coming in as the DH. He will replace Rubalcaba. Liebert going behind the plate here defensively to catch for Hudepohl.

Full count is how things start in this one. Off speed pitch down the middle gets the Flyer hitter for a K for Huddy. Huddy falls behind with 3 straight balls before getting a strike over. A fly ball to left and Anu dances around before hauling in the long fly ball on the warning track. Pretty decent job by... nevermind.... McCarthy now out there in left field. Hahaha not sure how Headrick missed the redhead being out there. Pop up into shallow right and Petre calls off Jump for the third out of the inning.

6-1 UK going to bottom 5. We will see if there are any other changes here for UK.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Plastiak still out there to hit in the bottom of the 5th and he is swinging first pitch and it is down the left field line home run for the senior first baseman. 7-1 UK

 

[Comebakatz3]

First time to see the redshirt freshman Nolan McCarthy. He didn't play any last year as a freshman. He is going to play some outfield for UK and I believe he is listed as a utility player. Headrick says he pitched one inning this summer, but I don't think you will see him do that for UK. He can play some short stop, but doesn't need to for UK with Ritter out there. He draws a full count and then walks.

Anu's day, theoretically, ended with him 1-1 with a single and a walk and 1 run scored.

Liebert still out there and he draws a 4 pitch walk as well.

Thrasher up and he swings at the first pitch and it is a dying quail that lands in no-mans-land in shallow center and everyone moves up a base. Have to say, I am not a huge fan at swinging first pitch there after the pitcher threw 4 straight balls, but it is just fall and might as well swing if it is in the zone.

Petre strikes out looking. Really don't want to see that there give that the bases are loaded. Like to see the ball in play, but again, this is a freshman very early in the fall.


New pitcher coming in for the Flyers to face Fogel.

Rubalcaba's day also theoretically ends with him going 0-2. Hit two balls hard, but couldn't find a hole.

 

[Comebakatz3]

New pitcher is a RS junior righty. He has a tall task here with the bases loaded and 1 out.

Fogel making his UK debut. Fogel came from Hawaii and has some solid power. Hawaii is a hard place to hit home runs and he did so with some good authority during his time there. He is a 6th year senior. He falls behind 0-2 early but he shows some good patience. Line drive into center goes for an RBI as McCarthy tags up to give UK another run.

8-1.

Ritter back up. He swings first pitch and Headrick gives him a double. Maybe was an E on the third baseman? Not sure. Either way, Ritter hit it pretty well. That scores Liebert and moves Thrasher to third.

9-1 UK

HBP for Jump and the bases are loaded again, this time with 2 outs.

Estep strikes out for the third out of the inning.

Going to the top of the 6th with UK up 9-1

 

[Comebakatz3]

Seth Logue now coming in to pitch for UK. Headrick doesn't think anything changes defensively for UK in this inning.

Logue did well this summer with a 1.93 ERA (I think). He starts this one off with a full count and it ends up in a fly ball out to Jump in left field. Jump and McCarthy have switched and McCarthy is in right while Jump is in left. So, good catch out there by the transfer.

Three hole hitter up again for the Flyers and he is started with a strike. He goes down on three straight strikes.

High fly ball out to left field, fairly shallow and Jump comes on and hauls it in for the third out.

9-1 UK going to the bottom of the 6th.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Plastiak will come up again, the CF will once again face a new pitcher. Plastiak is out, but I didn't catch what happened as I got distracted. Hahaha. Apologies. He did put the ball into play, it was not a strikeout. Just not sure if it was a fly out or ground out.

McCarthy strikes out swinging.

Liebert up again and he goes down looking. So, UK goes in order for just the third time in this game.

9-1 UK going to the 7th out of 10.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Lefty Tyler Bosma now coming in for UK. He transferred from Miami (OH). He was a Saturday/Sunday starter for Miami (OH).


Felker also coming in to play second.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Line drive into center leads off the 7th. This is the first baserunner UK has given up since the 3rd inning.

Pop up into shallow center and Thrasher comes in to bring it in for the first out of the 7th.

UK working hard to keep this runner close and that pays off as Bosma gets a grounder to the newly inserted Felker who backpedals and takes the grounder to second where Ritter spins and completes the double play.

9-1 UK going to the bottom of the 7th.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Two straight balls before Thrasher skies one into foul territory off third. It hits the turf as the third baseman couldn't find it. Thrasher got lucky to keep going in this one and he turns it into a full count and eventually grounds one through the left side for a single. Don't like that he swung at the 0-2 and almost fouled out, but good results in the end. We will see if he once again tries to take second with the steal.

Felker now getting his first at bat. Thrasher does take second on the second pitch home to Felker. His second stolen base of the afternoon. I believe that is just UK's only one. Felker hits a swinging bunt type thing to third base and the third baseman picks it up and sails it past the first baseman. Thrasher scores off the throwing error. Headrick calls this a single for Felker and a throwing error that advances everyone.

Fogel up in the 9 hole and he lines one into left for a single.

Ritter will hit again, but I believe he will face a new pitcher.

10-1 Cats here in the bottom of the 7th with 0 outs and runners I think at second and first (I think).

Man, I am loving this. Hanging out in my garage with the weather 74 and sunny, having a beer and listening to baseball. Can't beat it.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Ritter coming out again and he swings at the first pitch and he gets an infield single. They will pinch run for Ritter and his day will end. I didn't catch who they put in to run for him, but I will get you that as soon as I can.

He was 3-5 in this one with two singles and a double. He scored a run and had at least one RBI.

Wild pitches when Jump is at the plate moves everyone up 90 feet and another one scores another run for UK making it 12-1. Harris was the pinch runner for Ritter and he is now at third. Jump draws a walk. Jump has now been on base in all 5 at bats.

Estep also draws a walk. Still 0 outs for UK. Michael Dallas a freshman will pinch run for Estep.

Plastiak hits a sac fly to deep left to plate another run and put UK up 13-1. I believe that only Harris moves up on that.

McCarthy strikes out on three straight pitches, swinging for out number 2.

Liebert is up. I was wrong earlier, both Jump and newly inserted Dallas were able to move up on that deep sac fly by Plastiak, so Liebert has two in scoring position. A balk scored Jump and moves Dallas to third. Headrick says it is 15 runs for UK, but I have 14... but he then confirms that I am right (that is a first) and that UK has scored 5 runs in the 7th. Liebert fouls out to end the inning

14-1 UK going to the top of the 8th

Just realized that my book only has 9 innings in it, so this should become interesting since we are playing 10 innings.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Strickland now coming in to pitch for UK.

I will get you the defensive alignment when I can. Here it is: Dallas went to third, Harris went to second and Petre came back in and went to SS. So, that will be a weird thing to score in the book.

Strikeout looking to start the 8th for Strickland against the 8 hole. he then gets a first pitch grounder to third that Dallas takes easily and gets the second out. A 4 pitch swinging strikeout ends the 8th.

14-1 UK

 

[Comebakatz3]

Thrasher gets to lead off once again. He draws a walk to lead off the UK 8th. I think Thrasher might work his way to that leadoff spot given his speed and how dangerous he can be, but we will see how things go with that.

Guilfoil and Harper warming up for UK.

Petre is hitting once again in the 8 hole. This is a very interesting development as Felker only got 1 at bat in this one. This really is a good sign for Petre to play a pretty good role on this team moving foward. Petre flies out to left field for the first out.

I think that we are learning a pretty good amount about what UK is looking to do moving forward. Plastiak has stuck at first for all 8 innings at this point. Estep was at third and Dallas there now. We have not seen Church, which is interesting.

Fogel strikes out swinging. Thrasher moves up on the strikeout as the ball was somewhat in the turf. So, they call that a K and a wild pitch.

Harris now up. He is an interesting point as well given that he transferred here from EKU and I fully expected him to start today at second and instead we saw the freshman Petre there, who is now at short. Harris grounds to short and that ends the threat for UK in the 8th.

14-1 UK.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Here in the top of the 9th UK is going to make a bunch of changes. Tyler Guilfoil going to pitch here in this inning.
Center we have McCarthy, right is Leibert. Catcher is now Burkes. So, not as many as we might think.

So, Thrasher is now out of the game after going 2-2 with 2 walks and 2 stolen bases. He did score one run.

Full count on the first batter by Guilfoil. Tyler came to UK by way of Lipscomb. He is a KY native right hander. He gave up the walk. He was second team A-Sun last year.

By the way, this is probably a really good introduction to these new guys as the crowd is pretty decent and so you might have them be able to actually face a few nerves that they might also face in the fall. So, this is an experience grabber.

Strikeout looking for the first out of the inning and the first K for KY native Guilfoil. Tyler is filling up the catcher's mitt with fastballs.

Guilfoil finding a grove as he gets his second strikeout, once again the backwards K type for out number 2.

Interstingly, Guilfoil has started 3 of 4 batters with balls, but he is doing solid at getting the outs here after that leadoff walk. He worked it to 2-2 before giving up a long ball to right field that carried out of KPP to give the Flyers 2 runs, their first runs since the first inning.

14-3 UK

A strikeout ends the 9th. This one swinging and on 3 straight pitches.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Going into the bottom of the 9th, UK should have 2, 3, 4 hitters up. Should be interesting to see if any changes are made here. Again, we are playing 10 innings in this one, so we are running out of innings and plate appearances.

Interesting pitching change here as we get a familiar name on the mound: Machamer. He is the younger brother of former UK pitcher Chris Machamer.

Anu back in to hit for Jump in the 2 hole here. Not happy with that at bat by Anu. I know, it is a scrimmage, but he swings at a 3-0 pitch and pops it up to shallow center for out number 1.

Dallas getting his first at bat here in the UK 9th. This kid is out of Tennessee and went to Briarcrest and was the top ranked SS out of TN. He is battling here in the 9th inning as he falls behind early, but he fouls off a couple pitches to keep things alive. He works a full count, but Machamer hits the outside corner for a called strike 3.

Plastiak still in this one and will hit again here in the 9th. As of right now Liebert and Plastiak are the only two UK players to play the entire game. Plastiak grounds one through the left side for a base hit.

McCarthy lines one into right on the first pitch and it gets past the right fielder to allow Plastiak to go to third and McCarthy to 2nd.

Liebert stays in to hit. He is now playing in right field in this one. Liebert strikes out swinging to end the UK 9th.

One more inning in this one with UK leading 14-3.


Williams now coming in to pitch. I expect he may be the closer for UK moving forward and that is why he is coming into the game in the 10th inning.

He moves things pretty quickly and he gets out of the 10th 3 up 3 down with at least 1 strikeout. He also had a grounder to 3rd.

Tanner Kim did move into the OF in that last half inning. He, took over for Jump/Anu.

__________________

I lost internet connection here at home, so I am typing this out before posting it. We are going to the bottom of the 10th. We will have once again 7, 8, 9.

McCoy, a freshman infielder will get an at bat here. He takes an 0-2 pitch and hangs one up in right for the first out.

Petre will hit once again. Have to really reiterate how big it is that he is hitting here and has played a vast majority of this game. UK has to like him a whole lot for this to be happening. The French speaking Canadian should be featured a lot in one way or another in 22 and moving forward. He draws a full count and he hits one fairly sharply down the third base line that skips off the glove of the first baseman to give him an infield hit.

Devin Burkes now getting his first at bat of the game. Burkes, if you didn't know, is a redshirt freshman. So he didn't play last year despite being on the team. Burkes is a catcher by trade, so it will be interesting to see how he plays into this team. He strikes out swinging in his first at bat in this one.

Harris will stay in and hit at the top of the lineup he strikes out on a 2-2 pitch.

UK wins this exhibition 14-3.

14 runs on 17 hits and 1 error is how Headrick scores it. If I can interpret my own handwriting on my scorebook I'll try to give you some numbers of how everyone did, who played and what not.

If you have questions, please feel free to let me know and I hope we get to hear from some guys that were there and saw it live.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I am not really sure how to break this down, but I am going to give it a go.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Okay, here is what the hitting/fielding looked like:

Name	Position	At Bats	Hits	Walks	Notes	AVG
Ritter	SS	5​	3​	0​	1B (x2), 2B	0.600​
Jump	RF/OF	2​	2​	3​	CS (x2), HR	1.000​
Estep	3B	4​	3​	1​	HR, 1K	0.750​
Plastiak	1B	4​	3​	1​	HBP, SAC, HR	0.750​
Anu	LF	2​	1​	1​		0.500​
Liebert	DH/C/OF	4​	1​	1​	3B, K (x2)	0.250​
Thrasher	CF/OF	3​	2​	2​	SB (x2)	0.667​
Petre	2B/SS	4​	1​	0​	K (x2)	0.250​
Rubalcaba	C	2​	0​	0​		0.000​
Harris	2B	2​	0​	0​		0.000​
Kim	OF	0​	0​	0​		0.000​
Dallas	3B	1​	0​	0​		0.000​
McCarthy	OF	3​	1​	1​	K(x2)	0.333​
Burkes	C	1​	0​	0​	K	0.000​
Felker	2B	1​	1​	0​		1.000​
Fogel	DH	2​	1​	0​	SAC, K	0.500​
McCoy	PH	1​	0​	0​		0.000​

 

[Comebakatz3]

Name	Inning	Hits	Runs	ER	K	BB
Stupp	2​	2​	1​	0​	3​	2​
Cotto	2​	0​	0​	0​	3​	1​
Hudepohl	1​	0​	0​	0​	0​	0​
Logue	1​	0​	0​	0​	1​	0​
Bosma	1​	1​	0​	0​	0​	0​
Strickland	1​	0​	0​	0​	2​	0​
Guilfoil	1​	1​	2​	2​	3​	1​
Williams	1​	0​	0​	0​	1​	0​

 

[Comebakatz3]

So... my thoughts:

Ryan Ritter is not a leadoff hitter. Point blank. Ritter is an amazing talent, but he is not a leadoff hitter. He did hit well today by getting 3 hits in 5 at bats, but he swung at the first pitch 3 times in those 5 at bats as well. Now, granted two of those were for hits, but I still think you want to see your leadoff guy by the one who is patient and giving your other hitters a chance to see what the pitcher is working with. Today he led the day off by swinging first pitch and giving up an out. It isn't horrible, but just not the typical leadoff hitter. Again, it is just September so we have a long way to go.

Anu cannot play defense.... ever. This idea must end today. He had, I think, one chance in the OF today and he botched it and let a routine fly ball land for a base hit. Quit it. He is a DH and that is it. I don't know what UK will do in terms of Liebert, but I trust him in the OF before Anu.

Thrasher will cause everyone headaches and I think he should probably lead off. He got on base 4 times today and stole 2 bases. He was patient and drew 2 walks. Only got out 1 time, in his first at bat. The guy should lead off. Give him the most chances to get on base and create havoc when he is on there.

Plastiak and Liebert. Again... just want to point out that only these two played the entire 10 innings for UK. Everyone else was subbed out in one way or another. Liebert moved around from DH to C to OF, showing off a lot of versatility. Plastiak played 1B the whole time, suggesting that maybe he has locked that down, but also that he needs a lot of work there still. He committed the only error (unofficial/official haha) for UK today.

Church- Did not appear. Don't know why. Could be a whole lot of reasons. Not jumping to any conclusions, but the sophomore from my home town did not make the field today. Given that Dallas played at third for a handful of innings and Plastiak never left 1st, it makes you wonder what role Church might have on this team, if any.

Hagenow - Also did not appear. Again, don't know why. Not jumping to any conclusions. Just pointing out that someone that we believed would be a big contributor was not mentioned today.

Harney/Harper - These two are experienced and they too did not see the field. Harper warmed up but didn't pitch. This all could be an innings crunch, I don't know.

Petre - The French Connection got the start today and that surprised the heck out of me. I thought Harris would basically be a lock for a start at second, but the freshman may have already kicked him off that throne. Harris did play but Petre played in some form or fashion for I think 9 of the 10 innings. He played at 2nd and at SS. Don't know what we have with him yet but the coaches seem to like him.

Rubalcaba - I did think it was pretty weird and interesting that Rube came out in the 5th inning and never returned.

Jump - I like this kid. He was caught stealing twice, so we have to clean that up, but he reached base in every bat but one and had a home run.

Fogel - I was surprised that UK didn't start Fogel in the OF. Kid has some power and I thought he'd be in RF and Jump in left. Instead, Anu was in left and Jump in right. Fogel played from the 5th on, but I dont know that he ever got into the OF. I could be wrong on that, but I think he solely starred as a DH.

 

[BlueStoops]

Thanks for the updates

 

[Cats8585]

Terrific job on the updates!

I went by and watched the scrimmage yesterday, and read back through this topic and it was spot on.

I asked someone about a few people we didn’t see yesterday. Church is injured and out for the fall. Fogel is injured and can’t throw. The pitchers were split between the two games. So we will likely see the other pitchers against Lipscomb.

I guess that explains Anu playing in the OF yesterday. Pitre over Harris is interesting. Maybe Pitre has been that impressive? I had a players dad tell me Pitre has been really good this fall.

I thought we played well yesterday. Our pitcher overmatched Dayton hitters. Our hitters did a good job too. The lineups were pretty scattered. A lot of people played and they switched positions a lot.

If you guys are interested, I wrote down some velocities yesterday. They had them on the video board.
Stupp 89-91
Cotto 93-95 wow
Hudepohl 91-92
Logue 91-92
Bosma 89-90
Strickland 92-94
Guilfoil 90-91
Williams 92-93

The 4 new guys were all impressive. Guilfoil gave up a HR but still struck out all 3 outs he recorded. It was a beautiful day of baseball after some morning rain.

Was anyone else there? Not sure what all I missed and/or forgot!

 

[Comebakatz3]

Terrific job on the updates!

I went by and watched the scrimmage yesterday, and read back through this topic and it was spot on.

I asked someone about a few people we didn’t see yesterday. Church is injured and out for the fall. Fogel is injured and can’t throw. The pitchers were split between the two games. So we will likely see the other pitchers against Lipscomb.

I guess that explains Anu playing in the OF yesterday. Pitre over Harris is interesting. Maybe Pitre has been that impressive? I had a players dad tell me Pitre has been really good this fall.

I thought we played well yesterday. Our pitcher overmatched Dayton hitters. Our hitters did a good job too. The lineups were pretty scattered. A lot of people played and they switched positions a lot.

If you guys are interested, I wrote down some velocities yesterday. They had them on the video board.
Stupp 89-91
Cotto 93-95 wow
Hudepohl 91-92
Logue 91-92
Bosma 89-90
Strickland 92-94
Guilfoil 90-91
Williams 92-93

The 4 new guys were all impressive. Guilfoil gave up a HR but still struck out all 3 outs he recorded. It was a beautiful day of baseball after some morning rain.

Was anyone else there? Not sure what all I missed and/or forgot!

Thanks for clearing those up. I kind of figured someone like Church might be injured if he didn't play. Not good if he is out the entire fall, but that also kind of cleans up the infield and shores it up that Plastiak will likely be at 1st the rest of the way and Estep at third.

Wasn't sure their strategy on pitchers, but think splitting this is kind of strange in some ways given that the games are so far apart.

Anu in the OF still doesn't make sense to me. Liebert out there makes more sense. Last year UK pitchers allegedly confronted the coaches about the outfield twice because they were upset and felt like they were giving up extra bases and outs that they shouldn't have been. Can't have that again this year.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Hard to know what to take away from this game. This is a pretty early scrimmage as we're still only maybe a month and a half into practice. So, there are still a lot of things to work out there. Opponent wasn't great by any means, but is similar to a lot of teams we'll face prior to SEC play.

Seems obvious to say that they played well when winning 15-3. Still, some things I really liked were that a lot of the runs (at least the first 6) came with 2 outs. With the bases loaded we put the ball in play a couple times, one by Ritter that went for a double under the glove of the third baseman and then a pretty solidly hit ball by Fogel where we tagged up. So, that timely hitting is very important and helpful.

I think just 4 walks by the pitching staff was very good.

I think this team will really do well against the OOC schedule, just as we did pretty well against it last year. I think our pitching is more than good enough to really dominate the weaker OOC slate, and I think this team certainly has the ability to hit average pitching. This can be good as a confidence booster. The question will be how that translates to SEC play. As we have seen in the past, if you don't get to 14-15 league wins then it doesn't matter what you did in the OOC.

 

[Cats8585]

Thanks for clearing those up. I kind of figured someone like Church might be injured if he didn't play. Not good if he is out the entire fall, but that also kind of cleans up the infield and shores it up that Plastiak will likely be at 1st the rest of the way and Estep at third.

Wasn't sure their strategy on pitchers, but think splitting this is kind of strange in some ways given that the games are so far apart.

Anu in the OF still doesn't make sense to me. Liebert out there makes more sense. Last year UK pitchers allegedly confronted the coaches about the outfield twice because they were upset and felt like they were giving up extra bases and outs that they shouldn't have been. Can't have that again this year.

Liebert did play some OF later in the game. He is surely better than Anu out there!

He also should catch a lot this season. I don’t want to read too much into that. I suspect Fogel would be in the OF and Anu at DH. Liebert should catch a good bit and maybe he can/will push for one of the OF spots between time behind the plate. He’s had some good games in the times I’ve been by this fall.

 

[Comebakatz3]

One thing about this team is that there is not going to be a shortage of question marks. Who starts on the weekends? The infield sounds like an Abbott and Costello bit with us not knowing who will be on first, second or third. Then Liebert himself becomes an interesting discussion as he is versatile and had an outstanding summer showing outstanding promise.

So, that brings up the question of catching… last year Liebert seemed like the Rubalcaba backup early as Liebert played in 3 of the first 5 games and started 1 before Kessler ever got to play at all. Then, after Rubalcaba got hurt, Kessler stepped in and Liebert barely played any behind the plate. He started just the 1 game last year, and that was game 4. He played in 13 and much of that was as a pinch hitter and maybe as a 9th inning defensive sub rather than truly providing Kessler a rest. Now, that being said, Kessler was highly valuable offensively while Rubalcaba has not yet, in limited appearances, proven to be so. That difference may play a factor in how that PT breaks down.

Really interested to see how this scrimmage differs from the next one and if there are any changes made or if a lot of the defense looks the same or what. Won’t necessarily be able to take a ton from that, but it could be an indicator about how players do between now and then.