Let's play 2 ... Sat. DH

[CloverforkCat]

Cats are now 10-3 after yet another come from behind 5-3 win over USC Upstate now 8-7 on the year. Dustin Beggs gets the ball in game 1, while Big Kyle Cody ill try yet again to get going in game 2.
UK got great relief pitching yesterday from Justin Lewis 2-0, and Sean Hjellie with his 2nd save. The Cat bats still need to be more disclipined and consistent, and get started a little earlier in the game.
A sweep today would be great, a split wouldn't be bad. Hopefully we will get Javon Shelby back in the lineup today, and White, McNeil, Mahan, and Becker will stay hot swining the bat.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Some good hitting helps UK get the lead in the bottom of the first. Wilson with a leadoff double. White grounded out to second and moved him over and then Mahan grounded out to second to plate him. Once again, no Shelby this afternoon. Marshall will be manning third base.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Tyler Marshall makes the most of his playing time and takes a low and in fastball over the right field wall! 2-0 UK

 

[CloverforkCat]

With 3 innings in the books, UK leads 2-0. Tyler Marshall gets his 1st career hit yesterday, and 1st career HR today...... Pretty good !

 

[Comebakatz3]

Beggs looking pretty good this afternoon. That curveball is getting over for strikes and that is really helping him get outs in this one.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Ugh... Mahan makes his 10th error of the season with 2 outs in the top of the 4th. We're in our 14th game and he has 10 errors. Unbelievable. Luckily he gets the next one from the very next batter and the threat is ended, but he has to be one of the worst defensive shortstops in division 1 baseball.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Beggs with another pickoff! He is excellent at catching people napping.

 

[Comebakatz3]

White singled and advanced on a WP and then Mahan poked one through the left side to move White to third and put runners on the corners for McNeil who blooped one into shallow right. McNeil was thrown out trying to take second, but the RBI single gave UK a 3-0 lead here in the bottom of the 5th.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Carson really seems to be getting some good wood on the ball, but it just never seems to find the grass. Always right at someone.

 

[CloverforkCat]

Cats lead 3-0, going to the top of the 7th. Beggs has been good, only 4 hits with 7 K's thru 6 innings.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

I don't understand why you take Beggs out here. Another one of Hendersons awesome coaching decisions.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I don't understand this one either. Definitely not overly comfortable with Wilson coming in. He's struggled quite a bit this season. Would rather have him get a couple more opportunities in blow out situations rather than here in a close game.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Wilson walks the guy he faces and UK goes to the pen to bring in another pitcher. Looks like it is going to be Strecker. Why do you put in Wilson there? You put him in to face one guy, who hits righty. Then bring in Strecker after one hitter to face another righty. Why not just bring in Strecker to begin with?!

 

[Comebakatz3]

Strecker ends the threat. Once again, not sure why we went to Wilson to begin with, but that's Henderson for you. Should be interesting to see who Henderson uses to close this game out. Hjelle closed the game out yesterday. Will Henderson use a true closer and send out Hjelle again or will he stick with Strecker?

 

[Comebakatz3]

Looks like Hjelle is going to be our closer for the year. He's coming in to try to get these last three outs.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Hjelle struggled a bit more than usual, but he got the three outs to end the inning and give UK the victory! 3-0

 

[CloverforkCat]

Cats win 3-0, Dustin Beggs goes to 4-0 on the season. He really pitched well today, probably should have been left in to get the 3rd out in the 8th. But Strecker bailed us out and Hjellie nailed down his 3rd save.
Game 2 at about 3:20 or so. BTW Uk softball lead USC 5-1 in the 6th inning on the SEC network !

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

Cody has struggled a bit with command but has allowed one hit and one walk with 4 strikeouts. Gunner McNeil has all three rbis for Kentucky. UK leads 3-0 bottom of the 4th

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

Can we please do something with Mahan. 12 errors in 14 games.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Can we please do something with Mahan. 12 errors in 14 games.

I don't think there is anything we can do. Mahan is hitting better and that makes him hard to replace when there aren't too many people on our team hitting very well. Not to mention that we don't really have anyone else to play the middle infield.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Strecker now pitching for Cody. Cody had a pretty solid game not giving up an earned run. Again, will be interesting to see if this score remains the same if we pitch Hjelle again to close it out.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Actually... it might be possible to have Marshall at 3rd, Shelby (when healthy) at 2nd. Move Mahan to DH and then have Becker play short. Move McNeil to first and then have White as a right fielder. That takes away your errors at short (hopefully) and then takes away the Carson/Hairston combo that is hitting .200/.231. Then you can sub Pompey and Reks out in left. Right now Reks needs to play there until Pompey starts hitting better than .217.

Of course, it will probably never happen because Henderson would have to make too many moves to try something like that.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Henderson is so damn weird. Strecker is out there dealing and just struck out the first hitter in the 9th inning, so Henderson decides to take him out to play a lefty/lefty matchup. Just asinine. What happens when he makes this change? First pitch Salow gives up a single up the middle. It might still work out, but it is still a dumb move IMO.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Salow gives up another hit and there are runners on first and second. Henderson now going to visit Salow and Justin Lewis will come on to try to close this out. Freaking Hendo.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Lewis gets a 6-4-3 double play to end the game! We win despite Henderson! Yay!

I'm not sure how good we are this season, but next week against WKU and Georgia at Foley will be a great test and indicator of how good we are/can be.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

I was at both games and Hendersons in game decision making is laughable. First, he starts Troy Squieres, who no offense to the guy, but he is hitting .143 and should not be playing. Second, Beggs is pitching lights out. Throws 100 pitches, and he is yanked. I don't understand what he does.

 

[CloverforkCat]

I was at both games and Hendersons in game decision making is laughable. First, he starts Troy Squieres, who no offense to the guy, but he is hitting .143 and should not be playing. Second, Beggs is pitching lights out. Throws 100 pitches, and he is yanked. I don't understand what he does.

Zack Arnold is hitting .385, why is he not playing ? I think he was injured earlier, but he can sure hit.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I can understand Cottam playing. The guy has some pretty good defensive skills and I think he can become a better hitter. However, Arnold needs to be playing. Henderson made two weird decisions today with pitchers. First he takes out Beggs in the first game. Then he takes out Strecker in the second game in the 9th inning.

The good thing for our team is that our pitching actually does seem to be starting to live up to what we all thought it could be. Our team ERA is 3.02. Oddly enough senior Bo Wilson is one of the guys really hurting that ERA with an ERA of 15.00 himself. Not sure what is wrong with Wilson, but I think Henderson needs to try to get him some midweek work against someone like Morehead so he can get his confidence back. Henderson seems to be really leaning heavily on Strecker and Justin Lewis. These two have both pitched over 10 innings so far this season. The next closest non-starter is Salow with 7.1 and then the closer Hjelle has gotten quite a bit of work with 6.0 innings. Lewis, Hjelle, and Strecker all have ERAs under 1.00. That's excellent, but we'll have to see how well those ERAs hold up against SEC play.

 

[Big_Blue_1018]

I'm not sure what the deal with Arnold is. Arnold swings a good bat. He's not a real huge power threat but he makes good contact. I don't know if Hendo is trying to get guys more work before SEC play or what. But at this point, you should know what you've got.

The one thing that scares/bothers me is UK has fallen behind in a lot of games. And yes, they have been able to come from behind but I am cautiously optimistic on that ability once conference starts. Pitching is miles ahead of what they have faced so far in the season.

It was a good sweep this weekend because USC Upstate has a solid program. But, the real test starts Friday night in Georgia.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I think that the game against WKU will also be a pretty good measuring stick. Western Kentucky beat Georgia 8-7 on 2/28 at Foley Field. They also beat Tennessee 6-0 on 3/8 at UT. WKU has had some weird losses, but they are still a solid team that can beat anyone on any given day. They are definitely going to test our pitching considering that they have the 20th best batting average in the country.

I think we still have a lot of questions. Our hitting is currently ranked in the top 35 in batting average and top 40 in runs scored. Our team ERA is just inside of 80th. The question is how much will these numbers change once we start playing tougher competition? Will our team step it up or will they continue to play at the same level?