Finished the week 2-2, but disappointed not 3-1... next weekend is going to be very, very big. Play bellermine as our mid-week game and go on the road for a three-game series with Georgia. They are a strange team because they are 5-7 in the conference in 20-11 overall, but beat the Daylights out of Vandy's pitching this weekend scoring 23 runs in their series win over number-one-rated Vanderbilt. UK now stands 6-6 & 20-9 . Would be great to go 3-1 next week because it is time to start worrying about the conference standings as far as Conference tournament and ncaa tournament.
Next week...
- Thread starter sluggercatfan
- Start date
I’m shocked Georgia beat Vandy like that. I don’t think I’ve seen Rocker get hit like that since he’s been in college. I still don’t think Georgia has the talent of LSU though. Biggest issue with UK is their pitching. I just don’t think we have solid SEC talent across the board. Mingione has been there for five years now so not much to add on that.
We played some poor defense this weekend. Kind of inexcusable. Several gaffes that you just can't do at this level.
First year with Thompson, Lewis and Jelle were very good, but NM didn't recruit them.
Honestly being 6 and 6 with a win over Louisville is way better than I expected at this point in the season. Lot of baseball to be played yet though
That’s absolutely correct. Mingione’s two best years were his first two and were primarily composed of the prior coaches recruits.
2017/2018 were so weird. Going into 2017 UK fans were worried (or maybe just me), because we returned 1 total SEC start. Not starter… start. We lost all 3 weekend guys and the only person who had experience starting an SEC game was Logue, who pitched 1 start in the SEC tournament in 2016. Hjelle returned, but had only ever been a closer. Lewis was regularly injured (IIRC). Well, all three stepped up nicely with Hjelle winning POTY. Then you also had some guys step up at the plate, such a Connor Heady. Heady was a touted prospect and would have immediately gone pro, but chose to come to UK and he was underwhelming throughout, until his senior year. Just everything clicked. After that we lost a lot of the guys from the field, but we returned 2 of the 3 weekend guys and Thompson would move to the weekend. So, things looked strong there. The pitching of 2018 never lived up to the pitching of 2017. Many still blame injuries and think UK should have been in the tournament regardless, but no matter what it was an underwhelming year given what we returned. Since then, we have struggled to replace those weekend starters. It is just this year that we’ve finally found more than serviceable weekend guys.
So far it has been an extremely favorable schedule for UK. 1-11 Auburn, 3-9 Missouri and 3-9 LSU. We really needed to get 2 from LSU, but glad we salvaged one.
From here on out it is
@ Georgia (5-7)
Alabama (5-7)
@Tennessee (9-1)
Florida (6-6)
South Carolina (8-4)
@ Vanderbilt (9-1)
18 games left.
The magic number is 15 wins. .500 in the conference pretty much assures that you get into the NCAA tournament. So, clearly, UK has to find a way to continue to go .500 in these next 18 games. Avoid getting swept in any of them and we at least get 6 more. That means we have to find 3 more wins somewhere. Likely candidates are at least this weekend and next weekend. So, at a minimum, we need to take 2 from Georgia, 2 from Alabama and then steal a series from someone like USC or Florida at home. We have to avoid getting swept.
It is a tall order.
Ohh dear lord... this is going to be 2018 all over again isn't it? UK will get to 13 wins and will need to avoid a sweep at Vandy to get to 14 or 15 and feel comfortable. Instead, we get swept by Vandy on the road. We go in as the 10 seed and play the 7 and lose and end up 13-18 overall and don't get the invite.
I hate this story. lol
Henderson was a solid recruiter. His problem is the majority of players he brought in didn’t improve at all from year one to year three.
He’s definitely recruited better than Mingione has up to this point. Mingione has a lot more to offer than Coen, Henderson and Madison did. It’s no longer a facilities issue. The state of KY produces some decent talent as does the Cincinnati area.
UK should be top half in the SEC consistently,and go to CWS as often as U6. The right person at UK,should match McConnel, in the overall success of the seasons,and post season. Need somebody to recruit the SEC ready players in Kentucky,which are several,every year!
