The Southeast Missouri State Redhawks (SEMO) will be road tripping to Lexington this afternoon for a 4pm first pitch. Opening day at Kentucky Proud Park isn’t exactly going to be an enjoyable one. If you are going to the park, bundle up and bring an umbrella, you’ll be facing 48 degrees with a 50 percent chance of showers at first pitch. The turf should allow UK to get this one in, but who knows.
For UK, it is unclear who they will send out to face SEMO. The Wildcats have a host of options. My guess, and it could be way way off, is Hunter Rigsby. He threw just 1.2 innings this weekend and they were on Friday. So, I think he is sufficiently rested to get the start. I imagine UK will be looking to do a lot of things on the mound and see as many young arms as possible though. So, may even be a bit of a Johnny All-Staff type of day, especially with it being kind of chilly and wet.
SEMO is beginning their 4th season under head coach Andy Sawyers. They have not started overly well as they went to Louisiana Monroe this past weekend and dropped 2 of 3 to the Warhawks. UK fans thought we had a bad hitting start to the season (and we did), but SEMO had it much worse, hitting just .155 as a team over the weekend. The Redhawks have 7 guys on their roster currently hitting .100 or below, all with at least 5 at bats. They hit 4 home runs over the weekend, but have no other extra base hits and have struck out 25 times. So, things are super ugly for their hitters right now. Despite that, SEMO (11) outscored UK (7) for the weekend and actually stole a game, while UK got swept.
Here is how SEMO should look:
Danny Wright – CF
Peyton Leeper - 3B
Tyler Wilber – SS (Pre-season All American – hit .383 a year ago)
Justin Dirden – RF
Austin Blazevic – 1B
Andrew Keck – C/LF
Wade Stauss – DH/C
Caleb Feuerstake – LF
Connor Basler – 2B
Lincoln Andrews – DH
The order should be shook up, but this will at least be the defense and some semblance of what it might look like at the plate as well. Of those guys, only Keck (.500), Wright (.286), and Dirden (.231) are hitting above .100. Wilber, Stauss, and Blazevic are all hitting .100 and everyone else is hitless. Have to imagine that the bad luck will change at some point, and they are going to hit better than this. Wright, Dirden, Wilber, and Stauss have the home runs.
The pitching numbers overall for SEMO look really bad, but still better than UK with a 6.12 ERA. Still, they have 4 guys who threw over the weekend that have ERAs of 0.00. The problem was that they had starter Hojnacki (21.60) really struggle, and even returning weekend starter Dodd (6.35) had a rough go.
I think UK sees 6’4 155 pound sophomore righty Bryan McNeely today. McNeely had 5 starts a year ago and 10 overall appearances and had a 5.62 ERA. The fact that he didn’t pitch over the weekend is what leads me to think that UK might see him today. Last year he pitched 24 innings with 17 strikeouts and and 10 walks. He gave up 8 doubles and 4 home runs, while opponents hit .340 against him. Things were way worse in the OVC where he had 2 starts and 3 appearances while throwing just 5.2 innings. He had an OVC ERA of 11.12, gave up 7 hits, 1 home run striking out 2 and walking 2 while opponents hit .429 against him.
Pitching staff is pretty young with 12 freshman,11 righties. It is certainly possible UK faces someone else, but with McNeely not throwing on the weekend and the fact that he had 5 starts a year ago, it makes him a strong candidate. Grossius, Wilma, and Malenfant will likely be leaned on heavily out of the bullpen. Grossius is a 6’1 175 pound righty sophomore who had a 6.53 ERA a year ago through 20.2 innings of work. Not likely a candidate to start, the most he did a year ago was 4 innings against Tennessee Tech. Malenfant is a 6’2 righty JUCO transfer. Wilma is a 6’5 freshman righty. Of major note, the Redhawks have just 2 left-handers. Aaron Schromm is a freshman lefty that goes 6’2 165, and who has not appeared yet this year. The other is Blake Cisneros, a 6’1 sophomore that had a 4.91 ERA as a freshman through 29.1 innings of work. He pitched in one inning this past weekend, holding the Warhawks hitless and getting a strikeout.
Overall, this should be a bounce back game for UK. SEMO is just not good and UK should be able to trounce them. A failure to do so will only bring more red flags and we might see even more people jump ship. So, this is an important game just in the sense of getting over the hump and getting into the win column. UK pitchers need to keep the ball down in the zone and make SEMO hitters do more than hit home runs to beat them. UK bats just need to wake up.
For UK, it is unclear who they will send out to face SEMO. The Wildcats have a host of options. My guess, and it could be way way off, is Hunter Rigsby. He threw just 1.2 innings this weekend and they were on Friday. So, I think he is sufficiently rested to get the start. I imagine UK will be looking to do a lot of things on the mound and see as many young arms as possible though. So, may even be a bit of a Johnny All-Staff type of day, especially with it being kind of chilly and wet.
SEMO is beginning their 4th season under head coach Andy Sawyers. They have not started overly well as they went to Louisiana Monroe this past weekend and dropped 2 of 3 to the Warhawks. UK fans thought we had a bad hitting start to the season (and we did), but SEMO had it much worse, hitting just .155 as a team over the weekend. The Redhawks have 7 guys on their roster currently hitting .100 or below, all with at least 5 at bats. They hit 4 home runs over the weekend, but have no other extra base hits and have struck out 25 times. So, things are super ugly for their hitters right now. Despite that, SEMO (11) outscored UK (7) for the weekend and actually stole a game, while UK got swept.
Here is how SEMO should look:
Danny Wright – CF
Peyton Leeper - 3B
Tyler Wilber – SS (Pre-season All American – hit .383 a year ago)
Justin Dirden – RF
Austin Blazevic – 1B
Andrew Keck – C/LF
Wade Stauss – DH/C
Caleb Feuerstake – LF
Connor Basler – 2B
Lincoln Andrews – DH
The order should be shook up, but this will at least be the defense and some semblance of what it might look like at the plate as well. Of those guys, only Keck (.500), Wright (.286), and Dirden (.231) are hitting above .100. Wilber, Stauss, and Blazevic are all hitting .100 and everyone else is hitless. Have to imagine that the bad luck will change at some point, and they are going to hit better than this. Wright, Dirden, Wilber, and Stauss have the home runs.
The pitching numbers overall for SEMO look really bad, but still better than UK with a 6.12 ERA. Still, they have 4 guys who threw over the weekend that have ERAs of 0.00. The problem was that they had starter Hojnacki (21.60) really struggle, and even returning weekend starter Dodd (6.35) had a rough go.
I think UK sees 6’4 155 pound sophomore righty Bryan McNeely today. McNeely had 5 starts a year ago and 10 overall appearances and had a 5.62 ERA. The fact that he didn’t pitch over the weekend is what leads me to think that UK might see him today. Last year he pitched 24 innings with 17 strikeouts and and 10 walks. He gave up 8 doubles and 4 home runs, while opponents hit .340 against him. Things were way worse in the OVC where he had 2 starts and 3 appearances while throwing just 5.2 innings. He had an OVC ERA of 11.12, gave up 7 hits, 1 home run striking out 2 and walking 2 while opponents hit .429 against him.
Pitching staff is pretty young with 12 freshman,11 righties. It is certainly possible UK faces someone else, but with McNeely not throwing on the weekend and the fact that he had 5 starts a year ago, it makes him a strong candidate. Grossius, Wilma, and Malenfant will likely be leaned on heavily out of the bullpen. Grossius is a 6’1 175 pound righty sophomore who had a 6.53 ERA a year ago through 20.2 innings of work. Not likely a candidate to start, the most he did a year ago was 4 innings against Tennessee Tech. Malenfant is a 6’2 righty JUCO transfer. Wilma is a 6’5 freshman righty. Of major note, the Redhawks have just 2 left-handers. Aaron Schromm is a freshman lefty that goes 6’2 165, and who has not appeared yet this year. The other is Blake Cisneros, a 6’1 sophomore that had a 4.91 ERA as a freshman through 29.1 innings of work. He pitched in one inning this past weekend, holding the Warhawks hitless and getting a strikeout.
Overall, this should be a bounce back game for UK. SEMO is just not good and UK should be able to trounce them. A failure to do so will only bring more red flags and we might see even more people jump ship. So, this is an important game just in the sense of getting over the hump and getting into the win column. UK pitchers need to keep the ball down in the zone and make SEMO hitters do more than hit home runs to beat them. UK bats just need to wake up.
