Tennessee @ Kentucky - Sunday's necessary sweep?
- Thread starter Old_Red
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30-10 over the weekend, right? That's pretty dominating. End's Tennessee's season.
15 out of 36 today
14 out of 38 Saturday
19 out of 39 Friday
That's 48 out of 113 for a cool .425
15 out of 36 today
14 out of 38 Saturday
19 out of 39 Friday
That's 48 out of 113 for a cool .425
Impressive week for UK after the UGA series. Topped a solid IU team, and then took care of business by hitting very well to sweep the Vols. 'Cats need to take care of business against NKU in the midweek, before going to Gainesville for an absolutely huge series with tons on the line.
Wow, Louisville goes into Clemson and sweeps the tigers, winning today 6-4 despite committing 5 errors !
Will be interesting to see what UK does against NKU. That would be a short turn around for Thompson to throw again on Tuesday, and then another short turn around if we need him either Friday or Saturday.
Was thinking the same thing, CB3 re Thompson's availability for NKU after pitching several innings today. Best guess is that they may start Schaenzer (sp?) Tuesday and see how the game goes. If UK can put up runs and get a comfortable lead, go with a by committee approach once the starter is out. If it's a tight game, may need to use some of our better relievers. Clearly, with the national seed at play, UK does not need to slip up before the trip to Florida.
The problem is that even Schaenzer is a very valuable weekend arm. We've been fortunate this year in that there have been very few outings where we've needed middle or long relief pitchers in 3 straight weekend games. We've either been in close battles with great pitching or we've blown some people out in games. We will face our biggest pitching challenge this weekend and we may need every arm possible.
True, but we cannot in any way, lose to a 21-30 team from the Horizon league at home. Use several pitchers 1, or 2 innings at most. But we need to win tonight.
I think I would start with Thompson and have him throw the first inning. Hopefully UK gets a lot of runs in the bottom of the first and the game basically gets out of reach early. If not, and depending on how many pitches Thompson throws in the first I might send him out for the second. Then I'd throw Schaenzer in the second and hopefully the lead gets bigger in the bottom of second/third. I'd throw Schaenzer for two innings, but try to limit his pitches. I'd probably then throw Cleary for 2-3 innings if I can get it out of him. Then try to get Keen, Smith, Hamilton, Doerries and Maley some work from there. Basically just make sure we get that lead and then we can bring in some of the other guys.
Actually... best case scenario is that we have someone sneak onto the field and do one of the Bull Durham rain outs. This game really only hurts us whether we win or lose.
Actually... best case scenario is that we have someone sneak onto the field and do one of the Bull Durham rain outs. This game really only hurts us whether we win or lose.
watching the fla-ala game and the announcer calling the game asked the color guy what you do to stop the UK bats and he said he thinks UK will have lots of issues with Fla pitching with two of their starters...so then I checked to see that ut beat Fla 2 of 3 in Gainesville so I guess we shall see...#GOCATSI think I would start with Thompson and have him throw the first inning. Hopefully UK gets a lot of runs in the bottom of the first and the game basically gets out of reach early. If not, and depending on how many pitches Thompson throws in the first I might send him out for the second. Then I'd throw Schaenzer in the second and hopefully the lead gets bigger in the bottom of second/third. I'd throw Schaenzer for two innings, but try to limit his pitches. I'd probably then throw Cleary for 2-3 innings if I can get it out of him. Then try to get Keen, Smith, Hamilton, Doerries and Maley some work from there. Basically just make sure we get that lead and then we can bring in some of the other guys.
Actually... best case scenario is that we have someone sneak onto the field and do one of the Bull Durham rain outs. This game really only hurts us whether we win or lose.
The offense seems to overshadow the fact that Kentucky does extremely well on the mound. While we do not have a dominant pitcher like an Alex Faedo or and Alex Lange, we are still tied for the third lowest team ERA in the SEC at 3.38. Our pitching staff has done an amazing job keeping down the number of walks, hits, runs, and earned runs. We're second lowest in all of those categories in the SEC. We just have to keep that up.
Still, they may very well be able to shut us down. They will be one of the best pitching staffs that we've faced this year. However, we have a very good one ourselves. We just need to go out there and play mistake free like we did this past weekend. We may very well struggle hitting Faedo and Singer, but these pitchers have not faced a lineup as dangerous as ours. We're hitting 33 points higher than the next team in the SEC and 56 points higher than Florida. What is interesting is that UK pitching is second best in the league in batting average against at .224. Florida is 10th at .247. So, the hits may very well be there for Kentucky, but as we know, Florida gets a lot of strikeouts and they end a lot of innings without giving up many runs. So, UK has to be able to string the hits together.
We're on the road, which we've done in the past with success at TAMU. We just need to get strong outings out of two of our starters and we need our bats to give us around 5-6 runs a game and we'll be very hard to beat.
Still, they may very well be able to shut us down. They will be one of the best pitching staffs that we've faced this year. However, we have a very good one ourselves. We just need to go out there and play mistake free like we did this past weekend. We may very well struggle hitting Faedo and Singer, but these pitchers have not faced a lineup as dangerous as ours. We're hitting 33 points higher than the next team in the SEC and 56 points higher than Florida. What is interesting is that UK pitching is second best in the league in batting average against at .224. Florida is 10th at .247. So, the hits may very well be there for Kentucky, but as we know, Florida gets a lot of strikeouts and they end a lot of innings without giving up many runs. So, UK has to be able to string the hits together.
We're on the road, which we've done in the past with success at TAMU. We just need to get strong outings out of two of our starters and we need our bats to give us around 5-6 runs a game and we'll be very hard to beat.
They beat us last year at CHS, I know we are light years better this season. We also let UGA come in and spoil our party somewhat.
Excellent points about our pitching staff, they have done very well all season. Hjelle could very well get the best of Faedo on Thursday, and we could pull out the win on Friday or Saturday. UF's recent success has come at the expense of some of the weaker teams Bama and UGA, and having Ole Miss at home. UGA could/should have won 1 or 2 games, and Ole Miss let 1 game get away they should have had.
They haven't seen a hitting team like the Cats yet, and they could certainly beat us 2 games, it will be interesting !
The thing about hitting is that it sometimes comes in waves. There are days or weekends where the bats are hot and everyone is hitting and there are other days and weekends, sometimes the very next day, where you can't hit anything. Against LSU we put up an amazing 12 runs, 5 against their starter in three innings. Then we came out the next day and only scored 3 runs and lost 3-4. Against South Carolina we came out and scored 19 runs, 4 earned against Crowe, and the next day we came back and only scored one run and lost 5-1. The bats are fickle. I hope we're just consistent and are able to put offensive pressure on Florida in each game, and I hope our pitching continues to be as solid as it has been.
Mystery solved, Brad Schaenzer to start tonight against NKU. The Norse are going with Trey Gans a big powerful lefty, who also is hitting .356 with 13 HR. He is a product of Boone County.
I am too, they came in last year and beat us at the Cliff, 1st time ever. UK leads the series 11-1 all time.
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