UK vs UT Saturday finale.......

[CloverforkCat]

Cats vs Vols @ noon, on FSS with Dave Baker and Larry Conley calling the action. Cats need a win, and so do the Vols. I really do not have a lot of faith in Nelson on the mound, but may be pleasantly surprised.
Maybe the 8th inning dust up from last night will fire up the lethargic Cats, who seem to think after Thursday night, that they are the 61' Yankees. One game is just that, one game. A true contender knows yesterday means nothing, must stay in the present !

 

[cats1068]

Does anyone know what happened to Barrett? Is he hurt or did he get benched in favor of Wilson? Just wondering.

 

[CloverforkCat]

We go from 15 runs to 2 runs, to no hits thru 5 innings on Sat. Hard to figure !

 

[CloverforkCat]

Poor decision not to have Kuhn bunt the runners over. He has struggled as of late, that would have put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, and Reed up. Chances are we would have gotten at least 1 run.

 

[blufvr4evr]

Poor decision after poor decision with this coach''''''lethargic''''''''''

 

[DubyaT]

UK loads the bases with no outs in the top of the 7th with BB, HBP, and fluke bunt single and only gets a single run out of it. Really bad. Shelby strikes out on 3 straight pitches, the last of which was nearly in the dirt. Cousino then hits it hard but second baseman makes a great play to get an out at second. Kuhn then swings at a first pitch and hits a lazy grounder to third. UK down 5-1 in bottom of the 7th.

 

[DubyaT]

UK falls 5-1, dropping the series to a UT team that's not all that great and moving to a horrendous 1-5 over the last 2 SEC series. Very disappointing. UK now has 2 SEC series remaining against teams towards the bottom of the standings. They continue the poor play and the Cats could conceivably miss out on Hoover. At the very least they've played themselves to a poor seed and really jeopardized NCAA tournament berth changes again.

 

[Chump Change X]

Another stumbling finish to the season. Anyone surprised?

 

[Comebakatz3]

Henderson with a lot of questionable moves in this series. We barely touched the bullpen. Today, down 2 runs and needing a win, Henderson played for the big inning by letting Kuhn swing away rather than bunt the runners over. That ended with no runs getting across. Then, later in the game, with no outs and the bases loaded Shelby comes to the plate and strikes out. He swung at three straight balls at a time that Cox was struggling to throw strikes. That was bad, not to mention that the infield was playing back in double play depth and would have been a perfect time for a possible squeeze for a hit to get us to the top of the lineup with no outs.

Another dumb thing that Henderson happened when Serrano went to the mound to talk to Cox, I believe just before Reida put the bunt down, and then the umpire went out and joined the conversation for another 30 seconds, at least. Henderson never moved to complain that the umpire was allowing the very long mound visit to continue and then when the umpire joined in he never even budged. I would have been pretty livid if I were Henderson, especially since it was at a time in the game where UT had just gotten their bullpen up and it really looked like a visit to buy some time for them to warm up.

Also, I am sorry but it is time to bring back Cody and Shepherd into the starting lineups. Dwyer has never really shown me any consistency in his almost two years here, and Nelson has done okay, but both have ERAs over 4.50, and that just isn't going to cut it. Shepherd went 5 yesterday so I think he is fine to return.

At the end of today's game I yelled for Henderson to do us a favor and resign... hopefully he takes my demand to heart. haha

 

[CoachZ77]

For the people who mention him not having Kuhn bunt (and keep in mind I wasn't there and didn't see it), but wouldn't Tennessee have then walked AJ Reed and taken the bat out of the hands of the best player in the country?

 

[Comebakatz3]

Originally posted by CoachZ77:
For the people who mention him not having Kuhn bunt (and keep in mind I wasn't there and didn't see it), but wouldn't Tennessee have then walked AJ Reed and taken the bat out of the hands of the best player in the country?

More than likely, but Kuhn went 1 for 12 on the weekend. He was not seeing the ball well at all. He had 7 strikeouts this weekend... that is just terrible. So, to expect him to hit there was probably pretty unlikely. Bernal didn't have an amazing weekend either, but I still want the opportunity to score with 1 out by a sac fly or hit. Plus it puts a whole lot more pressure on the pitcher to throw strikes and not make mistakes.

I think if this game were earlier in the year then it wouldn't be too bad for us to try for a big inning there, but at that point we didn't have a hit and hadn't even really hit the ball hard at all. Plus it is late in the season and we REALLY needed this win. So, I would just put as much pressure on the pitcher as possible.

Here are the standings, if I am not mistaken:

1. Florida (16-6) (Leading Alabama in the 6th)
2. Ole Miss (15-8)
3. LSU (13-9)
4. Alabama (13-9)
5. Vanderbilt (13-10)
6. South Carolina (13-10)
7. Miss. State (12-10) (Plays Auburn tonight at 7)
8. Texas A&M (11-12)
9. Arkansas (10-13)
10. Tennessee (10-14)
11. Kentucky (10-14) (Here only because UT owns tiebreaker)
12. Auburn (9-13)
13. Georgia (8-14)
14. Missouri (6-17)

I may not have this exactly right, and it is hard to really tell because UK and UT are a game ahead of everyone, and two games ahead of a couple. Still, you can see just how close Kentucky is to staying home rather than going to Hoover. We have two HUGE series coming up and those will decide our fate. A win against Tennessee would have rally been huge in terms of moving us towards the middle of the pack rather than the bottom. We don't take care of business the next two weekends and we can kiss this season goodbye. If you ask me I don't see any way we make the NCAA tournament if the seeding decision went down today. The 11th team in the SEC just does not make the NCAA tournament. But for our very tough schedule and high RPI we would not be considered at all at this point.

 

[CloverforkCat]

Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
Henderson with a lot of questionable moves in this series. We barely touched the bullpen. Today, down 2 runs and needing a win, Henderson played for the big inning by letting Kuhn swing away rather than bunt the runners over. That ended with no runs getting across. Then, later in the game, with no outs and the bases loaded Shelby comes to the plate and strikes out. He swung at three straight balls at a time that Cox was struggling to throw strikes. That was bad, not to mention that the infield was playing back in double play depth and would have been a perfect time for a possible squeeze for a hit to get us to the top of the lineup with no outs.

Another dumb thing that Henderson happened when Serrano went to the mound to talk to Cox, I believe just before Reida put the bunt down, and then the umpire went out and joined the conversation for another 30 seconds, at least. Henderson never moved to complain that the umpire was allowing the very long mound visit to continue and then when the umpire joined in he never even budged. I would have been pretty livid if I were Henderson, especially since it was at a time in the game where UT had just gotten their bullpen up and it really looked like a visit to buy some time for them to warm up.

Also, I am sorry but it is time to bring back Cody and Shepherd into the starting lineups. Dwyer has never really shown me any consistency in his almost two years here, and Nelson has done okay, but both have ERAs over 4.50, and that just isn't going to cut it. Shepherd went 5 yesterday so I think he is fine to return.

At the end of today's game I yelled for Henderson to do us a favor and resign... hopefully he takes my demand to heart. haha

Some great points made here. Kuhn was terrible this series, after being very consistent all year. I would have pinch hit more in the later third of the game. Agree about Cody and Shepherd being back in the rotation, I would actually start Cody Friday night, since we seem to have our best offense on Fridays, then go with AJ Reed, and Shepherd on Sunday.

 

[cats1068]

Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
Henderson with a lot of questionable moves in this series. We barely touched the bullpen. Today, down 2 runs and needing a win, Henderson played for the big inning by letting Kuhn swing away rather than bunt the runners over. That ended with no runs getting across. Then, later in the game, with no outs and the bases loaded Shelby comes to the plate and strikes out. He swung at three straight balls at a time that Cox was struggling to throw strikes. That was bad, not to mention that the infield was playing back in double play depth and would have been a perfect time for a possible squeeze for a hit to get us to the top of the lineup with no outs.

Another dumb thing that Henderson happened when Serrano went to the mound to talk to Cox, I believe just before Reida put the bunt down, and then the umpire went out and joined the conversation for another 30 seconds, at least. Henderson never moved to complain that the umpire was allowing the very long mound visit to continue and then when the umpire joined in he never even budged. I would have been pretty livid if I were Henderson, especially since it was at a time in the game where UT had just gotten their bullpen up and it really looked like a visit to buy some time for them to warm up.

Also, I am sorry but it is time to bring back Cody and Shepherd into the starting lineups. Dwyer has never really shown me any consistency in his almost two years here, and Nelson has done okay, but both have ERAs over 4.50, and that just isn't going to cut it. Shepherd went 5 yesterday so I think he is fine to return.

At the end of today's game I yelled for Henderson to do us a favor and resign... hopefully he takes my demand to heart. haha

Don't forget Cousino and Kuhn swinging at the first pitch after Shelby's K when the pitcher was struggling,

 

[Comebakatz3]

Originally posted by cats1068:

Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
Henderson with a lot of questionable moves in this series. We barely touched the bullpen. Today, down 2 runs and needing a win, Henderson played for the big inning by letting Kuhn swing away rather than bunt the runners over. That ended with no runs getting across. Then, later in the game, with no outs and the bases loaded Shelby comes to the plate and strikes out. He swung at three straight balls at a time that Cox was struggling to throw strikes. That was bad, not to mention that the infield was playing back in double play depth and would have been a perfect time for a possible squeeze for a hit to get us to the top of the lineup with no outs.

Another dumb thing that Henderson happened when Serrano went to the mound to talk to Cox, I believe just before Reida put the bunt down, and then the umpire went out and joined the conversation for another 30 seconds, at least. Henderson never moved to complain that the umpire was allowing the very long mound visit to continue and then when the umpire joined in he never even budged. I would have been pretty livid if I were Henderson, especially since it was at a time in the game where UT had just gotten their bullpen up and it really looked like a visit to buy some time for them to warm up.

Also, I am sorry but it is time to bring back Cody and Shepherd into the starting lineups. Dwyer has never really shown me any consistency in his almost two years here, and Nelson has done okay, but both have ERAs over 4.50, and that just isn't going to cut it. Shepherd went 5 yesterday so I think he is fine to return.

At the end of today's game I yelled for Henderson to do us a favor and resign... hopefully he takes my demand to heart. haha

Don't forget Cousino and Kuhn swinging at the first pitch after Shelby's K when the pitcher was struggling,

That has frustrated me for years. We swing ourselves out of rallies sometimes. However, I was more pointing out that Shelby had the opportunity to lay down a bunt that might have really surprised Tennessee and helped us score a run. Instead, we had him swing away, and he did so in ugly fashion.

Here is another fun fact... in the past two games our pitching was so shaky that our pitchers put 3 balls up on the count a total of 19 times. Not sure how you expect to win giving up that many walks and throwing that many pitches.

Even worse, UT walked more batters today that UK did and yet UK failed to hit the ball and take advantage of the walks.

 

[Tskware]

Originally posted by Chump Change X:
Another stumbling finish to the season. Anyone surprised?

Not me, it is hard to get excited about the baseball team. Seen this movie several times, and it always has the same ending.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Originally posted by Tskware:

Originally posted by Chump Change X:
Another stumbling finish to the season. Anyone surprised?

Not me, it is hard to get excited about the baseball team. Seen this movie several times, and it always has the same ending.

The crappy thing is that at one point we played a very crappy early season schedule and it seemed like we were better than we were because the crappy OOC schedule. This year, on the other hand, we have played the second hardest schedule in the country and we have beaten some of the best teams in the nation. However, we have also lost to the teams that we should beat (Missouri, Tennessee, & Alabama). Change those series around and we aren't worrying abut making the tournament. I mean, Mizzou has only 6 SEC and 2 of them came against us! Ugh...