UK vs Xavier ( Wednesday ) .....

[Black Diamond Cat]

The Cats ( 28-13 ) take on the Musketeers tonight @ 7:00 pm at the Cliff, on the SEC network. Do NOT sleep on this Xavier ( 24-17 ) team.
They have wins this season over Troy, who won at Auburn last night, @ Georgia, @ Southern Miss, and swept all 3 games vs Ohio State.
They are led by jr. 3rd baseman Rylan Bannon, the current Big East player of the week, who is batting .322, with 12 HR, and 33 rbi. The Cats need these mid-week wins to keep up the good record, ranking, and RPI. Auburn and Mizzou both lost games to instate rivals last night, we do not need to.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Well, I believe that they will be starting Trent Astle, who has an ERA up above 6.00. UK should be able to hit him pretty hard and get him out of the game pretty quickly. They also seem to like to use Schramm and Kirschner and both of those have somewhat lofty ERAs hovering around 5.00. So, we should be able to get hits against them, but the guys cannot take them lightly. Xavier should be throwing all the stops at UK in order to try to get a big time win to boost their RPI and their tournament resume. UK just needs to limit losses and make sure that they continue trending upwards in order to fight for that important national seed.

Fun times in bluegrass baseball!!!

 

[Derek Terry]

Well, I believe that they will be starting Trent Astle, who has an ERA up above 6.00. UK should be able to hit him pretty hard and get him out of the game pretty quickly. They also seem to like to use Schramm and Kirschner and both of those have somewhat lofty ERAs hovering around 5.00. So, we should be able to get hits against them, but the guys cannot take them lightly. Xavier should be throwing all the stops at UK in order to try to get a big time win to boost their RPI and their tournament resume. UK just needs to limit losses and make sure that they continue trending upwards in order to fight for that important national seed.

Fun times in bluegrass baseball!!!

Xavier's baseball site has Kirschner as the starter. I have a ton of school work to do but I might take a break and go cover the game tonight.

 

[Derek Terry]

Xavier's not a bad club. 24-17 and coming off a sweep over Butler. Musketeers were a tournament team last season.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Xavier's baseball site has Kirschner as the starter. I have a ton of school work to do but I might take a break and go cover the game tonight.

Thanks, they seem to use a lot of different guys during the midweek, so I think they may really try to do a bit of a committee type thing if Kirschner gets into trouble.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

I have been wondering about why the offense has been so great - what the mechanical and mental approach changes have been from this staff...saw a little bit on the mental side from Mingiones show this week.

They have 8 ways of having quality ABs...could be hit, walk, hbp, and then I would guess moving runners over (SAC, hitting behind etc), long pitch ABs (don't know pitch count), productive out(although a few of these fall into that)...didn't list all 8, so there are a couple remaining......anyways, they want to be at 55% QABs...

Surely this gives the offensive guys a great sense of purpose and guidance.

Would love to get into their mechanics and them attacking early fastballs, shaping counts into hitters counts etc...but oh well, haven't heard them on that yet (may give away their secrets LOL)

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

Xavier is going with Kirschner, a lefty with an era of 4.94. If I were facing UK, the way they are stroking the ball, I would throw as many lefties as possible.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I have been wondering about why the offense has been so great - what the mechanical and mental approach changes have been from this staff...saw a little bit on the mental side from Mingiones show this week.

They have 8 ways of having quality ABs...could be hit, walk, hbp, and then I would guess moving runners over (SAC, hitting behind etc), long pitch ABs (don't know pitch count), productive out(although a few of these fall into that)...didn't list all 8, so there are a couple remaining......anyways, they want to be at 55% QABs...

Surely this gives the offensive guys a great sense of purpose and guidance.

Would love to get into their mechanics and them attacking early fastballs, shaping counts into hitters counts etc...but oh well, haven't heard them on that yet (may give away their secrets LOL)

I would love to see a big time stat breakdown. I would love to know how guys are doing facing righties, lefties, with RISP, etc. Heck, I'd even just like it if they had SEC only stats like they used to have because I'd love to see how some of the guys are doing in league play. I found some SEC stats, but I haven't found a breakdown of UK's SEC stats.

What I did find states that we have the top 3 hitters in SEC play with Pompey hitting .465, Evan White hitting .397 and Riley Mahan hitting .392. We also have the pitcher with the lowest ERA, Salow. That is all extremely impressive, especially Pompey. Hope he continues to be hot.

 

[irishcat1965]

Thompson appears he will make a very good weekend pitcher next year.

 

[irishcat1965]

Is it just me or is there being some odd decision making by the coaches tonite?

 

[BlueRupp]

Good play by Thompson.

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

Enough foolin around, let's get this offense cranked up !

 

[Comebakatz3]

Got to stop hitting into double plays

 

[STUCKNBIG10]

Wasn't crazy about trying to steal home again, but I guess we know that this staff will take chances (and generally most of us like that mentality).

Still 0-0 in fifth, but have a man on first and no outs.

 

[STUCKNBIG10]

Walked Pompey and then a wild pitch so Heady gets all the way to 3rd base. Runners on corners, but no outs.

 

[STUCKNBIG10]

White with a dribbler RBI to second base and was called out at first (though he was safe, it was a bad call).

Cats up 1-0 with a man on 2nd.

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

White with a dribbler RBI to second base and was called out at first (though he was safe, it was a bad call).

Cats up 1-0 with a man on 2nd.

White was clearly safe on that play, 1-0 Cats, going to the top of the 6th.

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

Really enjoy Ben McDonald on the broadcast, he did the Ole Miss-MSU game last night as well. He is really knowledgable about pitching !

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

Not a good 7th inning, starting with an error, then a passed ball, and a walk. Runners on the corners with 2 outs. Then another walk, bases loaded.... Geeze.
Now we are bringing in Cleary.... Hummmm !

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

Not a good 7th inning, starting with an error, then a passed ball, and a walk. Runners on the corners with 2 outs. Then another walk, bases loaded.... Geeze.
Now we are bringing in Cleary.... Hummmm !

Cleary gets it done inducing a fly ball to right, now let's get some offense going !

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

There we go, 5 runs so far in the 7th. White with the 2 rbi double, Reks with the rbi single, and Cottam with a 2 run BOMB !

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

Cats get the shut out win on a night when they didn't have their A game, good sign. Now are 29-13 on the season with a big trip to Columbia S C coming up. Final UK 6 Xavier 0.

 

[Old_Red]

I had to record and watch it later. It looked consistent with what they've done all season. A little bit of concern about the bullpen and fielding, but they get the shutout against a decent Xavier team that likely makes the NCAA. Thompson looked very good and Salow was good. Cleary got the job done. Pop did show control and Machamer had bad luck with the error on his first batter.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Now RPI ranking is 4th.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I had to record and watch it later. It looked consistent with what they've done all season. A little bit of concern about the bullpen and fielding, but they get the shutout against a decent Xavier team that likely makes the NCAA. Thompson looked very good and Salow was good. Cleary got the job done. Pop did show control and Machamer had bad luck with the error on his first batter.

Didn't get to watch it. However, I still believe Cleary can be a good aND serviceable pitcher but only as an inning eater rather than a stopper. Let him pitch and inning or two and he'll often get you outs. However, I think he isn't the guy to help you get out of a jam. Also wouldn't have him go through the lineup more than one time.

 

[Old_Red]

Didn't get to watch it. However, I still believe Cleary can be a good aND serviceable pitcher but only as an inning eater rather than a stopper. Let him pitch and inning or two and he'll often get you outs. However, I think he isn't the guy to help you get out of a jam. Also wouldn't have him go through the lineup more than one time.

He came in tonight with the bases loaded and two outs. He got the batter to fly out. I was pretty nervous when I saw it but it worked out.

 

[sluggercatfan]

He came in tonight with the bases loaded and two outs. He got the batter to fly out. I pretty nervous when I saw it but it worked out.

I thought the first 5 innings we were trying to bunt our selves to death.

 

[Comebakatz3]

He came in tonight with the bases loaded and two outs. He got the batter to fly out. I pretty nervous when I saw it but it worked out.

Scary prospect. I'm surprised of the number of the strikeouts he has, but he's given up a lot of hits.

 

[Black Diamond Cat]

I thought the first 5 innings we were trying to bunt our selves to death.

We did go a little overboard with some things, bunting, the attempted steal of home etc. But that's how Coach Minge rolls, he has the Cats in the National seed picture.

 

[sluggercatfan]

Thstea

We did go a little overboard with some things, bunting, the attempted steal of home etc. But that's how Coach Minge rolls, he has the Cats in the National seed picture.

The steal at home was "very" close, but I just have a problem with taking the bat out of a 300+ hitters hands and bunting with two srikes.