Winners of four of it's last five games, the Baseball Owls seek their fourth weekend series victory of the young season (without a loss) at home against the Harvard Crimson (scheduled start times are 6:30pm CT on Friday, 2:00pm on Saturday, 1:00pm on Sunday). With just one week before the commencement of the all-important C-USA conference play, and with five more games remaining in the current home stand at Reckling Park, it's imperative that the team continue its winning ways, work out the remaining kinks (primarily in the bullpen and offense execution) and rebuild momentum and confidence prior to heading off to Hattiesburg, MS on Thursday.

While the first third of the season has certainly brought it's share of frustration, there have also been plenty of positives and encouraging signs, giving hope that this team will only get better as the season progresses. First off, our big 3 pitchers (Kubitza, Simms, Stephens) have been consistently outstanding, and give us a strong leg up entering any weekend series. Second, our infield defense has not only lived up to preseason expectations, but quite possibly surpassed them. Our fielding percentage is not only a lofty .976, but our trio of catchers (Perrott, Ewing, Kopycinski) have thrown out 50% of attempted basestealers (9-18). Finally, and IMO providing the most hope for continued improvement going forward, our parliament of "baby birds" (true Freshmen and returning players who had little or no previous D-1 experience) are beginning to find their wings and take flight as strong contributors to the team's success...and they are likely to only get better as they mature as players and continue to make the necessary adjustments. Leon Byrd has proved to be a spark at the top of the batting order-- he currently boasts a .410 onbase percentage and has been making much better and more solid contact at the plate the past two weeks. Since taking over 3B for the injured Shane Hoelscher, Connor Teykl has been nothing short of a hitting machine, batting over .500 over the past 9 games. Hunter Kopycinski has put together back-to-back breakout games (3 hits, HR, 5 RBIs). On the mound, Blake Fox, Kevin McCanna and Connor Mason have all had positive outings. We've also proven to be road warriors, sporting a 6-1 record after trips to Hawaii and Miami.

However, if we going to go on an extended run and seriously compete for a regional hosting site, the offense must improve it's efficiency and key ptiching arms (including Zech Lemond, Chase McDowell, Evan Rutter, Matt Ditman, Holt McNair) must find a level of consistency and throw strikes. All have shown flashes of brilliance in the early going, but all have also struggled mightily, particularly during the past two weeks. On offense, we continue to struggle with both moving runners into scoring position and getting the key clutch hit or sac fly with runners on base. IMO (and I recognize I'm beating a dead horse here), the biggest problem has been pitch selectivity and our unwillingness (save for only a couple batters) to work the count. It's one thing to be aggressive at the plate, it's quite another to be first pitch swinging on pitches out of the strikezone or against a pitcher with control issues. Though 18 games, our hitters have now struck out 51 more times than they've received bases on balls (121 Ks vs. 70 BBs); a stat that very much impacts offensive efficiency, and one in which we rank well below average nationally (especially amongst the Top 50 teams). More troubling, the disparity between strikeouts and free passes has been worsening as the season progresses; not improving as has been our historical norm (and we usually reach parity between strikeouts and free passes by early-to-mid May). In addition to the benefit of collecting more free passes, we need to make the adjustments at the plate-- and change our approach-- once a batter falls behind in the count. We're taking far too many called third strikes. We need to learn to "waste" those borderline pitches by protecting the plate with 2-strikes and fouling those pitches off. The good news is that such mid-season adjustments are possible, and have been the historical norm....but we need to start making them now.

Harvard comes down to Reckling having played just 7 games so far this season, all on the road, and are currently on a six game losing streak. They've lost their last 3 games (last weekend ) by an aggregate 31-2 margin. In fairness, however, they have played some quality teams, including Virginia (lost two relatively close games), Ohio State and Coastal Carolina. As a team they are hitting just .230/.303/.265, with 7 extrabase hits, 2-6 stolen bases and averaging just 1.9 runs per game. They do have 3 batters (one is platooning) hitting above .330 (Link, Martin, Kregel), but everyone else on the roster is batting below .250. Working to our advantage (given our predominantly right-handed pitching staff), the Crimson's everyday lineup is right-handed laden, with just two left-handed batters who are platoon players (3B Saathoff, OF O'Neill) and they're hitting .056 and .100, respectively. Harvard's pitching has been an even bigger problem, as the staff stats are not impressive: 7.17 era, BAA > .300 (giving up 76 hits in 59.0 IP), 36:30 strikeout:walk ratio. Their three weekend starters (all upperclass right-handers) each have ERAs between 5.14 and 5.59 and, collectively, they've given up more free passes (21) than they've stuck out (17). Their bullpen has fared even worse. This is the weekend for our hitters to show renewed patience. This doesn't mean losing one's aggressiveness or looking for walks; it simply means waiting for a pitch in your zone to hit, and not swinging at bad pitches.

Here are the links to Harvard's schedule/results, individual/team stats (with links to lineup and coaches view with expanded stats) and roster...

http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2013/schedule/Harvard

http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/bsb/2012...ms/harvard

http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/bsb/2012...e-template

http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/bsb/2012-13/roster

On paper, this series is a mismatch (particularly our starting pitching vs. their lineup), and we really need to get a home sweep this weekend. Let's play mistake-free baseball. Let's take care of business. Go Owls!