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Tulane @ Rice Friday game
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elf owl Offline
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Post: #61
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
Infield single loads the bases. Trouble.
03-29-2013 09:17 PM
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Ranger Offline
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Post: #62
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
Infield hit. Bases loaded. Probably need to go to the pen for a fresh arm.
03-29-2013 09:18 PM
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elf owl Offline
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Post: #63
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
It's never easy for us.
03-29-2013 09:18 PM
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elf owl Offline
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Post: #64
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
Whew. Fly out to right for out number three. Owls win 6-3.
03-29-2013 09:20 PM
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d1owls4life Offline
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Post: #65
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
And Zech wiggles off the hook. Well done guys! Let's get the sweep!
03-29-2013 09:20 PM
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Ranger Offline
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Post: #66
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
Pheewww. We better find someone else to augment Lemond in the pen. One guy cannot do it all.
03-29-2013 09:20 PM
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elf owl Offline
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Post: #67
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
Sweep.
03-29-2013 09:21 PM
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waltgreenberg Offline
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Post: #68
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
Second consecutive all-around effort (save for those two unearned runs). The hitting is definitely heating up, though the offense is still frustratingly inefficient for the number of hits and baserunners we are generating. However, over the past week we have suddenly exhibited a dramatic increase in free pass frequency...and that's a very good thing. And for the second game in a row the bunting was consistently well executed. Let's keep it up. Another big win clinches our 6 consecutive weekend series of the season. Well done, guys!

Game Ball #1: Jordan Stephens (W, 4-2, 6.2 IP, 8 hits (all singles), 3 runs, but only 1 earned, 2 BBs, 4 Ks) has been our most consistent starter this year, and has yet to turn in a sub-par performance. A big part of his success has been keeping free passes to a minimum.

Game Ball #2: The offensive trio of Michael Aquino (3-5, double, 1 run scored, 1 RBI), Geoff Perrott (2-3, HBP, run, RBI) and Skyler Ewing (3-4, double, run , RBI).

Game Ball #3: Zech Lemond (Save #8, 2.1 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 1 K) couldn't resist giving us a living drama after retiring the first 6 batters he faced, but it the end he got the job done. Positioning himself as CUSA Pitcher of the Week with 3 saves already, and very quickly establishing himself as a candidate for the Fireman of the Year watch list. Keep it up, Zech!

Big win, but we cannot be satisfied with simply a home series victory. We need to keep pace with UH and go for the series sweep tomorrow in order to stay close to the top of the conference standings. We go against a southpaw tomorrow, so I'm expecting a big day from Aquino, Ratterree, Ewing and Perrott. Let's take care of business. Go Owls!
03-29-2013 09:34 PM
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elf owl Offline
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Post: #69
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
Ewing is up to .270. very encouraging as he has hovered around .140 for the longest time.
03-29-2013 09:41 PM
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smackdaddy Offline
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Post: #70
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
(03-29-2013 09:11 PM)elf owl Wrote:  I just noticed that the Rice players are running into the wrong dugout on Gametracker. For some reason this bothers me.

Classic OG using that clever ol' gambit to unnerve the Tulane players.
03-29-2013 10:25 PM
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smackdaddy Offline
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Post: #71
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
...AND WE STILL HAVEN'T LOST A WEEKEND SERIES!!! 03-wink Way to go, Owls. Go for the sweep tomorrow and a 5-1 CUSA record. Loved the aggressiveness on the basepaths tonight (even if it didn't always work out). I think that stealing rattles a lot of college pitchers; who knows how much that factored into all of the Tulane walks given up tonight. It's the little things, and we've got the master of such details in our dugout. Great job, Jordan, Zech, and the whole team.
03-29-2013 10:29 PM
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westsidewolf1989 Offline
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Post: #72
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
(03-29-2013 09:20 PM)Ranger Wrote:  Pheewww. We better find someone else to augment Lemond in the pen. One guy cannot do it all.

Agreed. When you have 8 guys (out of ~15-18 pitchers) pitching 93% of your innings, you're going to run into trouble/fatigue eventually. We need people to step up on our pitching staff, not just on offense. Anyone know anything about Fant? Had a hell of a 2011 season, injured for 2012, then was working his way back from an injury at the beginning of this season, but has only pitched one inning. Is he still on the team?

That said, another solid win, and hopefully we can close the series with a sweep. I'm fine with having some more .750 and .800 winning percentage weeks.
03-29-2013 10:38 PM
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waltgreenberg Offline
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Post: #73
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
(03-29-2013 10:38 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  
(03-29-2013 09:20 PM)Ranger Wrote:  Pheewww. We better find someone else to augment Lemond in the pen. One guy cannot do it all.

Agreed. When you have 8 guys (out of ~15-18 pitchers) pitching 93% of your innings, you're going to run into trouble/fatigue eventually. We need people to step up on our pitching staff, not just on offense. Anyone know anything about Fant? Had a hell of a 2011 season, injured for 2012, then was working his way back from an injury at the beginning of this season, but has only pitched one inning. Is he still on the team?

That said, another solid win, and hopefully we can close the series with a sweep. I'm fine with having some more .750 and .800 winning percentage weeks.

Just as an FYI, I would imagine most, if not every quality college team has their top 8 pitchers pitching 90+% of all innings pitched. This is not unusual in the slightest. Yes, the last couple years was an exception for us, but it is very rare that a team has 5 quality relievers as we have had (e.g., Wall, Simms, Lemond, Duffey, Chargois...and the year before with Gonzales and Cingrani replacing Lemond and Chargois).
03-29-2013 10:42 PM
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wheredidmypantsgo Offline
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Post: #74
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
The problem is our offense isn't giving us any breathing room, which leads us to using the same pitchers over and over because we can't trust other guys. An offensive eruption could fix this and get other arms some innings
03-29-2013 10:44 PM
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gmath Offline
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Post: #75
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
(03-29-2013 10:44 PM)wheredidmypantsgo Wrote:  The problem is our offense isn't giving us any breathing room, which leads us to using the same pitchers over and over because we can't trust other guys. An offensive eruption could fix this and get other arms some innings

Chill out pants be gone -- for the second straight night the Rice boys were ripping the cover off the ball. For what its worth, I've seen Rice, UT and UH play in the last few days and Rice is hitting the ball with way more authority. Last night Stringer hit one to the RF wall that would have been out but for the wind; and a sure fire triple was saved by a sliding save by the Tulane RF on a great play (even the beer drinkers in the Roost praised the Tulane play, self included). Tonight, I saw multiple balls hit well, including Aquino's ball to the wall (LF) in the 9th that again was thwarted by Tulane's RF and two robbed hits by Ratt that would've been doubles but for excellent fielding by Tulane. I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the Rice bats.
03-29-2013 11:26 PM
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waltgreenberg Offline
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Post: #76
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
(03-29-2013 11:26 PM)gmath Wrote:  
(03-29-2013 10:44 PM)wheredidmypantsgo Wrote:  The problem is our offense isn't giving us any breathing room, which leads us to using the same pitchers over and over because we can't trust other guys. An offensive eruption could fix this and get other arms some innings

Chill out pants be gone -- for the second straight night the Rice boys were ripping the cover off the ball. For what its worth, I've seen Rice, UT and UH play in the last few days and Rice is hitting the ball with way more authority. Last night Stringer hit one to the RF wall that would have been out but for the wind; and a sure fire triple was saved by a sliding save by the Tulane RF on a great play (even the beer drinkers in the Roost praised the Tulane play, self included). Tonight, I saw multiple balls hit well, including Aquino's ball to the wall (LF) in the 9th that again was thwarted by Tulane's RF and two robbed hits by Ratt that would've been doubles but for excellent fielding by Tulane. I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the Rice bats.

+1. Still considerable room for improvement-- particularly in the area of run production and overall offensive efficiency, BUT the team is now hitting .279/.370/.358, with only one regular is hitting below .260...and this improvement has occurred over the past 2+ weeks with Hoelscher out, and both Stringer and Teykl mired in extended slumps. Equally important, at least IMO, is the gap between free passes received (now at 147 for the season) and strikeouts (158) has closed considerably. Once free passes exceeds strikeouts, our efficiency should improve significantly.
03-30-2013 08:51 AM
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Ranger Offline
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Post: #77
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
(03-30-2013 08:51 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  
(03-29-2013 11:26 PM)gmath Wrote:  
(03-29-2013 10:44 PM)wheredidmypantsgo Wrote:  The problem is our offense isn't giving us any breathing room, which leads us to using the same pitchers over and over because we can't trust other guys. An offensive eruption could fix this and get other arms some innings

Chill out pants be gone -- for the second straight night the Rice boys were ripping the cover off the ball. For what its worth, I've seen Rice, UT and UH play in the last few days and Rice is hitting the ball with way more authority. Last night Stringer hit one to the RF wall that would have been out but for the wind; and a sure fire triple was saved by a sliding save by the Tulane RF on a great play (even the beer drinkers in the Roost praised the Tulane play, self included). Tonight, I saw multiple balls hit well, including Aquino's ball to the wall (LF) in the 9th that again was thwarted by Tulane's RF and two robbed hits by Ratt that would've been doubles but for excellent fielding by Tulane. I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the Rice bats.

+1. Still considerable room for improvement-- particularly in the area of run production and overall offensive efficiency, BUT the team is now hitting .279/.370/.358, with only one regular is hitting below .260...and this improvement has occurred over the past 2+ weeks with Hoelscher out, and both Stringer and Teykl mired in extended slumps. Equally important, at least IMO, is the gap between free passes received (now at 147 for the season) and strikeouts (158) has closed considerably. Once free passes exceeds strikeouts, our efficiency should improve significantly.

Never ceases to amaze me that you guys can think that one or two games is a trend that reverses a much longer standing trend. Pants and I often disagree, but he is dead on on this one. We have an anemic offense. Maybe it is turned around, but you cannot declare victory after one or two games.

Until there is significantly more evidence that the offense is on track, the best conclusion per Pants is that we have an anemic offense that gives the pitchers little room for error.
03-30-2013 09:22 AM
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Owl 69/70/75 Offline
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Post: #78
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
I wouldn't say we are ripping the cover off the ball. A slash line of .279/.370/.358 is not ripping the cover off anything. For comparison, the 2003 team had an OPS 111 points higher at .839, and while that was a different era, they were more highly regarded for pitching and defense than ripping the cover off the ball. But the trendline is improving. Is that because we are improving or because the quality of our opposition is getting worse? For now, let's be optimistic and say the former.

Most encouraging sign to me is that walks are catching up with K's. Do we have stats on pitches per plate appearance? I've never seen any, just wondering. Against NCAA pitching staff depth, getting pitch counts up is a significant offensive component. Get into their bullpens and lengthen the game.
(This post was last modified: 03-30-2013 09:41 AM by Owl 69/70/75.)
03-30-2013 09:37 AM
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greyowl72 Offline
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Post: #79
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
I agree with Owl69/70/75. We are making significant contact with the ball that we weren't a few weeks ago. I was at the Minute Maid and we had trouble getting the ball out of the infield. Last night we had lots of hard contact.. Some directly to our opponents.. But contact nevertheless.
And much better plate discipline with the walks. Much better.
03-30-2013 10:41 AM
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waltgreenberg Offline
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Post: #80
RE: Tulane @ Rice Friday game
(03-30-2013 10:41 AM)greyowl72 Wrote:  I agree with Owl69/70/75. We are making significant contact with the ball that we weren't a few weeks ago. I was at the Minute Maid and we had trouble getting the ball out of the infield. Last night we had lots of hard contact.. Some directly to our opponents.. But contact nevertheless.
And much better plate discipline with the walks. Much better.

Yup...and we've faced two very good pitchers this weekend. Last weekend we were inefficient against USM's Pierce, but we did hit him hard early and really worked the pitch count. Competition the past two weeks has been superior to the competition the previous two weeks.
03-30-2013 10:53 AM
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