(04-18-2014 08:41 PM)That Guy 2012 Wrote:  

(04-18-2014 08:38 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  Is JP broadcasting tonight? No radio feed in the concourse.

Make that Internet feed.

Internet feed of JP has been clear as day for me all evening.

I guess someone forgot to flip the switch.

Kevin gets 3 pitch K for out one. 6-3 for out 2. Long F7 to end it. Great job Kevin.

Superb effort by McCanna. First CG and obviously the first CG shutout by an Owl pitcher this year.

Nice weekend start

Terrific pitching job this evening and a great start to the series. Well done Owls!

Great pitching performance in somewhat of a must win situation.

Helping matters even more is the fact that Old Dominion swept UTSA in a doubleheader today. USM won so we're 1 1/2 games ahead of them. Hopefully we'll put more room between ourselves and UAB (and UTSA) the rest of the weekend. I would think USM would be able to handle La. Tech.

Fabulous Friday pitching performance for McCanna. Hope the Owl sluggers return from vacation on Saturday & Sunday!

Just an exceptional performance by Kevin. That's what pounding the strike zone is all about. First complete game shutout of the season for the Owls, and our 6th shutout. Great defense. Offense did just enough, but BOY are we inefficient-- stranding 11 baserunners, including 5 in scoring position. Our situational hitting is non-existent. At least we got two sac bunts down this time; one resulting in a run.

Game Ball #1: Kevin McCanna (W, 4-2, 9.0 IP, 7 hits, 0 runs, 0 BBs, 5 Ks)-- taking a liking to this Friday night starting thing, as he's now 2-0 since taking over for Zech and Jordan. Of UAB's 7 hits, only 2 made it out of the infield, and one of those was a Texas League bloop. Hope our other pitchers take note what can be accomplished if you only throw strikes and minimize the free passes. Great job pounding the strikezone. By saving the bullpen, there's a chance if Blake is once again on his game to hold Teykl or Deplantier for the start on Sunday.

Game Ball #2: Ford Stainback (1-3, BB, double, run scored)-- both for his offense (his leadoff double turned into the game-winning run) and defense.

Game Ball #3: Could have gone to Charlie Warren (2-4), but I'm giving it to JC Reeves (1-3, RBI) both for the game-winning, two-out RBI, but also for calling a great game at catcher, and his handling of Kevin McCanna.

Tomorrow we go against Jr RHP Alex Luna (9 starts, 5-0, 52.0 IP, 1.56 ERA, .233 BAA, 8 BBs, 37 Ks), who apparently is a side-winding, sinker ball pitcher with great control, who induces a high frequency of ground balls. Could be very difficult for our right-handed guys to pick up the pitches, so we'll need our left-handed guys to pick up the slack and carry the offense. With Fox starting and McDowell under the weather, my guess is we'll see pretty much the same lineup, except perhaps with Williamson as DH instead of Fox (who should be concentrating on his pitching). We gave Mallard his first loss of the season tonight; let's do the same to Luna tomorrow.

One down, two to go! Let's clinch the series tomorrow afternoon. Go Owls!

(04-18-2014 08:52 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Superb effort by McCanna. First CG and obviously the first CG shutout by an Owl pitcher this year.

+1

(04-18-2014 06:27 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  The OG really juggling the lineup tonight...

Quote:Rice Baseball‏@RiceOwlsBSB·23 mins
Starting lineup for the Owls tonight: Cook rf; Warren cf; Reeves c; Ewing 1b; Hoelscher 3b; Teykl 2b; Fox dh; Aquino lf; Stainback ss

...with Blake Fox getting a rare start at DH (instead of McDowell). Slow-tossing right-hander we're facing; meaning we need to go the opposite field against him if we're to be successful.

Lots of 90's from the guy tonight. He seemed to like to pitch high in the zone. It wouldn't surprise me if he threw a four seamer. Rice popped up a lot of pitches tonight and struck out at balls up in the zone.

(04-18-2014 07:12 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Kevin continues to pitch well, despite giving up two hits (ground ball up the middle, bunt where noone covered 1B after Ewing fielded the ball), stranding runners on 2B and 3B (two ground outs, strikeoutKK). Is it possible for this offense to score a run without 3 hits?

Stainback first pitch leadoff double! Can we PLEASE do some executing and situational hitting. Let's not let this pitcher off the hook again. If we don't bunt, then Keenan should try to pull the ball to the right side.
Cook gets the bunt down successfully. Well done. Runner on 3B, one out. Need to put this ball in play-- anywhere.
Warren struck out looking on 3 pitches. Just unbelievable. Our strikeout rate with runner on 3B is incredibly high. Awful fundamental baseball.
Reeves clutch, first pitch, opposite field RBI single! Excellent piece of hitting; going the opposite way.
Ewing flied out to deep LF.

Good guys take a 1-0 lead heading to the top of the fourth inning.

This just in...Reeves might be a pretty good hitter.

(04-18-2014 07:27 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  Ford is looking really good tonight at SS. Nice backhand stop and strong throw to open the T5.

He made a couple of very nice plays tonight, including the play in which he made a throwing error. That was a very nice stop on that play.

(04-18-2014 07:40 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Another 1-2-3 inning by Kevin (ground out, strikeoutKKK, soft liner). Let's add some insurance runs.

Stainback pop up to SS. That's our 6th infield pop of the game.
Cook two-strike single. Runner on 1B, one out. How about a hit and run here...
Warren missed hit and run, with Cook thrown out at 2B. Ugh, but at least we tried to make something happen....single up the middle. Really nice AB by Charlie, as he fouled off around 4 - 5 pitches before getting the single.
Reeves struck out.
We're hitting Mallard, but continuously letting him off the hook. This game is too reminiscent of the Friday game against Hoffman and ECU. Hopefully, a different outcome this time.

Good guys lead 1-0 heading to the top of the sixth inning.

I thought it was a bad call by the umpire on the steal. Cook was tagged at the letters, if at all.

(04-18-2014 08:07 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  UAB has plenty if trick plays. Crazy wheels/pickoffs, outfield decoys on fly balls

None have worked so far

It would have been really cool if the pitcher would have drawn everyone's assignments out in the dirt on the mound before the play. It would even have been better if, as Agosta suggested, that the thirdbaseman had covered first on the play. BTW, wasn't that an illegal procedure because they had two men in motion at one time and no one got set on the play?

(04-18-2014 08:52 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Superb effort by McCanna. First CG and obviously the first CG shutout by an Owl pitcher this year.

Impressive effort to set the tone on the mound like he did. He threw pretty hard tonight with some 93's and lots of 90+. His breaking pitch was sharp, especially early in the game.

A game ball should have gone to the bat boy tonight. A foul ball went back on the net and he came motoring out of the dugout to catch/retrieve it. It took a funny hop off the wire as it started falling from the net. He took one off his lip while catching it. Let the record show that he still made the catch!

(04-18-2014 09:06 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Just an exceptional performance by Kevin. That's what pounding the strike zone is all about. First complete game shutout of the season for the Owls, and our 6th shutout. Great defense. Offense did just enough, but BOY are we inefficient-- stranding 11 baserunners, including 5 in scoring position. Our situational hitting is non-existent. At least we got two sac bunts down this time; one resulting in a run.

Game Ball #1: Kevin McCanna (W, 4-2, 9.0 IP, 7 hits, 0 runs, 0 BBs, 5 Ks)-- taking a liking to this Friday night starting thing, as he's now 2-0 since taking over for Zech and Jordan. Of UAB's 7 hits, only 2 made it out of the infield, and one of those was a Texas League bloop. Hope our other pitchers take note what can be accomplished if you only throw strikes and minimize the free passes. Great job pounding the strikezone. By saving the bullpen, there's a chance if Blake is once again on his game to hold Teykl or Deplantier for the start on Sunday.

Game Ball #2: Ford Stainback (1-3, BB, double, run scored)-- both for his offense (his leadoff double turned into the game-winning run) and defense.

Game Ball #3: Could have gone to Charlie Warren (2-4), but I'm giving it to JC Reeves (1-3, RBI) both for the game-winning, two-out RBI, but also for calling a great game at catcher, and his handling of Kevin McCanna.

Tomorrow we go against Jr RHP Alex Luna (9 starts, 5-0, 52.0 IP, 1.56 ERA, .233 BAA, 8 BBs, 37 Ks), who apparently is a side-winding, sinker ball pitcher with great control, who induces a high frequency of ground balls. Could be very difficult for our right-handed guys to pick up the pitches, so we'll need our left-handed guys to pick up the slack and carry the offense. With Fox starting and McDowell under the weather, my guess is we'll see pretty much the same lineup, except perhaps with Williamson as DH instead of Fox (who should be concentrating on his pitching). We gave Mallard his first loss of the season tonight; let's do the same to Luna tomorrow.

One down, two to go! Let's clinch the series tomorrow afternoon. Go Owls!

A Friday night win usually has me looking forward to the Saturday game. I like watching Fox pitch, so tomorrow looks like a good day to be a Rice Fan.

A couple complimentary quotes from the UAB coach...

http://www.uabsports.com/sports/m-basebl...14aaa.html

Quote:HOUSTON, Texas - The UAB baseball team suffered a 2-0 setback to No. 14 Rice on Friday night on the road. It marked only the second time this season that UAB had been shut out.

"This is as good of a game that has been thrown against us," head coach Brian Shoop said. "He threw 71 percent strikes. He was 50-50 off-speed/fastball, so there was no pattern. No walks and no hit by pitches."

"Chase kept us right in," added Shoop. "We had some chances, but it is hard to generate chances when a guy throws 71 percent strikes and doesn't walk or hit anybody."

"We got a couple of chances with our good guys," concluded Shoop. "I tip my cap to McCanna. That was a heck of an outing."

Kevin gets some national love from Kendall in his Friday recap...

http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View...ticle=9758

Quote:Kevin McCanna, rhp, Rice: The Owls have been dealt a tough hand this season, first losing righthanded pitcher Jordan Stephens to an injury for the season. Now, with righty Zech Lemond still on the shelf, they've needed some guys to rise to the occasion. McCanna did that Friday in a 2-0 win over UAB. McCanna struck out five, didn't walk anyone and allowed just seven hits in a complete game shutout.