RE: Rice-Stanford Sunday game
A very satisfying ending to my personal, season-opening, 13-game stretch watching the Owls at Reckling and in Tucson. I said before making the trip that we needed to post no worse than an 8 - 5 record (given the competition faced) to consider it a good start to the season. We could have and should have done 2 - 3 games better than that had we played defense, but I'll take it. Lots to be encouraged about this team-- the offense has been a revelation, far exceeding anyone's expectations...and the pitching has lived up to the hype, with the depth and quality the best we've seen around Reckling in over 10 years. We've got four newcomers (Salinas, Otto, Amador, Solecitto) earning key roles and performing consistently well; 3 of whom are true Freshmen who will form the nucleus of our staff for another 2 - 3 years...two upperclassmen (Orewiler, Williamson) who have finally come into their own and stepped up big time...two guys still slowly rebuilding arm strength from Tommy John Surgery (Stephens, Pettitte), but who are well ahead of schedule, and already contributing in a limited role...and McCanna, Fox and Ditman providing the veteran, upperclass stability and leadership in the staff.
I'm pretty confident the defense will come around, and you could see the potential for that in a game like this afternoon, when the infield D was flawless, with outstanding individual plays made by everyone.
Today is a perfect example of what this team is capable of when it puts it all together. The pitching was exceptional, the defense was flawless, and the offense and baserunning was relentless and aggressive.
Game Ball #1: Austin Orewiler (W, 2-0, 7.2 IP, 3 hits, 1 run, 2 BBs, 1 K)-- just an outstanding outing from start to finish. Unlike his previous outings, he didn't rack up the strikeouts, but he was very efficient with his pitches and was "throwing ground balls". At one point he retired 10 consecutive batter; 9 of which were on easy infield grounders. By my count there were only 2 hard hits balls off him all game.
Game Ball #2: The middle of the batting order duo of JC Reeves (3-5, double, 3 runs scored, 2 RBIs-- including game-winner in 1st inning) and Connor Teykl (2-3, double, 2 BBs, 2 runs, RBI). That's getting the job done.
Game Ball #3: I could have given it to JWillie Williamson (1.1 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 BBs, 4 Ks), but the game was already effectively over once he got the ball, so I'm giving it to Kirby Taylor (2-5, run, 4 RBIs)-- who broke out of a mini-slump of sorts with the two clutch, two-outs hits that broke open the game.
Onward and upward. Huge mid-week game on Tuesday at TCU. Let's hope Salinas is well enough to get the start, as we'll be going against former Owl commit (traiter!), Mitchell Travers, who has pitched great in his two starts this year after his 2-year recovery from surgery. Go Owls!
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