Single, two KS and a 6-3. I'd say pretty good.

(02-23-2016 10:34 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  Single, two KS and a 6-3. I'd say pretty good.

Thanks...saw his Dad at the Chevy dealership the other day (he is the GM of the Classic Dealerships on Galveston) and as always talked baseball before business so want to send him a congrat note.

I'm glad he's getting his shot and making the most of it. Saw him play as a HS Sr against Tomball Jr's team in the playoffs. He was clearly the best player on the field that day.

(02-23-2016 10:51 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  I'm glad he's getting his shot and making the most of it. Saw him play as a HS Sr against Tomball Jr's team in the playoffs. He was clearly the best player on the field that day.

Of the two brothers he was always the one more heavily recruited.

(02-23-2016 10:34 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  Single, two KS and a 6-3. I'd say pretty good.

My response referenced the 9th inning only (which I see now is what Tiki asked).

Nick threw 3 innings giving up 3 hits, no runs, no walks and 5 Ks. He got the save. Kravetz got the win.

Pretty darn solid performance....once we got the Little League out of our system those first 2 - 3 innings. Terrific job by a trio of pitchers seeing their first extended D1 action against a Top 25 caliber team (surrendering just 6 hits, 1 BB, while striking out 13), and for the first time this year our hitters had a bunch a quality at bats. The offense picked up 9 free passes (all walks) to go along with their 6 singles and double.

Game Ball #1: The true Freshmen RHP duo of Jackson Parthasarathy (4.2 IP, 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, 1 BB, 6 Ks) and Evan Kratetz (W, 1-0, 1.1 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 BBs, 2 Ks). Jackson also made a couple outstanding defensive plays. He really looked good and composed out there; especially considering he had to weather through 5 errors (one later unfairly changed to a hit) over the first 3 innings. Coupled with strong outings by Zach Esquivel and Kendall Jefferies over the weekend, we could have 4 true Freshmen in the pitching staff mix this year.

Game Ball #2: Charlie Warren (2-3, sac bunt, BB, 3 RBIs) who got us back in the ball game with his game-tying, 2-RBI single in the 5th inning.

Game Ball #3: I could have given it to Ford Proctor (1-2, 2 BBs, double, 2 runs scored, whose only out was a laser shot nabbed by the pitcher) or Grayson Lewis (2-4, BB, run, RBI), but I'm giving it to Nick Orewiler (Save #1, 3.0 IP, 3 singles, 0 runs, 0 BBs, 5 Ks).

We need to take care of business tomorrow night vs. Texas State (with the temperatures expected to be even colder than tonight) and take some momentum into our big test on the national stage at this weekend's Minute Maid tournament. Go Owls!

(02-23-2016 11:18 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(02-23-2016 10:51 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  I'm glad he's getting his shot and making the most of it. Saw him play as a HS Sr against Tomball Jr's team in the playoffs. He was clearly the best player on the field that day.

Of the two brothers he was always the one more heavily recruited.

Yup, before his underwent the knife. His fastball sat in the 87 - 88 range and appeared to have good life to it, but when he needed the strikeout, he hit 90 on the gun 5 - 6 times. He has a very nice 76 - 77 Zito-esque, looping curveball. He was overthrowing at times, and fell behind most of the batters, but had the composure to battle back (often from 3-1 counts)...and ended up walking no one.

Still no announcement on probable pitchers for tonight's game vs. Texas State. The Bobcats won 3 of 4 games over the weekend vs. Washington State, outscoring them 31-18-- hitting .301 as a team, with 14 exrabase hits, 21 BBs, 5 sac bunts and 4 SBs. Their pitching was only so-so, but with no game yesterday, their bullpen should be fully rested.

Here's Texas States' individual and team stats over their first 4 games...
http://www.txstatebobcats.com/cumestats....game_stats

Here's the College Baseball Central writeup of last night...

http://collegebaseballcentral.com/notes-...ion/13090/

Quote:Rice bounced back from their series loss to Arizona with a quality 6-2 win over a Dallas Baptist team that was coming off of a sweep of Iowa. The Rice defense was still a little suspect, as they committed four errors, but the overcame those miscues thanks to quality pitching from Jackson Parthasarathy (4.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K), Evan Kravetz (1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K), and Nick Orewiler (3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K). That trio did a particularly good job wit the top of the DBU order, as the top four Patriots hitters went a combined 0-for-16. Conference USA doesn’t always provide the type of quality RPI games that it used to, so wins like this in the midweek are huge for the Owls.

My first game of the year and it was great.

To describe the atmosphere: Very few fans at the game, the wind was whipping thru and at times the pennants were snapping in the wind and making a crazy bunch of noise. The flags in the outfield were generally straight out, but then the wind would swirl and they'd point in another direction. The sand from the basepaths was whipped up into little clouds that got into the batters' eyes.

I went to the gear store mid-game and bought a stocking cap to cover my ears -- not ashamed to admit that I'm not as tough as some of the kids who blithely wore shorts. If tonight is the same, bring a blanket.

(02-23-2016 11:32 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Game Ball #1: The true Freshmen RHP duo of Jackson Parthasarathy (4.2 IP, 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, 1 BB, 6 Ks) and Evan Kratetz (W, 1-0, 1.1 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 BBs, 2 Ks). Jackson also made a couple outstanding defensive plays. He really looked good and composed out there; especially considering he had to weather through 5 errors (one later unfairly changed to a hit) over the first 3 innings.

Jackson would have pitched into or through the 6th if not for the errors and extra batters he had to face. One of the E's was his: A throw in the first inning to try to catch a runner off second that got away and allowed the runner to scoot to third (and later score).

For a while there our season E total exceeded our season R total. Not a good statistic.

Did anyone else notice the defensive changes? Wunderlich for Gray after the dropped fly in LF and Kop for DiCaprio immediately after (next hitter with 1-0 count) a PB/WP with runners on 1st and 2nd.

Wunderlich got his first hit as an Owl last night.

(02-23-2016 11:32 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Game Ball #1: The true Freshmen RHP duo of Jackson Parthasarathy (4.2 IP, 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, 1 BB, 6 Ks) and Evan Kratetz (W, 1-0, 1.1 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 BBs, 2 Ks). Jackson also made a couple outstanding defensive plays. He really looked good and composed out there; especially considering he had to weather through 5 errors (one later unfairly changed to a hit) over the first 3 innings. Coupled with strong outings by Zach Esquivel and Kendall Jefferies over the weekend, we could have 4 true Freshmen in the pitching staff mix this year.

I agree with the general point that Jackson did a great job of keeping his composure despite the very weak fielding support. Between the fielding errors, other poor plays, and the wind, it took a lot of maturity to keep the focus on effective pitching.

However, the forth error in the first inning later changed to a hit, was clearly a hit. It was a fly ball to shallow left field. Tristan Gray had to run in, but did not get in quite quickly enough. It was a make-able play, but with the strong wind to left field, I don't see how you could give Gray an error for not charging in more quickly. He reasonably expected the ball to carry a little further out. The wind resulted in several close calls where the players were misjudging fly balls. The play was originally scored as an E6 which was obviously wrong. But an E7 would have been wrong, too.

In the third inning, Gray was camped directly under an easy fly ball and just dropped it. That was clearly an error. He got pulled after that inning and replaced with Wunderlich.

(02-24-2016 11:07 AM)Old Sammy Wrote:  Did anyone else notice the defensive changes? Wunderlich for Gray after the dropped fly in LF and Kop for DiCaprio immediately after (next hitter with 1-0 count) a PB/WP with runners on 1st and 2nd.

I was glad to see the players being help accountable. Although, I think that Kop for DiCaprio might just have been a trade for better defense (at the cost of offense) rather than coaches really being that upset with DiCaprio.

I was surprised that Proctor was not pulled during or after the first. In past years, Graham has pulled players for for such poor play even if the replacement is potentially worse.

So, it appears we're going to see yet another soft-tossing Freshman southpaw tonight. Hopefully, Dane Myers, in particular, we stop swinging through the soft stuff from left-handers. I'm betting Wunderlich will get the start in LF against another lefty, and wouldn't be surprised if Brewer get the DH tonight instead of Dunlap, who has struck out 5 of his 7 ABs so far this year.

(02-24-2016 11:58 AM)temchugh Wrote:  

(02-24-2016 11:07 AM)Old Sammy Wrote:  Did anyone else notice the defensive changes? Wunderlich for Gray after the dropped fly in LF and Kop for DiCaprio immediately after (next hitter with 1-0 count) a PB/WP with runners on 1st and 2nd.

I was glad to see the players being help accountable. Although, I think that Kop for DiCaprio might just have been a trade for better defense (at the cost of offense) rather than coaches really being that upset with DiCaprio.

I was surprised that Proctor was not pulled during or after the first. In past years, Graham has pulled players for for such poor play even if the replacement is potentially worse.

I was a bit surprised The OG pulled "Leo" when he did-- immediately after the passed ball, which served to show him up, rather than waiting until after the inning. I'm not convinced Hunter is any better at blocking balls in the dirt. He had a rough day himself on Friday, which is likely why DiCaprio got the start the past 3 games.

(02-24-2016 12:03 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  So, it appears we're going to see yet another soft-tossing Freshman southpaw tonight. Hopefully, Dane Myers, in particular, we stop swinging through the soft stuff from left-handers. I'm betting Wunderlich will get the start in LF against another lefty, and wouldn't be surprised if Brewer get the DH tonight instead of Dunlap, who has struck out 5 of his 7 ABs so far this year.

3 of 4 ABs.

(02-24-2016 11:58 AM)temchugh Wrote:  

(02-24-2016 11:07 AM)Old Sammy Wrote:  Did anyone else notice the defensive changes? Wunderlich for Gray after the dropped fly in LF and Kop for DiCaprio immediately after (next hitter with 1-0 count) a PB/WP with runners on 1st and 2nd.

I was glad to see the players being held accountable. Although, I think that Kop for DiCaprio might just have been a trade for better defense (at the cost of offense) rather than coaches really being that upset with DiCaprio.

I was surprised that Proctor was not pulled during or after the first. In past years, Graham has pulled players for for such poor play even if the replacement is potentially worse.

On Kop/DiCaprio it clearly was defensive. Whether it was punitive is a pointless discussion. Dom let a pitch in the dirt get by. It was ruled a passed ball. Kop came in as soon as he could get his gear together, one pitch into the next hitter. Rice pitching throws a lot of pitches into the dirt. If you have trouble blocking them, you're not going to get much time catching. I'm sure that was the message, whether delivered explicitly or implicitly.

Graham is easier on shortstops than others imo. He didn't pull Rick Hague after 4 E's in a single inning in College Station. I also recall his defending Arnold's rather average defense at SS. That said, the problem I had with Proctor was a ground ball to the left of the 2b bag that he pulled up on. I thought he should have tried to make a play on it.

And while I'm thinking about ground balls, my defensive play of the game was Lewis fielding a ground ball behind 1b. Outstanding.

(02-24-2016 12:24 PM)Old Sammy Wrote:  Graham is easier on shortstops than others imo. He didn't pull Rick Hague after 4 E's in a single inning in College Station. I also recall his defending Arnold's rather average defense at SS. That said, the problem I had with Proctor was a ground ball to the left of the 2b bag that he pulled up on. I thought he should have tried to make a play on it.

And while I'm thinking about ground balls, my defensive play of the game was Lewis fielding a ground ball behind 1b. Outstanding.

On the steal to second in the ninth inning, Proctor let the throw get past him into center field. The runner did not advance, so no error, but I could hear a coach yell at him about the need to block the ball.

The play be Lewis was chosen as the "wild play of the game". It was a great play at a point in the game when we really needed it.