A look ahead to the first big road trip of the season for the Diamond Dukes (7-1) at Louisville....

...seems like a broken record, but more weather issues likely will alter the schedule in Kentucky this weekend. Friday and Saturday look fine. However, Sunday looks like a complete washout with rain and snow all day (Weather Underground calling for 1-3 inches of snow Sunday). I fully expect a doubleheader to be scheduled for Saturday (or Friday I guess). It will be chilly on Friday and Saturday with temps in the 40's.

Louisville (5-3) has feasted mostly on weaker competition like the DD's have so far this season. They opened the season in Lakeland, Florida, with a 3-game weekend series against UConn. The Huskies took 2 of 3 from the Cards.

They then won a home weekday game over Eastern Kentucky before hosting and sweeping 3 games against Brown last weekend. They lost a weekday game at home to Xavier on Tuesday this week.

D1Baseball.com has the Cardinals ranked #8 in the nation this week. If the Dukes can scratch across just 1 win, I think that is not bad at all. Win the series and it will raise some eyebrows about the team across the D1 Baseball world. Go get 'em, Diamond Dukes!

#8 ranking seems kind of high considering their competition and record.

(02-28-2019 11:13 AM)olddawg Wrote:  #8 ranking seems kind of high considering their competition and record.

baseball ranking tend to be based a lot on reputation and recent past performance for the first 1/4 of the season.

If JMU can get 1 from Louisville, I will consider this a successful trip to Kentucky. Either way it should be a good measuring stick. Louisville has good talent, recruits.

Reminder - Today's game is on WatchESPN app. Hoping to steal a game this weekend would be a huge boost to the team. Will likely come down to how well our pitchers can keep the cardinals in check

Ouch...5 JMU batters, 5 strikeouts

Oof 0-5 5Ks to start the game. Need to attack in the beginning of the AB and not let him get up and dominate. Going to be tough against their ace

Their pitcher is simply dominating. Perfect game with the exception of a HBP and 8Ks through 4. Dukes down 2-0. Announced that tomorrow will be a DH staring at noon (IMO helps our chances of stealing one).

Dukes lose 5-0 and avoid getting no-hit. Gotta tip your hat to theirpitcher, not much can do about that. A couple errors and sloppy play allowed 2 runs. Get the bats going tomorrow and we can play with them

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This was going to be a difficult weekend for the Diamond Dukes, and it got off to a rough start. No where to go but up from here, right?

Down 6-0 bottom of 5th.

And to answer the question it can get much lower. Just give them time.
Cupcake start to the season and the team is showing it’s true colors.

(03-02-2019 01:51 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  Down 6-0 bottom of 5th.

And to answer the question it can get much lower. Just give them time.
Cupcake start to the season and the team is showing it’s true colors.

We are facing a top 10 team in the nation. Inconsistent defense and the inability to control the running game is killing us. The bats will heat up against the CAA level pitchers. These guys are elite pitchers

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(03-02-2019 01:56 PM)jmuduke10 Wrote:  

(03-02-2019 01:51 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  Down 6-0 bottom of 5th.

And to answer the question it can get much lower. Just give them time.
Cupcake start to the season and the team is showing it’s true colors.

We are facing a top 10 team in the nation. Inconsistent defense and the inability to control the running game is killing us. The bats will heat up against the CAA level pitchers. These guys are elite pitchers

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using CSNbbs mobile app

As a hitter, it's incredibly difficult to adjust yourself to that level of pitching when you only face it a couple times a year. Pitchers like that are usually the bulk of the difference between a high mid-major and CWS contender.

Outside of being in an elite conference or getting Nolan Ryan on the mound for JMU batting practice, our run production with rise and fall according to the opposing pitching talent.

Dukes lose 11-1 in game 1, second game starts around 4 also on ESPN app

No one else is probably watching, but the 2nd game of the DH is a heck of a game so far. 0-0 in 6th, both teams with chances and a couple baserunning blunders by both sides have ended rallies

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Dukes fall 1-0 in a really well played finale. Good news is we likely wont face pitchers like this again the rest of the season (minus Call St Fullerton) and our pitchers did well (minus the 2nd half of the middle game where our lack of depth hurt us). Clean up the baserunning, minimize fielding mistakes and we will be just fine when the bats heat up.

(03-02-2019 01:51 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  Down 6-0 bottom of 5th.

And to answer the question it can get much lower. Just give them time.
Cupcake start to the season and the team is showing it’s true colors.

This is an attitude that really frustrates me no matter the sport. Folks constantly complain about the OOC scheduling in almost every sport. When JMU then goes well out of their comfort zone and schedules a team like Louisville ---- preseason top #10 team in all baseball polls with two recent trips to Omaha for the CWS and JMU loses or has a bad outing......the bashing comes out.

Geez you cannot have it both ways. Did JMU hit well enough to win this weekend - NO, but as someone else pointed out pitching is the big difference maker between top 25 programs and the other programs. JMU has what I call one bad game, but made a respectable showing in the other 2. They have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of in their showing at Louisville. Hopefully they learned a few things and will be able to rebound in the next couple of series and then get 1 or 2 from Cal State Fullerton when they play in a few weeks.

(03-04-2019 08:47 AM)ShadyP Wrote:  

(03-02-2019 01:51 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  Down 6-0 bottom of 5th.

And to answer the question it can get much lower. Just give them time.
Cupcake start to the season and the team is showing it’s true colors.

This is an attitude that really frustrates me no matter the sport. Folks constantly complain about the OOC scheduling in almost every sport. When JMU then goes well out of their comfort zone and schedules a team like Louisville ---- preseason top #10 team in all baseball polls with two recent trips to Omaha for the CWS and JMU loses or has a bad outing......the bashing comes out.

Geez you cannot have it both ways. Did JMU hit well enough to win this weekend - NO, but as someone else pointed out pitching is the big difference maker between top 25 programs and the other programs. JMU has what I call one bad game, but made a respectable showing in the other 2. They have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of in their showing at Louisville. Hopefully they learned a few things and will be able to rebound in the next couple of series and then get 1 or 2 from Cal State Fullerton when they play in a few weeks.

JMU should schedule P5s in all sports. Anything less looks like being a regional poser. Wofford's MBB for example scheduled half a dozen P5s, including some top programs, and is currently ranked in the Top 25 despite only beating South Carolina (Stanford was cancelled).

(03-04-2019 10:04 AM)2Buck Wrote:  

(03-04-2019 08:47 AM)ShadyP Wrote:  

(03-02-2019 01:51 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  Down 6-0 bottom of 5th.

And to answer the question it can get much lower. Just give them time.
Cupcake start to the season and the team is showing it’s true colors.

This is an attitude that really frustrates me no matter the sport. Folks constantly complain about the OOC scheduling in almost every sport. When JMU then goes well out of their comfort zone and schedules a team like Louisville ---- preseason top #10 team in all baseball polls with two recent trips to Omaha for the CWS and JMU loses or has a bad outing......the bashing comes out.

Geez you cannot have it both ways. Did JMU hit well enough to win this weekend - NO, but as someone else pointed out pitching is the big difference maker between top 25 programs and the other programs. JMU has what I call one bad game, but made a respectable showing in the other 2. They have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of in their showing at Louisville. Hopefully they learned a few things and will be able to rebound in the next couple of series and then get 1 or 2 from Cal State Fullerton when they play in a few weeks.

JMU should schedule P5s in all sports. Anything less looks like being a regional poser. Wofford's MBB for example scheduled half a dozen P5s, including some top programs, and is currently ranked in the Top 25 despite only beating South Carolina (Stanford was cancelled).

I have no issue with that approach, but the fanbase has to realize that and also not have unrealistic expectations. It definitely prepares you for play later in the season and lets you know where strengths and weaknesses are.

(03-04-2019 08:47 AM)ShadyP Wrote:  

(03-02-2019 01:51 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  Down 6-0 bottom of 5th.

And to answer the question it can get much lower. Just give them time.
Cupcake start to the season and the team is showing it’s true colors.

This is an attitude that really frustrates me no matter the sport. Folks constantly complain about the OOC scheduling in almost every sport. When JMU then goes well out of their comfort zone and schedules a team like Louisville ---- preseason top #10 team in all baseball polls with two recent trips to Omaha for the CWS and JMU loses or has a bad outing......the bashing comes out.

Geez you cannot have it both ways. Did JMU hit well enough to win this weekend - NO, but as someone else pointed out pitching is the big difference maker between top 25 programs and the other programs. JMU has what I call one bad game, but made a respectable showing in the other 2. They have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of in their showing at Louisville. Hopefully they learned a few things and will be able to rebound in the next couple of series and then get 1 or 2 from Cal State Fullerton when they play in a few weeks.

I'll fully admit my negativity is based on history. I didn't expect to win, but I didn't think we'd be outscored 16-1 in two games either. It made us look like a paper tiger. Play easy teams and win, and when we play anyone worth a damn we get crushed. It felt like the same broken record. As a fan, I was venting as so many do here.
Yes, they played MUCH better in the last game against Louisville and they deserve credit for that. I'm just not ready to say our darkest days are over.
I really want this team to prove me wrong. I am just tired of being disappointed watching our baseball team. Last year was incredibly frustrating especially since we lost the opportunity to play in the tournament while we were the host.

This team is the same as since the new coach took over. We can beat bad teams, and we will lose to good teams. I'd guess it will be nip n tuck if we qualify for the CAA tourney.

Was not impressed with the Baseball or Men's basketball hire, and sadly both have panned out as I thought they likely would.

In each case the hire's underwhelmed me. Not sure how that was the best they could find.