Men 2021 UConn Baseball @ NCAA Tournament’s South Bend Regional (6/4 > 6/7) Game 3 v. Central Michigan > Sunday @ 12p on ESPN3/Mixlr

[CL82]

Good night everyone. See you tomorrow

 

[UConNick]

Lost to Coastal in the first game of the 2011 regional 13-1. Won four straight, including revenge over Coastal and a double over regional one seed Clemson.

Let’s go pound CMU and then make Notre Dame need that many runs again.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[BugsyCT]

At least it's only 1 game. Shake it off and come back strong tomorrow. They better be pissed off big time after that.

 

[dbmill]

Question is, do they start Gallagher against Central Michigan, or save him for a potential game against Notre Dame. In my mind, you got to win the first one to get to the second game of the doubleheader, so I'm thinking it will be Gallagher against Central Michigan.

 

[scotty0330]

Yup. Then all hands on deck if they win.

 

[huskymedic]

@Padutch5

 

[businesslawyer]

Saw the score flash over the Fairfield game. Unbelievable. Guess I'll keep watching this one and check in later. Was really lookibg forward to a good game. Was there any opportunity to pull him before they got that far ahead?

Question is, do they start Gallagher against Central Michigan, or save him for a potential game against Notre Dame. In my mind, you got to win the first one to get to the second game of the doubleheader, so I'm thinking it will be Gallagher against Central Michigan.

Gallagher starts game 3. Say 6 innings. Reggie gets game 4 and hopefully gives us 3. Simeone in game 5 and hopefully gives you 3. That leaves 15 innings for the 5 receivers. You have to use them wisely, and folks have to try to get outs with fewer pitches, but it’s doable. Not easy but doable.

But it will take a lot of runs and a good effort by everyone. Beating Central easily, where the Big 5 don’t have to pitch much, would certainly help.

 

[hardcorehusky]

Momentum is only as good as your starting pitcher. Hopefully we take care of business versus Central Michigan and what a hoot it would be if Joe Simeone shut down the Irish in the second game!!

 

[dbmill]

Gallagher starts game 3. Say 6 innings. Reggie gets game 4 and hopefully gives us 3. Simeone in game 5 and hopefully gives you 3. That leaves 15 innings for the 5 receivers. You have to use them wisely, and folks have to try to get outs with fewer pitches, but it’s doable. Not easy but doable.

But it will take a lot of runs and a good effort by everyone. Beating Central easily, where the Big 5 don’t have to pitch much, would certainly help.

Funny thing is, I'm not sure the coaching staff is all that eager to use Crawford as a pitcher, given all the moves it means in the field. I suspect it will have to happen, and if it does, I half expect that he will start game 5 in order to put off that decision as long as possible. The coaching staff likes Crawford's arm, but they sure haven't acted like they really trust him as a pitcher. I suspect in order to get through three games, they are going to have to use him to start one of them.

I'm hoping that if they continue the Reggie pitching experiment next season, that they commit to it and use him as a starter, whether it is in the midweek or on the weekend. Of course, they will need to find someone who can play 1B in the games he starts as a pitcher.

Also, think Garrett Coe should be able to go in one those games, perhaps on Monday. They could certainly use him as well.

 

[Adios]

Golden baseball helmets even?!?! God have mercy on us.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[HCCForever]

Everyone’s a Notre Dame fan except us.

I met several Michigan fans who hate them just as much as us.

 

[HCCForever]

This sure will be cannon fodder for those who deride the Big Least.

Florida got their butt kicked too but in an elimination game and nobody criticizes the SEC. At least UConn was saving their best pitchers. What was Florida’s excuse?

 

[Russ Reserve]

This is both what I would like to see for pitching over the next two days, and what I think Penders' plan will be if UConn is able to advance to Monday.

Game 3 (C. Mich):
Gallagher 6, innings
Wang/Dunlap/Coe 3, innings

Game 4 (ND):
Haus, 5 innings
Wurster, 4 innings

Game 5 (ND):
Simeone, 2 innings
Polonia, 2 innings
Marrero, 2 innings
Willis, 2 innings
Crawford, 1 inning

The bats need to help the pitching staff here and turn one of games 3 or 4 into a slow itch softball score. That will allow a game to be finished by the Wang/Dunlap/Coe trio listed for the last three of CM. Better yet just Wang and Dunlap (assuming they are on the roster), as Coe could be useful in higher leverage spots. Stock could also eat an inning or two in a low leverage situation on Sunday.

Actually, if UConn can get beat CM in game 3, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Wurster start game 4...and go 5/6/7innings. Penders has started his closer in situations like this before.

Potential Monday wildcard: Peterson may normally have a throw day scheduled for Mondays after a Friday start...this throwing might as well occur for a couple of innings in a game.

The plan requires some breaks to be successful but is not unrealistic. Gives me reason to feel both optimistic and doomed.

 

[scotty0330]

Hoping for the pinstripes, Pat Gallagher’s plus stuff and a rematch with ND

 

[lavuuk153]

I’ve had disagreements with people here in years past, but if they lose today I don’t overly care if it’s against cmu or nd. My goal is to win the regional. Having said that, I would save Gallagher for the potential game 4. Game 3 is the one I would gamble with some of the lesser arms.

Either way I’m hoping for a long, happy day of baseball with UConn winning two and the Mets picking up a win in between.

 

[BugsyCT]

Hoping we not just win, but win comfortably to save our pitchers' arms for ND.

 

[JetsUC93]

Sounds good to me with UCONN winning 2, and the METS winning.

 

[businesslawyer]

I’ve had disagreements with people here in years past, but if they lose today I don’t overly care if it’s against cmu or nd. My goal is to win the regional. Having said that, I would save Gallagher for the potential game 4. Game 3 is the one I would gamble with some of the lesser arms.

Either way I’m hoping for a long, happy day of baseball with UConn winning two and the Mets picking up a win in between.

Understand the point, but the choice isn’t Gallagher or someone inferior. Based on the numbers, we will give up less runs with the five bullpen regulars and Crawford pitching a game than Gallagher giving you his 5 to 6 innings. We need the five or six innings at some point if we’re playing 3 games, but that doesn’t make him a superior option.

I’d be shocked if Gallagher didn’t get the ball at noon. And then Crawford and Simeone, in some order, get the ball in the (hopefullly two) effort versus ND, with whatever is left of the bullpen behind them.

And not to jinx us, but if we are comfortably up against CMU, wouldn’t be surprised to see Crawford or Simeone get the last few innings there, keeping the reliable bullpen fresher for ND

 

[huskymedic]

 

[lavuuk153]

Understand the point, but the choice isn’t Gallagher or someone inferior. Based on the numbers, we will give up less runs with the five bullpen regulars and Crawford pitching a game than Gallagher giving you his 5 to 6 innings. We need the five or six innings at some point if we’re playing 3 games, but that doesn’t make him a superior option.

I’d be shocked if Gallagher didn’t get the ball at noon. And then Crawford and Simeone, in some order, get the ball in the (hopefullly two) effort versus ND, with whatever is left of the bullpen behind them.

And not to jinx us, but if we are comfortably up against CMU, wouldn’t be surprised to see Crawford or Simeone get the last few innings there, keeping the reliable bullpen fresher for ND

That’s a good point. I guess without going into the specifics, my overall preference is to save whatever arms you think give you the best chance to beat ND for that game. If it’s more likely Gallagher can just give you length and then hopefully use lower level bullpen arms against CMU, before just doing bullpen days, then that is what I’d do.

 

[Bloomers]

This team does well when up against the wall and having something to prove. I'm confident they'll rebound and come out strong against CM. Hoping for a rematch against ND and the opportunity to show our true colors.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[dbmill]

This is both what I would like to see for pitching over the next two days, and what I think Penders' plan will be if UConn is able to advance to Monday.

Game 3 (C. Mich):
Gallagher 6, innings
Wang/Dunlap/Coe 3, innings

Game 4 (ND):
Haus, 5 innings
Wurster, 4 innings

Game 5 (ND):
Simeone, 2 innings
Polonia, 2 innings
Marrero, 2 innings
Willis, 2 innings
Crawford, 1 inning

The bats need to help the pitching staff here and turn one of games 3 or 4 into a slow itch softball score. That will allow a game to be finished by the Wang/Dunlap/Coe trio listed for the last three of CM. Better yet just Wang and Dunlap (assuming they are on the roster), as Coe could be useful in higher leverage spots. Stock could also eat an inning or two in a low leverage situation on Sunday.

Actually, if UConn can get beat CM in game 3, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Wurster start game 4...and go 5/6/7innings. Penders has started his closer in situations like this before.

Potential Monday wildcard: Peterson may normally have a throw day scheduled for Mondays after a Friday start...this throwing might as well occur for a couple of innings in a game.

The plan requires some breaks to be successful but is not unrealistic. Gives me reason to feel both optimistic and doomed.

From what I can tell, it does not appear that Jimmy Wang or Colby Dunlop are on the post season roster. There is a limit of about 27 or 28 players for the NCAA tourney. I've been counting players used or known to be on the travel roster, and I believe we are at that limit.

One thing for certain. I've been following UConn baseball for a bit over a decade now, and from what I've seen of Coach Penders in this type of situation, he will do everything to maximize his effort to win the first game, and then piece together the following games as they come after that. Based on that, I would expect Gallagher to start against Central Michigan, and things will go from there.