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Men 2022 UConn Baseball @ NCAA Tournament’s Palo Alto, CA. Super-Regional vs #2 Stanford
- Thread starter huskymedic
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Let's get real for a moment. This team has exceeded all expectations. Does anyone think that a high school stud wants to come play in New England with 30-40 degree temperatures at the beginning of the season in February, followed by the first 15-20 games on the road? Jim takes the overlooked prospect and turns him into a bonafide D1 player. We will never have SEC/Pac 12/ACC/Big 12 caliber players. Geography, climate and P5 affiliation preclude our entry into that fraternity.
Sweet sixteen has been a terrific accomplishment. This isn't basketball. Baseball is not played indoors!
Well done, Jim...................and your players. I am proud of you.
Sweet sixteen has been a terrific accomplishment. This isn't basketball. Baseball is not played indoors!
Well done, Jim...................and your players. I am proud of you.
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This was a great season, made greater by how unexpected it was to be this good. And we lost to a better team. We may find out we lost to the best team in the country. On the road.
That having been said, you want to end your season playing your best and losing to a better team. The last two days were far, far from our best. No one is trashing anything by noticing that.
That having been said, you want to end your season playing your best and losing to a better team. The last two days were far, far from our best. No one is trashing anything by noticing that.
As @scotty0330 no doubt remembers, these UConn baseball threads don't totally fade out during the summer. Three main things to keep track of in terms of UConn baseball during this time.
One, as I'm guessing what @scotty0330 is alluding to, various UConn players and recruits will end up playing in various collegiate summer ball leagues. I find that always interesting to keep track off, especially after UConn baseball issues a release on where various players are going to play. I'm thinking that could come out in a week or so. Just so happens that two college summer league teams are playing at Dodd Stadium in Norwich this summer, the Norwich Sea Unicorns of the Futures League, and the Mystic Schooners of the NECBL, so there are plenty of potential games for me and my wife to watch.
Two, UConn baseball's recruiting commitments really kicks up during the summer and fall months. Always interesting to see who is committing to play with the program during that time, whether they are committing from high school or as some sort of transfer from another college.
And third, there is the MLB draft. Always exciting to see UConn players get picked. Never bothers me all that much when a player with college eligibility leaves the UConn program to go pro, since you have to expect that to happen with a quality college baseball program. It's a part of college baseball life, so to speak.
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Morton Center!
I tend to doubt that Broadhurst will be at 1B, but we'll see. Kevin Ferrer graduated, but if he has eligibility remaining. If he comes back and remains healthy, he could potentially add a very nice bat to the lineup.
I'm inclined to think that Gallagher will probably be drafted, but we'll see on that one. The starting rotation will need to be rebuilt. It would seem likely that Ian Cooke will end up as a weekend starter.
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huskypantz
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Really proud of the entire team. It is amazing what Penders pieced together into a near elite lineup. I can’t help but think how Reggie could have impacted a few outcomes but ultimately these kids were phenomenal. Stanford is crazy good - arm after arm and incredible hitters. No shame in a tough series that got away from them on the road. Our departing players are going out on a high note.
Also want to say thanks to the fellow posters who stuck around from the start and those who joined us for the incredible finish. @ucjoet @dbmill @huskymedic and others for the posts, updates, prognostications. It’s been a blast. Appreciate you all.
Also want to say thanks to the fellow posters who stuck around from the start and those who joined us for the incredible finish. @ucjoet @dbmill @huskymedic and others for the posts, updates, prognostications. It’s been a blast. Appreciate you all.
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Nice year great run. Needed to get more after the 3 in the first with them loaded and no one out. Killer not adding on, 3rd too I think loaded with 1 out. Oh well they need pitching for sure, way too many very hittable arms in ‘pen.
uconnbaseball
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Our freshman pitchers looked better than the frosh that Stanford and Maryland ran out. I am confident in afthim, sully, cooke going forward. Even the lefty really showed something.
Most concerned about corner infield and outfield defense. A stud transfer pitcher would also help.
In addition to Cooke, Afthim, and Sullivan, I'm inclined to think that freshman Braden Quinn could be a good arm going forward as well. Also, Chris Jones has mention a few times during game broadcasts this season that the coaching staff is really high on freshman pitcher Tom Ellisen, who was redshirted this season.
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Put Morton in CF best arm , speed covers more , hitting …
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Who are we expecting to contribute the most out of the true freshmen? I’d think Ryan Daniels could push to maybe start at 3B and see some regular time. He seems to be coming in with the highest pedigree. But besides him I don’t have a great read on the class. Just from some browsing JJ Hood and Vandewater look promising on the mound.
And we’ll of course see what we can pull out of the transfer portal. Although I must admit to being a little nervous about losing people too, just a tiny bit. I do trust Penders and our culture implicitly, but I’m sure Creighton fans feel the same way about their program, yet Tebrake just turned mercenary and transferred to LSU.
And we’ll of course see what we can pull out of the transfer portal. Although I must admit to being a little nervous about losing people too, just a tiny bit. I do trust Penders and our culture implicitly, but I’m sure Creighton fans feel the same way about their program, yet Tebrake just turned mercenary and transferred to LSU.
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shizzle787
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And with that, my interest (and the majority of the board's interest) in college baseball is back to zero.
willie99
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That's what happened in 2011. I think we gave SC the one competitive game they had for the entire tournament
Kinda like the Twerps in 2002 in March Madness
willie99
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Obviously, the bottom of the fourth, fueled by two errors and one bad break, killed us
The one bad break? Runners on 1st and 2nd and no outs, batter pops up a bunt in foul territory, but Huskies had the wheel play on and the 3rd baseman overran the easy out. That may have resulted in a double play if he was playing back .
Then the inning got really ugly, and we're in a huge hole.
Oh well, it was a fun while it lasted
The one bad break? Runners on 1st and 2nd and no outs, batter pops up a bunt in foul territory, but Huskies had the wheel play on and the 3rd baseman overran the easy out. That may have resulted in a double play if he was playing back .
Then the inning got really ugly, and we're in a huge hole.
Oh well, it was a fun while it lasted
From the February Florida trip, to Penders reprising his role as "Nanook of the North" for the home opener on March 8 vs. UHart, then out to California for a very successful March road trip, then back to the Northeast college baseball grind during the "cruelest month" and a very successful run through the Big East (save the Georgetown debacle weekend) to the great performance in the regionals and a near miss in the SR against a team that probably is the favorite to win it all; I'd say we did damn good! Hats off to Penders and the entire program. You did yourselves and us proud!
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FfldCntyFan
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Only eight schools in all of D-1 went further than us this season. That warrants a tremendous amount of praise and these kids (coaching staff as well) deserve quite a bit of applause and gratitude from us.
It does sting that we did have it within our reach and that a few self inflicted wounds contributed to our demise. On that I feel far worse for the kids who have to live with this than I do for those of us (myself included) who watched from a couch.
One thing that may linger in my thoughts is what could have been if we had pulled this game out. Most of the top schools got knocked off. If we had knocked off #2, the final eight would have been ridiculously low seeded and unseeded. It may be the lowest ever even with Stanford.
Oh well. Back to the drawing board.
It does sting that we did have it within our reach and that a few self inflicted wounds contributed to our demise. On that I feel far worse for the kids who have to live with this than I do for those of us (myself included) who watched from a couch.
One thing that may linger in my thoughts is what could have been if we had pulled this game out. Most of the top schools got knocked off. If we had knocked off #2, the final eight would have been ridiculously low seeded and unseeded. It may be the lowest ever even with Stanford.
Oh well. Back to the drawing board.
It was a helluva season. I was rooting for UConn and ultimately all the unseeded teams to hope it might affect some change in the selection process, as the fact that the Huskies were at best, a bubble team if they slipped up in the Big East tournament is a joke... and ultimately I think their performance, pushing the #2 seed to a winner take all in the Super Regional demonstrated that.. it'll probably be forgotten next year, but I'd like to think they earned a bit more respect from selection committees.
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One more remarkable thing about this season. They played 66 games. Shy of making the CWS, they played as many games as anyone in the country. Over are the days of losing games to weather and playing 75% of the games power programs play. If anything, the Huskies are going the opposite direction with schools cancelling games to preserve their RPI. Come play at UConn if you love to play the game and are tough enough to play in Storrs. Talk about an ethos and standing for something.
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UConn ended up at 26 in the “Live RPI”. It was an impressive run. I think Maryland and Wake would have had the same issues with Stanford. Stanford has the bats to will it all, but the CWS is a pitching depth competition. Fun team to watch. I only wish UConn had Crawford for the year. His bat and arm would have put the team at a different level.
FfldCntyFan
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A handful of thoughts:
I am more amazed now than ever at the talent we had in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 and I will go to my grave believing that being matched up against an experienced (defending
National champion) South Carolina was the only thing that could have kept us from the CWS in 2011.
I keep running scenarios through my head and I can't see how it would be possible to field even close to a complete team with only 11 1/3 (I believe this is the number) scholarships available. I also believe that this hurts us more than schools that would have a legitimate shot at the CWS on a semi-regular basis as there is far more allure to playing at one of those schools on a partial (or no) scholarship.
I still don't see why there isn't a change in how they run the regionals (perhaps similar to the next round, with days off) as basically they are asking teams to play their most important games with whatever they can piece together with the back end of their pitching staffs.
I am not a fan of the slow pitch softball scores that we've seen throughout the tournament and I am very concerned that this is exactly what the NCAA wants. There should be a lot more required in terms of skill than just the ability to put the bat on the ball against the eighth or ninth best pitcher on a team and lazy fly balls should not be traveling out of the park. They should deaden the bats a little and they should require reasonable distances for the fences (I'm talking to both of you Maryland and Georgetown).
I am more amazed now than ever at the talent we had in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 and I will go to my grave believing that being matched up against an experienced (defending
National champion) South Carolina was the only thing that could have kept us from the CWS in 2011.
I keep running scenarios through my head and I can't see how it would be possible to field even close to a complete team with only 11 1/3 (I believe this is the number) scholarships available. I also believe that this hurts us more than schools that would have a legitimate shot at the CWS on a semi-regular basis as there is far more allure to playing at one of those schools on a partial (or no) scholarship.
I still don't see why there isn't a change in how they run the regionals (perhaps similar to the next round, with days off) as basically they are asking teams to play their most important games with whatever they can piece together with the back end of their pitching staffs.
I am not a fan of the slow pitch softball scores that we've seen throughout the tournament and I am very concerned that this is exactly what the NCAA wants. There should be a lot more required in terms of skill than just the ability to put the bat on the ball against the eighth or ninth best pitcher on a team and lazy fly balls should not be traveling out of the park. They should deaden the bats a little and they should require reasonable distances for the fences (I'm talking to both of you Maryland and Georgetown).
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I have no doubt they earned respect, but this team got a lot of respect. Remember, polls all year long ranked us much, much higher than computer rankings.
Unfortunately, while respect carries over from year to year, criteria for seeding doesn't (and shouldn't). We don't want to be penalized because some school was better than us in prior seasons, and we can't expect to be given breaks because of how we played in prior seasons either.
We were killed by our SOS, and even then getting swept at the end of the season by a team not in the top 100 totally and rightfully killed our chances to be on the fringe of getting a regional at home.
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This probably helps us more than it hurts us. We have the best chance to be playing in the NCAAs, and fighting to win regionals, than any other club in the Northeast, and other than Notre Dame any other school in the rust belt as well. The disadvantage in competing against Stanford for west coast athletes is also why we can get a Casey Dana from Seton Hall and have as good a shot as anyway at northeastern players. We gave up ten runs a game this series. Reimagine our pitching if Crawford hadn't gone down, and if we hadn't lost two arms from New England to the first four rounds of the MLB draft.
Northeastern players don't get the national pub that those in the sunbelt do, and due to shorter seasons may be somewhat behind in development, but we are the best drivable option for a large percentage of the country's population.
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Where the south and the west kill us is depth, I think. While CT might produce 5-7 guys a year good enough to play mid/high major baseball (with at least half likely going ACC/Vandy), states like FL and TX literally produce 10 times that. But at the top, I firmly believe our (CT, northeast) best players are just as good as their best players, and it’s going to be about getting enough of these guys wearing the hook C on their caps. I certainly think we can do it, and while I’m bitter about how this season ended, I know the future is brighter than ever.
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I might say it slightly differently. In the sunbelt, you can fill your roster with more polished players. In the Northeast, it takes more time for a lot of players to "get there." So last year, Padilla never got in a game, and Corey Morton barely did other than as a pinch runner, and one year later look at the seasons they have. The flip side, of course, is when you're taking players without polish, you never know for sure that they will get to where you think they might be able to.
So yes, being in the Sunbelt is a huge advantage. My point was that I'm not sure increasing the number of scholarships helps us more than hurts us.
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FfldCntyFan
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I hear what you are saying (and I believe that pitching greatly outweighs everything else, which may somewhat contradict my bext statement) but one thing that still aggravates me is that three starters (including the one and three hitters in their batting order) on Maryland were from Connecticut. One is a neighbor of an acquaintance and I found out late last week that he chose Maryland solely because they offered a full scholarship while we didn't (likely couldn't due the the constraints).
I hate the idea of losing kids in a scenario like that. I understand fully both sides and cannot fault either our staff or the kid and his family but this is a reality that stinks. One thing that bothers me more with this is an example like Matt Harvey, who felt going south (ended up at UNC) would give him significantly more exposure. If we are at a disadvantage both when trying to land top tier kids (when other schools come in) and also when attempting to land next tier kids (due to scholarship constraints), you have to wonder if we can ever truly compete.
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1. Matt Harvey was a number of years ago. We are getting a higher percentage of the best CT kids than we ever did. But we'll always lose some to Vandy and UNC until we break through and start going to the CWS often. Nothing that can be done about that.
2. IIRC, the three CT kids playing for the Terps are all from Fairfield County. You know as well as I do that because it's part of the NY media market, Fairfield County will never be as tied to UConn as the rest of the State in any aspect, including sports loyalty. I think UConn continues to make huge strides in this area, but the average athlete in Fairfield County will never be as emotionally tied to UConn as the average athlete in any of the other seven counties. That's just reality.
3. As for your neighbor getting a better schollie offer from MD than UConn, if we increase scholarships then maybe we keep him from MD but maybe UNC or UVA or Vandy then jumps in to the picture as well. Again, we have a disadvantage being outside the sunbelt, but I don't see any reason to think that allowing more schollies helps us more than it hurts us. The very fact that we were looking at your neighbor and wasn't willing to spend a scholly on him while MD was tells you that they are not ahead of us as a program -- they just had a great year (and still couldn't beat us in their park despite getting to play LIU while we were playing WFU).
Coach Penders has said in several times in past interviews that his goal is to get the best Connecticut players to stay at home and to play for UConn. In these same interviews he has said that if this could be accomplished then he believes UConn baseball would certainly have a team with enough talent to make it to Omaha.
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