Men UConn & 2023 Big East Baseball Tourney @ Prasco Park, Mason Ohio (5/24>5/27). Gms on BEDN/FloSports. Audio on Mixlr/ESPN 97.9/1300 & Varsity App

[dbmill]

8 walks, 1 hit batter and 3 errors is just not a recipe for success. Need to clean that up today and get back on track. Will be interesting to see who gets the start on the mound.

If its not Sears I would be shocked.

Another problem for UConn is injuries that are picking up to the pitching staff that already has problems that have been mentioned on these threads.

Devin Kirby may not be available to pitch, and not sure what the status of Ian Cooke is as well (I haven't heard Chris Jones say anything about Cooke, but it was mentioned on another post that he probably won't pitch this weekend).

Anyway, I would think it would either be Sears, Ellisen, or Sullivan, with the rest of the bullpen ready to go. Coach Penders was going to drop Sears from the starting rotation before the Cooke injury, so it is possible Sears may be back in it for this weekend due to that injury. Still, if UConn gets to tomorrow, UConn will need 2 more starters if they make it to 5 games this weekend. But first they got to get there.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Shortking98]

Another problem for UConn is injuries that are picking up to the pitching staff that already has problems that have been mentioned on these threads.

Devin Kirby may not be available to pitch, and not sure what the status of Ian Cooke is as well (I haven't heard Chris Jones say anything about Cooke, but it was mentioned on another post that he probably won't pitch this weekend).

Anyway, I would think it would either be Sears, Ellisen, or Sullivan, with the rest of the bullpen ready to go. Coach Penders was going to drop Sears from the starting rotation before the Cooke injury, so it is possible Sears may be back in it for this weekend due to that injury. Still, if UConn gets to tomorrow, UConn will need 2 more starters if they make it to 5 games this weekend. But first they got to get there.

If it's not Sears today, I do think that at some point this weekend they are going to need to get some productive innings from him if they are going to be successful. I know they wanted to move him out of the rotation but with the health of Cooke and Kirby up in the air it's difficult to see a path to the championship that doesn't include Sears stepping up at some point.

 

[businesslawyer]

With Cooke and Kirby out, there is no path to a championship that doesn't include multiple innings from guys who haven't pitched in a "big" moment all year. We have 27 innings left. We will need at least 12 of them between Sully, Sears and Ellison. And, if we're without Kirby and Cooke, there is no plan that isn't focused on just the next 18 innings, knowing that if we get to a winner take all game Saturday night it may take 1 inning each from 9 guys who either aren't trusted or have their arms ready to fall off. But that's where we are.

One guy who will absolutely have to step it up is Afthim. For reasons I don't know, he has really settled in to be a one inning a weekend type of guy. He will almost certainly have to give us more than that over the next 48 hours.

We are not going to win this with our pitching. The bats need to come through big time, so that pitchers who aren't trusted can come in and give us a few innings without risking letting a win get away from us.

 

[Sea Goat]

With Cooke and Kirby out, there is no path to a championship that doesn't include multiple innings from guys who haven't pitched in a "big" moment all year. We have 27 innings left. We will need at least 12 of them between Sully, Sears and Ellison. And, if we're without Kirby and Cooke, there is no plan that isn't focused on just the next 18 innings, knowing that if we get to a winner take all game Saturday night it may take 1 inning each from 9 guys who either aren't trusted or have their arms ready to fall off. But that's where we are.

One guy who will absolutely have to step it up is Afthim. For reasons I don't know, he has really settled in to be a one inning a weekend type of guy. He will almost certainly have to give us more than that over the next 48 hours.

We are not going to win this with our pitching. The bats need to come through big time, so that pitchers who aren't trusted can come in and give us a few innings without risking letting a win get away from us.

Agree - but we have to keep the deficits to a reasonable number. Pitching has been, to put it mildly, inconsistent. As a group they need to pick themselves up for each and every out from this point forward or it will an early trip home from Ohio and maybe that's it...

 

[hardcorehusky]

Without Cooke and Kirby, we are down a lot of potential production. This is where the depth of the staff will be important. I would like to see them stay away from Fogell if they can tonight. It would be better if the hitting took care of business and gave the Penders and Coach Mac an opportunity to manage it on their terms.

B-T-W - Mac was the one on the pregame before game 1 that said Cooke was out for the weekend.

 

[businesslawyer]

Without Cooke and Kirby, we are down a lot of potential production. This is where the depth of the staff will be important. I would like to see them stay away from Fogell if they can tonight. It would be better if the hitting took care of business and gave the Penders and Coach Mac an opportunity to manage it on their terms.

B-T-W - Mac was the one on the pregame before game 1 that said Cooke was out for the weekend.

They can't use Fogell tonight. Tomorrow they can. Willis and Afthim -- both of whom have been lightly used all year -- are going to have to suck up innings.

 

[hardcorehusky]

They can't use Fogell tonight. Tomorrow they can. Willis and Afthim -- both of whom have been lightly used all year -- are going to have to suck up innings.

Never say can't when it comes to playoff baseball. Also, I had mentioned not burning people out in a conference tournament in order to have all hands on deck for the NCAA tournament. Keep that in mind as decisions are made the rest of this weekend.

 

[businesslawyer]

Never say can't when it comes to playoff baseball. Also, I had mentioned not burning people out in a conference tournament in order to have all hands on deck for the NCAA tournament. Keep that in mind as decisions are made the rest of this weekend.

I understand your last point, but we're not going to win a regional. We do not have the pitching. If I'm UConn, I'm totally focused on winning this weekend, because (while it's an uphill climb from here) we can.

 

[navery12]

I understand your last point, but we're not going to win a regional.

So should the team just pack it up and go home? This team is going to make a regional, and they should be preparing as such. I'm glad Jim Penders and his staff don't have this defeatist attitude

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Never say can't when it comes to playoff baseball. Also, I had mentioned not burning people out in a conference tournament in order to have all hands on deck for the NCAA tournament. Keep that in mind as decisions are made the rest of this weekend.

I don't want to embarrass ourselves or embarrass a kid by letting him get shelled just because we don't want to use too many arms but I do agree that the tournament (being best prepared for it) is priority one. Also, will it really make any difference for our post season prospects if we were to lose today, tomorrow in game one or tomorrow in game two?

I'm not even sure if we were to somehow pull out the tournament title our placement in the NCAAs would change materially.

 

[businesslawyer]

So should the team just pack it up and go home? This team is going to make a regional, and they should be preparing as such. I'm glad Jim Penders and his staff don't have this defeatist attitude

No, of course not. But the defeatest attitude is not trying your best to win your conference championship. You do whatever it takes to win this weekend. You worry about next weekend when you get there. Hopefully with Cooke and Kirby both able to pitch.

 

[huskymedic]

Never say can't when it comes to playoff baseball. Also, I had mentioned not burning people out in a conference tournament in order to have all hands on deck for the NCAA tournament. Keep that in mind as decisions are made the rest of this weekend.

Pretty sure I heard Crispino, etal on the ESPN/Varsity Network Call and Fanta indicate that is Penders/McDonald approach to the conference tournament this week during pre-tournament meetings/discussions.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[businesslawyer]

Well, Sears it is. Let's hope he can give us 5 decent innings. And that before we get to the pen we have a comfortable lead.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[dbmill]

Top 1st, a 1 out solo homer, 1-0 Georgetown. Sears gets the next 2 outs to end the inning. Sears threw 11 pitches that inning.

 

[uconnbaseball]

Lopez hit a home run. Otherwise Sears was fine. 1-0 GT

 

[huskymedic]

Top 1st, a 1 out solo homer, 1-0 Georgetown. Sears gets the next 2 outs to end the inning.

 

[dbmill]

Bottom 1st, with runners on the corners, the UConn offense strands them. 1-0 Georgetown.

 

[uconnbaseball]

Hard contact that inning. Unlucky.

 

[dbmill]

Top 2nd, Morton throws out a batter trying to stretch a single into double for the 2nd out. Sears faces the minimum. 1-0 Georgetown. Sears at 28 pitches.

 

[uconnbaseball]

Good effort from Sears so far!

 

[Viet Vet]

Padilla grounds into a double play…….again.

 

[dbmill]

Bottom 2nd, UConn offense hits into another double play for a scoreless inning with the minimum 3 batters. 1-0 Georgetown.