By the way not really agreeing with this decision but then again I hardly do with Penders. Its a tough position to put Zapata into and we need to win now and worry about games on Saturday and Sunday and who will pitch when and if we get there. Hopefully Zapata was just told and hasn't had enough lead notice to have his nerves building. Hope the kid comes through because it would work out nice but it is a big gamble.
WHUS guys said at the beginning of the game that Zapata and the team were told on Monday about the start. I've seen other college teams not start off with their top starters in these tournaments before, so this sort of thing is nothing new. I'm not sure if Penders has done this sort of thing before. I'm guessing one reason for not starting either Cross or Kay is that if you do win the game, you really get to split the work of your bullpen between the first tournament game and the later tournament games that Cross and Kay wouldn't be pitching. The assumption would be that Cross and Kay would go deep into their games with their starts and you wouldn't need the bullpen much for their games, thus they would get their rest in these games.
Of course, if you don't win this game (and it is looking grim), you are looking at six games total if you get to the finals on Sunday. That sounds like a lot of bullpen work, even taking into account Cross and Kay pitching their games.
Well the funny thing is that we lead the American in batting average. We have offense to a point. We have no problem getting guys on base, we just can't get them in once their on. To me Penders has to get creative in situations like this and try to steal some runs. I would really like to see more hit and run instead of just straight up stealing or sac bunting to move runners over. Big problem is that we just have way too many guys in the lineup that struggle to make contact and so it takes away the hit and run opportunities. I'm just floored at our inability to get guys home from third and less than 2 outs.Offense which was never prolific has all but disappeared. Doesn't seem to matter who pitches offense is gonna have to pick it up in a big way or season is done tomorrow by lunch
Penders actually used the word "choked" in critical run producing situations in his post game WHUS interview.
Nice 1,2,3 inning for Cross in the 3rd.