UConn @ Cincinnati (April 8 @ 6p, April 9 @ 6p & April 10 @1p)

[Stainmaster]

I get that it is baseball, just saying we seem to be more prone to it.

I read the other forums and apparently a lot of people don't agree with your views and apparently they must be wasting their time as well because if their views don't agree with yours you sure do pounce.

That's blatantly false. Your company (5 or 6 tops) includes your basketball board analogue who bumps the "Fire Kevin Ollie" thread every time UConn loses. Miserable people tend to stick together, hence why you think you're in greater numbers than you actually are.

 

[dbmill]

Tim Cate tires in the 7th, allows one run, and leaves with runners on second and third and two out. Game tied at 2. Devin Over comes out of the bullpen.

 

[ATLDYKA]

That's blatantly false. Your company (5 or 6 tops) includes your basketball board analogue who bumps the "Fire Kevin Ollie" thread every time UConn loses. Miserable people tend to stick together, hence why you think you're in greater numbers than you actually are.

I have never once said fire Ollie. Do a search if you must you won't find it. You don't know what your talking about.

 

[dbmill]

Over sends a pitch to the back stop, but it bounces back to Lefevre, and he gets the runner from 3rd out in a run down. Huskies get some badly needed luck.

 

[huskymedic]

UConnBaseball 8:02pm via Twitter Web Client
END 7: Huskies get out of the jam. Book is closed on LHP Tim Cate.#BleedBlue

 

[dbmill]

UConnBaseball 8:02pm via Twitter Web Client
END 7: Huskies get out of the jam. Book is closed on LHP Tim Cate.#BleedBlue

Very nice outing for Cate. Penders might have lifted him a little earlier in the 7th inning if it weren't for Ruotolo, Polonia, and others in the bullpen going long into the night in the first game against Cincy.

 

[Stainmaster]

I thought the boneyard was a forum for voicing your opinion, being objective and being able to disagree or agree. My question was a fair one. I'm not saying that those guys would be any better. But does Penders just always get a pass in your book? I'm not seeing the improvement from year to year. I used to hear from you guys that we are young. When are we not young anymore? We have several seniors on this team. We seem to see the same mistakes year after year and to me that falls on the coaching. I guess we are just content with mediocrity on this board and I just want a little more. If you watched the way that game unfolded last night it made you sick to your stomach and it is a scenario that we seem to see unfold all too often.
One thing that I do know for certain is that Stairmaster will always be the first person to jump down my back anytime I question the coaches or decisions made.

You are free to voice your opinion, and I am free to respond to it.

College baseball is not a high-stakes, high-revenue sport. It is drastically unlike football or basketball in the respect that firing coaches based on performance is extremely rare. Only 7 out of 295 programs fired a coach in the 2015 offseason. 5 of those coaches had losing records in 2015 (several of whom had not finished above .500 since 2010 or 2012). Among the other two, Clemson's Jack Leggett was sacked after not leading the Tigers to a Super Regional since 2010. Clemson is a national powerhouse program; we have never been, and we are not currently. It is perfectly fair for them to have a different set of expectations for baseball success than a program like UConn, who hasn't made a CWS appearance since 1979 and has only been to Super Regionals twice since then. This baseball program is not at the same level as the Men's Basketball or Women's Basketball program, where a high ranking and a deep tournament run is seen as a given year in and year out. The other coach with a winning record who was fired was Washington State's Donnie Marbut, whose departure was a long time coming given his history of clashing with their administration, a resume-falsifying issue, and a few other behavioral incidents. Bottom line, this is a sport in which more coaches are set for life than others. Andy Baylock spent 24 years as the head coach despite having the worst winning percentage since Sumner Doyle of 1924-35. It doesn't hurt that save for football, this institution has a history of keeping coaches around for the long haul in non-revenue sports: Reid, Tsantiris, Bruce Marshall for 25 years despite a .478 winning percentage.

I made a long post last year comparing our statistics concerning fielding percentage and walks per game with the rest of the country that I don't feel like digging up right now. Bottom line, many DI programs have it much worse than UConn with these mistakes, which are an inherent aspect of this level of baseball. If you can't handle it, the pro game is always there.

 

[dbmill]

Devin Over stays in to pitch the 8th. Hopefully his last inning. He's usually good for one or two innings, but after that he seems to either lose it or gets hits hard.

 

[ATLDYKA]

I'm not a miserable person at all. Just unlike you I am not happy with mediocrity. Your attack came after a simple question I posed to the board about how long is Penders leash. I expected opinions and thoughts and instead you attack and say I'm affecting recruiting. If you really think kids read this and are that sensitive then maybe that's the problem.

 

[dbmill]

Oops! Devin Over gets into trouble in the 8th, and a run scores off a squeeze giving Cincy a 3-2 lead. Domnarski in to pitch with runners all over the place.

 

[huskymedic]

Devin Over stays in to pitch the 8th. Hopefully his last inning. He's usually good for one or two innings, but after that he seems to either lose it or gets hits hard.

UConnBaseball 8:22pm via Twitter Web Client
B8: Cincinnati 3, #UConn 2
Bearcats take the lead on a well-executed safety squeeze. Domnarski comes on with two on and one out.#HookC

UConnBaseball 8:29pm via Twitter Web Client
END 8: Cincinnati 3, #UConn 2
Domnarski does his job and strands the runners. Daniello-Gnesda-LeFevre scheduled to hit in the T9. #HookC

 

[Baseballguy]

Personally, I think the truth falls in the middle of both arguements. Calling for Pender's head is an extreme overreaction, but on the other hand his personnel decisions are questionable at times. The lineup needs a shakeup badly. For the arguement that you want your best defense out there, the guys with better sticks can't be that much worse than what's out there currently. It's time to stop spoiling greats starts and leaving the hands of the bullpen, by scoring 2-3 runs a game

 

[Stainmaster]

Can we please shut Over down for the foreseeable future?

 

[dbmill]

9th inning, UConn down a run and Gnesda gets on base. Stefanski pinch runs. UConn needs this run to continue the game, so this is one of those instances where I don't mind a pinch runner.

 

[huskymedic]

UConnBaseball 8:38pm via Twitter Web Client
FINAL: Cincinnati 3, #UConn 2. Huskies fall despite allowing just two hits. Full recap to follow. #HookC

 

[huskymedic]

 

[dbmill]

Bottom line, this is a sport in which more coaches are set for life than others. Andy Baylock spent 24 years as the head coach despite having the worst winning percentage since Sumner Doyle of 1924-35. It doesn't hurt that save for football, this institution has a history of keeping coaches around for the long haul in non-revenue sports: Reid, Tsantiris, Bruce Marshall for 25 years despite a .478 winning percentage.

Don't forget Karen Mullens, who was the UConn softball coach for 31 years. Her last NCAA tournament team was in 2001, and she retired after the 2014 season.

 

[ATLDYKA]

You are free to voice your opinion, and I am free to respond to it.

College baseball is not a high-stakes, high-revenue sport. It is drastically unlike football or basketball in the respect that firing coaches based on performance is extremely rare. Only 7 out of 295 programs fired a coach in the 2015 offseason. 5 of those coaches had losing records in 2015 (several of whom had not finished above .500 since 2010 or 2012). Among the other two, Clemson's Jack Leggett was sacked after not leading the Tigers to a Super Regional since 2010. Clemson is a national powerhouse program; we have never been, and we are not currently. It is perfectly fair for them to have a different set of expectations for baseball success than a program like UConn, who hasn't made a CWS appearance since 1979 and has only been to Super Regionals twice since then. This baseball program is not at the same level as the Men's Basketball or Women's Basketball program, where a high ranking and a deep tournament run is seen as a given year in and year out. The other coach with a winning record who was fired was Washington State's Donnie Marbut, whose departure was a long time coming given his history of clashing with their administration, a resume-falsifying issue, and a few other behavioral incidents. Bottom line, this is a sport in which more coaches are set for life than others. Andy Baylock spent 24 years as the head coach despite having the worst winning percentage since Sumner Doyle of 1924-35. It doesn't hurt that save for football, this institution has a history of keeping coaches around for the long haul in non-revenue sports: Reid, Tsantiris, Bruce Marshall for 25 years despite a .478 winning percentage.

I made a long post last year comparing our statistics concerning fielding percentage and walks per game with the rest of the country that I don't feel like digging up right now. Bottom line, many DI programs have it much worse than UConn with these mistakes, which are an inherent aspect of this level of baseball. If you can't handle it, the pro game is always there.

So then basically what you are saying is he has a free pass and there is no pressure on him. Well it shows in his managerial decisions and I guess as long as this is the way it is, these will be the results we get. What do they pay him? Must be nice.

 

[ATLDYKA]

Can we please shut Over down for the foreseeable future?

Wait a minute. So its okay for you to call out an individual player but I criticize the coach and its not acceptable. What are YOUR rules for this board?

 

[dbmill]

Personally, I think the truth falls in the middle of both arguements. Calling for Pender's head is an extreme overreaction, but on the other hand his personnel decisions are questionable at times. The lineup needs a shakeup badly. For the arguement that you want your best defense out there, the guys with better sticks can't be that much worse than what's out there currently. It's time to stop spoiling greats starts and leaving the hands of the bullpen, by scoring 2-3 runs a game

Obviously, the continued severe lack of hitting by Aaron Hill is UConn's biggest offensive problem. He has been almost an automatic out at the bottom of the lineup, and that is obviously a big comedown from the offense that Vinny Siena provided. It would be one thing if Hill was hitting around .250 (I thought he would be able to do that), but instead he has spent the season with his average well below the Mendoza Line. Hill's lack of offense is by far the biggest disappointment of the season, as I thought he was capable of quite a bit more. Also hurting the team is the arm surgery prior to the season to back up infielder Jack Lambrecht, who has not been able to play yet this season. That injury put a big crimp in player flexibility moves in the infield.

I believe it was around the time of the Santa Barbara series that Aaron Hill was taken out of the lineup, Willie Yahn moved to 2nd, and Connor Buckley played 3rd. That lineup lasted a few games. While having Buckley in for Hill put in a better bat, the move also served to weaken the infield defense in two positions, 2B and 3B. Yahn has vastly improved his defense at 3B, he is probably UConn's best defensive 3B since Mike Olt played there. Anyway, after seeing the team lose a few games with that alignment, Penders went back to his best defensive infield in order to support his pitchers better defensively.

 

[Baseballguy]

He needs to support them offensively, too. It puts a lot of pressure on the pitcher when they know if they give up more than a run or two they'll be in line for a loss. It's unacceptable.

 

[Baseballguy]

If you combine the stats of the two most consistent starters in Kay and Cate, they have 13 starts, a 2.82 ERA and a record of 3-3 with 7 no decisions. They have lost or left the game tied 10 times averaging under three runs a game. Maybe Buckley should start the games and if they get a lead going into the 6th or 7th inning put in Aaron for his defense (which I feel is overrated, .957 fielding percentage)

 

[dbmill]

For game 3, Sundberg is back in the lineup, and Keith Krueger off his two hit day (and hitting .300 in limited action) moves to LF for the day. Gnesda is out of the lineup.

 

[huskymedic]

UConnBaseball 1:34pm via Twitter Web Client
END 2: #UConn 1, Cincinnati 0
Two more strikeouts for Montgomerie -- He's up 38 Ks in 24.0 IP in 2016, which translates to 14.25 K/9.

 

[huskymedic]

UConnBaseball 2:14pm via Twitter Web Client
END 4: #UConn 1, Cincinnati 0
Bearcats put first two on but Susi throws out a pair of runners to erase the threat. Susi to lead it off