UConn @ Cincinnati (April 8 @ 6p, April 9 @ 6p & April 10 @1p) | Page 3 | The Boneyard

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

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dbmill said:
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.
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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
 
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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
 
Can we please shut Over down for the foreseeable future?
 
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.
 
UConnBaseball 8:38pm via Twitter Web Client
FINAL: Cincinnati 3, #UConn 2. Huskies fall despite allowing just two hits. Full recap to follow. #HookC
CfpDncLUYAEqjTZ.jpg
 
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Stairmaster said:
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.
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Don't forget Karen Mullins, who was the UConn softball coach for 31 years. Her last NCAA tournament team was in 2001, and she retired after the 2014 season.
 
Stairmaster said:
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.
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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.
 
Stairmaster said:
Can we please shut Over down for the foreseeable future?
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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?
 
Baseballguy said:
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
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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.
 
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.
 
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)
 
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CfsRTlqUIAAGmks.jpg:small


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 said:
UConnBaseball 2:53pm via Twitter Web Client
B6: Bearcats open the inning with back-to-back singles and Coach Penders will call on @CJDandeneau in a jam.#UConn leads, 4-0. #HookC

UConnBaseball 3:04pm via Twitter Web Client
B6: #UConn 4, Cincinnati 1
Dandeneau gets a pair of outs and will hand the ball over to Domnarski with two-on and two down. #BleedBlue
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UConnBaseball 3:10pm via Twitter Web Client
END 6: #UConn 4, Cincinnati 1
Domnarski gets the Huskies out of it. Book is closed on Montgomerie:
 
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Nothing easy...

UConnBaseball 3:24pm via Twitter Web Client
B7: Bearcats put two on via infield singles and Coach Penders will bring on @NicoDarras with one down. #UConnholds a 4-1 lead. #HookC

UConnBaseball 3:32pm via Twitter Web Client
B7: #UConn 4, Cincinnati 2
Bearcats get one back on an RBI groundout. Two in scoring position with two down. @RPolo_ is called in. #HookC

UConnBaseball 3:36pm via Twitter Web Client
END 7: Polonia gets the job done! We're headed to the T8 with #UConn holding a 4-2 lead. Duff to lead it off. #HookC
 
UConn wins 4-2. Excellent relief outing from Polonia, giving up 1 hit in 2.1 innings in getting the save.
 
huskymedic said:
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.
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Today Montgomerie had 8 strikeouts in 5 innings, which gives him 43 Ks with 27 innings pitched, which is an amazing ratio. If he can keep the walks, hit by pitches, and wild pitches under control, he could be something else (of course, you could say that about a lot of college pitchers). But at least it looks like the weekend starting rotation is looking like it is finally sorting itself out with Kay, Cate, and Montgomerie.
 
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Was able to see Amity and the Winkel brothers (UCONN commits) yesterday in Westport.
The older one, Chris, played 1B, but didn't hit. Was talking to someone in the know, who said he got hurt during basketball season and had trouble swinging. Hopefully he recovers soon.
His younger bother, Pat, the sophomore Catcher is a stud. Hit an opposite field bomb high into the woods that broke up a scoreless game. Has a gun, too. The guy I was talking to, said Pat is getting SEC looks and will probably be a high draft pick and doubts he'll be playing in Storrs :(

On a side note, Staples has a kid going to UNC, one going to Maryland, but they played horribly.
And freshman Chad Knight pitched great for 4 innings in his HS debut. Some of you might remember him from the Little League World Series a few years ago.
 
I was only able to listen to the last few innings of yesterday's game, that is, not the portion that Wills Montgomerie pitched. Anyway, I just listened to the post game interview with Penders, and Coach was not happy with Montgomerie. This is not the exact quote Penders had on Montgomerie, it is shortened up a bit, but it is pretty close to what was said.

Will's stuff is way too good for us to be on pins and needles when a runner is on against him. With runners he's a different guy. I should be praising him right now, but watching the game it's like waiting for something to blow up.

 
The kid gave up 1 earned run (2 total from the entire staff) and the win the he critizes all of them except Polonia. I get he must be frustrated but this make absolutely no sense. Why call out one of the bright spots from this weekend publicly, why not do it privately.
 
Baseballguy said:
The kid gave up 1 earned run (2 total from the entire staff) and the win the he critizes all of them except Polonia. I get he must be frustrated but this make absolutely no sense. Why call out one of the bright spots from this weekend publicly, why not do it privately.
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You may disagree, but I love these interviews with Penders. They can be so full of information about the baseball team, for both good and bad. And that is important in that there are so few outlets to get real information about the team.

What happened with Montgomerie in this game is not a one time occurrence. What Penders is mad about with Montgomerie is that this happens in pretty much every game Wills Montgomerie has started in the last two seasons, the feeling that you watching and waiting for the bomb to go off. I certainly get that sense listening to the games on the radio. And sometimes that bomb will go off long before he has 8 strikeouts in 5 innings, and that usually means he gives up a bit more than one run. It got so bad earlier in the season that Montgomerie temporarily lost his spot in the weekend starting rotation due to the ineffectiveness that resulted. What this interview is telling me is that the root causes for Montgomerie's ineffectiveness may have submerged a bit, but they are still a part of his makeup, and could reemerge down the line unless Montgomerie is able to get beyond it. And for me, that is valuable information to have.
 
huskyblooz said:
Was able to see Amity and the Winkel brothers (UCONN commits) yesterday in Westport...

..His younger bother, Pat, the sophomore Catcher is a stud. Hit an opposite field bomb high into the woods that broke up a scoreless game. Has a gun, too. The guy I was talking to, said Pat is getting SEC looks and will probably be a high draft pick and doubts he'll be playing in Storrs :(
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I get the MLB draft component/risk and that freshman year @ Storrs is a bit away, but his dad seemed pretty upbeat about his commitment to UConn here.
 
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Baseballguy said:
The kid gave up 1 earned run (2 total from the entire staff) and the win the he critizes all of them except Polonia. I get he must be frustrated but this make absolutely no sense. Why call out one of the bright spots from this weekend publicly, why not do it privately.
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I agree with you and that is the problem I have with Penders. Players seem to get into his doghouse and then don't see the field. Nepiarsky the last two years because he came in a little out of shape. Have you looked at some major league pitchers (Colon) and some others on our team. The bottom line is he puts up some of the best numbers on the staff in the given opportunities he has had. And yet there are others that he appears to over commit to that no matter how much they don't produce (strikeout) are in the everyday lineup. Sure he'll pull them for a game or two but then they are right back in there even when the backup is producing. He appears to have commitments that he doesn't back away from. No accountability.
 
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