Don't disagree, but Smitty and Morton are both well off the interstate. Getting hits (and walks) from the catcher's position the last two games has made a huge difference.
Our bullpen, other than Willis, has to be gassed. It's likely we just asked Coe to give us more than his arm was capable of giving us yesterday, giving how long he pitched on Friday also. Hoping Sully can give us at least 5 innings, even if they're only decent innings.
If you listen to the post game interview with Coach Penders, he seems to think that for the game tonight that the bullpen is in decent shape. Wouldn't surprise me to see Justin Willis go 2+ innings, but we'll see what happens. Would certainly help if Sullivan could go 5 or more innings tonight, it would also be a plus sign for the starting pitching rotation as well.
By the way, in the post game interview, Coach Penders mentions that Sullivan had undergone a "procedure", which is presumably why he missed his start last weekend.
I mentioned during the game last night when Coe came into the game that I expected that he would have a short pitching stint, considering he had thrown 3+ innings and about 51 pitches on Friday night. I have to say I was surprised that he was still on the mound to start the 7th inning. Coe was quite effective for the first 1.2 innings, but I would agree that a tired arm caught up with him in that 7th inning when he gave up several walk. It was obvious the coaching staff was hoping Coe could continue to eat up some innings, I expect Coe will still see plenty of mound action as the season continues, especially in long relief.
With all the walks, poor pitching on both sides, the length of the games, and Chris Jones complaining about the umpires and the strike zone throughout this series, I can't wait for the team leave Hawaii and resume playing on the mainland. Hopefully the return to the continental USA will result in some more normal games. When following college baseball, I certainly expect mistakes including walks by pitchers as it is pretty much a part of the college game, but in this weekend series it has really gone over the edge in terms of not throwing strikes. It would definitely seem that umps have to contributed to that, which has been touched upon in the post game interviews. I would have to say that would be true for both teams in this series.
