Men - UConn @ Long Beach State Dirtbags (3/16/22 @ 9p EDT on ESPN+/MIXLR) | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Men UConn @ Long Beach State Dirtbags (3/16/22 @ 9p EDT on ESPN+/MIXLR)

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Brutal stuff by the offense. Unacceptable vs midweek caliber pitching. Obviously willing to give them a pass on this one game but we need much better at bats this weekend.
 
While it was still 3-0 (and granted, even at that point, we had no right to be that close), I still had some hope. After all, that’s only needing to string together 3-4 XBH in a single inning to get back into it. Now that it’s 6-0, with the offense looking this anemic, I have little (not none, mind you) faith.
 
If David Smith is going to continue to start at 2nd over Fedko his defense has to be better than what he has given us through 15 games. His average tinkering around .200 isn't helping either. I do know he draws his share of walks, but I'm struggling with not seeing Fedko now for that.
 
Maybe we can get to their pen…if we can get the starter out of there. It’ll just take one hit.
 
Also, it may be the camera angle, but this umpires strike zone did no favors to our pitching tonight.
 
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Pitching aside, everyone else has looked a little tired tonight. Several weeks on the road can do that.
 
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Bobby McBride comes in for the B8 as the 7th UConn pitcher to see the mound tonight.

McBride proceeds to issue 2 BB w/ a single in the between and is replaced by Jack Sullivan as the 8th Husky pitcher w/ bases loaded - no outs.

Sullivan keeps them scoreless w/ a strike-out and a generous double play.
 
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McBride does not seem to be much of a strike-thrower. Of course, tonight, that applies to almost every Uconn pitcher.
 
Cutting back from a commercial and some poor kid is getting hit in the balls - puncher made better contact than we have all night
 
huskymedic said:
Bobby McBride comes in for the B8 as the 7th UConn pitcher to see the mound tonight.

McBride proceeds to issue 2 BB w/ a single in the between and is replaced by Jack Sullivan as the 8th Husky pitcher w/ bases loaded - no outs.

Sullivan keeps them scoreless w/ a strike-out and a generous double play.
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There's Sullivan, 8 pitchers later, there was my starter.
 
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Damn. They walked Stock. I at least wanted to see him keep the hit streak alive.
 



Was what it was (pretty fugly)… Back to back mid-week games bit them. Huskies are 12-3 heading into a winnable series vs. UC-San Diego starting Saturday.

Feel bad for the pitching staff who have to spend a bus ride down I-5 trapped w/ Josh MacDonald tomorrow.
 
Well, at least I got a couple of t shirts out of the deal.
 
Well ... when Ian Cooke throws a gem, we all pump out our chests; this kid Voelker went 7 with zero hits. He looks like he has barely pitched since High School. 2 years of Covid. So I tip my hat.

Still we had a really concerning Offensive display at too too many walks.
 
Well, at least we didn’t waste a good pitching day with bad hitting, or a good hitting day with bad pitching. We just chose last night to suck in every aspect of the game.

It’s baseball. Awful games happen, and this wasn’t against a bad team. USD isn’t at the level of the last five games. Let’s sweep the series and leave no doubt that this was a successful road trip.

That having been said, throwing balls must be contagious. How does a team that hasn’t been walking that many in two weekends have a night like that.
 
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huskymedic said:
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Love Penders. He was direct and pointed out exactly what his expectations were and where that team fell short. Outlined kids that are on the rosters as Pitchers that got a mound appearance and did not come near performing to our standard. Yes Coach MacDonald is not gonna be fun to be around. We have three days - 2 days of new spring training - before our 6pm PST game at UCSD. Tritons. Let's see. Gonna need a far better approach by our hitters.

Still. That was 7 innings of No Hit ball by a kid - by my reading - has not played much (through Covid) since high school 3 years ago. Pretty awesome innings
 
How many coaches step up like that and own the loss. Clearly stated he didn't have the kids ready, the whole team didn't do anything well including the third base coach (him). Total accountability across the board. hey games like last night happen to even the greatest of baseball teams. they bounce back against UCSD this was just a blip then we will have forgotten about it and had a hell of a west coast swing. God I love Penders
 
ATLDYKA said:
If David Smith is going to continue to start at 2nd over Fedko his defense has to be better than what he has given us through 15 games. His average tinkering around .200 isn't helping either. I do know he draws his share of walks, but I'm struggling with not seeing Fedko now for that.
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David Smith had a slow offensive start, then started to hit, and now he is back into an offensive slump. He started out the season being among the team leaders in walks, but with this particular slump the walks went away as well.

I have always been someone who favors moving players up and down the batting order based on how they are doing on offense. As long as Smith persists in this slump, it would seem to me that if Smith is going to be in the lineup (he has only not played one game) he should be moved to the bottom of the batting order until his offense makes something of a comeback. They moved Huber down a few notches in the lineup when he was slumping, to me it would make sense to do the same with Smith.
 
Well, it's baseball and I guess UConn was due for a bad game, and from what I gather they had it collectively in all phases of the game, that is for sure.

Some observations on the pitching to go along with the post game interview. It seems to me Hector Alejandro has pitched better in his relief appearances then in his two starts. UConn only has a need for a second weekday starter three more times in the regular season, it might be best to keep Alejandro coming out of the bullpen. and give those three spot starts to Garrett Coe. I'm inclined to think Sullivan is going to be a big fixture out of the bullpen, so I don't mind leaving him there, where no doubt he will get plenty of innings, especially since we might very probably be seeing less of Ian Cooke out of the bullpen if he gets the bulk of the midweek starts.

The one guy other than Sullivan who did really well in his bullpen stint was Cole Chudoba. Hopefully this appearance will get him back to how he was pitching when he was on the Cape last summer.

Coach Penders did not seem to think that Brendan O'Donnell did all that badly, and that he liked how O'Donnell competed. Based on those words, it would seem that O'Donnell will continue to get some chances to show what he can do.
 
dbmill said:
David Smith had a slow offensive start, then started to hit, and now he is back into an offensive slump. He started out the season being among the team leaders in walks, but with this particular slump the walks went away as well.

I have always been someone who favors moving players up and down the batting order based on how they are doing on offense. As long as Smith persists in this slump, it would seem to me that if Smith is going to be in the lineup (he has only not played one game) he should be moved to the bottom of the batting order until his offense makes something of a comeback. They moved Huber down a few notches in the lineup when he was slumping, to me it would make sense to do the same with Smith.
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Not only is he slumping at the bat, his fielding has not been good. I am not sure that he warrants starting ahead of Fedko right now.
 
UConn Fielding Stats through Thursday:

UConn_BSB_Season_Stats_2022.pdf.png
 
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