Notre Dame Series

[ATLDYKA]

Notre Dame leading early 3-2 going to bottom of 2nd. More of the same frustration, 1st inning had 1st and 3rd 1 out and couldn't get the extra run in as Melley and Yavarone strike out. Bottom of the fitst Cross had control issues included hitting a batter with the bases loaded. Then again in the second 1st and 3rd 1 out and Ferriter pops up, Mazzilli walks to load bases, Siena gets ahead 2-0 and instead of making the pitcher throw a strike swings and pops out. How is Penders not giving him the take sign as the pitcher was struggling with control. By the way the game is streaming live on Notre Dames website.

 

[Yonick]

Keep us posted as game tracker isn't working

 

[ATLDYKA]

Cross gives up 2 more runs after 2 are out in bottom of 2nd. Then UConn goes 1,2,3 on 6 pitches in top of third. 5-2 ND. We keep swinging early and often with no success. We really just don't make pitchers work enough and let them off the hook often.

 

[dbmill]

Carson Cross is coming out after giving up a two run home run to make it 7-2 in the bottom of the 3rd. One of the rare games where Cross has had a bad outing.

 

[ATLDYKA]

Cross gives up 2 run homer with 2 out in bottom of 3rd. Max Slade is in. 7-2 ND. 6 runs with 2 out this game.

 

[ATLDYKA]

For those of you who want to watch it is streaming live on ND website

 

[dbmill]

As an aside, I've always considered a batter to have a good eye if they average at least one walk every 10 official at bats. In the case of UConn's hitters, the only player who does not meet this standard is Yavarone, who has walked 10 times in 148 official at bats, prior to the Notre Dame games. UConn as a team has 196 walks and 70 hit by pitches, while the opposition has 137 and 26. UConn gets plenty of people on base through walks, and in the case of Verdi and Testani, hit by pitches. It seems to me getting them to come around to score is the bigger problem.

 

[dbmill]

Curiosity just got the better of me, so I checked the official Big East baseball stats. UConn and Pitt are tied for first with 196 walks taken, although Pitt has played two fewer games.

 

[ATLDYKA]

I guess stats don't lie but it just seems to me that in key situations they are just very impatient. I just wonder if there is a stat out there for what the team batting average is on first pitch contact. I noticed that our pitchers give up a lot of 2 strike hits and I'm talking 0-2 and 1-2 counts. Are they trying to make perfect pitches when they should be trying to paint the black or even try to get batters to chase one out of the zone especially when ahead in the count. We on the other hand are striking out and not getting runners around.

 

[dbmill]

I don't have a stat for this, but it also seems to me that UConn hitters have a lot of called strike threes called on them, especially with runners on base. I have no explanation for this.

 

[ATLDYKA]

Max Slade impressive today. 2.1 shut out innings, then for some reason there was a 20 minute delay while ND was changing pitchers which means Slade sat on the bench for about 30 minutes and Penders still brings him back out for the bottom of the inning and now he is getting touched up. Why not go to a different pitcher then? Many to choose from down 7-2

 

[ATLDYKA]

Notre Dame 10-2. Their defense is making plays all over the field. Moore came in last inning and did not look good again. He was wild and let 2 inherited runners come home.

 

[dbmill]

I suspect we'll be seeing a bit more of Max Slade the last few weeks of the season. He pitched well before running out of gas.

 

[dbmill]

Saturday game. UConn scores two in the 1st inning off of singles by Ferriter, Mazzilli, and Melley.

 

[dbmill]

UConn up 3-1 going into bottom of the 6th inning.

 

[dbmill]

UConn should have won this one. A little more offense would have been nice, but this was one of the few games this year that was totally given away by shoddy defense.

 

[ATLDYKA]

UConn should have won this one. A little more offense would have been nice, but this was one of the few games this year that was totally given away by shoddy defense.

And Saturday's collapse was all on Mazzilli, had 3 error from the 7 inning on even though he was officially only charged with one. Sunday more of the same in the field. Mazzilli with another error which leads to 2 unearned runs and here in the 4t h, two easy fundamental throws to first are so off target to Melley they pull him off the bag for errors. One was from Butler about 5 feet away.

 

[ATLDYKA]

11-5 ND bottom of the 8th. 4 errors on the day. This team is so non fundamentally sound it isn't funny.

 

[dbmill]

12-5 final. Awful weekend for UConn. Going back to yesterday's game, in addition to the errors and shear misplays in the field, a Marzi balk scored the first run of the game for Notre Dame. While Mazzilli was awful in the field this weekend, this was a true team "effort" in all respects. LJ continues to hit pretty well, which is more than you can say for the rest of the lineup. I wonder if Penders might give him a day or two off in the field and DH him.

 

[huskymedic]

So disappointing...

 

[BBall2012]

12-5 final. Awful weekend for UConn. Going back to yesterday's game, in addition to the errors and shear misplays in the field, a Marzi balk scored the first run of the game for Notre Dame. While Mazzilli was awful in the field this weekend, this was a true team "effort" in all respects. LJ continues to hit pretty well, which is more than you can say for the rest of the lineup. I wonder if Penders might give him a day or two off in the field and DH him.

IMO ...We have an inferior coaching staff or should I say coaching plan. Look at the other programs they use their complete roster throughout the year so when you get to this point in the season their players all have experience and the confidence to go in and help the team. In the early part of the year the coaching staffs are all the same playing field. Now as the season is deep the differences are clearly showing. For example look at Friday night two pitchers Slade and Healy both get an opportunity. We are in what the 40+ game and they are now getting a look? Both appear to have good stuff but they along with other position players should have been given more chances throughout the year. Stanley Paul finally gets a chance and looked like a spark that should have been utilized more often before this weekend. It appears they make their minds up about someone and that is it, either they can do no wrong and provide excuses for them or they can do no right and never get an opportunity. Players need work whether it's at bats, in the field or on the mound, bottom line they need to used and what better time to give them those valuable experiences than during midweek games. Switch up the midweek starter, switch up the defense, give players that play every day a much needed break to recoup from bumps and brusies. So when we get to a big important conference game there are others that can be called upon that will have a chance to give the boost that may be needed. Notre Dame did an excellent job with that this weekend. Look at the pinch hitting results. Their bench/bullpen is deep but that is due to getting opportunities throughout the season which paid off in dividends this weekend and vaulted them in front of UConn in the conference standings.

 

[huskymedic]

JonesCcj 4:23pm via Twitter for Android
Every BE series this weekend was a sweep. UConn is in 7th place. 1gm up on st.johns 1.5 gms up on 9th place Gtown. 8 teams make BE tourney

 

[Kgun7]

Pretty sure Stanley Paul has been hurt for a good portion of the season ...