UConn Baseball and AAC Conference Tourney - 1st Game Wednesday v. Tulane

[huskymedic]

UConnBaseball 4:16pm via TweetDeck
End 4 | Tulane 2, #UConn 1. Zapata gets out of a jam in the bottom of the fourth with an L1-4 double play. Melley-Davey-McDowell due up.

All things considered - Zapata is doing okay for himself.

edit - and here comes Napiarsky to start B5. LOL

 

[ATLDYKA]

Nepiarsky!! I feel good if we can get the lead for this kid.

 

[ATLDYKA]

And another base running blunder.
How about a hit and run there, how about giving the lefty a chance to hit with the runner being held on at first and a big hole. Nope, immediate bunt attempt and we screw that up.

 

[ATLDYKA]

I don't care what shape Nepiarsky came into the season as. Imagine where we would be if this kid was pitching meaningful innings all year for us. Does someone want to try and tell me that Deroche-Duffine and Ruotolo came into the season in great shape and it didn't effect their playing time.

 

[Jimdish255]

We seem to be allergic to driving in runs.

 

[ATLDYKA]

Melley grounds into DP to end top of 7th. How about a hit and run with Melley? He is a good contact hitter. Penders, how about trying something to get things rolling.

 

[Kgun7]

Looked like ball 4 to McDowell ... just can't seem to get anything going offensively ...

 

[dbmill]

By the way not really agreeing with this decision but then again I hardly do with Penders. Its a tough position to put Zapata into and we need to win now and worry about games on Saturday and Sunday and who will pitch when and if we get there. Hopefully Zapata was just told and hasn't had enough lead notice to have his nerves building. Hope the kid comes through because it would work out nice but it is a big gamble.

WHUS guys said at the beginning of the game that Zapata and the team were told on Monday about the start. I've seen other college teams not start off with their top starters in these tournaments before, so this sort of thing is nothing new. I'm not sure if Penders has done this sort of thing before. I'm guessing one reason for not starting either Cross or Kay is that if you do win the game, you really get to split the work of your bullpen between the first tournament game and the later tournament games that Cross and Kay wouldn't be pitching. The assumption would be that Cross and Kay would go deep into their games with their starts and you wouldn't need the bullpen much for their games, thus they would get their rest in these games.

Of course, if you don't win this game (and it is looking grim), you are looking at six games total if you get to the finals on Sunday. That sounds like a lot of bullpen work, even taking into account Cross and Kay pitching their games.

 

[Kgun7]

WHUS guys said at the beginning of the game that Zapata and the team were told on Monday about the start. I've seen other college teams not start off with their top starters in these tournaments before, so this sort of thing is nothing new. I'm not sure if Penders has done this sort of thing before. I'm guessing one reason for not starting either Cross or Kay is that if you do win the game, you really get to split the work of your bullpen between the first tournament game and the later tournament games that Cross and Kay wouldn't be pitching. The assumption would be that Cross and Kay would go deep into their games with their starts and you wouldn't need the bullpen much for their games, thus they would get their rest in these games.

Of course, if you don't win this game (and it is looking grim), you are looking at six games total if you get to the finals on Sunday. That sounds like a lot of bullpen work, even taking into account Cross and Kay pitching their games.

Not sure I would have played it this way, but definitely can't complain about Penders's logic and the execution by Zapata and Nepiarsky.

 

[Stainmaster]

Dammit.

 

[nycscooby]

3-1 Green Tide

 

[huskymedic]

UConnBaseball5:27pm via TweetDeck
FINAL: Tulane 3, #UConn 1. Huskies will play an elimination game tomorrow at 11 a.m. against UCF.

They have talent but they seem to have underachieved all year when it counted.

 

[scotty0330]

Offense which was never prolific has all but disappeared. Doesn't seem to matter who pitches offense is gonna have to pick it up in a big way or season is done tomorrow by lunch

 

[Stainmaster]

Solid job pitching by Zapata and Nepiarsky. This really does fall on the offense; bases-loaded situations aren't handed out like candy.

 

[ATLDYKA]

Well the starting pitching worked out and I guess we should have figured that no matter who started it wouldn't be our starting pitching that would be main issue.

 

[ATLDYKA]

Offense which was never prolific has all but disappeared. Doesn't seem to matter who pitches offense is gonna have to pick it up in a big way or season is done tomorrow by lunch

Well the funny thing is that we lead the American in batting average. We have offense to a point. We have no problem getting guys on base, we just can't get them in once their on. To me Penders has to get creative in situations like this and try to steal some runs. I would really like to see more hit and run instead of just straight up stealing or sac bunting to move runners over. Big problem is that we just have way too many guys in the lineup that struggle to make contact and so it takes away the hit and run opportunities. I'm just floored at our inability to get guys home from third and less than 2 outs.

 

[huskymedic]

Penders actually used the word "choked" in critical run producing situations in his post game WHUS interview.

 

[dbmill]

Penders actually used the word "choked" in critical run producing situations in his post game WHUS interview.

And he used the "c" word several times in that interview.

 

[huskymedic]

d1baseball 10:55pm via Twitter Web Client
Memphis defeats Cincinnati 14-9 at @American_BSB Tournament; Cincinnati eliminated

 

[huskymedic]

Updated bracket link

 

[Adios]

http://www.theamerican.org/watch/?Live=149

o-o, top of the 2nd.

 

[Adios]

HBP, man on first and second, one out.

 

[Adios]

First baseman couldn't stop the hit, run scored, man on third and first. 1-0, UCF.

UCF's jerseys are so ugly.

 

[ATLDYKA]

Walk and HBP and now trail 1-0. Cross doesn't appear to have good command today.

 

[Adios]

We can't even get a bunt out. This is going to be a tough game.