What a 12th inning! UAB really really wanted this one. KG was a beast!
What a 12th inning! UAB really really wanted this one. KG was a beast!
A new article has been posted on www.latechsports.com:
The Louisiana Tech baseball team scored six runs in the top of the 12th, and used a lights-out relief appearance from sophomore Kyle Griffen, to take a 9-4, 12-inning victory over the UAB Blazers from Regions Field on Sunday afternoon. With the triumph, Tech clinched the weekend series, two games to one, and improved to 5-1, while maintaining sole possession of first place in the Conference USA standings.
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Discuss it here.
Excellent!!
A run did score, but there was no way for us to know if it was done on purpose or not. The UAB cameraman didn't even have it in view so we couldn't even see what happened. Possible it was a mistake. Possible 1st base coach told him to do it. I doubt he did it on his own though, well, unless he was just ready for the game to end like everyone else.
What a performance by Griffen! Not just pitching. He's a terrific defensive athlete, too. Gets off the mound and fields his position incredibly well as if he were a middle infielder.
Hackbarth has earned a starting spot at either 1B or DH until he cools off IMO.
Thank goodness Mallard missed those 2 bunt attempts so he could smash the go-ahead hit in the 12th!
Obligatory 'our coach is still giving away too many outs on offense' comment. I lost count at 6 outs we gave away halfway through the game.
Earl Weaver
A Hall-of-Fame manager/coach and one of the best. His Baltimore Orioles were terrific all those years because of two things:
1. GREAT pitching
2. "three-run homers"
On #2 Weaver believed in the big blow, the big inning(s). You don't run yourself out of a chance for a multi-run hit. He would generically refer to the big blow as a three-run homer, but it was often a bases-clearing double in the gap. Point was, get runners on and bam! 2 or 3 runs score on a big hit. Get a couple of those in a game, and with that pitching staff....game over, baby!
Weaver would say: a hitter gets on base, defies the defense getting him out, and you want to give the defense ANOTHER CHANCE to get that guy out!? It's like, you didn't get me out the first time, here I'll try to steal, try again to get me out. Dumb.
This is referred to as "station to station" baseball. Play it safe on the base paths, move to the next base, and don't risk getting greedy by trying to go for another, unless you can be absolutely sure you'll make it. And baseballers know when it is safe, the right move, to get that extra base. NEVER make the 1st or 3rd out at 3rd or home.
That worked for Weaver's O's because they had HoF hitters like Boog Powell and Frank Robinson, and others, who would deliver extra-base hits. And Weaver said they had 9 chances to deliver that one or two big innings. Could fail 7 times, but do it twice, and the O's won. With that pitching staff usually one 3-run inning was enough.
I'm not saying Tech should follow Weaver's tactics. Just throwing it out there as food for thought.
I base my opinion on two previous plays along with the many bad calls made by our coaches...
1. Same situation at Pepperdine. While the run down was happening between 1st and 2nd our guy standing on 3rd was still on third after the guy at 2nd was tagged. That run did not score.
2. Same player forced the run down later in the year. The runner on 3rd scored just like yesterday. The guy knows how to run bases.
For games through March 25th we are tied at 5th for the most times caught stealing at 18 (most to date is 24).
What makes that number worse in IMO is our effectiveness. We have 32 stolen bases meaning that we are thrown out 36% of the time. Only one team that has been caught stealing as many times or more than we have has a worse % and that is Houston Baptist (24 SB, 22 CS, caught stealing 48% of the time)
Last edited by RGTech98; 03-29-2018 at 06:50 AM. Reason: grammar/misspelling
It appears, going back to last year, that he plays aggressive to a fault. That would be fine if he would learn which players can play his game. He forces players who are not able to execute, into making base running mistakes. Those mistakes fall on him. THEN he plays conservative with the silly bunting that several players still can't execute.
Anybody have real data on how many times a felled stealing attempt was immediately followed by a hit? It seems like close to 100%in the last few games.