Illinios vs. Nebraska series Game Thread.

[huskerbaseball13]

Much needed win. Hopefully a win tomorrow and a series win can get them going.  Mich series may decide Big Ten league title if Indians falters. 

[HuskerFever]

 

[AuroranHusker]

Any B1G win is a good win. Would be great to take a Big Ten series against a 27-14 Illini squad.

 

 

[The Polish Rifle]

Reece saved our bacon last week. Can it do it again? Would be nice to not put so much pressure on our pitching today. Like I said yesterday, it was nice to see Erstad embrace small ball - in college you have to put pressure on the other team to make a play, especially when you are swinging the bats so poorly. 

[brfrad]

On 4/27/2019 at 12:35 AM, royalfan said:

 

Sorry, we do not have much offensive talent.  

Palinsky, Chick, Acker, Schwellenbach, Gomes are a few players who have talent.  The rest of the team probably not so much.  The ? is do they end up like Asche, and get a cup of coffee in the bigs or Altavilla and struggle for their final 2 years here. 

 

Their approach with 2 strikes is horrible, but it also is en vogue in the majors, now.

[royalfan]

1 minute ago, brfrad said:

Palinsky, Chick, Acker, Schwellenbach, Gomes are a few players who have talent.  The rest of the team probably not so much.  The ? is do they end up like Asche, and get a cup of coffee in the bigs or Altavilla and struggle for their final 2 years here. 

 

Their approach with 2 strikes is horrible, but it also is en vogue in the majors, now.

 

Guys in majors hit for power though.  

[The Polish Rifle]

Same issues today. Lots of pressure on pitching and defense to be perfect. Illinois looks to have learned their lesson on giving a struggling team an infinite number of free passes. Gonna have to find some offense somewhere if we want to take this series. 

[The Polish Rifle]

Had the start of rally then 2 strikeouts looking and our guy falls over holding up at 3rd for the final out. Everything is difficult for us right now. 

[The Polish Rifle]

Joe Acker is clearly our clutch hitter, Erstad also green lighting the double steal was excellent. 4-3 Illinois.

[The Polish Rifle]

Cam Chick with a clutch single 4-4...All 3 runs this inning got on base via walk - Illinois clearly didn't learn their lesson yesterday. 

[The Polish Rifle]

We did a hit and run on a bunt, no idea why, but it erases a lead off single. 

[The Polish Rifle]

We misplace a bunt in the 9th, looks like it will cost us 6-4 Illinois. 

[Bugeaters1]

14 minutes ago, The Polish Rifle said:

We misplace a bunt in the 9th, looks like it will cost us 6-4 Illinois. 

Not so fast Debbie downer

[The Polish Rifle]

Still have yet to win a series against a team we would see in Omaha. Illinois takes the series with a 6-5 win 

[Silverbacked1]

We don't seem to work the count much this year.. Even last year we took a lot of pitches and made guys throw a ton of pitches to make them work.. We semi or it feels like we go up and swing a bit more early in the count and then can't make the other guy throw more.

 

Mojo is very good at this.. A lot of foul balls to make that pitch work.. Also would be nice to play in some good weather once.

[huskerbaseball13]

27 minutes ago, Bugeaters1 said:

Not so fast Debbie downer

 

Nope. He was right. 

 

Defense cost us today.  If we can sweep NW we should still be in good position to win the Big Ten. Indiana and Mich still have to play each other. Iowa has a very easy remaining schedule though.  And they have the tiebreaker over us. 

[Huskerpapa]

4 hours ago, brfrad said:

Palinsky, Chick, Acker, Schwellenbach, Gomes are a few players who have talent.  The rest of the team probably not so much.  The ? is do they end up like Asche, and get a cup of coffee in the bigs or Altavilla and struggle for their final 2 years here. 

 

Their approach with 2 strikes is horrible, but it also is en vogue in the majors, now.

Man, I am placed in a position to argue a very important point.  You state only a few players have talent, where the rest of the team, probably not so much.    Gosh, to get to high Division I level...to play anything beyond high school, is an accomplishment.  You have to have talent to compete at this level.  I understand that there are different levels of talent.  I can certainly jump on board with that type of opinion, at all levels, you have the best of the best; but to field, throw, hit, hit for power takes talent.

[cipsucks]

I hope we're not heading towards the end of the year slump that seems to be the norm the last several years.  It's got that feeling, though.

 

[The Polish Rifle]

47 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

Man, I am placed in a position to argue a very important point.  You state only a few players have talent, where the rest of the team, probably not so much.    Gosh, to get to high Division I level...to play anything beyond high school, is an accomplishment.  You have to have talent to compete at this level.  I understand that there are different levels of talent.  I can certainly jump on board with that type of opinion, at all levels, you have the best of the best; but to field, throw, hit, hit for power takes talent.

I would argue we’re very talented, just not put in a position to succeed. I posted the stats in another thread, we’re not a bad contact team - we just don’t sacrifice, we don’t run, we don’t hit for power. Our hitters are out there in no mans land trying to hit station to station. Put pressure on a college defense they will crumble (see Illinois 9th inning sac bunt we botched).

[Silverbacked1]

It would be nice to get some more power if we could, we seem to do best when we run and could bunt more.. 

 

We don't seem to get guys in scoring position until 2 outs, then...

[brfrad]

3 hours ago, Huskerpapa said:

Man, I am placed in a position to argue a very important point.  You state only a few players have talent, where the rest of the team, probably not so much.    Gosh, to get to high Division I level...to play anything beyond high school, is an accomplishment.  You have to have talent to compete at this level.  I understand that there are different levels of talent.  I can certainly jump on board with that type of opinion, at all levels, you have the best of the best; but to field, throw, hit, hit for power takes talent.

I worded that wrong.  I just put the guys who I thought had upper level talent.  I think Gunner would be included in that group, possibly Roskam.  The other players have showed flashes (Hallmark on the opening weekend), but I don't think they will be/should be everyday players.  Another solid recruiting class, and the talent will be there.  Now, to develop them.  One extra base hit this weekend is not going to get the job done.  We are very fortunate not to have gotten swept.  The good news is we get Northwestern (a sweep is a must).  We need to get some momentum going into the last 2 weekends.  

[brfrad]

2 hours ago, The Polish Rifle said:

I would argue we’re very talented, just not put in a position to succeed. I posted the stats in another thread, we’re not a bad contact team - we just don’t sacrifice, we don’t run, we don’t hit for power. Our hitters are out there in no mans land trying to hit station to station. Put pressure on a college defense they will crumble (see Illinois 9th inning sac bunt we botched).

We are a bad contact team.  We are 10th in the Big 10 in strikeouts per plate appearance.  I would like to see more sacrifices.  We do run a decent amount, as we are 5th in the Big 10 in stolen base attempts per game going into this weekend.  I think as some of the players get older (Schwellenbach, Chick, Palinsky, Gunner, and Gomes), they will get more power, but they are young, and haven't developed that power, yet.

 

The 6th inning was this season in a nutshell (at least the last 3 weeks.  The first two batters reach on a HBP, and a single.  I know we are down 4 - 0, but still have 3 more opportunities to score.  If the inning plays out like it did, and we get the bunt down.  There are runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.  A wild pitch puts a runner on 3rd, and scores a run.  The next batter strikes out, but the batter after gets a single to left.  We would have a 4 - 2 game with a runner at 1st and 2 outs.  We're back in the game.  A 3 run 7th gives us a 5 - 4 lead.  

[royalfan]

3 hours ago, Huskerpapa said:

Man, I am placed in a position to argue a very important point.  You state only a few players have talent, where the rest of the team, probably not so much.    Gosh, to get to high Division I level...to play anything beyond high school, is an accomplishment.  You have to have talent to compete at this level.  I understand that there are different levels of talent.  I can certainly jump on board with that type of opinion, at all levels, you have the best of the best; but to field, throw, hit, hit for power takes talent.

 

Come on man.  Obviously the discussion is talent in relation to expectations.  This is silly.  

[The Polish Rifle]

12 minutes ago, brfrad said:

We are a bad contact team.  We are 10th in the Big 10 in strikeouts per plate appearance.  I would like to see more sacrifices.  We do run a decent amount, as we are 5th in the Big 10 in stolen base attempts per game going into this weekend.  I think as some of the players get older (Schwellenbach, Chick, Palinsky, Gunner, and Gomes), they will get more power, but they are young, and haven't developed that power, yet.

 

The 6th inning was this season in a nutshell (at least the last 3 weeks.  The first two batters reach on a HBP, and a single.  I know we are down 4 - 0, but still have 3 more opportunities to score.  If the inning plays out like it did, and we get the bunt down.  There are runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.  A wild pitch puts a runner on 3rd, and scores a run.  The next batter strikes out, but the batter after gets a single to left.  We would have a 4 - 2 game with a runner at 1st and 2 outs.  We're back in the game.  A 3 run 7th gives us a 5 - 4 lead.  

Appreciate the stats. My bad, I assumed we were a decent contact team because we really don’t do anything else well. Kirby with the late stop sign at 3rd was insane. You HAVE to be aggressive running the bases when you are hitting like we are. You send him all day long. 

[The Polish Rifle]

5 minutes ago, royalfan said:

 

Come on man.  Obviously the discussion is talent in relation to expectations.  This is silly.  

I think our entire roster is built on kids that many B1G teams couldn’t get. We own the B1G footprint recruiting wise. This teams is more talented then 95% of the B1G and we always have been.