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Arkansas Regional


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I know we went to Bunz in that situation.  Probably the only choice.  However, hindsight being 20/20 and this being a huge situation, should we have went to Schwelly to try to get one out?  Maybe go to Hroch to start the 9th, if Schwelly finishes.

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3 minutes ago, brfrad said:

I know we went to Bunz in that situation.  Probably the only choice.  However, hindsight being 20/20 and this being a huge situation, should we have went to Schwelly to try to get one out?  Maybe go to Hroch to start the 9th, if Schwelly finishes.

I kinda thought that Scwelly would come in for the hold. and then let the chips fall where they may.

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So, do we know the names of the announcers?  NJIT got more positive pub than Nebraska did.  Not a mention of Nebraska going toe-to-toe with the number one team in the nation.  Just how much NJIT was embraced by the Arkansas fans.  Of course, they were.  Who would they rather play, a team deserving of a # 1 seed or a 4th seed team that barely made the tournament?

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The way I see it, our only self-inflicted wound (aside from home run hits) was a passed ball. So literally all of our mistakes were on the mound. I don't say this to dog on the pitchers. I say this to say that our infield and outfield did everything they needed to do to defeat the #1 team in the nation.

 

Arkansas is #1 for a reason. And they exploited the very few opportunities they had.

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Just now, brfrad said:

So, do we know the names of the announcers?  NJIT got more positive pub than Nebraska did.  Not a mention of Nebraska going toe-to-toe with the number one team in the nation.  Just how much NJIT was embraced by the Arkansas fans.  Of course, they were.  Who would they rather play, a team deserving of a # 1 seed or a 4th seed team that barely made the tournament?

 

[Terrified to play Nebraska]

 

[Then wins Game 7 in the bottom of the 8th inning]

 

"See! We own you! You suck!"

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5 minutes ago, brfrad said:

So, do we know the names of the announcers?  NJIT got more positive pub than Nebraska did.  Not a mention of Nebraska going toe-to-toe with the number one team in the nation.  Just how much NJIT was embraced by the Arkansas fans.  Of course, they were.  Who would they rather play, a team deserving of a # 1 seed or a 4th seed team that barely made the tournament?

Steve Lenox (play-by-play) and Lance Cormier (analyst).

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2 minutes ago, HuskerFever said:

The way I see it, our only self-inflicted wound (aside from home run hits) was a passed ball. So literally all of our mistakes were on the mound. I don't say this to dog on the pitchers. I say this to say that our infield and outfield did everything they needed to do to defeat the #1 team in the nation.

 

Arkansas is #1 for a reason. And they exploited the very few opportunities they had.

Arkansas hit about 2 home runs a game on the season.  We gave up 4 in 3 games against them, with 3 of them being in 1 game.  We had 2 HR's in 3 games.  It came down the WP.  That was on Bunz.  Everitt had zero chance to block that ball.  The HR just gave something to cheer about.

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2 minutes ago, brfrad said:

Arkansas hit about 2 home runs a game on the season.  We gave up 4 in 3 games against them, with 3 of them being in 1 game.  We had 2 HR's in 3 games.  It came down the WP.  That was on Bunz.  Everitt had zero chance to block that ball.  The HR just gave something to cheer about.

 

Curious what the rate of home runs are at their home stadium. But might hold the same.

 

Either way, yes, home runs did us in. "Easy" runs for them; we didn't make them earn it.

 

But I would also argue that our biggest problem was falling flat when Kopps came in and had 5+ straight innings of zero production on offense.

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I know this is kind of early, but wondering how this team looks next year.  I would have to say our pitching is going to have to carry us for awhile.  We are going to lose a ton of production from the line-up.  Our top 4 hitters will be gone, and our entire outfield will need to be retooled.  Selfishly, I hope the draft doesn't kill us.  Schwellenbach is gone, for sure.  I think Cade is probably gone.  I don't think Perry will go high, but some team might take a chance on him.  Wynne is a posibility.  I don't think Chick will go high as he is a feast or famine guy.  Another year of learning patience will be good for him.  

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4 minutes ago, brfrad said:

I know this is kind of early, but wondering how this team looks next year.  I would have to say our pitching is going to have to carry us for awhile.  We are going to lose a ton of production from the line-up.  Our top 4 hitters will be gone, and our entire outfield will need to be retooled.  Selfishly, I hope the draft doesn't kill us.  Schwellenbach is gone, for sure.  I think Cade is probably gone.  I don't think Perry will go high, but some team might take a chance on him.  Wynne is a posibility.  I don't think Chick will go high as he is a feast or famine guy.  Another year of learning patience will be good for him.  

Do you keep shay as a stater or move him back to a set up/closer guy?

 

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3 minutes ago, Bugeaters1 said:

Do you keep shay as a stater or move him back to a set up/closer guy?

 

If Cade does go, I go Perry, Gomes, Shay for my rotation.  Possibly Frank, if Gomes isn't able to come back from his injury.

 

If Cade does not go, I go Cade, Perry, Shay for my rotation.

 

I like Wynne as a closer, if he doesn't go.  Of course, Bunz as a set-up guy (terrible time for someone to get the yips)

 

Shay really needs consistency.  He has the stuff to be a Friday night guy. He can have amazing outings, like the one against Purdue, Maryland, Michigan, and NJIT.  Then, he has outings like against Iowa, Illinois, and Rutgers.  Needs to have more Purdue, Maryland, etc starts, and less Iowa, Illinois, and Rutgers starts.

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Kopps is a freak and was by far the difference in the series. 11 1/3 innings vs us with 0 runs allowed - we scratched out 8 runs against the other guys in 14 2/3. That dude could've thrown 200 more pitches tonight & I don't think it would've mattered. And we all know DVH would've let him. 😉 I'll always appreciate DVH and what he did here, but he's not the most careful guy when it comes to taking care of pitchers in the postseason. Having said that, I'm not sure it matters for Kopps. His motion is so free and easy & he rarely has to throw stressful pitches. I don't know what he was like before his arm injury, but this version of him is absolutely filthy. He's the best college pitcher I've seen since Huston Street. Barf.

 

It was clear we were hunting fastball early in the count against him, trying to avoid getting behind in the count, but it didn't matter. He rarely threw the fastball for strikes, so our strategy wasn't going to work. He worked ahead all night. He did a great job of mixing pitches. We just never could string at bats against him. I don't think we had 2 straight guys ever reach base against him in either game.

 

Bunz has been really good all season, so it was the right call to go to him. Would've rather seen him have a clean count vs Opitz, but I think they were worried about turning him around after he hit the HR right handed. Not sure it would've mattered. Arky had all the momentum after Opitz's HR in the 5th vs Povich & we couldn't do anything offensively to get it back. It was just a matter of time.

 

And while I'm sure Schwellenbach would've gladly taken the ball tonight, there's no way he was getting on the mound. He guaranteed himself a high round draft pick last night & maybe a 6 or 7-figure bonus. You don't risk his arm for any reason in that spot, not after what he gave you last night & all season. The adults in the room have to tell him no & I'm glad they did.

 

Great season, going to be tough to replace all of the guys who will be moving on - Schwelly & Povich are almost certainly gone, plus all the seniors and maybe a few of the fourth-year juniors like Hallmark - but this coaching staff has a game plan recruiting-wise that is going to work pretty well here I think. They've certainly proven they can recruit pitchers, and I think they'll get good offensive players here too, if Mathews is any indication. (Anderson too, but they kind of lucked into getting him.) 

 

And I know most don't want to give Erstad much credit for what he did here, but the majority of the offense were guys he brought in. Bolt & Co have done an amazing job getting those guys to buy in and helping them improve, but Bolt certainly inherited a far better situation than what Erstad walked into.

 

Would've been amazing to move on, but Arkansas earned it. That was far more like a super regional in terms of quality of play than a regional should be. They'll have their hands full with NC State though. Those guys are rolling. Not sure if Kopps can throw all 18 or 27 innings of the super regional, but they might be tempted to try it.

 

 

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47 minutes ago, brfrad said:

I know this is kind of early, but wondering how this team looks next year.  I would have to say our pitching is going to have to carry us for awhile.  We are going to lose a ton of production from the line-up.  Our top 4 hitters will be gone, and our entire outfield will need to be retooled.  Selfishly, I hope the draft doesn't kill us.  Schwellenbach is gone, for sure.  I think Cade is probably gone.  I don't think Perry will go high, but some team might take a chance on him.  Wynne is a posibility.  I don't think Chick will go high as he is a feast or famine guy.  Another year of learning patience will be good for him.  

Good observations - we have a lot of fourth-year juniors with the free covid year that I'm sure are ready to go pro, but with only a 20-round draft, I'm not sure how many of them will be drafted. They still could just go free agent, but they might be tempted to come back & try to get drafted the following year. 

 

Schwelly will be top 3 rounds for sure, probably 2nd. Povich could be anywhere from 3 to 10 - hard to say. He sure helped his cause tonight. He loves it at NU & he may have "unfinished business" but not sure you can turn down a top 10 round pick slot. He does have quite a bit of leverage as a third-year player.

 

Will be interesting to see how MLB teams play those 11-20 rounds. Do they take a senior who has no leverage to try to save money? Do they take a lot of fourth-year juniors who are probably ready to move on, which may save a bit of money, versus taking third-year guys who have more leverage? 

 

I don't think Perry or Chick have any shot at getting drafted. Perry has to show a full year of health. Chick has to figure out how to hit offspeed pitches consistently. Teams in the Big Ten had the book on Chick over the last half of the regular season, but he was able to see more fastballs in the regional, which helped.

 

There's a lot of juniors on this team who may try to go pro - Wynne, Bunz, Frank, Everett, Shay, Hallmark. Going to be a challenging roster management time this summer. 

 

Hope they can hang on to Christo, but we'll see what kind of signing bonus he's after. Sounds like he wants a big bonus, so I like his chances of getting to college, but it just takes one MLB team to decide he's worth the investment.

 

 

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12 minutes ago, brfrad said:

I don't think NC St has the pitching to hang with them.  I think Arkansas will outslug them.  

No question Arky is the favorite there, but NC State is red hot. Arky's top of the order needs to be waaaay better than they were vs us. 

 

If Arky can get to the CWS, with all of the off days, Kopps might throw some every game. If so, they'll be a tougher out in Omaha than they probably were in regionals & will be in supers.

 

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