Nebraska (10-4) vs. Wichita St. (9-6) Series Game Thread

[Bugeaters1]

 

 

Let's win two.

[throwback]

 

[Bugeaters1]

left 5 on through 3

[Bugeaters1]

Left 14 on through 9.

[Bugeaters1]

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!!!!!!!

 

[throwback]

Would've been nice if we had cashed in on more of our scoring chances, but we did just enough. And after how the midweeks went last season, I'll take any win. 

 

Nice bounce back from Walsh after a rough first couple of batters. Really good outing by Daiss.

 

A midweek series road sweep over Wichita will look really nice on the NCAA resume in May, so hope our freshman pitcher is ready to go in his debut tomorrow. 7 true road wins already is pretty impressive.

 

 

By the way USA won at Mississippi State tonight - got two in the top of the 9th to win 6-5. That will be a win that helps them in the RPI quite a bit, I'd imagine.

Edited March 13 by throwback

[throwback]

 

[throwback]

Welp, looks like the boys decided to give up early tonight in honor of our former AD. Perfect finish to a sh*t sandwich of a day.

 

[hskr4life]

3 minutes ago, throwback said:

Welp, looks like the boys decided to give up early tonight in honor of our former AD. Perfect finish to a sh*t sandwich of a day.

 

Was just about to come here and say “Thanks Trev” but thought it was too soon lol.

[brfrad]

We have to lead the nation in strikeouts batting.

[hskr4life]

Ugly way to end the mid-week.  Let’s go win ourselves another weekend series!

[throwback]

A split down there is a good, if unsatisfying, result. It's always tough to play down there. Frankly, we probably were a little lucky not to go 0-2 - WSU gave us a lot of free passes on Tuesday that they haven't done very often this season. Of course, we easily could've had 12+ runs Tuesday, too, so it probably all evens out.

 

WSU's quick resurgence after significantly turning over its roster is probably a bigger surprise than what we've done so far. Going 1-1 shouldn't hurt us too much in the RPI department, especially if Wichita keeps pitching like they have.

 

We really showed off the depth of our pitching staff down there (other than Clark), and I thought Harrahill showed some flashes even with a less than desirable start. I wouldn't hesitate to give him the ball again. I like how we're sitting in the midweek vs where we were last year, even though we upgraded the schedule strength in the midweek this season.

 

 

Nicholls has a nice record, but they are not a team that's going to help our RPI all that much by the end, I'd imagine, especially when we're playing them at home. Frankly, the same can be said for this entire 8-game homestand. We won't be top 5 in RPI after next weekend, even if we go 8-0, but that's the way it works for northern teams.

 

All we can do is dominate who's in front of us when the schedule strength dips. Need to get off to a good start by taking care of business this weekend. If Christo can right the ship from last weekend, I think we'll be fine.

 

Falling behind 4-0 after one inning in three of our last five games is no recipe for success, though, so we need sharper starting pitching and defense out of the box. And cutting down on strikeouts on offense. Let's do that.

 

Edited March 14 by throwback

[throwback]

17 hours ago, brfrad said:

We have to lead the nation in strikeouts batting.

I would've guessed you would be pretty close to correct, but we actually are tied for 132nd with 133 Ks (8.87 per game). Some teams ahead of us on the list have almost certainly played more games than us, but still not quite as bad as I expected. Ks must be way up across college baseball.

 

Stephen F Austin has struck out 216 times already. 19 games, but still 11.37 Ks per game ... brutal. Lafayette is second at 198 Ks in 15 games, 13.2 per game.

 

https://d1baseball.com/team-leaderboards/

 

By the way, Nicholls is 7th nationally in batting avg at .349 - we'll need to be dialed in on the mound.

 

We're tied for 86th in hitting at .281. We're also 3rd in fewest walks allowed at 37 - very impressive and exactly what Childress wants to see. 

[brfrad]

2 hours ago, throwback said:

I would've guessed you would be pretty close to correct, but we actually are tied for 132nd with 133 Ks (8.87 per game). Some teams ahead of us on the list have almost certainly played more games than us, but still not quite as bad as I expected. Ks must be way up across college baseball.

 

Stephen F Austin has struck out 216 times already. 19 games, but still 11.37 Ks per game ... brutal. Lafayette is second at 198 Ks in 15 games, 13.2 per game.

 

https://d1baseball.com/team-leaderboards/

 

By the way, Nicholls is 7th nationally in batting avg at .349 - we'll need to be dialed in on the mound.

 

We're tied for 86th in hitting at .281. We're also 3rd in fewest walks allowed at 37 - very impressive and exactly what Childress wants to see. 

That actually is surprising.  I guess that is the way baseball is headed.  It's all launch angles and bat speed.

[AuroranHusker]

11 hours ago, brfrad said:

That actually is surprising.  I guess that is the way baseball is headed.  It's all launch angles and bat speed.

 

Makes it harder to watch, I'd much prefer small ball for development sake, but alas, the pros go & do it so why not NU et al... launch or K, maybe a BB.

 

Edited March 15 by AuroranHusker

[throwback]

13 hours ago, AuroranHusker said:

 

Makes it harder to watch, I'd much prefer small ball for development sake, but alas, the pros go & do it so why not NU et al... launch or K, maybe a BB.

 

And pitchers are so much more focused on velocity and spin rate - always trying to get swing and miss pitches. Guys that pitch to contact are becoming a rare breed. 

 

As coaches have more and more data, they can see trends that are successful and work to develop those trends. College baseball has so much more incredibly specific data available now than even 5 years ago.

 

Honestly, I don't feel like most of our guys are overswinging or are reluctant to try to go the other way. The seemingly high K rate has been a bit perplexing to me, but Ks seem to be up so much across the sport that our results make a bit more sense.

 

College hitters going for faster exit rates and the optimal launch angle are certainly on the increase, but college pitchers are also throwing so much harder and with so much more spin than they did in the recent past, it can't help but result in more swing and miss. 

 

Edited March 15 by throwback

[AuroranHusker]

7 hours ago, throwback said:

And pitchers are so much more focused on velocity and spin rate - always trying to get swing and miss pitches. Guys that pitch to contact are becoming a rare breed. 

 

As coaches have more and more data, they can see trends that are successful and work to develop those trends. College baseball has so much more incredibly specific data available now than even 5 years ago.

 

Honestly, I don't feel like most of our guys are overswinging or are reluctant to try to go the other way. The seemingly high K rate has been a bit perplexing to me, but Ks seem to be up so much across the sport that our results make a bit more sense.

 

College hitters going for faster exit rates and the optimal launch angle are certainly on the increase, but college pitchers are also throwing so much harder and with so much more spin than they did in the recent past, it can't help but result in more swing and miss. 

 

 

Appreciate the explanation, it's hard to know without watching it in-person for my own sake. I'd love to be able to go to some, I think they have a lot of potential to be good enough. GBR Always.