High Point - again

[elonphoenix]

This pretty much sums up the season so far:

"Alfie Wheeler led off with a walk and went to second on a passed ball and scored on Kuzdale’s single to center and error by Addison. Jeff Cowan followed with a double down the rightfield line to plate Kuzdale with the go-ahead eighth run for the Panthers. Cowan later came around to score on Randy Schwartz’s single to right.

Zach Scott (1-1) earned the win in relief. He threw 2.2 scoreless innings and did not allow a hit. Tom Boleska threw a perfect ninth to earn his second save on the year.

Zach Booker (2-2) took the loss out of the pen for the Phoenix. He allowed three runs on three hits and walked eight."

The tying run scored on a walk, passed ball, single, and error, then the inning snowballed into another couple runs.

And Book walked eight?? That's 31 walks in 35.2 innings for the season by Booker. Anybody know what's going on there?

[ElonPhan]

Same old story. We have the bats but no pitching. Just can't give up 6 runs in the 2nd inning and expect to win. Rough outing for both Bashman and Booker.

Hope the team can regroup this weekend.

[Adam]

Not a good season so far. We don't really have a good rating in warren nolan now. App is even ahead of us. Maybe we can rebound, but we're now starting to run out of time to fix problems.

[elonfirefighter]

Adam i agree with you baseball is having rough times, our main problems are in the final 3 innings. We have the chance to score the winning runs and cant. Were getting called 3rd strikes. This aside i think we can still have a good season and rebound in all sports next year. I just hope we dont loose student and alumni fans. With the record settinbg crowd i think were doing fine in that department right now

[ElonPhan]

It is also the earlier innings. If we can fix the pitching situation as a whole we should be good to go.

[elonfirefighter]

i was talking about our clutch hitting, our pitching is just too up and down. but your right fix one fix them all

[ontheair]

These guys got chewed out last night by both Kennedy and Buck. It was the longest postgame speech I have ever seen. He was VERY upset about the attitude of his team. Pitching isn't being aggressive, but that isn't the only problem. Kennedy was angry about the bat throw after the last out from Chase Austin. We might very well win most Friday and Saturday games from here on out. Yet, that might not matter.

The guys still have a chance. If they keep on averaging 2 out of three on the weekend, their win percentage will be .667 and they will be either 2nd or 3rd.

[phoenixfc]

Didn't I read the team has been bitten big time by injuries? I did not know whether they were season-ending injuries or short-term issues.

[massachusettsfan]

Rodebaugh has been out for a while and Jobe has a broken finger and has not played since early in the season.

The guys seemed to lose some spark during the rain delay and did not seem like the same team after the game restarted. Course, I was only listening in on the computer.

I have to agree that this season has been disappointing thus far. We seem to be down a notch in all facets of the game, pitching, hitting and defense.

[Adam]

I am not going to say by any means that we're going to have a better sports year next year. As everyone knows, I have lost faith in our athletics department as a whole. And I have lost faith on whether we as a school, alumni base or fans have what it takes to put winning programs on the field year in and out. We have a top down problem from the AD down through fans like me (who don't care anymore) to the students who don't even know we field teams.

So, with that said. We may have an attitude problem on this team. I don't know. But the story is, we aren't playing good. We have few errors which is good. But I mean, when's the last time we were swept by High Point? We really have won one game that we shouldn't have won and lost many that we should have won. So it's just not a good situation.

I hope they turn it around.

But you're fouling yourself to think this sport's year hasn't had an adverse affect on the fans. I mean, the whole senior night with the football team and that fiasco they parents and friends pulled on the old board. Then that lead into two basketball seasons where we won 17 games between the two sports then that leading into baseball where we sit at .500..... so, yeah.

[elonphoenix]

Defense is a bigger problem than just the number of errors in the box score though. Perfect example was a weak fly ball to LF in the SC game that Irvine backed up on first before coming around and trying to charge it, but too late. Routine fly ball that he misjudged, and since he didn't touch it it didn't go in the box score as an error. I don't remember if/how bad that one hurt us, but it's the kind of thing that doesn't show up in the box score yet has been killing us.

[ElonPhan]

That wasn't near as bad as the throwing error with the bases loaded and two outs in the 4th that led to three unearned runs. The team has several things to work on on the defensive side of the game. It's something that you would have to think will only improve as the season goes on.

[euphoenix99]

Food for thought...baseball is tied for 2nd in the SoCon and just won a road series at the Citadel. Softball is first in the conference, albeit after one week of conference play, but still. Men's tennis is rolling through the conference. Women's tennis is 8-8. While I don't like losing two games to High Point, the sky isn't exactly falling. No one, except OTA, has really recognized how well our spring programs have been doing. In fact we could be in contention for two maybe three conference titles. Let's get excited and support the teams. I'll be there tomorrow night.

Go Phoenix!