Midweek Games vs ORU and South Dakota State

[1972Shocker]

Jr. Clayton McGinness with 4 solid innings against ORU in his 1st start since his freshman year. Clayton allowed only 1 unearned run while striking out 5 and only walking 1. Fr. Alex Segal followed that with 3 shutout innings allowing only 1 hit but walking 2.

On his radio show HCTB talked about throwing Clayton a couple of innings and then starting him on Friday against USF. He threw 74 pitches in his 4 innings tonight so good chance sdthat will take him out of a Friday start. But I guess we will see.

Alex throwing 3 innings is a good sign because they said his thumbnail issue flared up a bit against Cincy.

The Shocks still not generating much offense but do have the lead at 2-1. Facing another lefty tonight.

Cody Tyler in to pitch the 8th. Cody has been pitching well lately.

Cody with a strong 9 pitch 1-2-3 inning.

Shocks load the bases in the 8th but fail to score. Chandler Sanburn on to try to close it out.

Chandler works around a lead off single and a 2-out wild pitch to end the game on a strike out and pick up the save.

Really good pitching performance by McGinness, Segal, Tyler and Sanburn tonight. The bats were awfully quiet against agaisnt a lefthander. Alec Bohm's lead off homer in the 4th provided the difference.

The midweek - weekend dichotomy continues.

[Cdizzle]

Shox win 2-1.

[shocks02]

Before today's game, the hope was probably to finish the regular season with a 7-2 stretch or better? Win tomorrow and that starts to look a little more possible.

[ShockerFever]

How many wild pitches/passed balls does this staff average per game?

[1972Shocker]

I don't know if tomorrow's game is must win or not. South Dakota State is in 2nd place in the Summit behind ORU but they have an RPI of 232 so the Shocks don't need that hit to their RPI.

Regardless how tomorrow's game goes sweeping USF will be no easy task. Hopefully, the Shocks can wake up the bats a bit tomorrow just to carry so good feelings about the offense into the weekend.

I think the plan is to start Fr. Jacob Lidnemann tomorrow. He was very good in his debut but not so much in his last two appearnces. Small sample size though as he only has 3 innigns under his belt so far this season. Hopeuflly, he won't be too nervous in his 1st career start.

[1972Shocker]

How many wild pitches/passed balls does this staff average per game?

40 wild pitches in 46 games (0.87 per game) vs 41 wild pitches for our opponents.

5 passed balls vs 4 for our opponents coming into tonight's game (45 games).

[ShockerFever]

40 wild pitches in 46 games (0.87 per game) vs 41 wild pitches for our opponents.

5 passed balls vs 4 for our opponents coming into tonight's game (45 games).

Thanks.

That's quite shocking.

Do you know where our numbers rank NCAA wise? We played some pretty bad teams in a large part of our schedule. I'm not sure if those numbers are skewed or not.

[SB Shock]

Do you know where our numbers rank NCAA wise? We played some pretty bad teams in a large part of our schedule. I'm not sure if those numbers are skewed or not.

26th - K/9 IP
33rd - WHIP
36th - K/BB
39th - HR/G
43rd - Batting Average
49th - Slugging
56th - ERA
75th - BB/9 IP
106th - Hit Batters
170th - Fielding Pct

Overall the stat lines look like WSU is an equivalent to bubble/NIT team. The one thing that sticks out is fielding pct and ERA. Bad fielding teams cost you wins. ERA is out of line with some of other pitching stats. I would guess that is because of the BB/9 IP is mediocre (75th) and I might conjecture the team doesn't pitch well in the clutch or with inherited runners.

WSU pitching staff of course has been exposed in conference play.

Conference Play Rankings

2nd - OBP
3rd - Bavg
4th - SLG
4th - HR/G
6th - Runs Scored

3rd - BB/G
6th - K/G
8th - ERA
8th - runs allowed
9th - Fielding
3rd - Wild Pitches

[Cdizzle]

"ERA is out of line with some of other pitching stats."

Also just a ton of free bases. Wild pitches, passed balls, "triples" that should have been inning-ending double-plays, "doubles" that are fly balls a competent collegiate outfielder would stand under and catch, exceptionally few would-be hits turned into outs. It adds up.

[Linus]

I watched a High School game last night. Nice night. I had a root beer and a hotdog and listened to the parents encourage their boys. I Really enjoyed the stress less evening watching the boys of summer just play the game. Forgot how that felt. You people get to wrapped around the axel and forget to enjoy the "game". Life's short, better enjoy it while you can instead of researching numbers and analyzing all day. Forgot my blanket and still enjoyed the night.

[ShockerFever]

I watched a High School game last night. Nice night. I had a root beer and a hotdog and listened to the parents encourage their boys. I Really enjoyed the stress less evening watching the boys of summer just play the game. Forgot how that felt. You people get to wrapped around the axel and forget to enjoy the "game". Life's short, better enjoy it while you can instead of researching numbers and analyzing all day. Forgot my blanket and still enjoyed the night.

Hard to enjoy low-IQ baseball bub. Hard to enjoy non-postseason level baseball bub.

It's only been 5 years since this team played in a regional.

Yes, we are the bad ones. Extend Butler.

[ShockTalk]

Regardless how tomorrow's game goes sweeping USF will be no easy task.

So far, USF has won 5 of 6 conference series winning 2 of 3 each time and won 1 of 3 in the series they lost.

[ShockTalk]

I watched a High School game last night. Nice night. I had a root beer and a hotdog and listened to the parents encourage their boys. I Really enjoyed the stress less evening watching the boys of summer just play the game. Forgot how that felt. You people get to wrapped around the axel and forget to enjoy the "game". Life's short, better enjoy it while you can instead of researching numbers and analyzing all day. Forgot my blanket and still enjoyed the night.

Tad bit of difference between just any high school game vs D-I baseball in the AAC and what type of expectations fans have of that high school coach and a D-I coach who's receiving big bucks and hasn't had a successful season in 5 years.

Based on what you said in your post, you, too, had forgot what a stress less baseball game felt like. Must have been all those D-I college games you watched even with that blanket.

[1972Shocker]

Jacob Lindemann will get the start tonight against SDSU. Jacob pitched 3 scoreless in his 1st appearnance but in his other 2 appearances he faced 4 batters in each game without retiring any of them. Hopefully, he will be on tonight.

HCTB did say that Liam Eddy would probably pitch tonight which is good to hear. At least we know he is not injured.

Jacob gave up a lead-off single and a walk around a stirke out and pop foul to 3B but got a stirke out to record a goose egg in the 1st. Good enough.

Shocks need to light up this SDSU pitcher who has a 6.356 ERA and is making his 1st start and hasn't pitched in 2 weeks. Let's go!

Good start. 3-0 after 1.

Shocks put up 4 more in the 3rd including a 2-run jack by Jenista. 7-0 after 3. Rocking chair gain in progress.

[Cdizzle]

Shox have 7 runs on 6 hits in the bottom of the 3rd, lead 7-0.

[1972Shocker]

Final: 10-0

Lindemann, Eddy, Heuer, Minor and Wallace combine for a 4-hit shutout and that's including Wallace giving up 2 hits in the 9th. Very nice.

If nothing else the guys should be in a good frame of mind heading into the weekend. Whether that will lead to success remains to be seen.