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WSU baseball’s next 3B can throw 95 and ‘hit the ball out any park in the country’
BY TAYLOR ELDRIDGE
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10-1 loss to Arkansas in 14 innings.
Lots of walks/hit batsman and stroked the ball for a grand total of 1 run. Based on the highlights I saw, it looks like we struck out about 20 times.
Things continue to look up for Shocker baseball. Just wanna thank Darron Boatright for retaining Todd Butler and keeping the baseball program going strong as we move into year 6.Last edited by ShockerFever; October 6, 2018, 03:27 AM.Deuces Valley.
... No really, deuces.
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"Enjoy the ride."
- a smart manComment
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Arkansas report on on Friday's 14 inning scrimmage including link to a box score.
I suppose the positive spin for the Shockers is that it was a 3-1 game after 8 innings. Liam Eddy pitched the 10th inning and gave up 5 runs all earned on 3 hits and 2 walks:
Arkansas 10th - L. EDDY to p for M. WALTERS. C. Martin singled to shortstop (0-1 K). C. Martin stole second. D. Fletcher walked (3-1 BBKBB). C. Washington pinch ran for D. Fletcher. C. Washington advanced to second on a wild pitch; C. Martin advanced to third. Z. Gregory grounded out to 2b, RBI (1-2 KFB); C. Washington advanced to third; C. Martin scored. J. Kenley flied out to lf, SF, RBI (1-2 BFF); C. Washington scored. Z. Plunkett singled to center field (1-2 FBFF). Z. Plunkett stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error by c. E. Trest walked (3-1 BBSBB). M. Goodheart homered to right field, 3 RBI (0-0); E. Trest scored; Z. Plunkett scored. T. Harris struck out swinging (0-2 FKS). 5 runs, 3 hits, 1 error, 0 LOB .
The other 9 Shocker pitchers held Arkansas to 4 earned runs in 13 innings (an ERA of 2.77) while striking out 17 and walking 8 and hitting 2 batters. That's not too bad although the free passes are too high.
OTOH side of the coin is the question about where the Shockers offense and scoring will come from. The Shockers only managed 5 hits (for 6 total bases) while walking 5 times and striking out a whopping 24 times. The Shocks only run was the result of small ball. A 1 out single by Luke Ritter scored Jacob Katzfey who had singled and stole second. While a lot of their scoring will probably have to come from small ball this hasn't been something they have been real good at during the Butler era.Comment
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Small ball leads to increase probability of scoring 1 run. If you are relying on small ball to be your offense - the only thing your offense will be is SMALL.Originally posted by 1972Shocker View Post
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Obviously this was a poor showing. I have a lot of concerns about the upcoming season but we are being told (for the 6th straight year) that this will be a good year and we have a lot of good young players.
Had we won this game 10-1, I would have some optimism for the year but wouldn't have any confidence we would improve on last year's overall record or finish in the top third of the conference based on this scrimmage. That being said, I think this is one more data point to underscore we have several areas of concern for this season. My hope is to finish above .500 for the season and above .500 in the conference, which would hopefully mean we finish above the bottom third of the AAC this season. It might mean a 6th place finish, but we need to make sure we don't repeat last year's conference failure.Comment
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It will be interesting to see what the schedule will look like. My guess is it will be comparable to last year - a non-conference SOS of 168.
Finishing above .500 in the AAC seems to me to be pretty optimistic considering the Shockers were 9-14-1 last year and arguably lost more key players from that team and have as few or fewer returning established players as anyone in the AAC.
Last edited by 1972Shocker; October 8, 2018, 12:34 PM.Comment
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I was in Fayetteville to watch the scrimmage and it was competitive while the Starters were playing the first 9 innings.It was 3-1 if you keep score for the first game then they took a small break then played 5 more innings.McGuinness pitched extremely well.An observation from a roster standpoint is that not present or no longer with the team were Josh Debacker,Mason O’Brien,and Travis Young.Young would have been a 5th year senior so he may have moved on.Not sure about the others but I thought they would be key players this season moving forward.Comment
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Yes, saying "That is huge!" may have been overstating it. My initial reaction was that we can't really afford to lose any more experience and while none of them were knocking the cover off the ball, they were/are still returning players with experience, and they are all 5th year SRs so they should know a bit more about baseball at the collegiate level than a RS Freshman or someone right out of high-school.
Between the three of them, they did play in 118 games and have a combined 80 starts last year. While they may not have been irreplaceable, they were still better than anyone we had behind them on the roster last season, and likely would have all seen significant time on the field again this year. As we have stated, since Mason is still on the 2019 roster, I am still hopeful he will be around this year and just had to miss the trip due to injury or classes or something else. -
Yes same. From what I heard the first game was all returners-minus Vanvooren RF. But 3-1 ballgame and played better defense than the Razorbacks who don't return many guys from their team last year either. But pitchers in the first game were successful. Segal was impressive, and hitters besides the top 3 of the lineup (Jackson, Katzfey, and Ritter,) plus Gibson. were not good. Didn't look good. I expect Jackson to have a good season he is a talented player, not sure about Katzfey he hasn't had many ABs. Ritter another team leading year. Offense isn't going to be what it has been thats for sure. Not enough experience.
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Fall World Series Schedule
Game 1 – Thursday, Oct. 18, 6 p.m.
Game 2 – Friday, Oct. 19, 6 p.m.
Halloween SCREAMage – Saturday, Oct. 20, 12:30 p.m.
Game 3 – Sunday, Oct. 21, 1 p.m.
*Rain Date – Monday, Oct. 22, TBAComment
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RH: Podcast with Wichita State pitching coach Mike Steele
https://wichitastate.tv/podcast/roun...h-mike-steele/Comment
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Taking in a little of Thursday’s game. McGinness for gold and Snavely for black. Both pretty sharp but admittedly we can’t hit. Hunter Gibson drove one to the wall in the 4th. We have some speed out there.Comment
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Holy crap, surgery and Mason O’Brien digs in looking no worse for the wear. Fouls one off his foot smh
Jake Plastiak with a hard single and SB leads to nothing. Snavely doesn’t throw that hard but has nasty breaking stuff. No score bottom 6Comment
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Croft reaches on an error by Plastiak and the next hitter drove one off the top of the wall in center but Croft was thrown out at the dish on a dynamite relay.
Segal in to pitch top 7
couple of singles and a walk but Segal gets out of it
Bottom 7 CLayton still pitching.Last edited by WuDrWu; October 18, 2018, 08:48 PM.Comment
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Gibby leads off the inning with a scorched double down the right field line. Trying to bunt him over. Failed twice. With 2 strikes #5 hits a mistake down the left field line and it’s 1-0 black. Clayton out Marley in.
Kinda liked the Marley kid. Hit the backstop a couple of times but it sounded fast. This kid might be something. Big strong, good velocity and a terminator deuce.
2-0 final.Last edited by WuDrWu; October 19, 2018, 10:48 AM.Comment
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