Shox vs. UE Aces, Game 1

[shox1989]

In other games tonight, Indy State and BU are tied after 9 at 4, going to extra innings. MoSt was leading Ill St 7-0 but was in a rain delay.

[shox1989]

That's never good when the site's biggest homer is only "cautiously optimistic". That says it all right there.

I have been cautiously optimistic all season long.

[shocker3]

There's your at-large team in action.

Josh Smith with a helluva night, should have been an easy W. Everybody else sucked ass.


Can we please put to bed all of this meaningless RPI bullshit now?

Baseball seasons rarely turn on one game. No baseball team wins every game. Our RPI went from 66 to 68 after tonight's loss.

If we can keep winning at the pace we have been lately we still have a chance at an at large bid and at winning a Valley regular season title.

GO SHOX!

[shocker3]

That's never good when the site's biggest homer is only "cautiously optimistic". That says it all right there.

Actually I take offense at this. I think I am a bigger Shocker baseball fan than anyone on this site.

[WSUwatcher]

According to Kennedy, Doggett should have walked and scored a run (strike 2 was at least 3 inches inside according to Kennedy and should have been ball 4). Instead the Shox leave the bases loaded. The score remains 0-0.

Well, I wasn't there and didn't see it, so I don't know, but I can almost guarantee that Mike doesn't either. I've watched literally dozens of games over the years from essentially his viewpoint -- top row of the stands, using the press box as a seat back, directly behind home plate; thus, a few feet in front of him at his same angle. And I can't tell within a one-ball diameter where the pitch was when it crossed over or past the plate, despite having 20-20 vision with my glasses on. So I'm confident that, with eyes older than mine, Mike can't tell either. But it certainly doesn't stop him from commenting; it's his great weakness as an otherwise superior play-by-play guy.

Maybe Doggett did get a bad call; as I say, I just don't know. But that doesn't explain why rally-killer Kevin Hall, ahead 2-1 on the count withy the bases juiced, could do no more than an infield popup in front of Doggett, and it doesn't explain the other eight innings of decrepit offense either. Apparently the brain can only stand so much time on the bus before it shuts down, because if the Live Stats play-by-play is any indication, there wasn't a lot of brain activity in evidence from the Shocks tonight.

Time to reverse the momentum tomorrow just as quickly as we've seen, for better or worse, a number of other times this year. Got to end the losing streak at one and not let it multiply into another three-bagger.

[ShockerFever]

Baseball seasons rarely turn on one game. No baseball team wins every game. Our RPI went from 66 to 68 after tonight's loss.

If we can keep winning at the pace we have been lately we still have a chance at an at large bid and at winning a Valley regular season title.

GO SHOX!

When you already have 16 losses 37 games into the season, then yes, every loss DOES matter. I applaud the effort though.

[ShockerFever]

Actually I take offense at this. I think I am a bigger Shocker baseball fan than anyone on this site.

You definitely have a point. I'll call it a tie.

[shox1989]

Well, I wasn't there and didn't see it, so I don't know, but I can almost guarantee that Mike doesn't either. I've watched literally dozens of games over the years from essentially his viewpoint -- top row of the stands, using the press box as a seat back, directly behind home plate; thus, a few feet in front of him at his same angle. And I can't tell within a one-ball diameter where the pitch was when it crossed over or past the plate, despite having 20-20 vision with my glasses on. So I'm confident that, with eyes older than mine, Mike can't tell either. But it certainly doesn't stop him from commenting; it's his great weakness as an otherwise superior play-by-play guy.

Maybe Doggett did get a bad call; as I say, I just don't know. But that doesn't explain why rally-killer Kevin Hall, ahead 2-1 on the count withy the bases juiced, could do no more than an infield popup in front of Doggett, and it doesn't explain the other eight innings of decrepit offense either. Apparently the brain can only stand so much time on the bus before it shuts down, because if the Live Stats play-by-play is any indication, there wasn't a lot of brain activity in evidence from the Shocks tonight.

Time to reverse the momentum tomorrow just as quickly as we've seen, for better or worse, a number of other times this year. Got to end the losing streak at one and not let it multiply into another three-bagger.

Yeah I have no idea either whether it was a strike or not since I wasn't there. I was just reporting what Kennedy said.

The point about the bus ride might be valid. The team had a long bus ride on Monday getting home at 3 am from Normal. Took a bus to Lawrence and back, playing a 16 inning game in between and then took another 10 hour bus ride to Evansville. I know they are young, but that is bound to take a little toll on you physically and mentally.

Hopefully they will come out ready to play tomorrow. They have dug themselves a big hole with this loss. They can't afford another 3 game losing streak this late in the season.

[WSUwatcher]

Baseball seasons rarely turn on one game. No baseball team wins every game. Our RPI went from 66 to 68 after tonight's loss.

If we can keep winning at the pace we have been lately we still have a chance at an at large bid and at winning a Valley regular season title.

GO SHOX!

Very true, 3. I'm a Cardinals fan, and I remember late last season, when they were finally playing well but had almost no margin for error because they had buried themselves so deeply in the wild-card race, a game in which completely out of the blue they gave the Mets (!) six (!!) in the ninth (!!!) to blow a comfortable lead and lose. If ever a season were going to turn on one non-final game, that should have been it, but of course it didn't; they resumed winning the next day and never looked back.

That's not to say the Shocks will do the same, obviously, and Mormann, if he goes tomorrow, has been scary for a while now. But they've definitely been resilient in recent series, so there's no reason to assume disaster until it happens.

[GoShockers89]

Need to pick up the next two to stay in the hunt.

It's a shame our offense consistently leaves the pitching staff so little room for error. You would think Jim Thomas would, by sheer dumb luck, accidentally turn a solid group of high school hitters into an excellent group of college hitters once every blue moon.

Blue moons were everywhere until about 2002.

[shox1989]

Baseball seasons rarely turn on one game. No baseball team wins every game. Our RPI went from 66 to 68 after tonight's loss.

If we can keep winning at the pace we have been lately we still have a chance at an at large bid and at winning a Valley regular season title.

GO SHOX!

66 to 68 is not exactly a devastating drop. Boyd's worlds rpi needs assessment says WSU has to go 16-6 in their remaining games to get a rpi of 45 or better. That won't be easy but it is far from impossible.

[shox1989]

Very true, 3. I'm a Cardinals fan, and I remember late last season, when they were finally playing well but had almost no margin for error because they had buried themselves so deeply in the wild-card race, a game in which completely out of the blue they gave the Mets (!) six (!!) in the ninth (!!!) to blow a comfortable lead and lose. If ever a season were going to turn on one non-final game, that should have been it, but of course it didn't; they resumed winning the next day and never looked back.

That's not to say the Shocks will do the same, obviously, and Mormann, if he goes tomorrow, has been scary for a while now. But they've definitely been resilient in recent series, so there's no reason to assume disaster until it happens.

I agree. This team has shown some fight recently. Mormann pitched great this summer, it would be really really nice if he would show that great pitching again soon.

[shocker3]

The other thing to remember about the Valley race is that we have not played either Miss St or Indy St yet. We still have a good chance to control our own destiny regardless of what happens this weekend. Of Course each loss makes the hill steeper to climb.

Also we haven't played what appears to be the two weakest teams in the Valley yet either (Bradley and Creighton). At any rate, it is way too early to just give up.

[shox1989]

Bradley didn't do us any favors tonight. Indy St came back from behind to win 5-4 in 11 innings. I still can't find a final on the MoST game but they were leading 7-0 in the sixth when the rain delay started.

[SB Shock]

Bradley didn't do us any favors tonight. Indy St came back from behind to win 5-4 in 11 innings. I still can't find a final on the MoST game but they were leading 7-0 in the sixth when the rain delay started.

SWOMO game was suspended in the top of 6th with them leading 7-0