USF series

[WuDrWu]

Holy moly, Tolle strikes again. He'll fill out an MLB uniform quite nicely. Daaaang.

Tolle was a beast yesterday. Had to get settled in after struggling a bit in the first inning but 2 tape measure home runs that left the premises and a foul ball that cleared the road and still might be bouncing and he looks back to his normal self (and he's been dinged and playing through pain for about 3 weeks now).

It was a good day. The Mother's Day first pitch was a big hit, the senior day celebrations always moving (I sure hope some decide to return) and 2 easy wins and a little confidence going into the final week. Shocks are all but locked into the 3rd seed. UCF is the only team that can put us in the 4 seed and they would have to win today and sweep us next week. On the other hand, we'd have to sweep UCF and hope ECU loses 3 of their remaining 4 games (today hosting Memphis and at USF next week) to pass the Pirates and passing Houston would require again a sweep of UCF and an 0-4 finish by Houston (today at Tulane and then at home vs Cincinnati).


I don't expect ECU will lose any of their 4 and I suspect Houston will lose one which would put Houston in our half of the bracket in Clearwater. That means 7-9PM ET start on Tuesday and then depending on how Tuesday goes, the same time Wednesday if it goes bad or 5-7PM Thursday if it goes well.


Players that took advantage of senior day (actually graduating this spring) were Sawyre Thornhill (the only one who is exhausting his eligibility), Austin Wallace (often injured pitcher from Texas who has pitched in 1 recent game this season at Houston), Garrett Pennington (has 1 year remaining of eligibility), Kyte McDonald (has 1 year remaining of eligibility), Clark Candiotti (has 1 year remaining of eligibility) and Matt Boyer (has 2 years remaining of eligibility).

It's certainly possible that all 5 other than Sawyre could help the team next season and I would like to see them all return, but in 2023 you just never know. Lots of unknowns at this point.

With the pitchers we have coming in, IF we can keep the current team mostly in tact, we should be loaded for bear, talent wise, to make a national impact.


BUT, there's work to do now and these guys have the ability to win in Clearwater.

[shoxlax]

Hard to get around the four losses to Houston, even though we have won every other series (with one left to play).

[WuDrWu]

Hard to get around the four losses to Houston, even though we have won every other series (with one left to play).

Yeah .....they're just a little tougher than we are when it counts it seems. Could have easily one Game 1, won Game 2 easy, Could have won game 3 (regardless of the 7th inning debacle), should have won game 4 and easily could have won game 5. But finals matter.

[1972Shocker]

[1972Shocker]

WSU junior star Brock Rodden, preseason AAC Player of the Year, delivered another standout weekend, batting .600 (9 for 15) with two home runs, four RBI’s and five runs scored for the Shockers. For the season, Rodden is hitting .355 with a team-high .456 on-base percentage, .680 slugging percentage, 15 homers, 60 RBI’s and 53 runs scored.

Meanwhile, breakout sophomore star Payton Tolle continued to make a compelling case for All-American honors with another sterling two-way performance in WSU’s 9-2 victory over USF on Saturday. Tolle improved to 9-2 on the mound by striking out 10 in seven innings, allowing two earned runs, four hits and walking two, then crushed a 491-foot home run at the plate for his 13th long ball of the season and to break a 1-1 tie in the fourth inning.

Read more at: https://www.kansas.com/article275409...#storylink=cpy