Games of Interest

[Shocker3435]

La Tech trying to come back in the 9th. 13-10 Hogs 1 on 2 outs now.

Hogs win 13-10

La Tech will be 7-1 when the 7-0 Shox roll into town Friday.

[CharlieHog]

La Tech trying to come back in the 9th. 13-10 Hogs 1 on 2 outs now.

Hogs win 13-10

La Tech will be 7-1 when the 7-0 Shox roll into town Friday.

La Tech was up 10-1 on the Hogs after 3 innings. Hard to tell how good either team is at this point.

[SPEShockAlum]

Well we know those two teams do what the Shockers don't - and that's give up runs.

[1972Shocker]

Utah Valley lost to San Fransisco 4-1 on Tuesday to fall to 1-6 on the year. That is taking a bit of the shine of the Shocks series win over UVU.

GCU hasn't played since their series with the Shocks. I think they are legit based on their pitching and their 2-1 series win over OSU. OSU is 3-2 since then with a win over Arizona State, 2 wins and 1 loss against Texas state and they lost yesterday to St. Louis by a 10-7 score.

Omaha at 1-8 and with the average score in their games 9.8 to 2 (10.75 to 1.25 in thier 8 losses), They simply are not a good team.

The fact is that, while the Shocks have been pretty solid overall so far and their pitching has been very good, it is still very difficult to make any confident declarations on exactly how good they are. Looking forward to finding out what the next 7 games reveal about this Shocker team.

Power ratings this early in the year don't mean very much but WarreNolan has Wichita State (7-0) at #28 in his NPI and LaTech (8-1) at #25. He has LSU at #47 and OU at #57.

None of these teams have played a partiuclarly strong schedule. The Shocks' SOS is 133, LaTech's is 165, LSU's is 165 and OU's is 214. OU plays Central Connecticut this weekend. LSU plays in Houston this weekend agaisnt TCU, Baylor and Texas Tech.

[shockfan89_]

I think that is a fair analysis based on 7 games early in the season. I will say I am very shocked, and pleased at our 1.57 team ERA. With last year's pitching performance we would very likely be 2-5 right now. The fielding has also been good.

It seems strange to say, but right now my biggest concern is hitting. I know we started slow last year, but before yesterday we were hitting .280 as a team. After beating up on bad Nebraska-Omaha team we are up to .288 but that isn't very good against questionable competition. Hitting will definitely need to improve over the next 7 games.

My next concern is pitching. It is just stupid to be concerned about a staff with a 1.57 ERA! My concern is are we really this good? Has the competition been terrible thus far? How will our pitching be when we are playing 4 to 5 games a week instead of 3?

All in all I would much rather have these concerns at 7-0 than at 2-5 or 3-4. Even if we only go 2-5 over these next 7 games we will be 9-5 which is way better than we have been for the last few year.

[1972Shocker]

Shocker fans certainly hope for better than 2-5 on this swing of road games but it is really hard to know at this point what a reasonable expectation is.

HCTB has also expressed concern about the hitting in the Eagle report on the Omaha game and said he hopes they come alive on this road trip. Not sure he can afford to stick with Dayton Dugas in the 2-hole at this point. He can always move him back there if he proves he has the goods.

If the Shocker pitching and defense can hold up then they should be in most of these games. Of course, that is one of the big questions that needs to be answered. One other factor that is unkown is how will this team respond to playing on the road.

I think most Shocker fans would be somewhat disappointed if the Shocks only go 2-5 in these games. Of course, a lot depends on how competitive we are if that is the result.

I will be more than happy of the Shocks go 4-3 although that is a hope not a predcition. The range of possibilities pretty much runs the full gamet from 7-0 to 0-7 with the latter having a higher probablility than the former.

I think that there is one thing that we can say for sure. This stretch of games is a golden opportunity for HCTB and the Shocks to re-ignite the energy in the Shocker fan base that is so badly needed now.

[THam]

While I hoped for a 7-0 start based on the level of competition, I expected this team to be led by its offense and had my fingers crossed for something like an average pitching staff to materialize. So that they are 7-0 while scoring 4,16,6,1,4,5 and 8 runs is pretty surprising to me. The 8 runs WSU scored yesterday were as much a product of good luck and bad Omaha defense as it was anything the Shocks did at the plate. Based on Dugas' horrible ABs yesterday, I don't know if having him in the lineup at all gives WSU the best chance of winning this weekend.

With regards to the next 7 games, there's a big difference between how I'll feel if win 2 games and have 5 close losses, and how I'll feel if we win 2 games because Schwanke or Tyler have a couple of dominant games and we get pounded in the other 5. Either way, we should know a lot more about what the ceiling on this team is a week and a half from now.

[1972Shocker]

Would love to have Coach Steele sit in for HCTB every now and again for at least a 20 minute segment of HCTB's coaches show to give us some his thougths on the pitching staff and how he approaches his craft.

[1972Shocker]

Friday, March 3rd:

St. Mary's 12 - Grand Canyon 11

Utah Valley 7 - Indiana State 6