UL vs ULM Game 3

[LifeTimeCajun]

_ Well, I think we all knew that even after the MT series, this team was not an at large team (although we all held out hope). This is a rebuilding year, so let's take it for what it's worth. I knew (and I think you all did to) that the only way we were going to make it to post season was to win the conference tournament. Our pitching is deep, but mediocre and our hitting is decent but not great. Our defense is still in need of a lot of help. Good news is that we are very young. We need to get on the recruiting trail hard for some pitching. I wish we could get at least one guy who throws in the 90's consistently and who can blow the ball by people. I really can't stand Robe's philosophy of pitching to contact. We must lead the country in giving up hits with 0-2 and 1-2 counts. Oh well, let's hope they can shake this off and play well down the stretch to get some confidence for the conference tournament. _

Well all of your guys that bashed me about my comments about how i dont think wilburn should be our friday night guy......what is the excuse now? Last week it was he had thrown 130 pitches and was comming back a day early.....now what? I will say it all day long, this guy cannot be a friday starter. We are not in a good situation, not saturday guy nor Sunday guy. The pen was not particularly good either. Two weeks ina row, we donthave good starting pitching. Will not win much like that

[jumboragncajun]

"I sure hope Robe ate their butts after this weekends boner".............Oh damn, I have been in Monroe too long!

[cajunbaseball1]

So you would rather fuse?

Well all of your guys that bashed me about my comments about how i dont think wilburn should be our friday night guy......what is the excuse now? Last week it was he had thrown 130 pitches and was comming back a day early.....now what? I will say it all day long, this guy cannot be a friday starter. We are not in a good situation, not saturday guy nor Sunday guy. The pen was not particularly good either. Two weeks ina row, we donthave good starting pitching. Will not win much like that

igeaux.mobi

[DieHard1280]

This is most frustrating because Robe's forte has ALWAYS been pitching and defense, and this is where this year's club is doing horribly except in certain situations. We go from shutting down league leading MT, we lay a HUGE egg against freaking ULM.

They should be no better than a CC or JC because that is what their facilities look like. It reminded me of a high school sports complex. Sorry, I guess I'm ranting now because we should be light years ahead of those clowns in EVERY sport, and we lose to them way more often than we should. It hasn't been fun (in general) to be an all around UL fan for over 20 years. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. It hurts to see our sports program in such shambles.

Does anyone know why Robe is not getting the pitching talent he has for as long as I can remember?

ps. I believe we lost today, because we 1) walked way too many batters 2) took WAAAAAAY too many strikes 3) hit a lot of balls high and hard into a stiff wind while ULM batters just took the pitch where it was pitched and hit line drives that were not held up by the wind. Overall, a bad, bad performance by the Cajuns after a 7-game win streak. Were they too confident???? I sure hope not. They haven't done anything to be cocky about.

[raginsaints]

We're not doing poorly on defense, save Will Long, now I agree with you on pitching. The thing that I take away from this weekend, is the bats stayed on track. I have confidence Robe will fix our pitching, so I'm not overturning cars on Johnston St. yet.

[cajunbaseball1]

I believe we lost because this team just doesn't have the talent we are used to seeing. We are actually doing a lot better than I had anticipated this year.


igeaux.mobi

[raginsaints]

This team has talent, it's just raw right now.

[cajunfan79]

look robe is a good pitching coach, but if a kid can't pitch he just can't pitch. I agree with the previous poster i just don't see the talent that we are accustomed to.

[jumboragncajun]

_ This is most frustrating because Robe's forte has ALWAYS been pitching and defense, and this is where this year's club is doing horribly except in certain situations. We go from shutting down league leading MT, we lay a HUGE egg against freaking ULM.

They should be no better than a CC or JC because that is what their facilities look like. It reminded me of a high school sports complex. Sorry, I guess I'm ranting now because we should be light years ahead of those clowns in EVERY sport, and we lose to them way more often than we should. It hasn't been fun (in general) to be an all around UL fan for over 20 years. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. It hurts to see our sports program in such shambles.

Does anyone know why Robe is not getting the pitching talent he has for as long as I can remember?

ps. I believe we lost today, because we 1) walked way too many batters 2) took WAAAAAAY too many strikes 3) hit a lot of balls high and hard into a stiff wind while ULM batters just took the pitch where it was pitched and hit line drives that were not held up by the wind. Overall, a bad, bad performance by the Cajuns after a 7-game win streak. Were they too confident???? I sure hope not. They haven't done anything to be cocky about. _

I would put defense at the top of the list for Saturday's disaster. In the first game, an easy chopper went right by Willie Long in the 2nd that should have ended the inning. It was ruled a hit, but REALLY should have been an error. Three runs scored after that, all charged to Wilborn. We should have been out of the inning with NO runs. And Wilborn should have not received 3 ER. (Willie already had an error that inning also, and I am probably the biggest Willie Henry Aaron Long fan in Lafayette, although I now have one foot on that bandwagon that has this guy on their _____ list).

In the second game Saturday, we botched a double play in the sixth that should have gotten us out of the inning with NO RUNS. They went on to score 3 after that. Of course, no error was charged because an out was recorded, so the three runs after are all earned. But as Robe says, we extended the inning there and it burnt us.

These two instances alone could have changed the outcome of the day.

Hawkins looks completely LOST on defense. I know his stick is big, and there is nowhere else to put him, but he is starting to cost us runs on defense. He is clueless on the cutoff. Twice saturday, a good throw from him at the cutoff should have been an out. He got the ball, and like a quarterback, checked all three options then made a bad throw to second. He has got to know where he is going when he cuts it off AND make a throw where a tag can be applied. Of course, his teammates need to help him with the cut and where to go with it. But just the same, team defense cost us runs. Olasin and Goulas both bobbled and cost runs.

Had a good defense been behind the pitching Saturday, our pitchers really gave us a chance to win Saturday. Not perfect pitching, but decent against team that hits .325 ON THE SEASON. Keep in mind, since our bats lit up against McNeese, we were batting only .323 before the Tulane game. ULM has been hitting like that all year. Not making excuses for the pitchers beacause they could have been better, but ULM is a very good offensive team and if our defense nuts-up Saturday, I honesly feel we walk out with 2 W's. (unlike Friday night)

[LSUTiger4RaginCajuns]

I honestly felt as if our defensive efforts were much much improved over last year.

I'll give you Hawkins appears to have regressed on D but after listening to the three at ULM I have to agree with those who think our gloves are hurting us as much, if not more, than pitching and hitting.

I'm gonna stick a pin in the voodoo doll Tuesday morning for Wil...that'll fix that problem.

[2 ul 0105]

Although I have to agree with jumbocajun that defense lost us games on Saturday, (he saw it personally bless his heart) I disagree when it is said that defense is hurting us more than pitching. We are fielding at a .971 fielding percentage which as of April 5 is 38th in the country and as per Jay is on pace to be the best in Cajun history. I don't disagree that Hawkins is a liability at first I have been saying that all season and I can promise you that I am NOT #7's biggest fan, but overall we have been very solid on d. Bostik is a MAN and greg has made some errors but is a much improved defensive shortstop when compared to last year.

This is the first year in a long time that we have not had atleast one lights out starter who sets the tone for the weekend. We are very young and inexperienced on the hill.

I have been typing on my phone the last 30 minutes so by now this probably makes zero sense but to finally get to my point defense overall is not the problem. Not getting any consistency on the mound has been the downfall most of the season. We cannot expect the offense to score 10 runs a game and bail us out every time as they had done the last 6 or 7 games up until this weekend. I may be wrong but beside Fuse's start against middle I don't think we have had a starter get past 5 innings since Wilborn's gem against FIU

I honestly felt as if our defensive efforts were much much improved over last year.

I'll give you Hawkins appears to have regressed on D but after listening to the three at ULM I have to agree with those who think our gloves are hurting us as much, if not more, than pitching and hitting.

I'm gonna stick a pin in the voodoo doll Tuesday morning for Wil...that'll fix that problem.

igeaux.mobi

[Dad04]

UL Team Stats / Conference
Pitching ERA: 5.03 / 3rd
Fielding %: .969 / 4th
OBP: .371 / 9th
Batting: .285 / 10th

Better than average pitching and defense. Not so much at the plate. 2008 we were last in batting avg. and fielding%, so yes we improving. Finishing nearly .500 last year was a feat considering stats.