Don’t want to derail this thread too much but Roy Henry was in the house last night in the Stadium Club. A good one.
Sorry to go off topic. Nice win last night.
Based on a 5 game week, last night could not have gone any better for the Cajuns in my opinion.
First off, you only played a 6-1/2 inning game, meaning you were able to get the game played in a short amount of time and rest before a much bigger/tougher game tonight, not to mention that you were able to get a bunch of starters out of the game by the 5th inning, meaning most of the players only played 1/2 a game, rather than a full 9 inning game.
But more important than that was the use of the pitching staff. Sam Hill, who has only pitched 3-1/3 of an inning before last night was able, even though he struggled early, to give you 5 complete innings. But the use of the staff after than was even more impressive. The only pitcher that is in your normal rotation that pitched last night was David Christie and he was able to only throw 1 inning of perfect baseball, only pitching 13 pitches. Steven Cash came in and gave you 1/3 of an inning and Conner Doucet who has not pitched all season gave you 2/3's of an inning.
You are set up tonight to have everyone you would want for a 4 game week, even though you are playing a 5 game week, with the possible exception of Christie, who will probably not be back available until the USA series this weekend.
You expected to win this game easy, but you have to like the fact that you got 6 innings from guy who collectively coming into the game had pitched a total of 4-1/3 innings:
Sam Hill--3-1/3 innings
Steven Cash--1.0 inning
Conner Doucet--0 innings
So 6 of the 7 innings last night were gobbled up by the back end of your rotation. Considering we have some injuries to the staff right now, that was a perfect way to pitch through an expected win.
Also, man you gotta like being 15-6. Cajuns through 21 games last year were 10-11.
Any word on tonight’s starter? Tommy maybe?
Sam Hill should not be considered back end of the rotation. He wasn't healthy at the beginning of the year. The fact he started against Mississippi State last week should be an indicator of how the staff feels about this guy. I think he's establishing himself as our mid-week guy, waiting in the wings in case they need him on the weekend.
It should also be pointed out we do not have a mid week game next week. Hill could come back on Sunday. Everyone else could be used if necessary.
I think we need to see more out of Hill than 3 and third (with 3 walks) against Miss St and a start against Grambling St to think he's factoring in. I like his makeup but consistency is what we've struggled with on the mound for the better part of 3 years.
He has a JuCo National Championship under his belt, so the guy obviously has talent and has competed at a very high level.
Honestly, I would have liked him start tonight against a gritty SLU bunch.
Like everyone else on the staff, for whatever reason he has struggled throwing strikes in his first couple of appearances. I like him just fine where he is, getting ramped up in mid-weeks. He'll give us a chance to win and get himself seasoned. If he can turn the corner like others have appeared to, he's another dangerous piece we can deploy in the conference tournament/regional.
I like the kid fine, but even in JUCO he was not a guy who gobbled up tons of innings. In 23 career games in JUCO and 20 starts he only pitched 77 innings in 2 seasons. Based on the 77 innings in 23 games that is an average of 3-1/3 innings per game.
What I do like about him is the flexibility he could give us if he can throw strikes. He is a guy who could be a spot starter, long relief or even a specialty guy if needed. But as MAT said, until I get more than a questionable start vs Miss State and a win vs Grambling, I am not sure where I would put him right now in this staff. Last night he struggled early vs Grambling.
Here was his first inning run down, if this had not been Grambling and might have been a SLU or better team we would have probably been down by 3-5 runs in the first inning.
Grambling 1st -
T. Borom hit by pitch (0-2 KS).
T. Borom stole second.
N. Frederick walked (3-2 BSBBFFB).
N. Frederick advanced to second;
T. Borom advanced to third on a wild pitch.
T. Hatton flied out to cf, SF, RBI (2-1 BKB); N. Frederick advanced to third; T.
Borom scored.
N. Frederick out at third c to 3b.
C. Bufford struck out looking (2-2 BKSFFFBK). 1 run, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
You can't do that vs good teams. If he can settle down and throw strikes, we can see, but last night could have been really bad against anyone else.
Here's one of the things I really like about Deggs. We see things as they are. He sees things the way they can be.
Nezuh got hammered in a few starts. Yet he kept him in the weekend rotation because he saw what his issue was and who he could be. Now he's the National Pitcher of the Week.
He said before the season to watch Cooper Rawls. Now, I don't know too many people who thought Rawls would have a 4-0 record and a 1.15 ERA.
He thinks McGehee is going to be really, really good. Hopefully he'll get healthy.
Sam's issue last night was limited to the first two batters. After that, Deggs paid him a visit and he settled down. I do agree he needs to cut down on free baserunners. But boy, he has really good stuff.
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