So, Harding on Friday, right?

[57stratdawg]

Bednar gets the next start after that.

Can we turn Harding around from Friday to Tuesday? I’m guessing he’s ahead of Mac in terms of a Championship Series even on short rest.

 

[BriantheDawg]

 

[Drebin]

Bednar gets the next start after that.

Can we turn Harding around from Friday to Tuesday? I’m guessing he’s ahead of Mac in terms of a Championship Series even on short rest.

I think that's right. Harding Friday. Hopefully we win that one and have Bednar fresh for Tuesday.

 

[Dawgcap]

A loss tonight was the worst possible outcome. Huge win! The longer we wait Bednar the better.

 

[Go Budaw]

I think you can turn around Harding on 3 days rest if you limit his pitch count on Friday. Maybe he gives you 3 innings and then you Johnny Wholestaff it from there. But you never know, maybe Harding starts and delivers a dud, and you are back to Macleod as the next man up behind Bednar.

Overall though, it’s still a little early to make a determination on the finals. Gotta get there first. And either way, Macleod still has to be a very big part of the picture. Even if Harding is your Friday and Game 2 starter, Macleod is potentially either your Game 1 starter if you lose Friday / win Saturday, or possibly the guy you are giving the ball to in order to win you a national championship in Game 3 of the Finals.

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

Expect Bednar on Friday on 4 days rest so that you guarantee his availability for the Finals.I doubt you see him go 120 pitches again, but the plan will be to get 80-90 from him.

That sets you up for MacLeod, Harding, and then Bednar in the Finals if you win.

 

[57stratdawg]

We haven’t seen Brandon Smith yet. Maybe we can use him as an opener Friday night to help keep some innings off Harding.

 

[Go Budaw]

Expect Bednar on Friday on 4 days rest so that you guarantee his availability for the Finals.I doubt you see him go 120 pitches again, but the plan will be to get 80-90 from him.

That sets you up for MacLeod, Harding, and then Bednar in the Finals if you win.

That only guarantees Bednar for the Finals if you win one of the first two games in the finals. Throwing him on 4 days rest on Friday and then turning him around and throwing him on 3 days rest or less is out of the question. Bednar should not start again before the finals unless it’s the elimination game on Saturday. Don’t need to make the same mistake we made in 2013 with Kendall Graveman.

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

The Bednar start is meaningless if you can’t find a way to go 1-1 in the other two games. You’ve got to win one in the Finals without Bednar regardless of when he pitches. You’ll see him on Friday on 4 days rest and then again on Wednesday, if necessary, on 4 days rest.

We didn’t make a mistake in 2013 with Graveman. UCLA was winning that series regardless of how we pitched it.

That only guarantees Bednar for the Finals if you win one of the first two games in the finals. Throwing him on 4 days rest on Friday and then turning him around and throwing him on 3 days rest or less is out of the question. Bednar should not start again before the finals unless it’s the elimination game on Saturday. Don’t need to make the same mistake we made in 2013 with Kendall Graveman.

 

[jethreauxdawg]

I’ll be shocked if Lemonis starts him on limited rest after he just threw 110 pitches. We’re not talking about Corbin or Bianco.

 

[Go Budaw]

The Bednar start is meaningless if you can’t find a way to go 1-1 in the other two games. You’ve got to win one in the Finals without Bednar regardless of when he pitches. You’ll see him on Friday on 4 days rest and then again on Wednesday, if necessary, on 4 days rest.

We didn’t make a mistake in 2013 with Graveman. UCLA was winning that series regardless of how we pitched it.

So a starter only adds value in the game he pitches in? In that case why does everybody throw their ace on Friday night?

Starting Bednar in Game 1 should be the goal, because not only is it your best chance to win that game, but also because it provides your best chance for the starter to go deep into the ballgane and save your pen for the other two games so you can win at least one of those as well. You put yourself behind the 8 ball big time by burning through your best bullpen arms early in Game 1 if you fall behind.

And yes, we absolutely blew the pitching management in 2013. We got zero quality starts in the first two games, and burned everybody in Game 1 and early in Game 2 trying to keep it close. The end result was that a UCLA team that was one of the shittiest hitting CWS teams of all time hung 8 runs on us in Game 2 when we ran out of bullets from the pen. Might we have still lost the series? Maybe. But it would have been a lot more competitive.

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

4 days rest is fine. He will be fine for 80 or so pitches. You better believe Ty Madden gets the ball Friday facing elimination. So if you want to throw our #3 against him, you are most likely going to lose. That means Bednar goes Saturday, and while we would be at a big advantage to advance there, Bednar’s CWS is over but for maybe some spot relief in Game 3 of the Finals. Expect Bednar on Friday.

I’ll be shocked if Lemonis starts him on limited rest after he just threw 110 pitches. We’re not talking about Corbin or Bianco.

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

If you think that puts you behind the eight ball, try assembling a 3-game series pitching plan without Will Bednar because he pitched on Saturday.

So a starter only adds value in the game he pitches in? In that case why does everybody throw their ace on Friday night?

Starting Bednar in Game 1 should be the goal, because not only is it your best chance to win that game, but also because it provides your best chance for the starter to go deep into the ballgane and save your pen for the other two games so you can win at least one of those as well. You put yourself behind the 8 ball big time by burning through your best bullpen arms early in Game 1 if you fall behind.

 

[Go Budaw]

If you think that puts you behind the eight ball, try assembling a 3-game series pitching plan without Will Bednar because he pitched on Saturday.

If he pitches on Saturday, you start him on 3 days rest in Game 3 because that’s the hand you are dealt. That’s the same thing you are saying to do except you are calling for him to do it on 4 days rest. The reward of a fully rested Bednar in Game 1 far outweighs the risk of the going from 4 days rest to 3 days rest in Game 3 if he pitches Saturday.

 

[Go Budaw]

4 days rest is fine. He will be fine for 80 or so pitches. You better believe Ty Madden gets the ball Friday facing elimination. So if you want to throw our #3 against him, you are most likely going to lose. That means Bednar goes Saturday, and while we would be at a big advantage to advance there, Bednar’s CWS is over but for maybe some spot relief in Game 3 of the Finals. Expect Bednar on Friday.

Don’t agree with that at all. I’ll take our chances with Harding, Sims, and the rest of our fully rested staff against a guy on short rest who we’ve already faced twice this year including once this week (beat him both times) who we know we can hit.

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

I will admit it’s a big boy decision. I might follow Texas’ lead. If they don’t throw Madden, you could be right, and it’s worth rolling the dice and going Harding.

If he pitches on Saturday, you start him on 3 days rest in Game 3 because that’s the hand your dealt. That’s the same thing you are saying to do except your calling for him to do it on 4 days rest. The reward of a fully rested Bednar in Game 1 far outweighs the risk of the going from 4 days rest to 3 days rest in Game 3 if he pitches Saturday.

 

[Go Budaw]

We haven’t seen Brandon Smith yet. Maybe we can use him as an opener Friday night to help keep some innings off Harding.

Smith seems to have settled into role where he is the guy who can eat innings when we are down big or up big. Lemonis hasn’t gone to him in a big spot in quite a while. I wouldn’t count on him being out there on Friday unless it’s one of those situations.

 

[jethreauxdawg]

We’ll see, but I don’t think bednar starts Friday

 

[PBRME]

Whoever we face Friday will throw their ace. We already know Texas can shut our bats down. Can everyone not named Bednar keep the other team below 2 runs?

I really hope we don’t have to use Sims again until next week. His velocity was way down last night. You have to figure it’s because his arm is tired.

 

[MSUDC11]

Here is all I need to know about if Bednar is starting Friday.

In 2019, Lemonis was on the record as saying that if we had beaten Louisville and played Vandy again, he wasn’t going to start Small on Friday in a win or go home game. Let me repeat, he was not going to start Small on two days shortened rest even with our season on the line.

Our season is not on the line Friday. I will be floored if we start Bednar. You have to have some trust that Harding and your bullpen can match a short-rested Ty Madden or Andrew Abbott. Both of those guys have lost games in the postseason and Harding + our bullpen has been outstanding lately.

 

[kired]

Yeah, I said last week you start Harding and I stand by that. You stick with what got you here. It’s become obvious that Harding is our game 3 guy. Have some confidence in him, go out and win that game. Then we’re set up for Bednar, Mac, Harding.

Harding is pitching as well as either of the other two. If he struggles Friday, I think you plan for Bednar and Johnson Saturday.

I just think our best hope in finals is having Bednar ready for game 1. That doesn’t happen if he starts Friday.

 

[NOATLDAWG]

Biggest mistake we made in 2013 was pitching Kendall Graveman on Friday... You have to stick to pitching your 3rd pitcher and holding your #1. Pitching your #1/Bednar means the only way he pitches in the Finals is if there is a Game 3. You have to play it out and hope that you take care of business with Friday's game.

 

[ronpolk]

4 days rest is fine. He will be fine for 80 or so pitches. You better believe Ty Madden gets the ball Friday facing elimination. So if you want to throw our #3 against him, you are most likely going to lose. That means Bednar goes Saturday, and while we would be at a big advantage to advance there, Bednar’s CWS is over but for maybe some spot relief in Game 3 of the Finals. Expect Bednar on Friday.

I think a case can be made either way. I think from a rest standpoint, Bednar is probably fine. But if it were me, I’d pitch Harding Friday. My decision would have more to do with Harding than anything else. I trust him to pitch well enough for us to be in a position to win. Not only that but you’d have the entire bullpen available. I’d do everything I could to put myself in position to have Bednar game 1 of the finals.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

Harding, B Smith, Johnson, Stinnett, Patrick in a jam. And the last time we saw Fristoe out of the pen he looked good. Those first 5 guys can and will win you a big time game.

 

[dog12]

If you think that puts you behind the eight ball, try assembling a 3-game series pitching plan without Will Bednar because he pitched on Saturday.

Both you and Budaw make good points.

Our goal is to win 3 more games.

In my opinion, we should not start Bednar on Friday night. Rather, we should try to save him for Game 1 of the championship series (i.e., win #2).

Certainly, we have to get one more win to even get to the championship series, but I think we can get it done with Harding. He didn't throw at all last night against Virginia. If we were not saving him for Friday night, then he likely would have relieved MacLeod in the second inning.

Like last night's game, our next game on Friday will be an "all hands on deck" pitching situation if Harding (or, whomever starts the game) gets into trouble early. We have lots of good arms in our bullpen, and we will use them all to get through a game if necessary.

Additionally, if all of our relief pitchers just throw 1-2 innings (or less), then all of them should also be able to pitch in any following game.

In my opinion, Bednar can give us only one more start . . . and I'd plan for it to be in Game 1 of the championship series.

Also, I would not make any sort of "advance plan" for pitching that anticipates us losing a game. 17 that. Let's win the next 3.

If we happen to lose a game, then we will deal with it at that time. Until that happens, we plan to win the next 3.

 

[PearlRiverCoDawg]

Does anyone know if we are officially playing the night game Friday ?

 

[dorndawg]

Does anyone know if we are officially playing the night game Friday ?

Sure I'm as anxious as anyone about the Bulldog's chances, but I think we should go ahead and play the game anyhow.

 

[615 Guy]

NCAA website says 6PM on ESPN.

 

[CadaverDawg]

I think Harding is the right call.

I know this is a different setup than Supers, but I felt like Ole Miss and Arkansas panicked a little by going away from their #3 and starting closers with a trip to Omaha on the line. I think it sends a bad message (even though Kopps was electric) to the team, and shows a lack of confidence...that it's all up to the pitchers. I'm a fan of dancing with the one that brung ya, and showing confidence in Harding and in our bats, and win the way we've won all year. But again, I know we're not in a win or go home spot, so that may be why I'm comfortable with that strategy, who knows what I'd say if Friday was do or die.