EKU at Kentucky
- Thread starter Comebakatz3
- Start date
Just about an hour away from this one. Lefty Jake Lewis will start for EKU. The Wildcats will see a bunch of lefties for EKU. Lewis is their usual Sunday starter, but that game was canceled for them this past weekend, so Lewis will have a couple extra days of rest and will go in this one. I wouldn't be surprised to see him only go a max of about 4-5 though.
Hagenow appears not to like base runners. Had him a bit rattled. Hill is so fast in the field that it might be a bit disconcerting. He got over to that ball that Rhodes caught but was on a dead run and ran very close. I wonder if he tried to call Rhodes off as close as he got to the ball.
EKU is putting pressure by having some offense. This is what we need to see. Milwaukee didn't do it. Now how do we react?
UK batted .241 against EKU. I thought EKU played a very solid game defensively and offensively. I was hoping for more out of Kentucky but still we had no errors. A WP, passed ball, and a double steal off of a ball that got away from the catcher really should count as errors so we have to clean that up.
I thought the relievers did a great job. Is that indicative of the competition or do they have the goods or a little of both?
A bit of both. They were good today, but the competition has been pretty poor. EKU has thrived off of walks. We aren't serving up walks, so we're doing better.
They took a game off of Georgia Tech who was ranked #15 at the time and scored 9 runs doing it. They lost the series. They got beat by #4 Louisville but didn't get blown out. I think they are pretty fundamentally sound with good, not great players.
They had 11 hits, 11 walks, and 12 strikeouts in that GT game. What a weird stat line. Lol.
I thought EKU's defense was not the best. In the first 3 innings their RF misplayed at least 3 balls in the outfield and two led to runs. The triples especially. Also he had what looked to be a routine foul drop. None were scored as errors of course but they were misplayed.
Our offense slowed down after that.
The next 2 weeks should be a continuation of getting our confidence up.
I rewatched the game's first three innings. The RF did take a wrong angle on the first triple, made a spectacular catch on a hit to short right, then overran a flyout just out of bounds right at the wall. He was on a dead run all three times. The two he missed could have been made. The one he did make was pretty spectacular and many would not have attempted. Perhaps you are remembering LF holding off on making a play to catch Anu's hit to left field and letting it get to the corner? They were playing him to pull and he didn't go far enough over to cut it off once he pulled up. Their infield was very solid and the SS made some outstanding plays look pretty routine. Again the SEC is very strong, a lot of great teams. Our OOC games, not so much but I still stand by the "good, not great" comment. A lot of fielders would see that right field wall coming up because there isn't much room before it once you hit the line. He didn't have much time on Schultz's first line drive and some might not have been in a position to get a glove on it either.
At least we took advantage of their OF play for the most part. You are right on the SS and 2B both made some nice plays. I maybe too hard on EKU but todays game and next weeks we should take advantage of.
I was having deja vu all over again when we had a passed ball and 3 wild pitches, one of which lead to a sac fly scoring a run. Hopefully, we will respond better next time we get a little offensive pressure.