My one concern with this baseball team: Confidence

[dawgatUSM]

Last year we were still in contention until the Alabama series when we got swept, and the rest of the season was a disaster. This year, the front end of our SEC slate has been brutal, and I just hope we can win one game out of some of these very difficult series for confidence sake. It gets easier at the end of the season, but I just don't want them to give up by then. Hopefully, Cohen has given them a little bit of mental toughness, because we didn't show too much of it last year.<div>
</div><div>And for you guys that think we should win every single game (even the ones against the #1 or top 5 teams in the country).... shut up.</div><div>
</div><div>My hope before the season started, SEC Tourney and regional appearance. That hope is still solidly in tact.</div>

 

[57stratdawg]

nt

 

[patdog]

We lost our first 3 SEC games and were 5-10 going into the Bama series that we got swept in. You call 5-10 being in contention? The rest of the season wasn't a disaster. The whole season was a disaster.

 

[Todd4State]

You are right about last year's team losing confidence, but obviously this is a totally different team.

I actually think it's going to be the opposite- I think that beating Vandy, sweeping Auburn, beating USM, and beating Florida- those are all games that this team is going to build off of. In their mind it's- well, shoot, we came back on Vandy at their place, we can sure beat __.

Last year- other than beating South Carolina on the road, they didn't have very many wins like this years team already has.

What is going to get us this year is lack of depth in starting pitching- although it looks like Routt is almost back and that could play a big role down the stretch for us and also a lack of power.

Last year, we had a good SBW against UT and we put oursleves in decent position, and like you said, we played Alabama in a series and the team folded. That's because they didn't have any cajones. The team this year is pretty scrappy- and usually those teams are pretty resiliant.

I actually like the way the schedule sets up- we take our lumps in April, and hopefully we can make a nice run in May. We just have to weather the storm the next two weeks- it would be really nice to pick up a win over UAB, win the Gov. Cup and take at least one from Arkansas and South Carolina.

 

[dawgatUSM]

Up to that point, we had a solid RPI, only one bad loss (to Texas A&M Corpus Cristi), and a record of 20-17 with one of the most difficult schedules in the country.<div>
</div><div>The Alabama sweep happened, and then we proceeded to get swept two SEC Series' in a row and mixed in a loss to Jackson State and Southern Miss just for good measure.</div><div>
</div><div>Including the Alabama series, we finished 3-16. I realize that team wasn't the best in the world, but they totally fell apart after getting swept by Alabama.</div>

 

[FlabLoser]

Twice this season, we've gone 1-2 against top 5 teams. Other weekends, sometimes we play so-so and sometimes we play well.

I think we've seen enough to know the team believes that they can be good when they play well. I'm not worried about confidence at all.

 

[Beretta.sixpack]

and hopefully carries over to postseason.....

i am very pessimistic by nature, so this is way out of left field for me..

 

[Phil Wenneck.sixpack]

As for their confidence, I don't know. We've showed signs that we can rally from adversity and not always win, but compete till the end. I think team chemistry is better than it has been in years so that helps. Plus, the newcomers are competitive. We've got some gamers on this freshmanclass and it's unfortunate that we're forced torely on them so much but it's going to pay off. Some of the upper class guys like Reed and Parks have stepped up their games. Ogden's average isa good bit higher than last year. Thigpen's bat is better than last year.We're just not gettinganything from people like Shepard, Vickerson, Collins. Not that I should have expected anything from Collins. All in all, I think we're right around where we should be record wise all things considered. I don't see the wheels coming off this team though. LikeI said, we'renot going to always come back and win but I like the way this team competes. If you keep competing, the wins will start happening more often.We've just had a hell of a schedule to start off league play. No one knew Georgia was quite as stout as they clearly are besides the fact thatVandy and Florida could verywell be matchedup in the CWS finals.If you watched the Sunday night game tonight on ESPN, Bobby Valentine made a lot of sense talking about how 1 baseball win can make you feel great at the end of the day and 1 loss can make you feel awful. He was referring to the Red Soxand their woesbut it's kind of the same with us. It's just the nature of the sport. Everything just feels better looking forward to the next one when you're coming off a win. Let's see how we fare against the Tennessee's, Ole Miss's, and LSU's of the world before we worry about whether the wheels will fall off or not and stop kicking ourselves over losing 3 series to teams that were clearly just better than us at this point in time.