We played great tonight- this is on Cohen too

[Todd4State]

Basically, we outplayed them tonight in just about every phase of the game, and it would have been total domination if Ogden didn't have a crappy night defensively.

I was skeptical about pitching Graveman, and also about bringing in Girodo, but they both pitched one of, if not their best games since they have been at MSU. I hope they build on tonight. We almost had a shutout, but I'll take allowing one run any day of the week. Ole Miss hit the ball hard at times, but they hit the ball right at people for the most part.

Overall, I thought we hit the ball pretty well- certainly better than Ole Miss did. We also did a pretty good job of situational hitting, and that allowed us to manufacture some runs, as well as stealing bases and moving the runners. We did OK in the short game- would have liked to have seen Frazier get a bunt down in the middle of the game, and we were very lucky that Tracy for Ole Miss air mailed a bunt right back to him on a safety squeeze. We also had a runner get picked off and we Vickerson got thrown out trying to stretch a double, and I'm not 100% on this, but I think he overslid second base. I couldn't tell from where I was sitting.

Defensively, we played pretty well except for Ogden. I think Ogden tries to do too much, and I also think tonight that Mathis's speed caused him to rush a little bit. When he let a ball get through his wickets- that's concentration. We are a lot more athletic than Ole Miss- I talked about range last year- and tonight is a good example of what I was talking about. Tonight, there were not very many balls that we didn't get to, and that is because of our speed/range. Ole Miss on the other hand- we saw that we had several bloops and some other hits that they simply couldn't get to, and it hurt them tonight. Dropping fly balls also didn't help them either.

Much like USM, this is a feel good win, and I think it's something else that our team will use to build off of, and maybe more importantly, it's something that the fans can build off of. Our game on Friday is going to be on ESPN(U, 2- something) and this team deserves our support. Scott and John both also need to promote the heck out of this weekend series. This win also helps our RPI, and now the Egg and the Gator Bowl trophy have another friend.

Also, congrats to Jarrod Parks on winning the MVP trophy- MADISON CENTRAL REPRESENT. Y'all may not remember, but we almost lost Parks to Tulane because the previous staff didn't want him. I have met his family before, and they are great people, and they are great MSU fans. Jarrod is living out his dream by playing at MSU. We talk about the guys that slipped through our fingers from time to time, but I am thankful that Jarrod is living out his dream.

Now, if anyone wants references, they are available upon request. And let's go out and kick South Carolina's *** this weekend.

 

[WutheringDawg]

Taylor Stark (I think) was a differently positioned glove away from making the dive of the year on the triple that they ended up scoring on.

Edit: nice run-on sentence.

 

[Todd4State]

Had he pulled that play off, we get a shutout. He also might have made Sportscenter.

 

[drt7891]

Certainly hitting has improved, and pitching has been MUCH improved from last year. Only a few times this year have we given up double digit runs, and that was fairly common last year (I think PART of it is the new bats, but I certainly have to give credit to our pitching staff for being much improved). <div>
</div><div>A concern I have, and I know this goes completely against what Cohen wants to do, but overly aggressive baserunning. We got away with several close calls tonight baserunning. We stole second in the 6th or 7th (while the score was still 3-0) and forced an error. I think in a situation where the momentum of the game is still fairly even, and at that point in the game, I thought it was, it is not wise to go with an "aggressive first" attitude. Risk taking is ok, but it makes my stomach cringe to see a baserunner take off after second in a close game. We got away with it several times tonight by forcing their catcher to make tough throws, but Florida and Auburn did not let us get away with that. To me, that results inunnecessary outs and loss of momentum because we wanna get greedy. The tagout at second was another instance where we tried to get greedy and whoever that was (I forgot who was running) that tried to reach second on a single to left field got tagged because he slid too far behind second base. Fortunately, that didn't hurt us tonight because we won, but it just as easily could cost us a game. </div><div>
</div><div>Ogden is Jeckyll and Hyde... and I don't think there is any other way to put it. The guy has won games for us (Friday night Florida game) and can make some seriously impressive plays (This past weekend). He also has the second best slugging percentage (.484) and the second most RBIs (27) out of anyone else on the team... but the guy has nearly HALF of our total TEAM errors on the year (15 of 36). Second most errors isn't even in the same building (Cody Freeman with 4). </div><div>
</div><div>Overall, though, we have made some big-time strides this year. We have already matched our SEC wins with 15 conference games left and have matched our total wins for last year with 19 games left. Our pitching is really the big difference. I think our pitching is deeper than even the 2007 team in terms of talent and reliability. I don't know about a lot of people on the board, but I have seen a much improved team this year. </div><div>
</div><div>*Edit* I cannot forget to add that any win over Ole Miss in any sport is a big win... and tonight was no exception. Our team came out and played very hard, certainly much harder than they did. Glad to see us win the games that matter. </div>

 

[drt7891]

We also had a runner get picked off and we Vickerson got thrown out trying to stretch a double, and I'm not 100% on this, but I think he overslid second base. I couldn't tell from where I was sitting.

He slid about 3 feet behind from the bag (toward the batters eye). He could not reach it from where he was. He had a chance at beating it if he had slid into the bag, but it would have been very close. (This is what I wrote... something is acting weird with the quote)

 

[WutheringDawg]

<div>

A concern I have, and I know this goes completely against what
Cohen wants to do, but overly aggressive baserunning. We got away with
several close calls tonight baserunning. We stole second in the 6th or
7th (while the score was still 3-0) and forced an error. I think in a
situation where the momentum of the game is still fairly even, and at
that point in the game, I thought it was, it is not wise to go with an
"aggressive first" attitude. Risk taking is ok, but it makes my stomach
cringe to see a baserunner take off after second in a close game. We
got away with it several times tonight by forcing their catcher to make
tough throws, but Florida and Auburn did not let us get away with that.
To me, that results inunnecessary outs and loss of momentum because we
wanna get greedy. The tagout at second was another instance where we
tried to get greedy and whoever that was (I forgot who was running) that
tried to reach second on a single to left field got tagged because he
slid too far behind second base. Fortunately, that didn't hurt us
tonight because we won, but it just as easily could cost us a game.

I'm not really getting the issue here. Yeah it's risky, but that's why it's aggressive. Especially when you're playing a team that seems to buckle under the pressure of a bang-bang play, you've got to force the issue. No, you don't run on someone who is going to definitely gun you out, but if there's even a 50/50 chance, especially up 3-0 with the chance to put the game away, you've got to capitalize. Add in that Vickerson is something like 21-23 on SBs on the year, it would be foolish not to utilize his skill unless it's obviously not the right situation. Now, he did make a majorly boneheaded play with that "slide" on the attempted-double, but that falls more into the category of right call but poor execution.
</div>

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

Okay... I really am just giving you some **** but it has been tiring to see Cohen get **** for the last 2 years. He still may not be the guy but the ******** we had fallen into was deep, really deep. The one thing that made me love MSU from the beginning was our baseball, and it hurt like hell to see where we ended up.

I really have not even tried to follow our games except in passing the last two years because I didn't expect anything until next season. Next season I expected us to make the SEC tourney, regional and quite possibly Omaha. By that time, given our past success as a program, I expected to see us be more than weekend fodder for the rest of the SEC.

Being even in the talks of making a regional this season is great in my estimation. If Cohen can find a couple of more decent pitchers he might make post season this year. I truly hope he finds some more good, solid pitching before next season because I have liked the guy all the way back to the days I watched him play and I still think that pitching wins more SEC titles than hitting.

 

[drt7891]

and at that point, it was. I am not against all stealing, but in close games against good teams, I'll use Friday night against Arkansas as an example because this happened, I think in the 7th, we were up 5-3 and we tried to steal second and got caught. The batter was walked one or two pitches later. So, my point is, instead of having 2 guys on base with 1 out, we had a guy at 1st with 2 outs. Big difference. In close games, that momentum matters. <div>
</div><div>And to counter that statistic a little bit, Vickerson is our best base-stealer, no doubt about it. Our team, however, is 57-76 on the year. To me, that says there were 19 potential runs left out there... (and for you percentage gurus, that is 75%). Our opponents have only attempted to steal 38 times on us. I personally don't like to see number of steals that high, because 25% of the time, we add an out while losing a base-runner. I know I'm not a coach and I know I don't claim to know all things baseball, but I don't like those odds. </div>