Season Wrap-up and Other Notes from A Wild Weekend In Louisville
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Photo by UKAthletics[/caption]
I spent 29 hours at Jim Patterson Stadium this weekend (32.5 if you include Thursday's KHSAA 7th Region Final) including 13 on Sunday/Monday morning so please excuse this post for being a tad late as I used Monday afternoon for sleep.
The Cats' Achilles Heel (pitching depth) reared its ugly head again this weekend.
As I wrote on Thursday, the keys to the series for UK were Kyle Cody, Chandler Shepherd, and the bullpen, all of which did not have very good weekends. Injuries to the back two-thirds of the pitching rotation (Cody and Shepherd) kept this season from being really special as both were expected to have breakout years. Cody won two of his first three starts before sitting out nearly a month with forearm tightness and even then, only coming out of the bullpen in certain situations. Shepherd started the year 5-0 and finished 5-5 after an injury the first week of April. Both returned and pitched well at times but as Friday showed us, they were not the same and Kentucky had no chance without them. Similarly, the bullpen (save for Spencer Jack) simply never developed after the loss of closer Trevor Gott after last season.
Starting Kyle Cody over A.J. Reed against Kansas was the right move
I know it became a moot point after the third (and longest) rain delay Friday but Kentucky's best chance to win the Regional was trying to steal one with Kyle Cody, who was coming off an exceptional game against Florida in the SEC Tournament. Yes, Reed would have given the Cats' the best chance to win the game, but they would have lost the next day against Louisville with Cody on the mound and would have been in the same situation that they were in Sunday, playing Kansas (or Kent State) in an elimination game before facing the Cards that night. If Cody wins Friday and Reed wins Saturday, then I think UK could have pieced it over two games, especially with the performances of freshman Zack Brown and Logan Salow on Sunday.
A.J. Reed is, pound for pound, the best player in program history.
There have been and will be better hitters. There have been and will be better pitchers but there will never be another player who is so great at both at UK. Reed, who was named one of the three finalists for the Golden Spikes Award (the best player in College Baseball) yesterday, is a once-in-a-generation player and we were all fortunate enough to have him for three seasons on his road to the majors. The SEC and National Player of the Year is slated to be chosen at the tail end of the first or early in the second round in this week's MLB draft.
[caption id="attachment_159264" align="alignnone" width="235"]
The Louisville groundskeeper has some muscles and wants you to see them[/caption]
I didn't know you could substitute for the DH and neither did anyone else (except Gary Henderson)
In case you missed it Saturday, Reed doubled in Max Kuhn in the ninth and was substituted for pinch runner Marcus Carson. We (and by "we" I mean the entire Jim Patterson pressbox which had at least 1000 years of cumulative baseball experience) thought Reed (who thought he was out of the game) was done and that UK would have to go to the bullpen for the ninth. Since Reed is a pitcher who bats for himself, he is considered both a pitcher and a DH. When Carson pinch ran for Reed, he assumed the DH role while Reed was still the pitcher and simply could not bat anymore. As UK's SID (who contrary to popular belief, is not the worst) told me after the game, "we all learned something today." Baseball is weird.
One more item from Reed's performance on Saturday. In the post game press conference, some members of the media (and I can't remember who but I don't think is was anyone of note) asked both Reed and Henderson (who both handled the question(s) well), when Reed would "feel comfortable" pitching again. I guess it's a question that had to be asked but Reed, who will be a millionaire by the end of this week, had just thrown 107 in the first complete game of his career against Kent State (interestingly enough, the only other time he threw nine innings was two years ago in the 21 inning game against the Golden Flashes). The only possible scenario I could have seen Reed pitching again was if the "winner take all" game had been pushed to Tuesday and he was brought in to a spot situation. Henderson, correctly, said that Reed was done "for this weekend."
Thomas Bernal's Ejection
The biggest fireworks in the game came in the seventh with two collisions at the plate. In the top half of the inning, Cardinal third baseman Alex Chittenden attempted a "low slide" (in what was described as a "great baseball play" by the row of drunk UofL fans right in front of me) on Wildcat first baseman Thomas Bernal after being caught up in a rundown between third and home. I don't know what Chittenden's intents were (he said after the game that he was trying to get to the plate) but I know what I saw, and what I saw was him aim right for Bernal's knees. I also know that Bernal had been hit with a pitch in both of his plate appearances up to that point.
In the bottom half of the inning, Bernal (who walked) just happened to be on third when pinch hitter Kyle Barrett hit a fly-ball to center that was caught on the slide by Louisville center fielder and regional MOP Cole Sturgeon, who popped up and threw a dart to the catcher 10 feet up the line. Bernal lowered his shoulder and drilled the catcher (who was waiting for it) and was immediately ejected (as he should have been according to the rules) but as Tim Sullivan wrote, "it felt wrong." My only gripe is that Chittenden should have been ejected too as, in my opinion, his hit was much more dangerous.
Kudos to the Louisville game staff
I know we don't like to sing the praises for anything to do with the Cardinals but we have credit where credit it is due. The Louisville game staff were already up against it with all of the media requests because of the rivalry (seriously, there were no less than 50 media members between writers/bloggers, photographers, and TV people among others). Add in the rain and you had a recipe for chaos but they handled it flawlessly. I want to give a big thanks to the Cards' baseball SID who has been great to me every time I have covered a game at Jim Patterson. Right before first pitch I realized that I could not get a WIFI connection in my seat down the third baseline (I could in the exact same spot down the first baseline, where I sat Sunday). He allowed me to sit in the main pressbox (in Jody Deming's seat no less) right in-between Rick Bozich and Tim Sullivan (who were both very nice). Louisville's stadium is top notch and will get them the benefit of the doubt with the NCAA host committee. This is something that UK really needs to consider with their timeline for a new/renovated baseball stadium.
An actual conversation I had with my dad this weekend
Dad: "Who's that Tyler Thompson on your site?"
Me: "She's a writer for KSR and one of the people who run it."
Dad: "But why does she have the 'Mrs.' in front of her name?"
Me: "Because she's a girl"
Dad: "I know that, but why does she use her husband's name?"
Me: "No, her name is Tyler Thompson. She started putting the 'Mrs.' in front of it because everyone thought she was a guy because her name is 'Tyler'."
Dad: "That's what I wanted to know."
Word for word.
I picked up 50+ followers on this tweet
Photo by UKAthletics[/caption]
I spent 29 hours at Jim Patterson Stadium this weekend (32.5 if you include Thursday's KHSAA 7th Region Final) including 13 on Sunday/Monday morning so please excuse this post for being a tad late as I used Monday afternoon for sleep.
The Cats' Achilles Heel (pitching depth) reared its ugly head again this weekend.
As I wrote on Thursday, the keys to the series for UK were Kyle Cody, Chandler Shepherd, and the bullpen, all of which did not have very good weekends. Injuries to the back two-thirds of the pitching rotation (Cody and Shepherd) kept this season from being really special as both were expected to have breakout years. Cody won two of his first three starts before sitting out nearly a month with forearm tightness and even then, only coming out of the bullpen in certain situations. Shepherd started the year 5-0 and finished 5-5 after an injury the first week of April. Both returned and pitched well at times but as Friday showed us, they were not the same and Kentucky had no chance without them. Similarly, the bullpen (save for Spencer Jack) simply never developed after the loss of closer Trevor Gott after last season.
Starting Kyle Cody over A.J. Reed against Kansas was the right move
I know it became a moot point after the third (and longest) rain delay Friday but Kentucky's best chance to win the Regional was trying to steal one with Kyle Cody, who was coming off an exceptional game against Florida in the SEC Tournament. Yes, Reed would have given the Cats' the best chance to win the game, but they would have lost the next day against Louisville with Cody on the mound and would have been in the same situation that they were in Sunday, playing Kansas (or Kent State) in an elimination game before facing the Cards that night. If Cody wins Friday and Reed wins Saturday, then I think UK could have pieced it over two games, especially with the performances of freshman Zack Brown and Logan Salow on Sunday.
A.J. Reed is, pound for pound, the best player in program history.
There have been and will be better hitters. There have been and will be better pitchers but there will never be another player who is so great at both at UK. Reed, who was named one of the three finalists for the Golden Spikes Award (the best player in College Baseball) yesterday, is a once-in-a-generation player and we were all fortunate enough to have him for three seasons on his road to the majors. The SEC and National Player of the Year is slated to be chosen at the tail end of the first or early in the second round in this week's MLB draft.
[caption id="attachment_159264" align="alignnone" width="235"] The Louisville groundskeeper has some muscles and wants you to see them[/caption]
I didn't know you could substitute for the DH and neither did anyone else (except Gary Henderson)
In case you missed it Saturday, Reed doubled in Max Kuhn in the ninth and was substituted for pinch runner Marcus Carson. We (and by "we" I mean the entire Jim Patterson pressbox which had at least 1000 years of cumulative baseball experience) thought Reed (who thought he was out of the game) was done and that UK would have to go to the bullpen for the ninth. Since Reed is a pitcher who bats for himself, he is considered both a pitcher and a DH. When Carson pinch ran for Reed, he assumed the DH role while Reed was still the pitcher and simply could not bat anymore. As UK's SID (who contrary to popular belief, is not the worst) told me after the game, "we all learned something today." Baseball is weird.
One more item from Reed's performance on Saturday. In the post game press conference, some members of the media (and I can't remember who but I don't think is was anyone of note) asked both Reed and Henderson (who both handled the question(s) well), when Reed would "feel comfortable" pitching again. I guess it's a question that had to be asked but Reed, who will be a millionaire by the end of this week, had just thrown 107 in the first complete game of his career against Kent State (interestingly enough, the only other time he threw nine innings was two years ago in the 21 inning game against the Golden Flashes). The only possible scenario I could have seen Reed pitching again was if the "winner take all" game had been pushed to Tuesday and he was brought in to a spot situation. Henderson, correctly, said that Reed was done "for this weekend."
Thomas Bernal's Ejection
The biggest fireworks in the game came in the seventh with two collisions at the plate. In the top half of the inning, Cardinal third baseman Alex Chittenden attempted a "low slide" (in what was described as a "great baseball play" by the row of drunk UofL fans right in front of me) on Wildcat first baseman Thomas Bernal after being caught up in a rundown between third and home. I don't know what Chittenden's intents were (he said after the game that he was trying to get to the plate) but I know what I saw, and what I saw was him aim right for Bernal's knees. I also know that Bernal had been hit with a pitch in both of his plate appearances up to that point.
In the bottom half of the inning, Bernal (who walked) just happened to be on third when pinch hitter Kyle Barrett hit a fly-ball to center that was caught on the slide by Louisville center fielder and regional MOP Cole Sturgeon, who popped up and threw a dart to the catcher 10 feet up the line. Bernal lowered his shoulder and drilled the catcher (who was waiting for it) and was immediately ejected (as he should have been according to the rules) but as Tim Sullivan wrote, "it felt wrong." My only gripe is that Chittenden should have been ejected too as, in my opinion, his hit was much more dangerous.
Kudos to the Louisville game staff
I know we don't like to sing the praises for anything to do with the Cardinals but we have credit where credit it is due. The Louisville game staff were already up against it with all of the media requests because of the rivalry (seriously, there were no less than 50 media members between writers/bloggers, photographers, and TV people among others). Add in the rain and you had a recipe for chaos but they handled it flawlessly. I want to give a big thanks to the Cards' baseball SID who has been great to me every time I have covered a game at Jim Patterson. Right before first pitch I realized that I could not get a WIFI connection in my seat down the third baseline (I could in the exact same spot down the first baseline, where I sat Sunday). He allowed me to sit in the main pressbox (in Jody Deming's seat no less) right in-between Rick Bozich and Tim Sullivan (who were both very nice). Louisville's stadium is top notch and will get them the benefit of the doubt with the NCAA host committee. This is something that UK really needs to consider with their timeline for a new/renovated baseball stadium.
An actual conversation I had with my dad this weekend
Dad: "Who's that Tyler Thompson on your site?"
Me: "She's a writer for KSR and one of the people who run it."
Dad: "But why does she have the 'Mrs.' in front of her name?"
Me: "Because she's a girl"
Dad: "I know that, but why does she use her husband's name?"
Me: "No, her name is Tyler Thompson. She started putting the 'Mrs.' in front of it because everyone thought she was a guy because her name is 'Tyler'."
Dad: "That's what I wanted to know."
Word for word.
I picked up 50+ followers on this tweet
An usher already telling two UL fans to cool it after just one inning. pic.twitter.com/0KIYOqDJf9
– David Mulloy (@DMulloyKSR) June 2, 2014
While A.J. Reed was batting in the first inning, two (obviously inebriated) Cards fans started yelling "18 (Reed) sucks" (because if there's one thing Louisville fans are known for, it's creativity). Apparently, a few UK fans down below started yelling "The twins are coming back", to which the UofL fans responded, "let's play football" (again creative). An usher came over and told them to settle down and they did for a bit but were still obnoxious for the rest of the game.
Finally, this will be my last season writing for KSR.
I certainly could have scripted it better but my last time on the baseball beat will certainly be memorable. Unfortunately, as tends to happen in life, my career and other obligations are simply too much and it's time to move on. Someone once told me, "don't make your job your hobby because then you will have two jobs and no hobbies." While, it's still fun, It'd be nice to just go to a game and not have to worry about tweeting or writing or how I'm going to re-arrange my schedule to cover something.
Two and half years ago, I'm sitting on my couch in Lexington with my computer on my lap furiously typing up a "sample post" for KSRCollege. A post that Matt said, "I liked what you were trying to do." I decided to apply on a whim. I had some time on my hands, really liked KSR, and loved baseball so I thought, "what the heck, let's do it." What I didn't know was that UK was going to have the best baseball season in program history. In fact, I told Matt that they would be "awful" in the interview. I had no idea that they would finish a game out of first in the SEC regular season and that the season would end in Gary Indiana of all places.
When I look back on (the way too short life of) KSRC, I think of the original group of writers and where they are now. My good friend John Wilmhoff is a production assistant for ESPN in Bristol, Ally is the weekend editor, Kristen is doing cool things with Nike, Nick is the football beat writer, Ashley is going to be the best writer of us all, and Wilder is somehow still alive in New York .
It's been a great ride and more fun than I could have ever imagined
Thanks for reading
Go Cats.
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