Once a coach always a coach and I never want ed to not be prepared for an opponent,so I did what comes natural to me and that’s analyzing the opponent.
We have played some very good offensive teams along the way this yr but none IMO combine Ave,291,Power 83 Hrs,speed 70 SB and tough to K out 409 K better than NC State,they are a combination of Ms State and Tenn.
They have 5 guys who have hit 10+ HR this yr,we have 6.NCS has K out 409(would be 2nd behind MS in the SEC)we have K 537 times,so they put the bat on the ball way better than we do but they only BB 215 times whereas we BB 346 times,they have OBA(on base Ave) of .374,we have OBA of .389.They are very aggressive at the plate but they usually hit it so they are very dangerous.
Stats can be deceiving bc you don’t know what kind of pitching they have seen Fla St ,Va,ND and Miami are the top 4 in the ACC in Pitching and NCS is 4-5 against those teams.
I looked at who had real success against them Duke beat them 1-0 in the ACCT with a RHP with a 6+ ERA,ND beat them 3-2 and 11-2 with 2 LHP with ERA’s of 2.91 and 4.53 respectfully and ND closed out both wins with their closer RHP with 2.83 ERA who totally shut them down 6 IP 3 hits.(but that was 2 months ago)They saw absolutely NO pitching in their regional.They didn’t see either of LT best pitchers in fact LT started that last game with a guy who had a 7.99 ERA and only 2 starts so they ran out of pitching and why NCS won both games handily.
I think the key to beating NCS is controlling their 3 elite Hitters… Butler LH .389,Murr LH .329 and SH Mcdonough .351 Mcdough and Butler have 28 of their teams SB.
I think they will score some runs bc of their power and ability to put the bat on the ball.
Their Pitching is not good at all ERA of 4.91 but do have dependable #1 Johnston(3.90 ERa) has gone at least 7 inn 10 straight starts and judging by his ERA it tells me the offense has had them in those 10 starts.
I think we will score better against NCS,Wick needs to give 6 and then Let Kopps do his thing and we get 5-6 against them and we will take game 1,Lockhart probably game 2 and the game 1 formula needs to repeat.Kopps as always is our ACE in the hole and nobody has seen anything like him so I feel confident in saying the 1st time NCS sees him they will be glaring out at him an talking and giggling to them selves asking how in the world does he do that…
well there you have it…Lets go boys 1 step away from OMAHA…WPS
One thing you have to remember, youdaman, is they put up those gaudy offensive numbers playing a much weaker schedule than we did. I feel really good about this weekend. Like I posted previously, I think Nebraska is better than NC State. Go Hogs!
Our SOS is #1. Theirs is #31. Not chicken feed but they haven’t seen what we’ve seen. They lost two of three at Notre Dame in mid-April, which is the best team they’ve played.
Jeremy they are a very dangerous team bc they hit with power and precision. Wick has been very good for us but he is not afraid to challenge hitters with pitches in the zone and when you do that teams like Tenn and LT have hit him around pretty good but he’s pitched well at home and 2/3 elite hitters are LH and never seen him before.
They are better than Nebraska offensively but not a talented on the mound. I think that’s where we have to win this weekend,we have to hit the ball better than we did last week and really no reason we shouldn’t, all their Starters are RHP
The one thing that jumped out at me is that they won their regional on the road. Must be playing well at the end of the season, which is what you want. It’s tough being a visiting team in Fayetteville, particularly with a fired up full stadium. Hog calls can be intimidating to the coolest of opponents.
No doubt they are dangerous, or they wouldn’t be where they are. I think our pitching (outside of Kopps and Wick) will find their groove again…at least I hope so. Surely at least a couple of our other pitchers will come out of their funk, right? I find it very encouraging that all their starters are righties. Hopefully we can crush them from the get go. Go Hogs!
They are very good road team 19-3 in fact but they have not played in front of anything close to what Baum will be like, especially with the season on the line.
They were only 19-14 in the ACC, which ain’t anywhere near as good as the SEC. Hot? Yes. Worth respect? Yes. Fear them? Nope. Take care of business, just like we’ve done all year.
My initial reaction was that I was glad to get them as an opponent, now I’m having second thoughts. I really wanted it to be Bama. I figured it’d be LaTech, who I knew we’d beaten twice & should have beaten 3x at their place, but I still felt like they were the class of that regional. Reading youdaman’s analysis scares me. I know we’re the better team, have faced better competition, & have the advantage of playing at home (although not the last AB on Saturday), but I’m back in nervous mode.
Well I never mentioned anything about fearing them.They started 1-8 in the conference with a lot of Covid issues so they were 18-6 after that, they are playing very well but if we hit like we should against their pitching staff we will be fine, but will have to hit better than last week.
No need to fear them with the schedule we’ve played. I respect them bc they can hit but we’ve seen much better pitching then what they have. We just have to hit the way we can and we will just fine… They haven’t played in front of anything like what they are about to step into.
When you reach this point every team is dangerous and doesn’t get any easier each step of the way going forward.
I would rather not have to wait on 7th, 8th, or 9th inning heroics. Will take that every time, but the law of averages are not in our favor at this time.
Maybe Franklin gets his bat going & Slavens has the rust shook off. If they have, then the team is complete again. No worries
I am not in total disagreement here, and I know I have some biases to try to set aside, but looking down at the ACC as “ain’t anywhere near” the SEC is perhaps a bit of a stretch (IMO). It looks to me like the ACC is holding their own as the 2nd best conference in the Tournament so far. Even a couple of the teams that lost, played very tough against the SEC (and others) on the road (GT & FSU in particular).
