Most on here rightly are concerned about the hitting.
But I have seen some comments criticizing our bullpen.
We gave up 3 hits yesterday
3
Pitching was good enough to win
I agree. In the three SEC Tournament games, Arkansas allowed 9 runs on 14 hits under abnormal circumstances. The only number that was too high was the walks, 12. The bullpen was stretched because the starters were on 70-75 pitch counts.
I’m still concerned about our bullpen. A .200 hitter can have 4 hits including a home run on a given day, but that doesn’t make him Babe Ruth. And, I will also point out that as anemic as our offense has been recently, we did have late leads in both of our SECT losses that our bullpen ended up surrendering.
That said, the point is well made that any perceived pitching issues are (or will be) moot if our offense doesn’t start hitting and scoring runs sooner than later. I think we will, but that remains to be seen. Any hitter or team can go into a slump at any given time. However, I feel good based upon the body of work produced by this year’s team over the course of the season. I can recall games where we had an offensive flame-out here or there; but not a string of games. There are too many contributors for all of them to go flat at the same time. Someone’s going to heat up. Maybe Goodheart’s day is a sign he is coming out of his personal funk.
Too, SEC Tournament games are different because of the way they are approached. I’m not saying we don’t want to win them, but there is a bigger agenda in play and even if the coaches and players state that they are “all in”, it’s just different when you come in knowing you’re a national seed already. Especially when some of the teams are playing to either get in the NCAAT, get hosting roles or perhaps move into National Seed roles.
This next weekend, it begins for real. That’s when we’ll see what does and doesn’t carry the day for us.