Boy today is proof that I should NEVER post during games.
I got to admit yesterday’s game really got me in the dumps. It was the first game I had seen in person this year and I think I was expecting us just to kill UGA and not only did that not happen, but we played badly. That is no excuse for my over reaction though,
The highlight of the weekend? Meeting Matt at the game! Matt thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Your observations about the game were SO spot on. You are amazing.
I will also say the Hogs looked like a completely different team in the second half of today’s game.
Don’t worry about it Greg, everyone if they were being honest thought the exact same things, it was the worst game we played in a long time, we beat ourselves and that’s never fun to watch…Today started off bad but this team is resilient and somehow pretty much always comes through when they absolutely have too, never apologize for reacting to the highs and lows of a game like I said everyone else was thinking the same things but just didn’t say anything.
I’m optimistic with Hog sports (except for football… sorry), and I get the fan reaction when things don’t go right (we are no different than any other fan base). This baseball team is special and they have extreme confidence no matter who is in the opposing dugout. College baseball has so many scholarship limitations and recruiting disparity with the draft, every team has major weaknesses. The Hogs could certainly be better with the depth of the starting pitching and to a lesser degree with the bullpen, but we lead or rank in the top ten for defense, home runs, walks, runs scored, and OBP (this is one of the most important categories). We have the most complete overall team… period. We may not win it all because that is baseball, but no other team has a better chance and it’s been that way since the first weekend of the season. Time for all of us to admire the product on the field and have the same confidence DVH and team share.
I thought they played great this weekend – from what I saw.
Fully transparent here, we had the game on in the background during a Mother’s Day (a day early) celebration. Jean Ann asked for a Mexican fiesta. So I made Texas tamales (or got them out of the cloth bags), Becca brought taco salad and Sarah organized the decorations. We started the dinner in the second inning and didn’t finish until the game was over.
So I missed the part of the weekend the baseball team didn’t play its best. But there are going to be games like that in the SEC. Everyone is so good. You give them a crack, they wiggle through like Georgia did.
I looked back at the two years we won 51 games (still the school record) to see what the regular season was like.
In 1985 we went 42-13 in the regular season, 13-7 in the SWC which was third place. Swept the SWC tournament in George Cole Field, swept the regional (six teams so it required four games) in Tallahassee, and went 2-2 in Omaha to finish 51-15.
In 1989 we tied for first in the SWC at 17-4 and 45-11 regular season. Went 1-2 in the SWC tournament (both losses to Texass), 4-1 in the regional at Waterbury, CT, and 1-2 in Omaha (both losses to Wichita). We lost the last series at College Station to fall into the SWC tie, then the conference tournament was also at TAM. Final record 51-16.
The year we won the SEC at 22-8 in '99, our nonconference record was really pretty bad. We lost 11 NC games in the regular season then couldn’t get out of our regional at home.
If we go 5-2 from here out we finish the regular season at 41-11, same number of losses as '89 with a lot fewer nonconference games (and a lot weaker conference schedule).
To break the record of 51 wins we’d probably need to go 6-1 or 7-0 from here (42 or 43 wins), win at least two in Hoover, sweep the regional and super in Baum which is five more wins, and win two or three in Omaha.
I wasn’t referring to win-loss record. I’m referring to the fact we have been ranked #1 for 5-6 weeks. We’ve earned it by winning every SEC series to date and beating some excellent teams in pre-conference.
I think we reached #1 for one week a few years ago, but we lost the next series and dropped.
By season’s end, our strength of schedule will probably be ranked #1. Has that ever happened before?
The 2018 team had the No. 1 strength of schedule. Arkansas played three national seeds during the regular season that year, plus Mississippi State, Texas and Texas Tech that went on to the College World Series.
The opposing win percentage that year was .625. Right now the opposing win percentage is .609.
Depending on which poll you follow, Arkansas had been No. 1 a couple of times before this year.
The 2013 team had the No. 1 spot for three weeks to start the season. They fell out following the 0-4 weekend against Arizona State, Gonzaga and Pacific in Surprise, Ariz.
The 2009 team was No. 1 for one really weird week when it swept Arizona State (which was No. 1 in a separate poll) in the midweek but was swept during a rain-shortened weekend by Vanderbilt.
As far as I know, we’ve never been ranked #1 in baseball at all until this season, so that’s a given. But won-loss record agrees with the ranking. Going 41-11 against this schedule is much better than going 45-11 in '89.
OK, so we were briefly #1 twice before. Still a given.
I just think it’s incredible that we still have not lost a series this year. The 2018 team lost every road series in conference play.
Have we ever won eight straight conference series in SEC play? I can’t imagine we have.
If you go back to the 2019 season, the last year we had SEC games, the Hogs have won 12 of their last 13 SEC series. (They lost the last SEC series that year at Texas A&M.) Of course, if you throw in the Super Regional against Ole Miss that year that advanced us to Omaha, we’ve won 13 of the last 14 series against SEC teams. That’s just amazing considering how good SEC baseball is.
I do think Tennessee’s high-powered offense will be a challenge this weekend. We often rise to the occasion against big teams, so hopefully we will in Knoxville.
In a normal season this team could easily challenge the single-season wins record. But as of now it has already lost two likely wins from what was already a shorter schedule, and tomorrow’s game vs. Arkansas State looks like it could be affected by the weather.
In '99 we lost the first league series to Auburn, won five straight series, got swept at Tuscaloosa, then won the last three. So we won eight series, but not consecutively. There was also a 10-game conference win streak among those five straight series wins, ended when we lost the opener at Vandy. We haven’t run off 10 straight this year, but then the SEC is a lot better than it was in 1999. Bama finished a game behind us that year despite sweeping us; the Poultry won the East at 15-15.
I understand your sentiment. When we’re losing or not playing well, I’m in a sour mood. My posts reflect that. Like you, I expected to sweep UGA. I was really disappointed we lost that 2nd game & when we were down 3-0 & looking like we couldn’t get a hit yesterday, I was really upset. I thought we’d lose the series, the #1 ranking, & probably lose the series at TN and maybe win only 1 or 2 against Fl. I started thinking about being a 4 seed in the SECT.
In other words, I was just full of negative thoughts—all while trying to tell myself that a series loss here wouldn’t be the end of anything except perhaps our shot at the SEC title & a #1 seed in the NCAAT. And even those wouldn’t be necessarily lost.
But we’re hog fans and ride an emotional roller coaster. From game to game, inning to inning, at bat to at bat. It’s a lot easier to recognize after the fact. During the event we’re too into the moment. At least I am.
I do think a loss on Sunday would have negatively impacted our play in Knoxville. Losing any series is a downer but losing on your home field is even worse.