We get 17 hits & another HR from Luke Bonfield. Blaine Knight was brilliant tonight. Taccolini to start the 9th. Hate Knight didn’t get the complete game, but he only allowed 3 hits & 1 run–the run coming in the first after a leadoff double. That’s all Alabama could muster until the 8th inning when they got another double. Runner couldn’t get past 2nd, though.
So now we’re 6-1, tied atop the SEC with Auburn. I have a good feeling about this weekend. Don’t want to predict a sweep, but we sure looked a lot better than Bama tonight. Not sure what they have for starting pitchers the rest of the way & it’ll be hard for any of ours to pitch as well as Knight tonight, but I’m optimistic for a good weekend.
I’m sorry. All of this driving back and forth to Claremore, OK every day is beginning to wear on me. I still have to bathe the dog again this morning and get there early (although tomorrow is the killer since we show at 8 AM.)
But I did watch (sort of) while I was doing laundry last night. What an incredible performance that was by Knight. I guess that I should be used to that by now, but I am still impressed.
I am enjoying this baseball season so far. What a difference from last year. However, the season is still young. It makes you wonder how much better we would be if Campbell had not been hurt.
On a slightly different note, I think Luke Bonfield could have a career in movie after baseball. He has handsome features, could possibly give Ryan Goslin a run for his money.
Amazing how much difference a year makes. Seven games deep into the SEC season & we’re only one win shy of last year’s win total. Win this series & we’ll have met or exceeded last year’s total.
The SEC is an incredibly difficult & talented league, so anything can happen, but we have enough hitting power distributed throughout the lineup that we can score on anyone. Someone’s ace might get to us occasionally, but I doubt any team has 3 pitchers who can keep us from scoring several runs in at least 1 game in a series. Fortunately, our pitching is good enough to keep other teams from scoring too much very often.
As well as Blaine Knight is pitching, Isaiah Campbell was better before he was hurt. This team could have been unbelievably tough had he and Keaton McKinney not been injured.
That said, this is the second straight year Wes Johnson is doing wonders with a pitching staff short-handed. He helped Mississippi State to a worst-to-first turnaround in 2016. I don’t think that will happen here this year, but the team has exceeded my expectations to this point.