This team just might do it! Hitting is outstanding as is the pitching staff. Baseball is a labile sport but this team appears almost good enough to become methodical.
One would certainly love to see the Hogs get to Omaha at seasons end and perhaps have the complete team to actually win its first National Championship in baseball.
It’s a very long road to Omaha, filled with sore arms, hitting slumps.
If they can stay clear of major injuries in the pitching staff then they should be hosting tournament action at seasons end.
Let’s see how the next 9 road games in a row go and we’ll have more to judge them by.
Go Hogs!
I’d say we have a good chance of getting to Omaha at this early stage. But it’s far from a sure thing. Conversely, some teams that weren’t all that good in the regular season got hot in June and got to Omaha.
Our CWS teams:
1979 – 46-13 entering the CWS, finished #2
1985 – 49-13
1987 – 50-14
1989 – 50-14
2004 – 45-22; this is the team that needed Brady Toops’ grand slam to force a deciding game with Wichita State, Charley Boyce pitched approximately 214 innings in the regional, then we swept FSU in the super at Baum. But 2 and Q in Omaha.
2009 – 39-22, sent to regional in Norman and became only the third team in CWS history to get there undefeated while not playing any games at home.
2012 – 44-20, closest we’ve come to NC since '79, as South Carolina had to beat us twice to get to the championship series, which it lost to Arizona.
2015 – 39-23, got to host the super because of MoState’s ballpark conflict, then 2-and-Q in Omaha.
So '09 and '15 were definitely years where the regular season record was so-so, then we got hot and made the CWS.
And we’ve only gotten to do the home dogpile twice in the super – 2004 and 2015.
Swine the defense will need to improve. You can’t give away runs and win. The base running mistakes will also have to be corrected! You can win when your bats are hot and make mistakes!
The pitchers will have to stay healthy.
I sure like the way they can crush the ball!
That’s from the top to bottom of the batting order.
We may see a preview in the series at Florida.
At the least, the 2012 team should have finished second. But thanks to Perry Costello the Hogs had to play South Carolina twice.
Starting pitching, I fear is very thin. We find out in Gainesville where we stand I think. Last weekend was probably this best I have ever saw the Hogs hit in an SEC series. If we can duplicate just half that every series we will be fine.
Very thin? Compared to what? Relative to the vast majority of college baseball teams, is a very deep staff. Knight, Campbell and Murphy are very good.
Bonnin, Kostyshock and Rutledge are waiting in the wings. Loseke can start if needed. McKinney has very good stuff if healthy. They obviously see a lot in Ramage because they keep throwing him out there. Reindl was good last year. Cronin can be untouchable at times.
I think sometimes we forget to take a look at the competition when we rage ourselves. There are reason voters have us #4 and SP depth and pitching depth in general are big reasons.
Loseke can’t get any anything and he struck out like 7-8 of the 10 batters he faced today.