Entry #59 - 3/05/06

Since my last entry we have played 11 games, going 6 and 5 over that span. Our overall record is currently stands now at 8 and 7. It has been a tough beginning for our club as our early season schedule has been a challenge. Making out a college baseball schedule is not an exact science, but (two years ago when this schedule was made) anticipating a veteran ball club, who should make a run at the post season, I wanted us to play good programs. When you make a schedule there are always two sides of the coin. Do you play an early schedule that is not too difficult? Or do you play one that is challenging? If you play an easier schedule, the positives are that you build confidence, you rack up some wins and your players start the season by putting up some big numbers. The negatives are that when your conference schedule rolls around will your team be ready to win those difficult games. By playing a challenging schedule you take the chance of starting slowly and putting yourself behind the "eight ball" as far as wins and losses go. But the positives of putting your team in difficult environments should prepare them for those big conference games.

I think our our club is currently somewhere right in the middle of those two scenarios. We have played some good baseball and won some big games, but we have also played poorly at times and let some games get away from us that we should have won. I always tell our team that when you line it up only four things can happen. You can play well and win. You can play well and lose. You can play poorly and win. You can play poorly and lose. We have witnessed three of those four outcomes. But the one we just don't have the makeup to handle right now is to play poorly and win, especially against a good team. We just don't have enough "stuff" to overcome some of our mistakes. The championship teams seem to master this one. No team, in any sport is going to show up and play well everyday, but the great teams will somehow find a way to get it done even when they don't have their "A Game".

I am going to try to catch up quickly on the last eleven games. Going into the Xavier series we once again had to deal with weather issues, so we moved our series up to a double header on Friday and a single game on Saturday. This year seems to be the year of the double header. I am not fond of double headers. It just makes for a long day for everyone involved and lots of times it is not fair competitively. This will be our first year in the Atlantic Sun Conference and we will play five doubleheaders on the weekends. When our conference schedule was finalized I could not believe this. I can remember my first few years at ETSU and in the Southern Conference; we (the coaches in the SoCon) lobbied very hard every year to eliminate doubleheaders on the weekends unless it was simply unavoidable to due academic reasons. Finally after many tries the Athletic Directors and Presidents allowed us the option to not play doubleheaders. This was a great move for that league and I'm hoping that in the near future (especially as good as our league is) that all the coaches and administrators will agree that this is what is best for baseball in our conference.

We won the first game of the Xavier series 9-4. Ryan Howe gave us a solid start and Jimmy Tidwell pitched a solid 2 and 1/3 innings to earn his first career win at ETSU. CJ Lee had a huge double and Justin Aughey hit a big three run homer to seal the first game of the series. It is always tough to beat someone twice in one day. Tony Lombardi gave us seven strong innings on the mound as the game was tied 3 to 3 heading into the eighth. Our bullpen and defense over the final two frames were very shaky and we ended up losing 10 to 5. It is tough to swallow when you lose games at home when you are tied or have the lead late in the game and this was the second time it had happened to us in just six games. From the beginning of the fall I have preached to our club that our bullpen will be the deciding factor whether or not we have a chance to be good this year and right now it still remains a huge question mark.

Saturday's game three was now critical. We came out swinging the bats well and we never trailed winning 10 to 7. Jeremy Hall was not at his best but it was good enough that day as we were led by Shane Byrne and Blake Church who each drove in three runs and Shane hit his first homer of the year. Our bullpen was better today as they bent but did not break. They threw four innings, giving up nine hits and three walks, but only gave up one run. Wow! It is becoming clear that we are going to need some pitchers to step up late in games or this coach is going to begin losing hair at a rapid pace.

So with our record at 4 and 3 we headed down to Atlanta for a two game midweek series with #3 ranked Georgia Tech. Mother Nature again played a factor as Danny Hall (Georgia Tech's Head Coach) decided that Wednesday's weather was going to be bad, so we would be better off playing a double header on Tuesday. He made the right call as Wednesday's weather was simply horrible. We got two very good starting pitching performances from Tony Lombardi and Jeremy Hall. But our inability to make the routine defensive plays ended up being our downfall. We actually out hit Georgia Tech 20 to 18, but out of their 12 runs for both games only four were earned. When you give good offensive teams like Georgia Tech extra outs they are going to take advantage of them. I believe they are as good offensively (especially their first six guys) as any team in college baseball. I was extremely disappointed we did not get at least one win down there. This was a great opportunity for our program and we let it get away. We have had enough "moral victories" in our program the last couple of years. We need more "big wins".

We now were scheduled for a three game series versus Youngstown State in Johnson City. With our record now at 4 and 5 we needed some much needed wins. On Friday night Ryan Howe was awesome on the mound going 7 innings and giving up only 3 hits and 0 earned runs. Shane and Stephen Douglas had two hits and Bubba Herbold came off the bench to get a big hit with two RBI. Bubba is a nice luxury for a coach. Unlike most hitters, Bubba is very good at coming off the bench, especially late in games and delivering a clutch hit. Pinch hitting may be the toughest job in baseball, but Bubba has taken a lot of pride in it and really excelled. Our bullpen was once again shaky as we gave up four runs in the last two innings, but we still held on for a 10 to 5 victory.

In game two, Joey McCown made his first start of the season a good one as he went five and two thirds only allowing one run. We are going to need Joey to be good this year. He is a tough competitor who always throws strikes. Our team likes to play behind him when he pitches. Our bullpen did the job today as they only allowed one run in the final three and a third to seal a 4 to 2 victory. Now in game three we put ourselves in position to sweep the series. I was asking a lot of Jeremy and Tony to come back on short rest, but this was a big game and they both said they felt good to go. Neither of them had their best stuff but offensively C.J. Lee took over going 5 for 5 with six RBI to help us earn the sweep. Steven Calicutt pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win. C.J. has been great for us in clutch situations so far this year. He seems to thrive on being up to bat in big situations.

The weekend sweep was much needed. Offensively it was our best weekend of the season even though the top of our order really struggled. Our coaching staff discussed on Sunday night that we would need these guys to get it going if we were going to have a chance against a very good St. John's program next weekend. St. John's is a program rich in tradition and very well coached. Obviously they have good players. On Friday night our kids came out extremely flat and St. John's capitalized. Ryan Howe started and wasn't at his best, but still left the game with us only down 4 to 1. In our first three innings we actually had six line drives which were caught for outs, so I felt good about they way we were swinging the bat and that as long as we could hold them down, we would still have a good chance to come back and win. This ended up being wishful thinking as our bullpen allowed 11 runs on 13 hits in the last five frames. Our hitters became frustrated and once the dust settled, it was a 15 to 1 butt kicking.

After the game I didn't need to say too much. It was evident we weren't ready to play and I challenged our guys to come to the park on Saturday with a chip on their shoulder. Jeremy took the mound on Saturday and was as good as I have ever seen him. He made two mistakes all day. He threw away a pick off attempt and he gave up a homerun on an 0 and 2 count. If not for those two things he would have thrown a complete game shutout. He only allowed five hits and struck out ten as we evened the series. Stephen Douglas had a great day driving in three runs.

So now on Sunday we had a chance to win the series. After the Friday night defeat, I felt a win today would really get us going. T. Lombardi took the mound and gave us another solid outing. Tony is a fierce competitor as is giving us a chance every time he takes the mound, but we just have not played well behind him. I'm confident that once we show up to play on his next start that he will get hot for us. After six innings we had a 6 to 5 lead, but a few bad breaks, poor defense and a shaky bullpen spelled a 14 - 9 defeat. We had our chances to win today, but St. John's was simply better. After analyzing this weekend some of our weaknesses were exposed. We need to get these things fixed and it needs to happen in a hurry as we have a midweek game versus Tennessee Tech and our first conference series versus Lipscomb this weekend.

We have a few players struggling offensively right now, especially at the top of our order. These guys are our best hitters and we are counting on them to perform and they just aren't getting it done. For the St. John's weekend our club hit .143 with runners in scoring position compared to a .386 clip for St. John's. For our season we are only hitting .242 with runners in scoring position, while our opponents are hitting .339. Our first four hitters are under .190 in RBI situations. In order for us to get it going we need our hitters to start stepping up and coming through with some big RBI hits. Next our bullpen must start getting some people out in big situations. Our pitchers have to get nasty when there are two outs and a guy in scoring position. They have to keep us in ball games, instead of letting games get away from us.

I know it sounds all "doom and gloom", but I actually still feel good about our team. As long as I've been doing this digest, I have found it sure is easier to write after a win than a loss. With that being said, I'm optimistic that we are going to turn the corner soon and go on a nice little run. We have won four of our last six and just need a little contagious hitting to take place. We are really working on our defense in practice and I know our pitching staff is going to improve. When things don't go your way, it always seems like everyone else has all the answers. Vince Lombardi once said, "Adversity doesn't build character it reveals it." This is so true and definitely important for our team and for some of our players who are struggling right now. The only recipe I know for success is hard work and that is where we are going to focus. I can't see the future but I believe these early struggles for our club and for some of our players will be a benefit as the season progresses. We just need to clean up our play a little bit. Until next time...

COACH SKOLE