OT: Boogs v Memphis - not men's softball
- Thread starter WDE_Tarp
- Start date
Ugh, bailed pitcher out trying to steal 3rd. Holland thrown out. Only 1 down, but unnecessary risk IMO.
Yup, had 1st and 2nd no outs and got no runs off of it. Holland thrown out trying to steal and then Venter and Anthony lined out. Headed to top 2 0-0.
Also, with us playing two mid week games this week, Im very happy A&M went 18 innings yesterday.
Gave up a run in the top of the 2nd. Had nobody on 2 outs, but gave up a single with an error that allowed him to get to 2nd, then beaned a guy, then gave up a hit that scored a run.
Bottom 2 starts same way as bottom 1, they walk our lead off batter.
Bottom 2 starts same way as bottom 1, they walk our lead off batter.
Either Holland went on his own and made a stupid decision or Gabe thought we’d get an offspeed pitch on that pitch count and got basically a pitch out. Like the aggressiveness, not a fan of it in the first inning when the pitcher hasn’t shown very much control at all.
They're catcher is really good from what the announcers said, tough to steal 3rd anyway so probably a mistake from Holland.
Mitchel obviously being overworked.
On a serious note, possibly caught a break with them going 18 last night. Kind of a best case scenario for us being a little short in the pen this weekend after playing two early this week.
Weird game today. We had a ton of base runners with very few hits. But I thought we hit the ball well, just doesn’t get some balls to fall in. I thought we pitched pretty well considering we probably didn’t have many arms to rely on. We had to push Watson and probably pushed him a little too far. Malczewski and Schilleci both were solid.
We have our work cut out for us this weekend to try and win a series with the limited bullpen arms we have. We need deep outings by all three starters this weekend.
We have our work cut out for us this weekend to try and win a series with the limited bullpen arms we have. We need deep outings by all three starters this weekend.
Mize = bAUss, Daniel = meh, Burns = Freshman sensation but still a Freshman, Bullpen = meh with maybe an exception here or there on any given weekend if they're on their game and the new pitching coach calls the right number to bring into the game.
I think our hitting is much better than last year, but I still see our guys swinging at some of the most ridiculous junk ever. And I think our defense has been great so far.
I think we can make another run at the SEC but we absolutely cannot afford to lose either Mize or Burns under any circumstances, the pen has got to get their shit together, and we're going to have to stop waiting until the 8th inning to get the bats going. But other than that, I love where we're at at this point in the season.
I think it’s going to take some time with Daniel. He missed all of the fall with a summer injury, then missed part of the spring with an abdominal injury. So, he’s behind the rest of the guys on staff right now. I really thought we’d see Mitchell this weeknd in place of Daniel. And with him and Greenhill out, we’re pretty short on bullpen arms. Think Butch said today we might even use Burns as a reliever Saturday if we have a chance to win the series. Gonna be tough without Greenhill and Mitchell.
per TOOS, Mitchell's MRI came back negative and he may pitch this weekend. Throwing today to gauge.
Also:
Texas A&M Rotation
Game 1: Jr. RHP Stephen Kolek (3-1, 1.46 ERA)
Game 2: So. LHP John Doxakis (3-0, 0.81 ERA)
Game 3: Jr. RHP Mitchell Kilkenny (4-0, 1.30 ERA)
Auburn Rotation
Game 1: Jr. RHP Casey Mize (4-0, 2.13 ERA)
Game 2: So. RHP Davis Daniel (2-0, 5.06 ERA)
Game 3: TBA
Really good news there. Now we just need a fast cure for mono so Greenhill is back next week.
If he's even the slightest bit hurt, Butch needs to sit him. No reason to risk the rest of his/our season for just one series.
That's what he gets for making out with all of those skanks at skybar on the weekends.
https://d1baseball.com/features/dont-say-that-word/
EDIT: Nevermind, didn't realize I wasn't going to be able to get through the article without paying for a subscription.
EDIT: Nevermind, didn't realize I wasn't going to be able to get through the article without paying for a subscription.
The tension is building. The crowd feels there is a chance to see history. Teammates isolate the pitcher in the dugout. The scribes in the press box talk in code, more worried about what they don’t say than what they do. Yes, the hit column is empty but no one dares to use a certain phrase to describe it.
Casey Mize knows what is it stake. The Auburn pitcher understands that one mistake, one piece of bad luck or one questionable scorer’s call could end his bid at history.
The junior righthander is cruising. He hasn’t allowed a hit or a walk, only a fourth inning error mars his perfect evening. He pumps in a fastball, then a splitter. He uses a new weapon, a cutter that he picked up just before opening day. Tonight is the best he has thrown it. In fact, tonight is the best he’s thrown all his pitches. It has all come together. It is kind of night little boys dream of, coaches crave and fans tell stories about for generations.
It is a cool night; both literally and figuratively. The ball isn’t carrying, not that it matters because the Northeastern hitters aren’t making solid contact. Mize knows he can’t try to overthrow. He can’t aim to be too perfect. After all, his stuff is working so well. He has to fight the urge to push himself. Relax. Exhale. Try to enjoy this moment when everyone around him is staring, hoping and pulling while trying not to do anything to attract the baseball gods’ wrath.
“You have to stay within yourself,” Mize explains. “I can’t be snapping any fastballs or anything like that. Just stick to the game plan and have that same mentality. Your mind wants to say, ‘work harder’ but you have to teach yourself to overcome that. There are a lot of challenges in that mental aspect that people don’t realize.”
Auburn head coach Butch Thompson is pacing in the dugout. He doesn’t know when he has ever seen a pitcher have a night like this. He has never been part of a – he doesn’t dare use the word – during his career in SEC dugouts. One-hitters, two-hitters, sure; But not this term everyone dares not say.
“The other night I don’t think I have ever seen him throw better,” said Thompson a few days later. “You don’t want to make statements that you have never seen it that good before but now that it has settled in and been a few days, it has to have been the best I have seen. I have been the SEC for 17 years so I have seen some good outings, some good boys.”
As the game progresses, the game migrates from just another game into something quite different. Every pitch matters. The stadium is buzzing.
“The crowd started to cheer routine outs in the eighth inning,” said Thompson. “They realized they were about to see something they haven’t seen in a long time. It got weird. Nobody (in the dugout) says anything.”
Mize notices. “If it gets a little weird in the dugout, you can’t yell at your teammates and tell them to be normal,” he said. “Then they know what you are thinking. There is nothing you can change about that.”
Thompson, the third-year Auburn coach, faces a dilemma as Mize finishes the eighth inning. The righty is at 88 pitches. Thompson wants to pull him. He wants to protect his ace, the pitcher who missed four weeks last season because of tendinitis. The game is in hand at 6-0. Someone else can get the final three outs. Mize’s evening is done.
As Thompson says those words aloud, his entire coaching staff erupts.
“I wanted to take him out after the eighth,” Thompson explains later. “(Assistants) Gabe Gross, Karl Nonemaker and Steve Smith, they all poked me in the chest and said, “go back and stand in your spot in the corner’.”
Thompson acquiesces, albeit with a short leash. Mize takes the hill for the ninth with the edict that if he allows a hit, his evening is done. Thompson grits his teeth and hopes Mize can have a quick three-up, three-down. But he knows seldom does anything worthwhile come easy.
In the press box, official scorer George Nunnelley is a little nervous. He’s hoping this final frame is clean and doesn’t come down to a difficult decision on a hit or an error. The fourth inning error was pretty obvious when shortstop Will Holland’s throw pulled the Tiger first baseman off the bag. Mize did his part to aid his official scorer as he cut the scoring plays in half with his 13 strikeouts. Nunnelley isn’t even the regular official scorer. He was only filling in because the regular scorer was at the SEC Basketball Tournament. Now, he is watching a chance at history while pretending the hit column doesn’t matter. Everyone in the stadium knows it does.
On the mound, Mize knows he isn’t supposed to be thinking about that zero in the hit column. He can’t get it out of his mind. How can you not think about it?
“Honestly, I thought about it a lot, probably more than I should have,” the righty said. “It is hard to avoid it. I’ve heard some pitchers say they were so focused they didn’t think about it but I think they are lying. I was thinking about it pretty much the whole night.”
Back to that fateful ninth, Mize eyes the plate. Northeastern sends the eight, nine, and one hole hitters up. There’s a fastball. Mize hits 96 mph. This is 90 pitches into the game, we are in the ninth inning and Mize is lighting up the gun. A scout behind the plate smiles as he checks the radar.
It is an easy first out as pinch-hitter Cam Walsh grounds out to second on the third pitch. Mason Coppins steps to the plate. The Northeastern center fielder can run. Mize gets ahead 0-2. Coppins battles. The batter fouls off three two-strike cutters.
“I think he was looking fastball and I kept giving him cutters,” said Mize. “He ended up grounding out to shortstop. It was a very close play. Will Holland made a nice play at short.”
For Holland, it was a bit of redemption as his earlier error cost Mize a shot at a perfect game.
“What people don’t know about that (error) play is it took a weird hop and took his fingernail off,” said Mize. “He was bleeding out of that nail for the rest of the game. That is why he made that throw up the line.” Holland makes this one cleanly and throws out Coppins on a bang-bang play.
There is one out remaining and leadoff hitter Charlie McConnell steps in. Mize has fanned him the three prior times. McConnell gets ahead 2-0 before working the first three-ball count of the game against Mize. After a full-count foul ball, McConnell hits a ball into the four-hole. Auburn second baseman Luke Jarvis ranges over, squeezes it and fires to first to complete the historic outing.
The Auburn team mobs Mize. First to reach him is catcher Brett Wright. The two call their own game, not typical for college baseball. They enjoy a moment together as their teammates arrive.
“Brett Wright, his catcher did a phenomenal job,” said Thompson. “He and Casey have been trying to figure each other out. Casey is throwing this changeup and cutter, throwing the ball in the dirt and elevating fastballs. Man, he is tough to catch when he is on.”
In addition to the fastball velocity, Mize has the kind of stuff that scouts drool over.
“He threw 96 in the ninth inning,” said Thompson. “If I play scout for a minute on the 20-80 scale, he flashed every bit of a 60 fastball, 60 slider, 70 changeup, and threw a 91 mph cutter. Everything graded off the charts. What separates Casey is when he is right, his whole arsenal grades out so well. He is at 40 strikeouts and three walks on the season.”
The cutter is a new addition. Mize explained it had been a 50/50 pitch in his prior starts. Not Friday night, it was a weapon.
“It was really getting the action at the finish line that I wanted,” Mize said. “That definitely helped. The other stuff was really good. I threw a lot of splitters. My fastball percentage was down this game because I threw a lot more offspeed for strikes early in the count. I was getting ahead and finishing in the bottom of the zone. I was able to elevate fastballs late when I needed to do so.”
“When you are rolling like that, it kind of gets blurry,” said Thompson. “I call it autopilot. You get to this subconscious motion, a blur. The fifth inning through eighth inning were like a blur.”
Mize agreed about the autopilot comment. He realized early that he had control and command.
“I struck out the side in the first so I felt pretty in command and control of my stuff,” Mize said. “I was hoping it was going to be a special night. Getting through the middle innings is important. Getting through the first inning is one check mark and then getting through the middle innings is another one as you go through the lineup a second time. About the fifth or sixth, I realized that I had a chance to do this.”
However, heading into the game, Mize had no indication that this would be a special evening.
“It was just another day,” Mize said of his warmup. “A pretty average bullpen. It wasn’t anything special. I actually heard Tim Hudson speak at our banquet and he said there were days when he would leave the pen and think he was going to throw a no-no and he would only last a few innings and there were days when was walking out of the pen and tell the long reliever to be ready because he wasn’t going to last long. Then he’d pitch deep into the game. I have kind of learned not to let the pregame bullpen determine anything. It was just a normal day. I didn’t expect it was going to be a super-special night. I was just going in and try to get outs.”
He did.
He got 27 of them without allowing a hit. And he got to say the word everyone dared not say.
No-hitter.
The tension is building. The crowd feels there is a chance to see history. Teammates isolate the pitcher in the dugout. The scribes in the press box talk in code, more worried about what they don’t say than what they do. Yes, the hit column is empty but no one dares to use a certain phrase to describe it.
Casey Mize knows what is it stake. The Auburn pitcher understands that one mistake, one piece of bad luck or one questionable scorer’s call could end his bid at history.
The junior righthander is cruising. He hasn’t allowed a hit or a walk, only a fourth inning error mars his perfect evening. He pumps in a fastball, then a splitter. He uses a new weapon, a cutter that he picked up just before opening day. Tonight is the best he has thrown it. In fact, tonight is the best he’s thrown all his pitches. It has all come together. It is kind of night little boys dream of, coaches crave and fans tell stories about for generations.
It is a cool night; both literally and figuratively. The ball isn’t carrying, not that it matters because the Northeastern hitters aren’t making solid contact. Mize knows he can’t try to overthrow. He can’t aim to be too perfect. After all, his stuff is working so well. He has to fight the urge to push himself. Relax. Exhale. Try to enjoy this moment when everyone around him is staring, hoping and pulling while trying not to do anything to attract the baseball gods’ wrath.
“You have to stay within yourself,” Mize explains. “I can’t be snapping any fastballs or anything like that. Just stick to the game plan and have that same mentality. Your mind wants to say, ‘work harder’ but you have to teach yourself to overcome that. There are a lot of challenges in that mental aspect that people don’t realize.”
Auburn head coach Butch Thompson is pacing in the dugout. He doesn’t know when he has ever seen a pitcher have a night like this. He has never been part of a – he doesn’t dare use the word – during his career in SEC dugouts. One-hitters, two-hitters, sure; But not this term everyone dares not say.
“The other night I don’t think I have ever seen him throw better,” said Thompson a few days later. “You don’t want to make statements that you have never seen it that good before but now that it has settled in and been a few days, it has to have been the best I have seen. I have been the SEC for 17 years so I have seen some good outings, some good boys.”
As the game progresses, the game migrates from just another game into something quite different. Every pitch matters. The stadium is buzzing.
“The crowd started to cheer routine outs in the eighth inning,” said Thompson. “They realized they were about to see something they haven’t seen in a long time. It got weird. Nobody (in the dugout) says anything.”
Mize notices. “If it gets a little weird in the dugout, you can’t yell at your teammates and tell them to be normal,” he said. “Then they know what you are thinking. There is nothing you can change about that.”
Thompson, the third-year Auburn coach, faces a dilemma as Mize finishes the eighth inning. The righty is at 88 pitches. Thompson wants to pull him. He wants to protect his ace, the pitcher who missed four weeks last season because of tendinitis. The game is in hand at 6-0. Someone else can get the final three outs. Mize’s evening is done.
As Thompson says those words aloud, his entire coaching staff erupts.
“I wanted to take him out after the eighth,” Thompson explains later. “(Assistants) Gabe Gross, Karl Nonemaker and Steve Smith, they all poked me in the chest and said, “go back and stand in your spot in the corner’.”
Thompson acquiesces, albeit with a short leash. Mize takes the hill for the ninth with the edict that if he allows a hit, his evening is done. Thompson grits his teeth and hopes Mize can have a quick three-up, three-down. But he knows seldom does anything worthwhile come easy.
In the press box, official scorer George Nunnelley is a little nervous. He’s hoping this final frame is clean and doesn’t come down to a difficult decision on a hit or an error. The fourth inning error was pretty obvious when shortstop Will Holland’s throw pulled the Tiger first baseman off the bag. Mize did his part to aid his official scorer as he cut the scoring plays in half with his 13 strikeouts. Nunnelley isn’t even the regular official scorer. He was only filling in because the regular scorer was at the SEC Basketball Tournament. Now, he is watching a chance at history while pretending the hit column doesn’t matter. Everyone in the stadium knows it does.
On the mound, Mize knows he isn’t supposed to be thinking about that zero in the hit column. He can’t get it out of his mind. How can you not think about it?
“Honestly, I thought about it a lot, probably more than I should have,” the righty said. “It is hard to avoid it. I’ve heard some pitchers say they were so focused they didn’t think about it but I think they are lying. I was thinking about it pretty much the whole night.”
Back to that fateful ninth, Mize eyes the plate. Northeastern sends the eight, nine, and one hole hitters up. There’s a fastball. Mize hits 96 mph. This is 90 pitches into the game, we are in the ninth inning and Mize is lighting up the gun. A scout behind the plate smiles as he checks the radar.
It is an easy first out as pinch-hitter Cam Walsh grounds out to second on the third pitch. Mason Coppins steps to the plate. The Northeastern center fielder can run. Mize gets ahead 0-2. Coppins battles. The batter fouls off three two-strike cutters.
“I think he was looking fastball and I kept giving him cutters,” said Mize. “He ended up grounding out to shortstop. It was a very close play. Will Holland made a nice play at short.”
For Holland, it was a bit of redemption as his earlier error cost Mize a shot at a perfect game.
“What people don’t know about that (error) play is it took a weird hop and took his fingernail off,” said Mize. “He was bleeding out of that nail for the rest of the game. That is why he made that throw up the line.” Holland makes this one cleanly and throws out Coppins on a bang-bang play.
There is one out remaining and leadoff hitter Charlie McConnell steps in. Mize has fanned him the three prior times. McConnell gets ahead 2-0 before working the first three-ball count of the game against Mize. After a full-count foul ball, McConnell hits a ball into the four-hole. Auburn second baseman Luke Jarvis ranges over, squeezes it and fires to first to complete the historic outing.
The Auburn team mobs Mize. First to reach him is catcher Brett Wright. The two call their own game, not typical for college baseball. They enjoy a moment together as their teammates arrive.
“Brett Wright, his catcher did a phenomenal job,” said Thompson. “He and Casey have been trying to figure each other out. Casey is throwing this changeup and cutter, throwing the ball in the dirt and elevating fastballs. Man, he is tough to catch when he is on.”
In addition to the fastball velocity, Mize has the kind of stuff that scouts drool over.
“He threw 96 in the ninth inning,” said Thompson. “If I play scout for a minute on the 20-80 scale, he flashed every bit of a 60 fastball, 60 slider, 70 changeup, and threw a 91 mph cutter. Everything graded off the charts. What separates Casey is when he is right, his whole arsenal grades out so well. He is at 40 strikeouts and three walks on the season.”
The cutter is a new addition. Mize explained it had been a 50/50 pitch in his prior starts. Not Friday night, it was a weapon.
“It was really getting the action at the finish line that I wanted,” Mize said. “That definitely helped. The other stuff was really good. I threw a lot of splitters. My fastball percentage was down this game because I threw a lot more offspeed for strikes early in the count. I was getting ahead and finishing in the bottom of the zone. I was able to elevate fastballs late when I needed to do so.”
“When you are rolling like that, it kind of gets blurry,” said Thompson. “I call it autopilot. You get to this subconscious motion, a blur. The fifth inning through eighth inning were like a blur.”
Mize agreed about the autopilot comment. He realized early that he had control and command.
“I struck out the side in the first so I felt pretty in command and control of my stuff,” Mize said. “I was hoping it was going to be a special night. Getting through the middle innings is important. Getting through the first inning is one check mark and then getting through the middle innings is another one as you go through the lineup a second time. About the fifth or sixth, I realized that I had a chance to do this.”
However, heading into the game, Mize had no indication that this would be a special evening.
“It was just another day,” Mize said of his warmup. “A pretty average bullpen. It wasn’t anything special. I actually heard Tim Hudson speak at our banquet and he said there were days when he would leave the pen and think he was going to throw a no-no and he would only last a few innings and there were days when was walking out of the pen and tell the long reliever to be ready because he wasn’t going to last long. Then he’d pitch deep into the game. I have kind of learned not to let the pregame bullpen determine anything. It was just a normal day. I didn’t expect it was going to be a super-special night. I was just going in and try to get outs.”
He did.
He got 27 of them without allowing a hit. And he got to say the word everyone dared not say.
No-hitter.
I love you man. No homo. Unless you want there to be.
