Tough loss at San Diego State 5-4 today. We took the lead in the 7th 4-3, but our relievers gave up 2 in the bottom of the 7th. We had runners on first and second with one out in the top of the 9th, but hit two soft pop-ups to end the game. A good showing though against a team that was in the NCAA tourney last year at 42-21!
Awesome that all 3 games this weekend are on live video, as well!
Looks like all three games may be archivable as well. I'd totally forgotten we had a game of baseball tonight because I was so concerned with basketball.
Hi all... thanks for starting a 2015 baseball thread, TX. Lots of new faces on the team this year. We arrived at the stadium (sellout) last night for the heavily publicized retiring of Tony Gwynn's #19 at SDSU. Nice ceremony. Bud Black spoke, as did Tony Gwynn Jr. So nice to play in a nice stadium in perfect weather. Nice again today, sunny and 75 baby!
Lundeen looked good I thought. We didn't make any plays behind him. I've seen this each of the past four years--defensively we are naturally rusty, since we can't get outside. We had two major league infield pop UPS that our guys didn't even get a glove on. Just hard to adapt to a nighttime game on real grass after being in the gym all winter.
The new JUCO transfers showed flashes of some much needed power. Mahoney is far stronger at the plate and should have a big year at the leadoff spot. We had one reliever have a bad outing last night, but we should have lots of depth in the bullpen. Lots of K's for us last night--their ace had a nice slider in the dirt that we couldn't lay off. Again, more outside, "live" at bats will help.
I think that if we compete and come out of this series with a win, we can count it as a successful start. If this team gels, I see potential for a title-contending year in the HL.
As a correction to my game notes: video was for Friday's game only. Live stats (as always) will be available and there is an audio link although there is some apprehension as to whether it will work for us out-of-market folks.
We MAY, need some pitching help. Went down today 22-12. :(
Obviously an absolute disaster on the mound yesterday. But I am chalking this one up to early season baseball. Once the pitching train starts downhill in some games, it is tough to stop. Mahar was OK--everyone else was bad. The huge question mark you take away from yesterday's pitching--Who is our closer? We will obviously pitch it better, so no panic over just one game. But even the coaches don't know right now who will step up to the closer role. That's what the spring trip will be used for.
On the plus side, we hit the ball great. Two huge bombs from Delaney and Beasley. Mahoney and others had some big two out hits. Something sorely lacking last year. Let's see if we can come back and get a win today.
Quote from: jetz on February 15, 2015, 09:44:55 AM
Obviously an absolute disaster on the mound yesterday. But I am chalking this one up to early season baseball. Once the pitching train starts downhill in some games, it is tough to stop. Mahar was OK--everyone else was bad. The huge question mark you take away from yesterday's pitching--Who is our closer? We will obviously pitch it better, so no panic over just one game. But even the coaches don't know right now who will step up to the closer role. That's what the spring trip will be used for.
On the plus side, we hit the ball great. Two huge bombs from Delaney and Beasley. Mahoney and others had some big two out hits. Something sorely lacking last year. Let's see if we can come back and get a win today.
Is Mahoney a future pro?
The dude has the body of a future pro, had an excellent first season, and 'ok' seasons these last two. He seems to be a smooth fielder, and has a good BB/K ratio. He would need a really good season this year to get drafted.
We go 0-3 against San Diego State, but a respectable showing in each, even with the 22-12 loss in game 2. We closed it out on Sunday with a 3-0 loss.
I know I'm real late on this, but I had done some checking into the audio from the weekend, and the Mountain West contractually bans local radio stations from broadcasting events online, so the links that were posted were useless to us. It sucks, as it would be a great way to help recruits hear how a prospective team is doing in games they have a chance to listen to.
I didn't really get a chance to catch any of these games because of my work schedule, plus Friday night was all about the hoops anyway.
New transfers Clark, Delaney, Beasley and Lodden look like they can all hit. Molitor takes huge swings as well and has power. Obviously Coach brought these guys in specifically to remedy last year's anemic offensive performance. Early returns say we may be sacrificing a little defense for offense, but it's really too soon to tell.
Yes, I think Mahoney will get drafted. He has put on weight and is hitting with power. He hit a line drive 360 feet against SDSU that hit the wall half way up. That is a part of his game that was missing.
Weather looks nasty for Nashville this weekend. San Diego was of course perfect, and now comes the payback. They got a foot of snow recently, and temps are forecast in the 30s this weekend. They do have an all turf field at Belmont, so its possible to clean it off and maybe play if it doesn't rain/snow any more. BRRR!!
Quote from: jetz on February 17, 2015, 01:30:39 PMWeather looks nasty for Nashville this weekend. San Diego was of course perfect, and now comes the payback. They got a foot of snow recently, and temps are forecast in the 30s this weekend. They do have an all turf field at Belmont, so its possible to clean it off and maybe play if it doesn't rain/snow any more. BRRR!!
With the hills around Belmont in south Nashville they don't have enough salt trucks to take care of a foot of snow.
Nashville Metro Public Works has:
a combined total of about 30 pieces of winter weather equipment, including snowplows, salt trucks, and brine trucks;http://www.nashville.gov/Public-Works/Getting-Around-Nashville/Snow/Winter-Preparedness-Operations.aspx (http://www.nashville.gov/Public-Works/Getting-Around-Nashville/Snow/Winter-Preparedness-Operations.aspx)
That has got to be a very difficult situation for the city of Nashville. This view is an aerial view but just above a road that overlooks the baseball field at Belmont
(http://www.claycorp.com/media/2012/06/Belmont_Aerial.jpg)
I didn't see where this weekend's tournament was, unless it was at Belmont, but this weekend is now a 3-game set with Belmont, due to the weather, so I'm guessing the other teams were coming from states that are basically shutdown until their roads thaw. Would be nice to know if there was a way to watch or listen to these games.
For lack of anything better, you can follow Spencer Mahoney's dad on Twitter. He is good about play by play tweets when he is at the games. He goes to most weekend games, and will be going to Belmont this weekend. Look up Rick Mahoney or Richard J. Mahoney. I am taking this weekend off--most teams in the Nashville area have cancelled or rescheduled for weather. Belmont's all turf field allows us to at least try to play there...
One of the more exciting finishes to a baseball game that I've seen last night. After Ellis Foreman came in out of the pen to throw five innings of shutout ball, we brought him back out for the ninth with an 8-6 lead. Ellis tired and gave up two hits and a run. With one out and runners on first and second, we brought in Bryce Yoder, a submariner, to close it out. Bryce got the first batter to fly out to left. Now two outs with the top of the order up for the Catamounts. The hitter dropped a soft ground ball into the trouble area between the mound and first base. A second of indecision led to a race to first which the WCU batter won. Bases loaded, two out.
Bryce got behind 3-1 and was one pitch away from walking in the tying run. A tap foul ran the count full. With the WCU dugout at full volume, Yoder and the Cat hitter engaged in an epic at-bat. Strike after strike was fouled off. Bryce threw seven straight strikes before finally getting a ground ball to the shortstop side of second base. Freshman Chad Jacob made a tough catch and a low throw to first, which Nate Palace scooped on a mid hop to get the batter by a half step. Valpo had its first win of 2015.
Always good to get that first win, especially since we have been in most of these games against quality opposition! Sounds like a fun ending to our first W!
Good to see us take the continuation game 18-5 over Western Carolina, to move to 2-6!
Quote from: valpotx on March 04, 2015, 10:38:02 PM
Good to see us take the continuation game 18-5 over Western Carolina, to move to 2-6!
We dominated yesterday. Nate Palace with what we think is a school record six runs scored in a single game. Beasley with a monster grand slam and 7 RBIs. Mahar with three shutout innings. Walsh with a perfect ninth on the mound. Nice win with timely hitting early. It got ridiculous with WCU pitching late...
It appears that we have some power, with 9 HRs in the first 10 games! We beat USC-Upstate 17-5 to get to 3-7.
With the basketball season over and this being the first full day of spring, I took an opportunity to see the 2015 baseball team today and shoot some photos. There seems to be a lot more offense this season as Valpo beat Youngstown State 10-8. Below are a couple of my images from the game: Delaney, connecting for one of his four hits, and Kaucic, the winning pitcher.
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We seem to have some HR power this year. It has been many years since we had such a thing.
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I stopped by the doubleheader against first-place Wright State today. Valpo split the games, winning the first 7-6, but losing the second 5-4. Wright State is supposed to be the class of the league and came into the day with an 11-game winning streak; however, the Crusaders appeared to match them pretty well. I was only able to stay for the opener, which was fine with me since the temperature was a frigid 30-degrees. Here are a couple of images from my photos in that win: Lundeen, who gave up only 1 earned run in 7 innings pitched, and Johnson, hitting a triple that led to him scoring 1 of his 2 runs in the game.
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The Crusaders showed some grit in their 8-7 come from behind win over Oakland today, and they are now only one game out of first place. I took some photos at the game, including the two below.
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It will be a competitive second half of the conference season!
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A nice sweep of Oakland this past weekend! We are now 1.5 games back of first place, after UIC swept their doubleheader against Milwaukee on Sunday. We are 1 game back of Wright State for second.
A story about Michael Morman, who graduated from Valpo and then went to Richmond to play for Tracy Woodson. Apparently had two years of eligibility left. Would have been nice if he had stayed. Hitting .330!
http://www.richmond.com/sports/college/baseball/article_ea19f8dc-7ffe-50c5-9b9f-ed5901112ac5.html (http://www.richmond.com/sports/college/baseball/article_ea19f8dc-7ffe-50c5-9b9f-ed5901112ac5.html)
I can't complain about him leaving, as he did earn his Valpo degree (both Morman and Woodson). Good for both of them on a successful season thus far.
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Dalton Lundeen pitched a complete game 3-hit shutout while Spencer Mahoney went 3-5, including a home run and his 200th career hit, in today's 6-0 win over Milwaukee!
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Key win in a key series this weekend!
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Pretty much need to win 1 of 3 against WSU in order to secure the 3 seed. If we sweep WSU, we get the 2 seed. We have a team that is fully capable of winning the HL tourney, regardless of seed.
We were on the unfortunate end of #6 on ESPN's Top 10 Thursday night, as WSU's infielder made a spectacular play on a ball up the middle to nip our runner at 1st.
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Great win to start the tourney! 8-0 over YSU!!! ;D
Now on to the toughest assignment in the HL tourney. Playing UIC in Whiting, more neutral than many people think because UIC is actually closer to Whiting than Valpo (18 miles to 41 miles) but with much more possible traffic delays coming from UIC.
Valpo has to send their #2 pitcher while UIC gets to use their #1 in this one bye, double elimination tourney format. 11:00 a.m. today from what looked like a very well groomed Oil City Stadium on ESPN 3. If the Crusaders can keep up some timely hitting they will be in this game. Having a dominating pitcher, like Lundeen, is crucial.
Both times YSU intentionally walked a Crusader hitter the next batter was able to respond with an important hit that demoralized the Penguins. Great to see the team respond so well.
Valpo down 8-5, so making it a ball game. But bases loaded with two outs, bottom of the 8th. UIC trying to bunt in a run.
Gotta get out of this, and one more chance. Looks like the heart of the Valpo order coming up.
We get creamed by Milwaukee 14-2 for our second loss. We lose a few players, but have most of the team back, including our starting pitchers. I think that we will improve on our 22-31 record from this year, and be in contention again next season!
Another reason to accept if we are ever offered membership in the MVC is that 3 teams are in the 2015 NCAA tourney: Missouri State, Dallas Baptist, and Bradley. It seems like the conference gets multiple bids in each sport!
It is completely astonishing to me that 5 Big Ten teams made the tourney this year. Up until recently, it was just 1 team for the last decade or more. Interesting to see that the conference has become more competitive on a national scale in baseball.
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Congrats to Drew, but this confuses me. I have to believe that his pick in the 34th round is due to potential and his size (6'6"), as his ERA has been above 6.00 in his SO and JR campaigns, with very low strikeout totals.
"Hasler is the son of White Sox MiLB pitching coordinator Curt Hasler"
That's why Drew was picked and subsequently an easy signing. He's assigned to Great Falls (Rookie League)
We now have 3 former VU players at the A+ (advanced A) level, as Karch was just called up from A to A+!
Kyle Gaedele has struggled up until the last 2 weeks, when he hit a hot stretch. He does have some pop now, but still has too many k's: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=543191#/career/R/hitting/2015/ALL (http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=543191#/career/R/hitting/2015/ALL)
Tanner Vavra was playing regularly for most of the season until the last month, since his average was below .200. He recently got back up above .200, but is only playing every few games: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=643584#/career/R/hitting/2015/ALL (http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=643584#/career/R/hitting/2015/ALL)
Karch Kowalczyk has been solid for most of the season, having been the closer for the Great Lakes Loons (A). He just got called up to A+, which can be a tough jump for some players. He will get to play against Kyle in the California League: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=657651#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL (http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=657651#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL)
Drew Hasler has two appearances in his young professional career: http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&player_id=665026#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL (http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&player_id=665026#/career/R/pitching/2015/ALL)
Gaedele just got moved up to AA with the San Antonio Missions! This is where he started last season, before getting injured 20 games in.