Baseball vs. USF, Wed 2/22, 6:00 pm

That maybe..maybe I am thinking of someone else..just remember people being frustrated with his pitching at times

 

I know Purnell's stats look good from last year. But he gave up a lot of hits in relief where runs were charged to the pitcher he replaced. I got less and less confident every time Sully brought him in last year, as he blew a lot of leads for us and then was taken out before any of his baserunners scored. Happened a lot, especially later in the season.

 

You are right-I was thinking of another situation where there was one out.

 

I think what you stated @ocalaman was what I was thinking when I made my statement that he struggled somewhat

 

That's probably fair, I do think he wore down late in the season and was less effective. But by and large still a very good freshman year with a large sample size

 

Or what my dad called "snowmen": 8

 

What a painful 9th inning to watch.

Man, the Gators sure did kick the ball around all night. Our defense was offensive.

Was it my imagination or did the home plate blue sometimes have a really wide strike zone for pitches down in the zone? Not an excuse because it went both ways.

 

I switched over to basketball thinking we got the game in control. What happened? Smh

 

Where was Abner tonight?
Hertzog hasn't pitched at all.

 

Don't know why we haven't seen Hertzog yet, as he was being talked about before the season as a possible closer. Maybe he's got arm issues, like Clemente. Abner was bad his first outing last weekend and he was very erratic last year. Jameson and Ursetti were talked about very positively about by Sully before the season and Jameson was great in 1.1 innings against Charles Southern.

 

Hartzog was having trouble with consistency in the spring. He really struggled in a few outings. To me it was getting to the point where he needed to take off and try to reset his mind.

 

Many of our young reliever pitchers were up and down in scrimmages for most of the fall and spring. They all showed quick inning ability and times where they gave up 2-3 runs. Now we are in real game situations and Sully has to build off what went right and try to maximize each opportunity for improvement. Did any of us expect 3 of them to tank all at once in a row? No and neither did Sully. Plus you give a team a few extra outs and pitchers will usually struggle. Combine that with a catcher who was trying to stop balls that were to his right 3+ feet off the plate with his left hand is not a good recipe for success. That was happening mainly with Purnell and his big sweeping breaking ball. Earlier I saw Lastres dealing with pitches in the dirt quite well but as the pitchers started spreading their pitches his confidence went down. Then we saw a few get by and even the one through the wicket to score that last run. Lastres needed someone to save him back there. Yes this is big time college baseball and no one is going to hold your hand but he looked defeated even before the 9th inning. All three of our catchers have had their share of passed balls in practice. Turn that around with the pitchers. They probably got hesitant with their pitches not knowing if the catcher could handle it. It worked both ways.
To wrap it up I think this team, coaches included, got over confident and relaxed after we scored 2 more in the 8th and seemed like we could cruise in. Yes I wish Neely were available to come in and shut it down but I agree with Sully its too early in the season. As Steve said after the postgame radio interview with Sully he sounded shell-shocked. Purnell was the right move by what we saw in practices and his one appearance so far. @74nole probably is right that Lastres hasn't caught Purnell much before and who knows if he might have been getting crossed up. Purnell's pitches kept getting further and further outside until they decided to stop calling that pitch and that left Purnell with nothing but fastballs over the plate. He sure wasn't getting many inside calls tonight and if he can't jam a few batters there's not much left for him to use. Jameson is another example of the complete let down from his improvements in practice. In conclusion, our relievers either are sharp for an inning or two, but when they are not, they give up runs in bunches. They have to learn how to manage the game better to prevent many crooked numbers going up on the board. Unfortunately tonight it happened to three of them in a row and no one saw it coming, not even the coaches.

 

Could have been caught. Robertson had an excellent game tonight and is doing an excellent job as a lead off guy. Range in the of is ridiculous. Should be fun to watch him.

 

As I mentioned, the Freshman had a great game. His 3 hits and 2 runs scored clearly weren’t our problem. Rather It was pitching. Purnell and Jameson Struggled mightily. Gave up a 5 run lead. Box score and pitching lines aren’t pretty.

 

In any sport I’ve seen plenty of college guys do it in practice. When the lights come on is when it counts. SOS would tell you Danny wasn’t always a great practice player but when the lights came on…look out and Danny was a very hard worker. Same w Trask.
My point, we’ve got guys in the pen that will surprise. They just need a shot. Purnell will be a major contributor but just my opinion, he got worn down last year and had some struggles his last 9-10 appearances. It seemed like he was allowing inherited runners to score at a high clip and getting hit much more than earlier in the year. Overall era and your era the last 2-3 weeks of the college season are two very different things.

 

Down the stretch he sure did. Looked like he lost his confidence. His last couple of weeks last year were rough.

 

#&@!

GO GATORS!!!!

 

Because of my handicap I can’t take triples . Wish I could I could get my
Handicap up so I could win some cash

 

Neither was that E9

 

Wyatt's double was a check swing duck fart that landed about 10 feet behind the first baseman. Wyatt was able to get to second but the right fielder would have had a short throw to nail Robertson if he tried to score.