Glad to see us stay after it just about every inning. Pitchers did a very good job. Fisher can do better but he pushed thru it. Slater started shaky but finished strong. Neely let a few on but shut them down. Hitters got 10 hits and scored in a variety of ways. Things are looking up.
From a pitching stand point this game couldn't have gone any better for Sully and the staff setting us up with plenty of options for Saturday. Sure Sully needs to save Slater for Sunday but now he has Peterson, Philpott, Satin, Witmer, Smith, Clemente, maybe Purnell and Jameson. If I know Sully he will use whoever he has to if we are close to get this win and at least give the bats a chance at the lead. Edit : Sorry I forgot Grayson Smith so I added him as well.
Totally agee Albert before Kurland at 3b.....but as it looks now I think the best option would be Shelton back to 3b and Albert to SS. I'm not sure what deals were made with Shelton to help bring him here from the portal, but I don't see him as a ss at the next level so not sure what it serves to force him there. He's held his own better than I anticipated, but I don't think he's nearly as good as Albert defensively.
Good enough for the W. But this is not the Miami team of old. There is a reason they're not ranked. Some observations: Thomas needs to sit as he is not hitting and is not an asset on D. Question - who plays 3rd? Shelnut? Albert? AA seems to have a good arm and excellent baseball IQ... so Sully makes the call. I thought it was bit of a quick hook for Fisher tonight after only 69 pitches but understand you want to grab the first game of the weekend series. Is Fisher ready for the Friday night slot? We shall see after one more FRiday start next week. Slater was excellent after shaky entrance and Neely not as sharp as one would hope. W always good, especially at Miami so let's go out and grab game two... Look forward to seeing Peterson on the road on ACC channel.
I feel like we are still dealing with the same Halter argument all over again. If it were me I'd just round up enough NIL money to bring back India at 3rd and tell the NCAA to go stuff it since its a new day in college sports and nothing they say seems to matter. Besides he left with another year and Covid has past so that should give him two whole years left. Works for me. I'm sure the NCAA will be fine with it all.
Not sure Sully will wish to shake things up too much in the infield but FWIW... I overheard scouts discussing Shelton in a scrimmage and they both agreed that he does not have the arm to play the left side of infield at the next level and they would slot him at second. Again FWIW... I don't think Sully will make radical moves at this stage but I would like to see Thomas sit and AA given a shot at the 3rd.
* apkgator, may have nailed it- I did not read his post all the way through before my last comment.... New infield set-up -- Shelton 3b, Albert SS, Kurland 2b... solid, it could work.
I agree Sully is highly unlikely to shake it up to that extent unless things went off the rails a bit....but my eyes tell me that's the best infield based on how the guys are playing right now. I also know coaches have dynamics they deal with that may not be known to us sitting in the stands, things aren't aways as simple as they may appear.
Without naming names, we're not nearly as good on the left side of the infield as we were last year. And I'm concerned about Shelton & Evans being able to consistently produce at the 4 & 5 slots vs. SEC pitching. But who else is better? It was a solid win tonight, but Miami made a lot of mistakes that allowed us to win by 4. I hope Liam can go 6 or 7 innings tomorrow.
FWIW Albert worked at 2B, 3B and SS during fall and preseason. I didn't see Shelton work anywhere other than SS.