like I don't know how well Brady Neal is doing at LSU this season but I can't imagine it's much worse than any fuckin catcher we've had in the lineup past few seasons
They can hit the cover off the baseball at times, but a pretty terrible fielding team and pitching staff. Mostly singles and doubles
Thought for sure Steve Nebraska over there was going to hit a grand slam. Still plenty of time with these arsonists on the mound.
Arkansas and the Art of Finding a Way SEC EXTRA Joe Healy - April 8, 2023 Every team in the SEC can win games when things go their way. Every roster is talented, every team has a way in which it plays its best baseball, and as the cliche goes, any of the 14 teams in the league can beat any of the others on any given day when one team plays well and the other doesn’t. Spoiler But the real trick is finding ways to consistently win games when things don’t necessarily go your way, and perhaps no team in the SEC is better at doing that week after week and year after year like Arkansas. Saturday’s 6-4 win over Ole Miss to clinch a road series win was one such example. Righthander Will McEntire was sick earlier in the week, and as a result, Arkansas didn’t include him as a probable starter going into the weekend. But by Saturday, McEntire was well enough to give it a go, and while it wasn’t perfect, he gave the Razorbacks a chance to win, throwing 4.2 innings, giving up five hits and two runs. And after the offense staked them out to a late lead, freshman Gage Wood threw a season-high three innings to secure his second save in as many appearances. Arkansas righty Will McEntire (Mandy Sorenson) Last weekend’s series win over Alabama brought examples as well. For the first time all season, Hunter Hollan got hit hard and that led to a 12-1 loss in game one of the series. With their backs against the wall, the Razorbacks came back from a 4-0 deficit in game two to win 9-6 and then won a similarly back-and-forth game 5-4 in the finale, a contest in which their starter didn’t get out of the first inning. Getting blown out with your Friday guy on the mound and then getting two-thirds of an inning from your starter in a rubber game is the definition of things not going your way, but Arkansas shrugged it off and won the series. In the bigger picture, this entire season is an example of Arkansas getting it done in the face of adversity. It lost starter Jaxon Wiggins for the season before opening day, and since then, it has lost arguably its top two relief arms in Brady Tygart, who is still on the shelf but could return sooner rather than later, and Koty Frank, who is gone for the season. And yet, the Razorbacks are 25-6 overall, 8-4 in the SEC, which has them in first place in the SEC West by a half-game over LSU by virtue of the Tigers’ finale against South Carolina being canceled, and have a top-five RPI. Long story short, Arkansas has laid all of the necessary groundwork to open a path to playing baseball at home in June. That’s the other thing, though. Arkansas in recent years has shown us that playing regionals and super regionals in Fayetteville is great, and those massive home crowds are a sight to behold in the postseason, but it’s not a prerequisite for getting to the College World Series. Take last season, for example. Arkansas lost projected staff ace Peyton Pallette for the season before the season started, Brady Slavens dealt with an injury that limited his time playing in the field, Robert Moore didn’t have as strong an offensive season as he had in 2021, Peyton Stovall had an uneven freshman season and Jace Bohrofen didn’t break out as expected in his first season at Arkansas after transferring from Oklahoma. To top it off, the RPI didn’t really cooperate as much last season as you might have expected, so despite Arkansas finishing second in the SEC West, it found itself hitting the road for regionals in Stillwater, where it emerged victorious at the end of a wild weekend. That earned the Razorbacks a trip to Chapel Hill for super regionals, where it won two close games to get back to Omaha for the third time in the last four full seasons. Volatility is a constant in college baseball. Injuries happen, and with no Triple-A club to call up from, teams just have to weather the storm. Teams are at the whim of the RPI, a formula which is fairly simple on its face but can also confound all the same. Playing the sport at this time of year also means bad weather is a given and doubleheaders often feel more like the norm than the exception. There are myriad reasons why things can go wrong in a given game, series or season, but when it comes to succeeding in the face of all of those things, no one in the SEC does it as well as Arkansas.
Looks like the battle of the basement in the SEC this weekend might be the most attended SEC series in history.
When they approve the full allotment of scholarships in a year or two, I think this will be helpful. I see no reason to have kids committing as 9th or 10th graders who are still developing.
It seems we have gotten diminishing returns since shifting our recruiting to hunting early commitments from the highly touted 14 year olds. It seems to work for other people though. I miss the old days of poised young men battling for that partial scholly at the Mike Martin Baseball Academy like their life depended on it!
From what’s been rumored, baseball and softball are going full allotment. Not exactly sure how it’s going to work, but it’s supposedly going to be implemented in ‘25-‘26. I don’t think there’s anything official about it, but it’s been talked about the last couple years around this time at annual meetings.
@auppl on twitter. He’s a good dude. Big Auburn fan, but he posts a lot about college baseball. Usually has graphics on game days to tell you where to find your game on TV/streaming.
Burns going from top pick watch list to 11.00 ERA in conference play hasn't been easy on the eyes Edit: 11.94 ERA in 4 starts
WIth all the talk of pace of play, at least college baseball still recognizes the importance of taking 10 minutes to stop the game and have the umpires leave the field and put their heads together. Yes, I am saying the umps shoud be able to physically assault any player or coach who does that stupid putting on the headphones gesture after any remotely close play. Even worse for the runners who stand on the bag like a toddler after getting called out.
Piss poor middle infield defense. Fucking cuntshit. Routine double play gets botched. Leads to 3 runs. Still 0 outs.
UF went into the ninth up 10-6 Georgia hit a grandslam and scored a couple more. May still be batting 12-10 Dawgs Top 9 Edit : they were still batting 13-10
Things are getting very weird on this Tenn/Ark broadcast with Dave Neal talking about being miserable in his marriage and his wife currently being at a HS reunion, and Dari saying “weird things happen at those reunions” implying his wife is likely getting piped rn