Bear Down Wildcats

We'll play Oregon (for the fourth straight time) at 9 am next Wednesday. If we win, it's 9 am Thursday, and if we lose, it's 445 pm Thursday. If we split the first two games, we'd play at 3 pm on Friday. If we sweep the first two, we go directly to the 9 am game on Saturday. If we'd lose that one, there would be a second elimination game at 445 pm Saturday. Get past Saturday in any fashion, and the championship game is Sunday night at 7 pm.

Oregon kicked us around last night.

Worst possible outcome, Cats get swept by Oregon. They will play Oregon again on Wednesday in the Pac-12 tournament.

That’s a shit sandwich.

Irish27 wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 2:51 pm Worst possible outcome, Cats get swept by Oregon. They will play Oregon again on Wednesday in the Pac-12 tournament.

No, the worst possible outcome wont be until they lose four in a row to Oregon.

AZCatGirl wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 9:31 pm

Irish27 wrote: ↑Sat May 21, 2022 2:51 pm Worst possible outcome, Cats get swept by Oregon. They will play Oregon again on Wednesday in the Pac-12 tournament.

No, the worst possible outcome wont be until they lose four in a row to Oregon.

Just wait until they lose to ASU in the loser's bracket to follow that up.

Have they quit on Hale? Stopped listening? They seem to be disinterested at times and they haven’t hit in timely situations a lot it seems

I guess I'm old-school, but I'm always about pitching. In college, I'd put the Mendoza Line at an ERA under 4.50, a minimum 2:1 SO/BB ratio, and an opposing BA under .270. And I think I'm being generous at that. For our team, that gives you Irvin, who jumps off the stats page compared to his teammates. He went 7.0 IP in Eugene and gave up 2 ER, which gives you enough to win. Of the rest, Flanagan has nice numbers, but he only went a third of an inning in the series, so I assume he's got some physical issues. Guardado is up there, but he didn't pitch the weekend, so assume the same for him. Long is fairly solid, and he went 2.2 IP with no ER. For the rest, giving a bit of latitude where they just miss on a Mendoza Line stat, you've got Barraza, Arias, Pimental, and Netz. They went a combined 5.1 IP with 1 ER. In theory, if you throw a few pitchers to the wolves Friday against the other team's ace and just concede it, if Irvin gives you a complete game win on Saturday, and if you string the above guys I named for a bullpen game on Sunday, you could get by that way in the regular season. But, it's a lot of ifs, and that's not how Hale and Lawn play it, at least not with that personnel set. You need more than that for tournament success anyway, but barring tremendous run support against the better teams who possess decent pitching, we're just deficient in that department. Maybe Lawn's underutilizing some of the pitchers I named with little one-inning outings to protect their arms where they could be effective for 3 or more; I don't know. But some of the other guys aren't getting it done, at 9.2 IP with 14 ER over the weekend, which tends to correlate with their season-long stats being underwater.

Cats get some Duck revenge today in the PAC-12 opening game of the tournament. 8-6, with Susac showing why he's a POY candidate. Two homers, 3 RBIs, and a nice defensive play. Don't think we needed this game to make the tournament, but nice to have it in our pocket now. Especially with the committee always looking to screw PAC schools. Worst nightmare was 2 and que in Scottsdale, with the tournament winner being UW, CAL or ASu stealing our bid. The win today changes this.

Susac just showed everyone why he will be a first-round pick.

Is the tournament single or double elimination?

Double elimination within each pod of 4 teams. Just like a regional. The two pod-winners then face off in a winner take all game, I believe.

UAEebs86 wrote: ↑Wed May 25, 2022 12:48 pm Is the tournament single or double elimination?

Here's the bracket.

https://xs.pac-12.com/2022-05/16x9%20Ba ... 281%29.pdf

The game tomorrow against the trees is set for 4:45.

Good, more upside with a win there. Wonder if we will go with Irvin or stay with TJ?

3 up, 3 down for #Gary

#Gary just gave up back to back dingers. Damn it.

Cats plate 3 in the bottom of the 3rd to tie it up.

Does anyone know the rule on throwing or faking a throw to third?
The other night a guy faked a pick off to third and the ump called a balk.
Ump hesitated as if he wasn’t if it was a balk.
The announcers said it was correct call and that the rule had been changed recently.

Nice play by OTremba

Looking more and more like it's going to be ASSu tomorrow.

Please get it together tomorrow, Cats.

Is our pitching really this pathetic? Isn't Dave Lawn supposed to be a college pitching guru? 15 to Stanford yesterday. Lucky to keep ASu under that today.

Stanford is averaging over 10 runs a game over the last 14 (all wins).

Cats are down 2 already.

Susac got hurt and came out of the game.

3 run triple in the bottom of the 8th. 2 run lead for the Cats.

Rematch with Stanford tomorrow morning at 9:00.

Ball game! Don't think we can beat the Furd twice, but we get a shot. And we ended ASu's season. That's always a plus.

F ASSU. Dry and hard and in the sphincter

Chase Davis hurt his shoulder, taken out of the game. Hopefully it's not too serious.

Roxy tells really bad stories.

That HR had a lot of wine behind it. But that was a bp fastball

Down 3-2 after 4. At least we're battling. I'll take it.

We're running out of outs.

While you want to win every game -- you play to win the game -- losing this one isn't bad. One less game to play today. More rest for the players. And our tourney seeding is already set. Just glad we've battled and didn't roll over. And who knows, still have some outs to play with?

That'll do it. Cats lose 5-4. On to the NCAA's.