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Post by UICJohn on Jun 5, 2017 15:41:02 GMT -6
Thank you outhernmiss as well. The kind words are appreciated. I also saw several Mississippi State fans say very positive things about our fans and team that made the trip to Hattiesburg.
Winning obviously would have been better. We competed incredibly well and had chances in both games up until that final out. Just couldn't get that hit at that critical time. Next year should again showcase a very good UIC team with a very good Wright State team.
Losing Dahlberg does hurt but we will still be looking good on paper. And, as you said Chuck, looks like a solid recruiting class (is there a site like Verbal Commits for baseball?)
I also have to say that Juniors are eligible to be drafted and we have a pretty darn good one that if we lost would be tough. But we will wait and see.
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Post by circle70 on Jun 6, 2017 14:26:25 GMT -6
I've given a lot of thought to our performance in the Tournament with mixed emotions.
On the one hand, I agree with the assessment of southernmiss (outhernmiss a key entry error?). But then again, how difficult is it to be magnanimous if you're on the winning team? Apparently, based on the comments by a number of our regulars on this Board, you guys are in total agreement with southernmiss, and that's fine.
Let me present another (maybe solitary) view. I firmly believe that we absolutely blew those 2 games. Bad defense (and 6 walks by our best pitcher) contributed greatly to our loss in the 1st game. Bad starting pitching did the same in Game 2. That being said, we could have still won both games with a little bit of clutch hitting. In the 8th and 9th innings of both games, we had numerous chances to win the games, trailing by only one run, and having runners in scoring position (a couple of times with the bases loaded) and fewer than 2 outs.
If someone had said prior to Game 1 that we would score 7 runs and 4 runs in the first 2 games, wouldn't we have liked our chances to win at least one of those games?
I feel we blew a golden opportunity this year. This was a "perfect storm" or "catching lightning in a bottle" (pick your cliché of choice). We will never again have a year where we LED THE COUNTRY in Fielding Percentage and were 2nd in the country in ERA. The Power 5 team that wins the national title will probably be nowhere near the top in those categories (unless it's Oregon State, which was #1 in ERA, and gave up 3 runs in 3 games). But a mid-major needs to take advantage of this "once in a lifetime" opportunity.
Next year we lose 2 of our 3 weekend starters, 2 good relievers, 3 of our top 5 hitters, and possibly our best player, who is a junior, but will probably bolt if picked in the MLB Draft later this month.
Meanwhile, our toughest (and apparently only) competition, Wright State, doesn't appear to be falling back at all, having 2 more players on the All-Freshman team.
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Post by UICJohn on Jun 8, 2017 8:59:05 GMT -6
Circle:
I agree. We can, and I do, feel both ways. We played two ranked teams from the south to 1 run games. Any one thing goes differently and who knows what happens? We don't make 3 errors in game 1 and we most likely win. We get anything in the 8th or 9th innings in game 2 and we arguably win. Just about everything went against us and we lost both games by a single run. We catch any break and we win. We catch any break and maybe we win that regional. I'm proud because we played two very good teams incredibly tough. Hopefully we even made some future road trip partners because as we witnessed we can play with those guys but unfortunately with a massive drop off in RPI after UIC and Wright State the Horizon League will be a killer on seeding for whoever makes the tournament for the foreseeable future.
And on your second point - I agree as well. I was quite down about that first game and my posts back that up. Nothing against Southern Miss but I firmly believe that we lost the game and not them winning it. And the second game, facing their ace pitcher who was mowing us down, we came back and had Mississippi State on the ropes. And as you said, we had the pitching and defense to make a real run. When will that happen again (if ever)?
I have to admit I can't find anything about recruiting for NCAA baseball so I don't know who we have coming in. I do know, however, that we are losing a good amount especially when you consider some players that might be drafted. And I don't know much about Wright State in terms of roster or recruits but they're pretty optimistic that they'll be a ranked team in the next few years (if that's true, I don't know).
Again, we can only control ourselves but I sure hope that this last season wasn't just a great year/blip on the radar and next year Wright State returns to dominate the league.
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