BlueTip

There are times when you can say that the game was closer than the score made it appear. This isn't one of those times. Team Cincinnati has a really nice hitting team. They squared up a bunch of pitches. I didn't think Gorbandt threw a bad game. I think the PU could have given him some strikes on his curve early, but he didn't, so more fastballs in the zone means more hits for TC. I don't keep a book but just kept running totals in my head. I had Gorbandt with 5 strikeouts. I counted 4-5 errors by the Colonels and (again just counting in my head) figured maybe 7-8 of the runs were earned. I'd have to go back and re-create the innings to know for sure. Either way, the better team won. TC was aggressive which I like. And they held the Colonels to maybe 3 or 4 hits. Their starter threw a nice game and was effective primarily by throwing inside fastballs getting jam shots for easy outs. I don't understand why the Colonels in the dugout aren't watching what the pitcher is doing. He was struggling with his offspeed. He's busting guys inside consistently with the fastball. But Colonels hitters get up there and crowd the plate wanting to jerk the ball to their pull field. I'm somewhat surprised one of the coaches didn't tell them to make an adjustment.

Stein's bunt in the 4th was a clean hit. As mentioned before the pitcher was slow to the ball. Stein beat it for sure. His bunt in the 5th was not a hit. Third baseman was in and fielded it cleanly. The throw beats Stein easily but it's pulled low to the inside and 1B can't make the dig.

After Ryle got out of the bases loaded, no outs, jam the previous night, the suspension of the game seems to have worked in Conner's favor. Ryle definitely had the mo last night. But both teams showed up today and for today's pitchers (Isler and Maines) there was little time to work into the game and find a rhythm. Maines threw really well in the 10th and 11th. Isler looked ok in the 10th but really didn't throw many strikes. Conner's hitters chased a lot. In the 11th Leichty hits the grounder down the third base line that gets caught up in the mud and turns a single into a double. Double by Ryle, single by Williams, and a sac fly by Maines and that's it. 2 runs. It's hindsight now of course but it seems Ryle might have been better served starting Lonkard in the 10th. He doesn't pitch much but looked good out there, probably in the low 80's and he was aggressive. But it was too late when he was brought in. I got to talk to Gorbandt and Downs today and congratulated both on how well they pitched last night. I was really impressed. I was also impressed with Way for Conner who pitched 3 scoreless innings last night to get through the 7th, 8th, and 9th. It's a shame that one of these teams has to be eliminated. Both are capable of winning multiple games in the regional.

Definitely a lot of suspense. Both starting pitchers pitched well enough to win most games. Just enough hitting to keep it interesting. I'm not sure but I think Mark Downs didn't see the pop up in front of him to start the 9th. Walked the next batter then for some reason on a grounder right to him, the first baseman tried to throw to 3rd when he had no chance to get the lead runner. Bases loaded. Strike out, botched squeeze, and strike out and the inning is over with no damage. Crazy. On a side note, the PU had a nice tight zone the entire night until late then called 4-5 low pitches that he hadn't called all night. I could live with that. The first base ump had no business being on the field in a big game. Two terrible calls and I noticed 3 different occasions that the other umps had to move him because he didn't know what position to be in on the field. Obviously inexperienced and should have been given the 3B spot rather than 1B. It should be an interesting finish tomorrow, weather permitting.

I heard this a couple weeks ago and was happy that Matt will be going to a good program. He's a good kid and good pitcher. Of course if you know the family then it's no big surprise Matt's going to NKU:thumb:

Maines pitched the jv regional final last year. Nelson pitched the semi-final against Ryle. And I agree with CM that Maines has been the best looking pitcher this year but isn't used much. Joe Albrecht is a regular starter with pretty good off-speed stuff but haven't seen him lately. I'm surprised Leichty hasn't been used more. Neither Simpson or Way are overpowering but their stuff moves a lot. Hard to square up.

Coaching philosophies certainly differ. One coach takes his starters out after 2 AB's each game while another coach keeps 3-4 .200 hitters in the lineup every at bat of every game. So which one is worse?

A lot of credit goes to the Conner pitching coach who called about 35 straight 75mph fastballs in the first inning (with a curveball/changeup pitcher on the mound). If that wasn't enough we got to see more fastballs in innings 2 and 3. I think there was finally an offspeed pitch called at some point in the 3rd inning. Too little too late against a good hitting team like CovCath. That idiotic approach is contrasted very nicely by something I really like about CovCath's pitch calling...they throw inside fastballs. I wish I saw more of that in HS baseball. It's such an effective pitch.

Gotcha CM, I'm with you then on your observations. From what I've seen from Conner's coach the last 2-3 years he's used bunting quite a bit. I could see a hit-and-run in that spot but I was pretty surprised he was just hitting away with the winning run on first and no outs. It's early in the year so maybe coach wanted the kid to have a chance to swing away there. It's probably no big deal in the long run. The defense, on the other hand, is a bigger issue. Footwork, preparation, concentration, anticipation, soft hands....I didn't see a lot of what I've tried to teach in the past.

I think someone posted in the previous day's game results that Conner had been playing good defense. I'll mildly disagree. In a couple previous games I saw there were some balls misplayed but the opponent couldn't string together more baserunners to make it hurt, so those plays didn't lead to runs. When you win games it's easy to overlook that stuff. In last night's (Friday) game vs. Holy Cross, the defense wasn't good. An E3 with 2 outs, followed by a stolen base and two doubles gave HC their first two runs (both unearned), putting them up 2-0. HC's fourth run was also unearned as the inning started with an E6 and that hitter ended up scoring. It was 4-4 and Conner had what seemed to be a great chance in the bottom of the 7th (I'm pretty sure it was the 7th might have been the 8th). Leadoff single by Fogle and rather than bunting him over, the #2 hitter was allowed to swing away and hit into a FC. The next batter hit a double that would have scored a runner from 2nd but did not score the actual runner from first. With R2 and R3 with one out Conner couldn't get a run across. I don't keep a book and missed a few batters but I counted three E3's, three E4's, and one E6. Conner has put up runs in previous games vs. middle-of-the-road pitching, including Thursday night's game vs. HC...so I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw Tiberi on the mound to start for HC Friday. In last week's game vs. Cooper they faced Dunn and Thompson. Though Dunn is young he throws pretty well, and of course Thompson was even better. I believe Conner scratched out 2 runs in that game. Someone please correct me if that's off. Last night (Friday) HC pitched Tiberi and Fuller, and then closed one inning with #7 who I don't know. I was pleasantly surprised that Conner hit a few balls hard the other way during the game, as Tiberi and Fuller both stuck with fastballs more than I would have called given the situations/counts they were in. So while Conner's defense deserves some criticism, the offense deserves some praise as they did pretty well vs. some good pitching Friday.

Thanks for posting that.

Is the Bluegrass 15u roster posted anywhere? I don't see anything on the bluegrass site.