Baseball around the SEC - Week of 2/18

[Gatorgal04]

Here are the upcoming games for the SEC teams:

Tuesday, 2/19

Alabama hosts So Miss and wins 10-8
Arkansas hosts New Orleans and wins 14-0
Florida at UCF, Gators win 5-3
LSU hosts Lamar and wins 8-1
Miss State hosts Grambling State and wins 2-0
Texas A&M hosts Stephen F. Austin and wins 9-2
Vandy at Belmont, Vandy wins 9-3

Wednesday, 2/20

Arkansas hosts New Orleans and wins 3-0 (game moved to 2/19 due to impending weather)
Florida hosts Georgia Southern and lost 7-8
Georgia hosts Kennesaw State and lost 1-2
Ole Miss hosts Tennessee-Martin and wins 15-2
Texas A&M hosts Texas Southern and wins 7-1
Vandy hosts Central Arkansas and wins 10-2

Thursday, 2/21
LSU hosting a tourney Thursday-Saturday with BYU and SELA

Weekend series 2/22-24
*Alabama at FAU - winning 5-2 and 4-2, then losing 0-3
*Arkansas hosts Evansville and sweeps 10-4, 5-2 and 10-2
*Auburn hosting a tourney with Middle TN State, College of Charleston & Indiana State - Auburn lost to MD TN State 1-2, beat College of Charleston 5-1 and beat Indiana State 6-5
*Florida hosts FGCU and loses all 3: 2-8, 3-8 and 4-7
*Georgia hosts Belmont - won 2-1, lost 10-11 and lost 4-5
*Kentucky at tourney in Myrtle Beach with Elon, Coastal Carolina & Kansas State. KY lost to Kansas State 5-7, beat Elon 6-1 and then beat Coastal Carolina 8-2.
*LSU hosted a tourney and beat BYU 6-5, lost to BYU 4-9, and beat SELA 13-1.
*Ole Miss hosts Rhode Island and sweeps 8-1, 1-0, and 5-3.
*Miss State hosting a tourney and they beat Purdue 3-2 and 7-6, and then beat Samford 8-2 and 8-1.
*Mizzou goes Memphis and loses all 3: 0-6, 3-5, and 8-2.
*South Carolina hosts Albany and sweeps: 8-3, 14-1, 6-4.
*Tennessee hosts Arizona State. They lose 0-4, win 11-2 and lose 1-5.
*Texas A&M hosts Pepperdine. They lose 3-5, win 3-1, and lose 1-2.
*Vandy hosts Monmouth and sweeps 5-1, 11-1, 13-1.

[gatorbogey]

seeing alot of these 'tourneys'....
gator softball had one too this weekend.

will gator baseball host one in the near future?

probably could get many northern schools eager to come down at this time of the year for a tourney. fill the mac, fill local motels.

[taxman22]

A tourney would be awesome.

[gtj31]

UF did a Pepsi Challenge or something to that effect in '06 with OSU, Wake and Mizzou. Mizzou had Scherzer and we didn't win... Wake just about no hit us I think on Sunday. It was at that point you had to look at '06 and start wondering... We did take the series in Miami that year. If I recall DOD ended the Sunday game with a double play. Might have been the Saturday game. Very sweet game. He was pumped.

[DoubleDown11]

Scherzer was dominant that night, and the temperature was in the 30's. Possibly the least fun I've ever had at the MAC.

We also did a tournament way back in the day around '96 or '97 that involved USC and Oklahoma State, who were two of the best programs in the country in that era.

[Juggernautz]

Originally Posted by taxman22

A tourney would be awesome.

This^^^

[gtj31]

Originally Posted by DoubleDown11

Scherzer was dominant that night, and the temperature was in the 30's. Possibly the least fun I've ever had at the MAC.

Not epic that is for sure. If I recall it was something like 8-1. Not overly pretty.

[WESGATORS]

http://www.gatorzone.com/baseball/bo...hp?gameid=5615

FLORIDA used 5 pitchers on a combined 22-hitter. Thanks for bringing up great memories! Except for the 7 runs that Ball gave up and the 4 that Hightower gave up it was a pretty competitive game. Any time your number of runs equals your number of errors you're probably not going to win the game.

Came back the next day and beat this guy when he started for Ohio State. I had Ohio State fans convinced out in Phoenix that they had never beaten us in any sport (this is easy to do when folks only pay attention to football ).

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

[gtj31]

Originally Posted by WESGATORS

http://www.gatorzone.com/baseball/bo...hp?gameid=5615

FLORIDA used 5 pitchers on a combined 22-hitter. Thanks for bringing up great memories! Except for the 7 runs that Ball gave up and the 4 that Hightower gave up it was a pretty competitive game. Any time your number of runs equals your number of errors you're probably not going to win the game.

Came back the next day and beat this guy when he started for Ohio State. I had Ohio State fans convinced out in Phoenix that they had never beaten us in any sport (this is easy to do when folks only pay attention to football ).

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

I remember getting crushed but I didn't remember giving up 14. Ouch.

So long story short, Bogey we have had a tourney type thing in the not too distant past. Wasn't very pretty. Cool concept though. Nice to get new blood in the schedule.

[gatorbogey]

that sort of loss was mitigated a great deal by the nat'l title in hoops - right? i remember a cane co-worker giving us gators the business over not even making the ncaa's in baseball that year....my boss's comeback was that "our outfielders were blinded by the glare off the hoops nat'l title crystal."

[WESGATORS]

Originally Posted by gatorbogey

that sort of loss was mitigated a great deal by the nat'l title in hoops - right? i remember a cane co-worker giving us gators the business over not even making the ncaa's in baseball that year....my boss's comeback was that "our outfielders were blinded by the glare off the hoops nat'l title crystal."

I don't know, the goal at the beginning of the season was probably to win the last game on the schedule. They accomplished that! First GATOR Baseball team in 20 years to do so.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

[DoubleDown11]

Great. Now I'm having flashbacks trying to figure out how the hell a team that returned 7 starters from the national runner up finished 28-28.

[gtj31]

Originally Posted by DoubleDown11

Great. Now I'm having flashbacks trying to figure out how the hell a team that returned 7 starters from the national runner up finished 28-28.

Let's not forget one of the starters that we lost (the one not named Horne) was Tommy Boss. Not exactly Hudson Randall. Boss was a great competitor and showed some real quality in Omaha in 2005 (the whole playoffs really) but he wasn't an ace. So the staff lost one really good pitcher in Horne, one excellent reliever in Connor, one decent starter in Boss, and then tanked while adding Augie who turned out to be quite good as a starter (though as I recall his best year was '07 but I might be off on that).

[MadduxFanII]

Originally Posted by DoubleDown11

Great. Now I'm having flashbacks trying to figure out how the hell a team that returned 7 starters from the national runner up finished 28-28.

I think a lot of us understood that we were overranked at the beginning of the season. We lost Boss and Horne from the rotation and Falkenbach from the bullpen, which is just a crapton of innings you have to replace. Then Stephen Locke hurt his arm and missed the entire season. So the pre-season rotation was pretty much Ball and a whole bunch of unproven kids.

What was so odd was the utter collapse of the guys who were left. LaPorta got hurt, Adam Davis tanked at the plate (and his time at short was a predictable disaster), Jeroloman's numbers suffered and LeClerc fell off a cliff. Ball was awful, and though Bryan Augenstein had a great year it wasn't enough.

Every weekend series that year followed the same damn pattern: we'd lose Friday, win Saturday behind Augenstein and then get our heads kicked in on Sunday when JK LaCoste or whichever poor kid we threw out there ended up surrendering seven runs in 2/3 of an inning.

[WESGATORS]

Originally Posted by gtj31

So the staff lost one really good pitcher in Horne, one excellent reliever in Connor, one decent starter in Boss

Those three guys only accounted for half of our innings pitched in 2005.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

[gtj31]

Originally Posted by WESGATORS

Those three guys only accounted for half of our innings pitched in 2005.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

True but Augie plus Ball should have been a decent 1-2 punch. I don't think not having Connor was what killed us. Connor had a rubber arm but Pat played too many matchups with Connor. DOD had a bit more getup on his ball and he was more effective against lefties than Connor. As a result, DOD just shouldered more of the load and did a very nice job of it.

Horne, no excuses. Big loss.

Boss still had an ERA over 4 if I recall. Innings thrown or not, that isn't irreplaceable (aside from the aforementioned exceptional competitive spirit and quality displayed throughout the playoffs). The team should have been much better from the mound.

As also previously mentioned, LaPorta tweaking his back really hurt. The rest of the guys were awful that year. Leclerc dropped more than just about any player I have ever seen. Corso was probably the most underrated loss on the team. I think we all assumed we would be able to make up for him but clearly not.

[gatorbogey]

didn't you guys at the 'levin' own boss on the whiffle ball circuit?

[WESGATORS]

Originally Posted by gatorbogey

didn't you guys at the 'levin' own boss on the whiffle ball circuit?

No, no, and no. In fact, I think that was the downfall to my wiffleball career. Boss was pitching from 5 feet further back and knocking the stinkin' chair over...with a wiffleball. The only relief I got from that was realizing that he was giving it all he had and was sore for at least the next day after that. The UF ballers brought it for sure.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

[gatorbogey]

when you're a player, can't ever let the hecklers show you up, eh? even if it means your throw your arm out in the process.

[gtj31]

Originally Posted by WESGATORS

No, no, and no. In fact, I think that was the downfall to my wiffleball career. Boss was pitching from 5 feet further back and knocking the stinkin' chair over...with a wiffleball. The only relief I got from that was realizing that he was giving it all he had and was sore for at least the next day after that. The UF ballers brought it for sure.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

I didn't stand a chance that is for sure. I have taken WES deep for a walkoff once. It is the little things you hold onto when your own athletic prowess pails in comparison to even the average.