Very much did not agree with the decision to bunt Whalen in the top half. Playing for a one run lead with how shaky our bullpen has been makes no sense to me.
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I don’t like sac bunting with this team ever… collective average of .349 why ever give an out away
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Generally I agree, there’s specific circumstances where I’m good with a bunt. But it’s the third game of the series, you know it’s a bullpen day and you know your bullpen hasn’t been good this year. You should be trying to score as many runs as possible, not settle by giving up outs.
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I mean if it’s the 9th sure go for it. And we’ve won plenty using it. But this team is the elite of the elite when it comes to hitting I don’t like it this season unless you know it will win you the game.
Same. Plus Whalen is nearly an automatic hit. That ended up being a throwaway out with Saucke swinging at junk.
But leaving men on, bullpen, and defensive miscues (pick off error and dropped ball) are unfortunate themes this season. The defense has been playing better of late, but the bottom of the 7th saw the issues rear its ugly head.
Hopefully they can mount another comeback win but seems unlikely with this staff and the momentum has completely shifted.
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Top of the 8th, RHP Charlie Beilenson takes over on the mound for Dook. He is their closer. Tyler Albright takes over for Winslow in LF. Ference to lead off for the HOOS.
- Ference walks on four pitches. One on and nobody down for Godbout.
- Wild pitch moves Ference up a base. Almost rolled into the dugout which would have gave him another one. Runner on 2nd and nobody down for Godbout, 1-2 count.
- Godbout K’s swinging. Runner on 2nd and one down for Anderson.
- Anderson hits a roller to Miller at 3rd, but Stone is called for catcher interference behind the plate. EA reaches, two on and one down for Hanson.
- Hanson on the next pitch lines a base hit into LF. Ference scores from 2nd, 7-4 Dook. Two on and one down for GOF.
- GOF on the next pitch flies out to Albright in LF. Two on and two down for PH Anthony Stephan.
- Stephan on 2-0 pops out to Clark at short to end the frame. Missed opportunity.
Middle of the 8th, Dook now leads 7-4.
Bottom of the 8th, Augustin still on the mound for the HOOS. Stephan takes over in LF, Didawick moves over to CF. Obee to lead off for Dook.
- Obee grounds out to Hanson at 3rd. One down for Knight.
- Knight on the next pitch flies out to Stephan up against the wall in LF. Two down for Morris.
- Morris on a full count K’s (1) swinging to end the inning.
Heading into the 9th, Dook leads 7-4. Last chance for a rally.
Bring in Stephan (0-4 in the series) for Whalen who’s an automatic hit and been hot, just because he’s a lefty bat. Now downgrade in the outfield for the bottom half as well.
Wouldn’t have done it. Let Whalen do his thing.
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I’m fine with that move. You play the percentages there L/R and Stephan consistently has some of our best AB’s. I wasn’t a fan of him swinging 2-0 but you live with that.
Top of the 9th, Beilenson still on the mound for Dook. Saucke to lead off for the HOOS.
- Saucke lines a base hit into CF. One on and nobody down for Ford.
- Ford hits a slow bouncer to Clark at short. The only play is at 1st, throw is made for the out. Saucke moves up a base, runner on 2nd and one down for Didawick.
- Didawick grounds out to Bravo unassisted at 1st. Saucke moves up a base, runner on 3rd and two down for Ference.
- Ference on a full count grounds out to Miller at 3rd to end it.
Dook wins the finale 7-4 to take the weekend series 2/3 and improve to 20-8 (6-6) on the season. UVA falls to 22-6 (7-5).
We’ll see you next Tuesday at 6PM for a game against ODU at The Dish.
Rough series for Didawick from the plate. Tough loss today. Cut out those 2 errors and outcome is likely different. Unfortunate.
Here’s to getting back on track this week.
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Frustrating final game as IMO it was very winnable, but hey shit happens. Losing 2/3 to a quality club on the road won’t hurt us too bad in the long run, would’ve been nice for our postseason resume to steal a series win up here but we didn’t execute enough to do so.
Bats weren’t quite as potent as normal, Dook has one of the better bullpens in the country and for the most part they were as advertised. We missed a bunch of opportunities with runners on to blow all three games open, Dook pitchers did a great job of scattering guys on base and getting groundouts/popouts in key situations.
Pitching showed some positive signs but still, gotta be much better in order to make a run this year. Was good to see Owen Coady back and very good to see Joe Savino warming up in the pen today, we will need both in the latter half of this season. Also very encouraged by Jaxel’s past couple of outings, he’s finding the zone with consistency and trusting his stuff. Gonna make a few mistakes but it’s significantly better than how he started the year. Now we just need Jay and Teel to find the same formula.
Take your lumps and move on, no time to sulk as we got another tough series next weekend with UNC coming to town. You get very few breaks in ACC play, especially this year with how deep the conference is.
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Duke is a tough matchup for us with how much they change pitchers. Our hitting gets so much stronger as the lineup flips once and even twice just hard to get in a rhythm against them.
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Weird day, looked in charge for a lot of the game. Lax also struggled but ultimately pulled it out. Hope we get our pitching and fielding under control as we wind into April.
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The fielding is so weird to me, because it’s definitely not an issue of talent. GOF and Godbout make some absurd plays up the middle, and Hanson was rock solid at the hot corner today. We just have one or two instances per game where shit just breaks down and we commit errors that seem more mental than anything else.
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Honestly Noone’s performance yesterday in the later innings of that game ended up helping out Dook a TON today. Made it so they had virtually their entire staff of relievers available if needed.
Was hoping that Pollard would overmanage this game like he did last season in the Super Regionals, but it didn’t happen.
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