Hookem2147

He ditched the fastball for a cutter, which has made a big difference.

Pierce and Tulo aren’t going on family vacations together, but there was a lot of moving parts in his decision to step away for a year after 2022, including his wife being pregnant and the desire to travel around to see other programs to help him scope out stuff as he prepared for head coach interviews/opportunities. Even last year when he wasn’t on staff, he was around the facility from time to time helping out. I’m pretty sure he is on staff this year to make sure he isn’t out of the game too long and keep his name active in the coaching network. He certainly isn’t making decisions for money.

The surprising part to me is he recreated himself after trying to be his old self for the two seasons after his surgery. He is getting guys out in a completely different way than he was in 2020.

Funny part is if Storm is on this team, Belyeu may have been the odd man out to start the season. He had a slow fall apparently and there were questions about his defense. He would have gotten some DH AB’s and probably taken over for Brown eventually considering how things played out, but we may not have seen the huge breakout that ended up happening. While on that note, I think Nik Sanders has a chance to take a Belyeu type leap next year (play sparingly as a freshman and big jump as a sophomore). I’ll be interested to follow him during the summer.

Pretty well said. You need to have some fortunate bounces go your way to win it all in any sport, but baseball maybe more than any other considering the number of games and the fact you have a different guy taking the mound every game. 3 of the last 4 #1 seeds in the NCAA tournament didn't even make it out of a Super Regional. The one thing that was alarming to me (outside of losing, obviously) in 2 of the 3 Omaha trips, 2018 and 2022, is we were not built to win in that park. We didn't have the frontline starters with the premium swing-and-miss stuff (our #1 those two seasons were Nolan Kingham and Pete Hansen). We scored 11 runs in 4 total games between those two seasons. I love our ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but that park plays huge in Omaha, and the wind often blows in. The hallmark of Pierce teams the last 4 years or so is we don't walk a lot, we strike out a lot and we rely pretty heavily on the home run ball. That isn't the ideal recipe to dogpile in a tournament where you have to win 4 or 5 games in the span of a 8-10 days. The 2021 team featured more speed (Antico, Williams, prime Kennedy when he used to run like crazy) and contact ability at the plate, which combined with our 3 starters led by Ty Madden and Witt/Nixon, was the perfect recipe.

He helped with both

Longley is a great recruiter. Best move Pierce made in his tenure on the coaching staff was promoting him. Hopefully whoever is coaching next year is smart enough to retain him/make sure he doesn’t get away. Problem is recruiting in baseball is not a one year turnaround thing (mainly talking about the HS side). Good evals take several years to fully mature. Our 2025 class is freaking loaded, especially with arms, but at this point it’s doubtful this staff will even be around to see the fruits of their labor. Tough luck but we are currently paying for the sins committed in classes like 2021 and 2022.

We were quite a ways off in raw RPI points vs the group of teams above 50 when I looked earlier today. Now with this win we are within striking distance. A sweep would likely put us around 45.

Feels like we do this in May almost every year after playing with our food a little bit in April. I can’t believe Duplantier has turned into a reliable arm. You place this year’s version of him on any previous team and it’s a game changer. I had completely written him off headed into the year.

We get out of that if not for the balk

Dre pulled something chasing after that

Pierce trying to steal outs with the B relievers again

I’d go to Dre to face this guy

You were unconvinced until today? Also, not to be the bear of bad news but the pitching coach doesn’t make personnel moves in-game.

Can’t let the top of the order see him a third time when he is throwing 84. It was either Shaw or Harrison with the lefties due up.

I would not have scored that a hit. A play that needs to be made.

They tweaked the quadrant system this year to factor in location of the game. Washington, Baylor and BYU were all Q4 series. Texas State, UTRGV and A&M Corpus are Q4 midweek home games. Quadrant 1 (Q1) Home (1-25) Neutral (1-40) Away (1-60) Quadrant 2 (Q2) Home (26-50) Neutral (41-80) Away (61-120) Quadrant 3 (Q3) Home (51-100) Neutral (81-160) Away (121-240) Quadrant 4 (Q4) Home (101-305) Neutral (161-305) Away (241-305)

The 3 Cal Poly wins are now Q3 wins instead of Q4 (which helps SOS), but now our record in Q4 games is 10-8 which for a top 50 RPI team is unheard of.

I doubt Pierce will have much say in that decision. Will probably be Witt’s dad (who is a respected coach) and his agent/advisor. His stock already tanked pretty good, but at least they can use this latest surgery as a sign of hope/excuse if he doesn’t throw in a game again and keep some people intrigued.

I think his decision making group is going to tell him it’s over in a Texas uniform. Be the best teammate you can be and be ready to throw bullpens before the draft.

Started throwing again a few weeks ago. It was a cleanup type procedure so if he really wanted to push it he could probably be back in the bullpen later this month, but I think he has thrown his last pitch as a Longhorn.

Yep, Washington and the Baylor outing where Belyeu didn’t help him out and tripped over himself. Pretty much been perfect outside of that.

Cal Poly has done really well in their conference this year. Was surprised to see their record a few weeks ago.

I’m not saying Boehm is an all-time great or anything, but the season he is putting together as a closer is pretty impressive. Allowed one earned run in April.

1. Hit around a good Friday starter 2. Come from behind twice 3. Get 6 innings from our Friday guy Pretty much everything we haven’t done this year