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College Spring Season

observer44observer441,000+ posts
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quote:
Originally posted by Hot Corner Dad: Then, nothing for about a minute. Those of you who follow college games this way know the anxiety that builds when no information comes through for what seems like forever. Finally, the update. Hot Corner Son homered to right center. First college homer! My wife and I danced around like we were kids again.


And the real beauty of the electronic feed is that you get to "see" that homer over and over...just keep refereshing that play!


44
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Coach_MayCoach_May10,000+ posts
I know HCD and his son. I still remember the day I first met them. It was a few years ago. I was putting on a free baseball "boot camp" at my high school. At the end of the camp there was "hit live bp on the field" till you can't or don't want to swing anymore. I remember seeing this young lean lh hitter swing the bat. I remember watching him swing and enjoying looking at that stroke. And I remember enjoying watching how much he loved to hit. And most of all I remember thinking to myself "This kid is going to be a great hitter one day." After the camp I had the pleasure of meeting HCD and his son. I was sold right then and there. Sometimes you just know a young man is special the first time you meet them.

I remember keeping up with HCDS through his hs years. I kept thinking to myself "Someone is going to get a steal when they sign that kid." I remember talking to several coaches about players. I would always mention him. I also remember being thrilled when I heard he had finally signed with his college program. I am so happy for him and his Dad. And I am sure we will be hearing a lot more about him over the next several years. Good things happen to good people.
HC Hot Corner Dad10+ posts
One of the best things about this site is not only can you share the joys and heartaches of the game with others who understand, you feel like there is an invisible community out there rooting for your kid. What a great feeling.

Coach May, thank you for these kind words and reminding me of one of the truly special days in my son's baseball career. It was special simply because he met you. He still speaks of you with appreciation and wonder. Appreciation for all you have done for him; wonder that a grown man would put on a free baseball camp in December on a day better suited for the Iditarod than batting practice.
hokieonehokieone5,000+ posts
Allow me to brag on our "summer catch":

Our own JH throws a complete game, 9 K-no walk 7 hitter in his first start as Oneonta defeats #15 UMass Boston, 3-1.

A very impressive start especially for a guy coming down from the frozen tundra.... going back to how he ended last season, this guy has to be averaging well under 1 walk per 9 innings over his last 30-40 innings....
Last edited by hokieone
ClevelandDadClevelandDadHSBBWeb Administrator
quote:
Originally posted by hokieone:
Allow me to brag on our "summer catch":

Our own JH throws a complete game, 9 K-no walk 7 hitter in his first start as Oneonta defeats #15 UMass Boston, 3-1.

A very impressive start especially for a guy coming down from the frozen tundra.... going back to how he ended last season, this guy has to be averaging well under 1 walk per 9 innings over his last 30-40 innings....

Impressive indeed. I believe JH is going to get a chance at the next level as well. First things first. I think his present team has a chance to do special things and possibly finding themselves playing in Wisconsin this spring. If they can get every guy buying in, they have a chance.
J HJ H5,000+ posts
Rob- I didn't know that but I suppose that can't be terrible information to have for the future...if I find myself in the Pacific northwest at any point...

As mentioned here previously, I threw against UMass-Boston earlier in our spring trip to Florida. They were a very aggressive offensive team and I was able to locate my offspeed stuff very well throughout the game. The biggest jam I fell into was in the 5th inning when I got out of a bases loaded, nobody out jam with 2 K's, a groundout and a whole lot of luck.

I threw earlier today against Amherst College from Massachusetts. I pitched into the 8th inning and frankly, ran out of gas. I gave up 8 hits in the game, with 6 of them being in the 7th and 8th innings. I ended up yielding 3 earned runs over 7 1/3 innings and got a ND (we lost 6-4 in 12 innings). My overall line for the Florida trip reads:

2 games
1-0 record
2.21 ERA
16 1/3 IP
15 H
4 ER
0 BB
14 K

Being that these were my first two career collegiate starts, I am very satisfied. I think the coaching staff was happy with my performances overall, being that I was able to locate and keep my pitch counts relatively low (105 pitches in 9 innings on Sunday, 98 pitches in 7 1/3 innings on Thursday). I just got back to school a little while ago and we have a day off before hitting the practice field hard to prepare for a non-conference game next Tuesday and then our conference home opening weekend next weekend.

Thanks again for the shoutouts from everyone, I'll keep you guys updated whenever I can
infielddadinfielddad10,000+ posts
Josh,
Sometimes D3 is frustrating.
Yesterday for me involved period searches on the Red Dragon site, the Amherst site and D3baseball.com...looking for the box. Had the score.
Where is the darn box score?
Even from 3,000 miles away, I had a feeling you had come back and pitched yesterday.
Honestly, I look at your effort yesterday as being a more compelling picture of who you are and who you are becoming as a pitcher than Sunday. What you did in the off-season, I would think, put you in a position to come back on short rest and be very successful. What you did from September to last Sunday can be what success on a college diamond is all about.
As many say, the mark of a very good pitcher isn't the ability to get outs with their best stuff and on their best day. To me, yesterday is the measure of a terrific outing and a young lefty showing how good he is. It is also, for me, evidence that there is more upside for you.
Nice job would be an understatement..and now the next challenge.
How about you take a week off and build toward next weekend? Wink
J HJ H5,000+ posts
infielddad- I get frustrated also with the lack of technological capability the people involved seem to be showing. But in the end, I suppose the information that is desired is seen by the people that need to see it, and the rest is no rush...I assume that's the way they look at it.

I do not like throwing on short rest, especially early in the season. Coach typically tries to throw guys on short rest in Florida but tends to try to keep their pitch counts down. When I threw 105 pitches on Sunday I wasn't sure if I'd be able to rebound for Thursday's game. I did a lot of work from Sunday evening-Wednesday evening to make sure I would be physically ready to give my best effort come game time. The offseason preparation that we do is very good, although I don't think its really possible to prepare for 100 pitches twice in 5 days regardless of what you do. Up to this point in my life the worst arm injury I've had is 2 bouts with tendonitis, so maybe the fact that I have the ability to bounce back on short rest is just a testament to my genetics.

One thing I have noticed through my first two appearances, and something that I think some here would be interested in hearing, is that much of my success has been largely because of my changeup. In the past, I've always had a good curveball and was able to locate both that and a fastball. While playing in the Coastal Plain League over the summer, I started realizing that the more advanced hitters I found in that league (the overall skill level was considerably higher than that of the average DIII hitter) were able to adjust to the typical fastball/curveball combination. My ERA in the CPL went from 0.79 to 5.23 in a span of one week. I started throwing flat ground bullpens every single day, throwing exclusively changeups. I figured that if I could develop the pitch better then the hitters would have a more difficult time because they'd have to worry about my ability to locate a third pitch. I didn't see the mound in a game during the summer for about 2 weeks and just strictly worked on the changeup. By the end of the season, my ERA was down to 2.50.

The work that I did over the summer and continued to do into the offseason on the changeup has given me the ability to feel much more comfortable throwing that pitch in any count. Out of the 14 strikeouts I have in my 16 1/3 innings thus far, I believe 6 or 7 were on changeups. I've started throwing first pitch changeups, 3-2 changeups, etc. The ability to throw all your pitches for strikes is something I believe is crucial to be successful as a pitcher in the long run
ClevelandDadClevelandDadHSBBWeb Administrator
quote:
Originally posted by J H:
infielddad- I get frustrated also with the lack of technological capability the people involved seem to be showing. But in the end, I suppose the information that is desired is seen by the people that need to see it, and the rest is no rush...I assume that's the way they look at it.

I do not like throwing on short rest, especially early in the season. Coach typically tries to throw guys on short rest in Florida but tends to try to keep their pitch counts down. When I threw 105 pitches on Sunday I wasn't sure if I'd be able to rebound for Thursday's game. I did a lot of work from Sunday evening-Wednesday evening to make sure I would be physically ready to give my best effort come game time. The offseason preparation that we do is very good, although I don't think its really possible to prepare for 100 pitches twice in 5 days regardless of what you do. Up to this point in my life the worst arm injury I've had is 2 bouts with tendonitis, so maybe the fact that I have the ability to bounce back on short rest is just a testament to my genetics.

One thing I have noticed through my first two appearances, and something that I think some here would be interested in hearing, is that much of my success has been largely because of my changeup. In the past, I've always had a good curveball and was able to locate both that and a fastball. While playing in the Coastal Plain League over the summer, I started realizing that the more advanced hitters I found in that league (the overall skill level was considerably higher than that of the average DIII hitter) were able to adjust to the typical fastball/curveball combination. My ERA in the CPL went from 0.79 to 5.23 in a span of one week. I started throwing flat ground bullpens every single day, throwing exclusively changeups. I figured that if I could develop the pitch better then the hitters would have a more difficult time because they'd have to worry about my ability to locate a third pitch. I didn't see the mound in a game during the summer for about 2 weeks and just strictly worked on the changeup. By the end of the season, my ERA was down to 2.50.

The work that I did over the summer and continued to do into the offseason on the changeup has given me the ability to feel much more comfortable throwing that pitch in any count. Out of the 14 strikeouts I have in my 16 1/3 innings thus far, I believe 6 or 7 were on changeups. I've started throwing first pitch changeups, 3-2 changeups, etc. The ability to throw all your pitches for strikes is something I believe is crucial to be successful as a pitcher in the long run

Great post Josh.

Speaking from a hitters perspective, what I've noticed at the upper levels of the sport like the CPL league which you speak and beyond is the pitcher's ability to pitch backwards. In other words, you get breaking balls and changeups in what were formerly fastball counts at the lower levels.

One key for a pitcher imho is to have confidence that a curve or a changeup will be a strike or at least something the hitter will offer at. I think another important thing is to trust your defense. There is no defense against a walk.
Coach_MayCoach_May10,000+ posts
I can see where Cory gets his great personality and humble attitude. The apple does not fall far from the tree. That was a great post and your perspective is awesome. It is very easy to pull for a young man like your son. Now lets get game 1 tomorrow!

Antzdad thanks a bunch. I will def check that out because I am not going to able to make the games this weekend. Its a huge series early in the season. If we can get Manshine38's son a few runs I like our chances alot tomorrow.
JPontiacJPontiac500+ posts
Checking in at the end of our non-conference schedule. Hasn't been a pretty start to our season, as we return from Florida 7-12 for the season. We've played a tough schedule including #24 Millsaps, then #10 Mississippi College, Huntingdon (received votes in latest poll), Emory, #8 Marietta, Piedmont, Montclair St. (received votes in latest poll), #1 Heidelberg, Carthage (received votes in latest poll) and #16 Wooster. We've played all these teams competitively and with a couple exceptions just haven't been able to pull out that big win. Most of these teams beat us late or in extra innings and 3 of our wins have been on our own walk offs.

Every game we played in Florida (against Heidelberg, Carthage, and Wooster 2x) was a 3-2 effort with just one being a Rhodes win (Wooster). I made the second start (my second start as well) against Wooster, which we lost in the 12th. We're not big fans of Wooster after hearing the things that come out of their dugout during games, and what they said to our losing pitcher.

We're constantly reminded that we're playing such a tough schedule early in the year that playing a really good game with a mistake or two will rarely be enough, and that is too true. While we did have a few games that were played badly, much of the time we have played fairly well. Nonetheless, we don't play to rack up "good" losses. At this point, our only chance for an NCAA berth is the old fashioned way, winning our conference.

Conference starts this weekend against our biggest competition to win the Eastern division, DePauw. We hope to see a revival from our offense and our pitching and defense keep rolling.

The most frustrating part of our offensive woes is that the struggling players are guys that have already proven they can hit at this level. We have several all-conference hitters, some of them multiple times, that are just struggling mightily. Maybe it's the new bats, but it's hard to say and I really doubt that it is.

The buzz around the program was that this year's team would be the best we've ever had, and so far no good. I've honestly been itching to pick up a bat and have a go of it myself. The most important thing to do now though is to refocus on the new season ahead of us and make sure the pitching is still hot when the bats come back.

I'll update after the weekend's games, I don't expect to pitch until I start one of our midweeks this coming week.
ClevelandDadClevelandDadHSBBWeb Administrator
quote:
Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
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Thank you for a very concise and well written summation of Rhode's season so far. Keep battling and keep us posted JPontiac.




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What he said! Thoroughly enjoyed that JKennedy.

Wooster needs to lose the attitude. Last I checked, they haven't won anything. They are known for being ranked high each year and faltering when it counts most. A little humilty and a re-focus to deeds (not dialog) would likely do wonders for them.

Heidelberg is for real. Most people probably have not heard of them but they are for real and currently undefeated and ranked #1 in the nation. All those teams on your list JKennedy are powerhouses. That is college baseball at its finest and you have been experiencing it personally! Your team just might be a sleeper down the road if they played all of those that closely.
Last edited by ClevelandDad
JPontiacJPontiac500+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by ClevelandDad:
quote:
Originally posted by gotwood4sale:
.

Thank you for a very concise and well written summation of Rhode's season so far. Keep battling and keep us posted JPontiac.




.

What he said! Thoroughly enjoyed that JKennedy.

Wooster needs to lose the attitude. Last I checked, they haven't won anything. They are known for being ranked high each year and faltering when it counts most. A little humilty and a re-focus to deeds (not dialog) would likely do wonders for them.

Heidelberg is for real. Most people probably have not heard of them but they are for real and currently undefeated and ranked #1 in the nation. All those teams on your list JKennedy are powerhouses. That is college baseball at its finest and you have been experiencing it personally! Your team just might be a sleeper down the road if they played all of those that closely.


Heidelberg is certainly for real. They're a team that has a lot of talent and doesn't give you anything. We saw their ace and he was especially fun to watch pitch and in my case to chart, because him and I have very similar stuff. He didn't throw hard enough to overpower anybody, just threw a 2-seamer/sinker and changeup with the occasional breaking ball. He drew a lot of swings early in the count, and was willing to throw his good changeup in any count. Him and I actually have very similar stuff and I'm going to work on using some of the pitch sequencing and the like that he used in that game against us. In my and my coach's opinion, the only difference between him and I is how refined he was in that he rarely if ever made a mistake pitch. It's encouraging to see how close I can be to All-American status like him (forgot the name).

To update, we swept a doubleheader against our biggest conference rival DePauw today, 2-0 and 4-3, the latter coming on a walk off. We play the final game of the series tomorrow, and a sweep would be huge not only for team morale but also for setting us up to win our division. I'll update with the (hopefully good) news tomorrow!
M manshine3810+ posts
Tough lost today. armomstrong atlantic scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th to take the win 8-7 . we need to bounce back today and take 2 games. Note ( cory"s face is a ball magnet ) got a line drive hit at him today ,but did get glove on it and walked away with a bruised and swollen jaw. ) it shook him up a little in the 3rd inning but pitched 4 1/3 more innings. After what happened in the fall, he must really love baseball, and is one tough kid. Can't say that about us parent's tough. scared the **** out of us.
Go Lander
JPontiacJPontiac500+ posts
Happy to report that we completed the sweep of DePauw in extremely exciting fashion. Entering the bottom of the 9th down 7-4, we tied the game up after a few free passes and big hits. In the bottom of the 10th, with two outs, our JR CFer (a late entry to the game) hit a walk-off HR to right field. At this point, 5 of our 10 wins are on walk off hits, 2 of which are home runs (the other was a grand slam!).
OB OH BBMom100+ posts
Hello, JPontiac,

I was at the game you mentioned between Rhodes and Heidelberg. My son is a freshman at Heidelberg. He is also a pitcher. The person that pitched against Rhodes was Ethan Holt. Your description was right on. Not a power pitcher, but a master of location. He doesn't waste a lot of pitches. It might interest you to know that he is just a sophomore.

Heidelberg suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday against Adrian College, losing 2-1 in 10 innings. They left many men on base, just couldn't get the timely hit to drive them in. They got even on Sunday by winning 2-1, again in 10 innings. The two games were eerily similar. Adrian looks to be a formidable regional opponent.
J HJ H5,000+ posts
I've been following Danny Boydston's son's progress closely since he and I collaborated via PM in the offseason. To hear about everything that went into the rehab process and to see the immediate success that stems from it is very gratifying for me, and I'm sure many others here. Big time congrats!

quote:
Boydston, also a 4.0 student majoring in marketing, expects even more as the season rolls along.


clapping



Can't wait to see that 26-K ball in Cooperstown. My school is 20 minutes away from the HOF, I'll be sure to keep a close look out for the display in the near future next time I visit.
Last edited by J H
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