I just wanted to say a big Thank You to everyone for their kind thoughts and support for Sean. This has been a great community through the past several years as he's gone from HS into playing D1 ball. I still remember Sean saying as a 10-yearold LL'er that his dream was to pitch in a championship game of the CWS. Well, he lived his dream last night. Win or lose, he had a huge smile on his face last night ... and handed me his game ball for safe keeping. None of the kids wanting autographs after the game were going to get that ball
. He knew his job was to throw strikes and get Georgia to hit into our defense, so he didn't go in trying to overpower anyone.
I didn't hear what the announcers said since I was at the game, but I'd expect them to question his numbers. On the surface they don't look good. The same thing happened in Tempe when the announcers thought his low IP meant he was the last guy in the pen, not that he'd come back from an injury. The reality was after rehabbing from his bicep tendonitis in late March Coach Mayne helped him with changes to his mechanics that had contributed to the injury. It took a several weeks of tweeks and re-learning to get back to throwing strikes consistently, getting his ball to move again. Once he had that dialed in around late April he started to look like a pitcher again. We just ignored the numbers. It was all about what he could do to help the team in the post season at that point.
Hopefully the Bulldogs can rally to win two. Batesole had a plan to platoon last night, so Sean's arm is pretty fresh from a fairly low pitch count. He could come back for some short relief if needed.
He hasn't thought much about what to do after the CWS. The Alaska team he was supposed to be on dropped him from their roster because of his injury, so his summer plans are still TBD pending who calls Batesole and where. Sean just wants to keep working on refining his mechanics, get some IP versus quality hitters, put on a few pounds in key places, otherwise maybe just spend the summer working out at home if nothing pans out. The selfish side of me would like to see him at home just because that's such a rare thing with the grueling college baseball schedule. But whatever works out best for him.
. Oh well, great game. Georgia is awfully good, we can attest....
