D2's Start Today

BBallman-- I will surely be thinking about you and your son come 2:00 tomorrow.  Hope he has a great game.  They have to have respect for him or he wouldn't be in that position. Safe travels! 

Well, things started out good for Sean. Struck out the 1st four batters before giving up one unearned on 2 errors in the second. I think some of the adrenalin wore off in the 3rd as he gave up 3 earned on a single, a double, a walk and HBP. Started the 4th with an infield single, F7, HR, BB and he was done.

Not terrible, but not great. At least it was a good start. He's going to have to learn to keep that intensity up for the whole game. At least there was a spark of what he is capable of. Thanks for all your well wishes.

I followed the live stats here in Cleveland until Sean came out of the game.  He pitched awfully well for his first college start and against one of the premier teams in the nation.  He gets a little defense and you never know what might have happened.  It's a team game however and the important take here is the coach handed him the ball in a big early season game.

There were really just two hard hit balls on him. The double and the HR. two decent singles and two infield singles. He did change in the 3rd inning. Wasn't as sharp as in the 1st two innings. Not making excuses because he has work to do, but I think it was partly due to the drop in adrenalin, plus he hasn't gone more than 2 innings yet this year. He needs to learn to keep up that intensity longer. And I think that will come as he gets more comfortable on the college mound. What a start though!!  That was fun to watch!!

Not a bad first start at all bballman. A lot to build on. I bet he gets the ball again in the first inning.

bballman, sent you a PM.  Sean did what the coach wanted him to do and went out and did very well for his first collegiate start (as a freshman no less).  UTampa doesn't have a series this weekend so we were able to throw our main pitchers today.  Like I said in the PM, Sean will use this as a good foundation for many years to come, and you should be proud!  Good luck in conference! 

I also had the Newberry game on up here in Cleveland as well at the same time.  Excellent day for your son fillsfan with two hits, a homer, and 3 more rbis.  Maybe Three Bagger knows where to check, but it would be interesting to know what the national D2 stats are right now.  Wouldn't surprise me at all if your son was leading the nation in rbis. 

 

A thought...

 

One way to get your timing back is an oppo/up-the-middle aproach for a time being.  We used to see Manny Ramierz do this to great effectiveness.  Your son is a big kid and probably can hit them out the other way anyways.  Get him to see the ball a little later and he can train himself not to be out in front.  After his timing returns, obviously, he can start turning on the ball again.

Exactly what he was working on this week.

Congrats to Sean on a great effort this afternoon.  Sounds like he will be getting more opportunities.

I guess as a parent the nerves are always there.  My Son got to throw his first College inning Wednesday.  I was watching Live Stats on my cell when his name appeared as pitcher in the Bot of 7th down by 6 runs.  I was so nervous and yet so proud.  3 up 3 down.  Ended up as the winning pitcher.  Crazy how the nerves shot to the top layer of skin. 

Quick update.  Sean got his second start last night.  More progress, much less of the nerves, for both of us.  Started out shaky.  Back to back doubles to start the game, 1 run in.  Walked the next guy, gave up a bloop single - bases loaded, no outs - ugh.  But, got a pop up to 2nd, line out to short, line out to 2nd.  Out of the inning!!  2nd inning, gave up one single and had one K.  3rd inning, lead off single, that would be the only ball to leave the infield, yet 2 runs would score.  Next batter up he gets a K, next guy, slow roller to short - infield single.  Wild pitch (most there said it should have been a passed ball), runners advance to 2nd & 3rd.  6-3, run scores, 2 outs.  Chopper to 3rd, bad throw, run scores, 5-4 for the final out.  I think that is all they had him slated for so he was done with the score tied 3-3.  Unfortunately, we wound up losing 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th.

 

Hope the progress continues.  He said he was still feeling good when he was taken out.  Felt strong, hitting his spots, said his fastball was moving like crazy.  He wanted to stay in.  Oh well.  Looking forward to the next time. 

son's team playing as I type. They are having 5 games in the next 4 days playing at Ripkens in Myrtle Beach. After that they go to Florida for a week. What a life! His school is on trimesters so they just finished finals and will not miss any classes as a bonus.

 

no live stats so I have to follow the action on twitter, that just doesn't cut it. My wife and I traveled to North Carolina two weeks ago to watch the opening series. we had planned on going to Myrtle, but backed out as we didn't want our daughter to miss school. we will get to see all of the conference games. Son is a freshman pitcher with a strong staff in front of him, mound time will be tough to come by this year. I told him to keep good stats!! Looking forward to following a lot of great DII teams this year.

 

here  is link to his team. http://hurstathletics.com/index.aspx?path=baseball 

New to the board- just in off the road a 10.5 hr trip home from Ripken S.C watching freshman son's team. Well like so many others i had to go and watch - and was blessed to see him get his first college outing on the bump last night in a relief roll. He pitched 2 innings of middle relief 2k's no hits. Great trip welcomed by very nice parents and son is surrounded by awesome teammates. p.s Ripken streams game video live and also have archived copies available to view or download. i can't say thankyou enough to all members that have helped us get to this point

Well after a sweep this past weekend my son's Delta State team is now 10-0 and is #1 in all four DII polls.  This is almost a scary position to be in this early in the season as every one gives their "A" game to knock them off. I also noticed that Backstop-17's son's Tampa is third and Coach May's son's Lander is fifth in one of the major polls. I am sure there are other posters son's teams up there also.

 

My own son went through a minor slump  but seems to be coming out of it. He was getting a little too pull happy and that's not his game. Luckily he was doing his usual thing drawing walks and getting hit by pitches so he was still getting on. Most of our guys are murdering the ball and we are getting great starting pitching. Our coach found a Juco starting pitcher and he has been lights out as a replacement for a pitcher that was drafted last year.

 

We have a week that will be a real trial by fire as we play a 9-5 team Tuesday, a 7-5 team Wednesday and then take on #7 West Florida this weekend. Our schedule this year is pretty brutal but I have a special feeling about this team.