Man, the last 4 pitching performances have been outstanding, way to go Tigahs!!! We played some good hitting teams and the pitchers were awesome. 2 innings away from having 4 complete games in a row!!!! Did anyone who was at the game or watched on TV notice if Lane's ankle was bothering him any today? He gave up 12 hits but only 2 for extra bases. Mieir looked great, Bumpstead looked like the Nate of old with a nasty change-up, even though he didn't feel like it was as good as he wanted it to be. Great pitching guys!!! :lsup: :lsug: :tigbas: :champs: :champs:
LSU played the Children of the poor this weekend lets see what happens in the A&M series although I do think we match up very well in this series coming up.
We played Georgia, a very good hitting team, in the last game of the SEC. C.O.C. is like the second best hitting team in D-1 average wise, I don't care who they played, they can hit. And if you don't think USM is a good hitting team you haven't been paying attention at all. I know the Agiies will be tough but our pitching has been superb, period.
Man, how sad! Please give us your expert opinion on which regionals were tough. And don't tell me the Rice regional was tough ... they lost to the worst team to ever make a regional ... Texas Southern! College of Charleston and Southern Miss were quality teams...
The fact that so many teams from the SEC made the Super Regionals may give you a clue. It was a very competitive conference this year.
They have been coached all year, and it hadnt clicked. Plus, Mestepey and Bumstead, who really came on this weekend, have both had stellar seasons before this year, but hadnt had their best stuff until the regional, IMO. Outside of the few hit batters, Justin Meier pitched a helluva game, too. I think these guys are just stepping up in crunch time. Coaching or not, something clicked.
Actually, I don't think our pitching was that bad during the regular season ... we were 5th in the SEC in pitching. On many occasions, our defense and lack of timely hitting let us down as well. The one thing missing during the year was a dominant pitcher who could go out and win consistently on Friday nights. This was the first weekend where we put hitting, defense and pitching all together ... do it again this weekend and we'll be back in Omaha!
Youre right, it wasnt bad, but Mestepey and Bumstead both have been that dominant pitcher before, so I expected that they both would be this year, as well. They hadnt been dominant up until this past weekend, really. Having said that, though, this was just one game, and they did have good, single games earlier in the year. Also, like you said, bad defense can make good pitching look not so good. I didnt get to watch many games this year, so I am going on a lot of stats. Either way, the pitching took a step forward against some decent hitting teams.
Mestepey has taken longer than most thought to recover from the surgery, but he's finally starting to show his 2002 form the past month. I think he'll continue to get better and stronger each outing. I don't think most people realize that Bumstead has been struggling with his arm all season. If you remember back to the beginning of the season, there was some concern about him having surgery. All the tests found nothing structurely wrong with his arm, but for some reason it takes a long time for him to loosen up his shoulder and it doesn't take very long for it to tighten back up. There was some concern about Bumstead continuing when we had that lightening delay during the USM game Saturday. Fortunately, it was only a 15 minute delay and he was able to continue pitching. Meier is the one who really doesn't have an "excuse", if you will. He started the year off strong, then simply lost it. Don't really know if it was mechanics, confidence, coaching, etc., but thankfully he looks like he his back to his old form. These 3 guys could carry us deep into the CWS if they continue pitching well...
