Snowflakes Thread - All of them
Have it out. Be kind.
Kudos to Bakich (though I wouldn't have pulled Paige yet). Rocker was/is the real deal. Nwogu, hope you're okay.
Win tomorrow.
Yeah, I hope Nwogu is okay. That looked nasty. Hopefully it was just cramping.
Proud of some of the freshman who showed up well today. Bodes well for the future.
The future is tomorrow. Good luck to our Wolverines.
No hits multiple times with runners on 2nd and 3rd in multiple innings. You get two hits there and the game is different.
Good for Bakich for not wasting any pitchers that are needed for tomorrow and getting some guys some experience that might help a bit tomorrow too. It’ll be fun!
Vandy is really good. We had six innings with not hits. Their pitcher was great. We are facing the best. I hope to see us overcome tomorrow.
Go blue
Sound baseball + 1-2 timely hits and it's a completely different ballgame, no matter how much ESPN wants to frame it as Rocker throwing a near-perfect game. Need to take advantage of the opportunities they missed throughout the game tonight if they want to win tomorrow.
Weisenberger had a tough outing. Take away the WPs and they might still be playing.
They are a great team, we've proven their equal already. Fewer mistakes will be the difference tomorrow.
Lack of hitting with RISP is starting to get a little worrying considering how many we've stranded the past 2 games.
Yep, we missed out on like ~5 opportunities with runners in scoring position. Those 2 wild pitches that scored runs also killed us
I was at first confused by Bakich's strategy, but now I think it makes more sense to me. Rocker is the real deal and we were going to have issues getting any runs whatsoever off of him so putting out Kaufman or Criswell would've been pointless with no run support. Makes more sense to put out our good pitchers against Vandy's third starter and hope we can get some run support for our good pitchers
Vandy's "3rd" starter has the best ERA on the team and is undefeated. Tomorrow is going to be a grindfest just like today was.
Our bats need to show the fuck up and the team (especially Donovan) needs polish out those costly errors.
Awww..this poor guy thinks ERA and Wins are the best way to measure a pitcher's performance. Believing that in 2007 would be forgivable. Believing it in 2019 pretty much guarantees that he doesn't pay much attention to baseball at all.
He also has the lowest opponent BA and the highest K/IP. But sure, you’re the resident MGoBlog sabermetric guru.
cube gon' cube.
To be fair Rocker started his season 5-4 and has alot of freshman gitters he ended his year 10-1 in his last 11 after today's game.
Rocker is their #1...
Drake Fellows who pitched Monday was their #1 pitcher in Innings by over 20 innings and was 13-1 going into that game. We ran him off the field in 5.
Their 3rd Pitcher tomorrow is their Best ERA but also had the lowest Innings Pitched. And if you look at his stat's for alot of the year was used like we use Criswell a lot of 4-6 Innings games. In fact the only time he went more than 6 Innings all year was vs the powerhouses that are Indiana St and Western Kentucky and even those were 7 inning games. He was taken out vs duke after 4 Innings and the same vs Auburn earlier in the year. His ERA is a bit deceptive when you look at his actual games. He is kinda like Criswell for us who is our #1 ERA on the team but rarely saw more than 5 innings
https://vucommodores.com/cumestats.aspx?path=baseball#individual-overall-pitching
He also only Pitched 4 innings over 2 months during Conference play when he was their #4 for most of it. and Hickerman had an Isiah Page outing vs Lousiville 4 days ago 0 runs in 6 innings but only struck out 3 and walked 2. on something like 100 pitches in 6 innings. which was only the 3rd time all year he has gotten above 100 pitches. on 4 day's lets see what he has.
And, shockingly, Vanderbilt's coach isn't an idiot. As soon as he saw Michigan start to hit the ball better against Rocker, he pulled him and put the best closer in college baseball in. These guys are good. Very good. So it will be all the better when Michigan wins tomorrow!
I bet we would have seen Criswell if we had a late lead. Otherwise there was no point burning him. Smart strategy by Bakich.
Now we are at full strength with Kaufman and Criswell for tomorrow. And if necessary I bet Tommy Henry could throw an inning.
Totally agree. I’d have unwrapped Criswell only to put the boot on Vandy’s neck if we were up in the 8th/9th inning.
Wife and I are sporting the Mich/vandy jersey's tomorrow for a party. Probably get some blank looks, but that's okay!
Guys looked great tonight. So glad we were able to force some vandy usage and hopefully kept enough fresh for tomorrow.
Whoever negged you has issues. I'll bring you back to zero.
Vanderbilt isn't the best team in baseball for no reason. They are crazy talented. That pitcher was a beast tonight and you just have to tip your hat to him. Still, to be the best you have to beat the best. UCLA and Vanderbilt are the best. Michigan has beaten one. They go for the other tomorrow and that unworldly Vanderbilt pitcher won't be there to help them.
To your point on Vandy, they have some big dudes on their team. In addition to having a great pitching staff and a smart coach, they look more physically mature than us. Yet, here we are and Kauffmann/Chriswell can keep us in any game. Should be terrific viewing. I wonder what the overnight ratings are. I’ll bet their good and will have a significant impact on our recruiting footprint.
Michigan fans are pretty amazing. They really come out in droves to support a successful team. The take over of the west coast in basketball was amazing in past years. Seeing all the talk here and the people interested, I'm guessing there will be some higher ratings than usual for this event.
I'm far from a baseball fan, but love reading all the threads on here. Nice to see these kids get recognized for their hard work. Go Blue!
We will be better on both sides of the ball tomorrow.
Ditto this.
Far worse than losing the way we did tonight would be STILL losing 2-1 or 3-1, and also seriously degrading our Game 3 pitching capability.
Now we can hit Vandy with both barrels tomorrow & they can’t deploy Rocker (at least not in any meaningful way).
If they can beat us under those circumstance, then hats off to them.
Giddy-up & Go Blue!
Hopefully no more Rocker. Way too much knobslobbing.
Indeed. Way too much ESPN knobslobbing over Rocker last night. I get it. The dude is a heck of a pitcher, but every other second the incessant commentary about what he was doing at that given time. Just LOOK at Kumar cracking those sunflower seeds with absolute passion!!! That guy is a total pro!!! LFG.
I was noticing for the last 2 games that the ESPN app has a view option called "Surround" and it switches between some pretty impressive cameras around the stadium including the Umps mask cam. There are also no commercials, as it stays live at the event during the breaks, and no announcers drooling over and rambling on about how Tim Tebow goes on mission trips to save the children during his summer break.
Shouldnt have pulled Paige and Keizer as early as we did. Going to Weisenberger out of the pen was a mistake. Would have pitched Paige 7 innings and then gone with Criswell if it was close.
Going into tonight Paige had thrown 52 innings in 26 appearances with 5 starts per MGoBlue. I'm not saying you're wrong but I don't know if more innings were really an option for him.
Paige was not getting through that order a third time, it was the right move. They were hitting everything hard, can’t give them a third go around. I agree Keizer could have given us more, he looked good.
So many stranded runners. It makes me sad.
So many backwards Ks on fastballs. Very frustrating
Rocker is good but we made him look like 1999-2000 Pedro, which he isn’t even in the same stratosphere as. We looked like deer in headlights which is fine. We won the first game which allowed us to have a game like this. Just gotta come out tomorrow swinging, like literally swing at fastballs in the zone.
With all that went wrong, a 4-1 loss isn’t bad at all considering a few of those runs could have easily been avoided.
Rocker right now is the best pitcher in college baseball and if he were eligible for next years draft would be a top 5 pick if not #1. We looked like a "deer in headlights" as Rocker backs up his 95 mph fastball with a very nasty slider that he can throw for strikes anytime. There isn't a team in college baseball right now that would look any different than we did at the plate last night. He is that good.
Winning it all vs Vandy was never going to come easy. Obviously would have preferred the 2-0 series win but that wouldn't be on-brand for this team.
I was impressed with the pitching (especially Paige; big game for him to build confidence from for next year) and don't know if the other guys would have done any better.
Digging how they're running on this catcher. Feels like a real advantage for M. Solve your problems with aggression.
Going to need some runs tomorrow night LFG!
This catcher seems easy to run on. He hasn't even made an accurate throw attempt yet.
Bakich hedged his bets so his worst case scenario is still quite good. Two high end starters ready to go back to back tomorrow. It sounds like Vanderbilt has another strong starter tomorrow, but Rocker was unreal and it's best that he's out of commission for the final.
No matter what happens tomorrow, this has been a great joy to watch. Couldn't be prouder of this great group of kids.
Pitching actually held up pretty good. Probably could have stayed with Paige and Keizer a little longer. Tough for Weisenburger/Donovan on those wild pitches but if you take those out we pieced together a game of bullpen arms and gave up 2 runs.
Worst offensive game of Omaha, worst of the NCAA tournament, worst of the last month. Rocker is good but we've faced plenty of good pitchers in that span.
I knew I shouldn't have washed my Murderwolf shirt.
Didn't think Vandy would go down without a fight. They played well tonight and Michigan struggled.
New game tomorrow...LET'S GO BLUE!!
Who is pitching for Vanderbilt tomorrow?
I hope a guy that chokes in moment.
Mason Hickman who saw a total of 4 innings over their SEC regular season. of his 13 starts 10 of them came during non conference games vs the likes of Indiana st and Western Kentucky.
Not saying the kid isn't good he held Lousiville scoreless for 6 innings. but Duke ran him off the mound in 4. He has only gone past 6 innings 3 times all year all 3 vs low tier teams. and Although when given the opportunity over the last 2 weeks he's been good. He is their version of Cristwell. a #3 guy who has a low ERA and solid stuff but really doesn't have the Pitch count that other pitchers on their team do. and came out for 3-5 innings in relief a lot of times.. We gotta make at bat's count drag out the count and we can get them to their bullpen by the 5th inning and we will be good.
First time since they have been at the CWS that they things didn't come easy-ish. See how well they can put it behind them.
Need more Kenny Chesney music!
Hire Borges.
Good call by Bakich in the pitcher usage.
Rocker is a beast
Kauffman / Criswell >>>>>> Hickman / rest of their pen
Losing JG is a HUGE blow.
bullock likely leading off tomorrow, maybe Nelson he’s been on base a lot and is a good base stealer.
need a big game from Franklin / Brewer / Kerr
Lead Brewer off.............
In hindsight Bakich still made the right call tonight from a pitching perspective, and they actually performed pretty well against a lethal lineup. Would have been stupid to go all in tonight against Rocker and leave us with nothing for tomorrow if it didn't go well. We had a one game advantage and used it as we should have.
Given the resources and ingenuity of the Michigan faithful, isn't there a way to stop the Vanderbilt whistler? (I watched Game 1 at a bar, so I didn't hear how bad it is.) The first thought: ask the people who run TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, which prohibits "excessive noise making of any kind" and reserves the right to remove anyone whose "conduct endangers or disrupts guests or others involved in the event" to enforce their rules.
http://www.tdameritradeparkomaha.com/Information/ProhibitedItems.aspx
http://www.tdameritradeparkomaha.com/Contact.aspx
<<TD Ameritrade Park Omaha is managed by the Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority (MECA). Our corporate offices are located at :
455 N. 10th Street
Omaha, NE 68102
phone 402.341.1500
fax 402.991.1501>>
Not only does this person's conduct disrupt guests and others involved in the event, but I have to think the people who sit near this person are legitimately at risk of hearing loss.