11am CT on ESPN2.
Two extra inning walk-off wins in a row, and we’ve clinched the series against The Franzia Funnelers. Friday’s was a 10 inning Johntone the Elder winner, but Saturday’s… Saturday damn near never ended. After both Nadeau and Mack dueled through 3 scoreless frames, the dam finally broke in the bottom of the fourth on the back of two key Chugger defensive errors and bombs from Ryker “The Island” Waite and Mike “Mancino Man” Mancini.
And, honestly, that likely would have been it if either Brownie or Corbs had noticed Ice Town had lost it in the top of the 6th and gone to the pen any of the three—yes, THREE—times I screamed for it in the game thread. Instead, they hung him out to dry as he let the Chuggers plate 5 in the inning and tie it up. It was not his fault. He threw 5 strong innings. He’s a freshman and wasn’t initially stretched out to be a starter going into the season. Hell, even if these things weren’t true, you should be able to spot it when one of your pitchers loses his touch, loses his gas, or otherwise indicates that he’s done for the day. Even with our woebegone bullpen, it was frighteningly poor management. Ice Town’s final line (6IP 4H 5R 1BB 7K) did not accurately portray how dominant he was, and would have looked more like (5+IP 0H 0R 2BB 4K) if the coaches had pulled him when I first called for it. Worst case scenario, the pen would have allowed the first batter Ice Town plunked to score, and he’d have 1 ER. You cannot let the concern over your bullpen cause you to keep a starter out there once he’s lost it. You just can’t.
To drive home that point, the Diamond Dores pen would then put up an insane 10 innings of scoreboard donuts—though they would get into risky situations with wild pitches and passed balls. Particularly impressive were Freshmen Tyler “The Minstrel” Baird (5IP 2H 0R 2BB 4K) and Nate Schlote (3IP 1H 0R 2BB 3K) who combined for 8 innings of scoreless relief. Baird, in particular, was impressive, as he managed to put his horrid outing against Clanga behind him and put his name firmly back in the conversation for the Sunday starter role moving forward. Guth and Taylor would pitch a scoreless inning apiece, but both would put runners in scoring position and exhibited shaky control.
After 400 hours of college baseball, the Diamond Dores finally had them loaded after The Rooster and PH Max Jensen worked one out walks, then pulled off a double steal, and The Chuggers wisely walked the “so hot right now” Ryker Waite.
It all came down to 3rd catcher Mack “The Mack Daddy” Whitcomb, who, though a transfer from TN Tech, proved himself to be all Diamond Dore by executing a perfect suicide Vanderbunt to put this game out of its misery.
Today, we go for the sweep, and it wouldn’t shock me if we need to put position players on the mound.
On the Mound
Sunday @ 11:00am on ESPN2
Vanderbilt #77 Jr. RHP Alex “The Kranz” Kranzler (1-3; 10.50 ERA)
vs. THEM #11 Sr. LHP Evan “Bad Luck” Blanco (2-2; 2.73 ERA)
Why “Bad Luck?” I mean, just check out this gem of an interview from last night’s game.
Sure, The Franzia Funnelers will have a marked advantage in starting pitching today, but neither team will have much of a pen left. The game plan has to be to hope The Kranz can battle through 3-4 IP and keep it close, and chase Bad Luck Blanco to get to their pen early.
The Lineup
See you in the comments.
