Baseball TSU Series Wrap-Up and Early Observations

The GSU Panthers outscored the Tigers 17-1 in a 3-game series sweep to kick off the 2011season. I had the chance to attend Saturday's and Sunday's game, I wanted to get a good look at the team during the first series. Fellow blog contributor Chris Hillyard attended the opener and I'll wrap his thoughts into this to give a whole look at the series.

First off, our pitching staff and coaches deserve the top mention from the weekend. The starters went 3-0 and posted a combined 0.50 ERA in the series. During 18 innings pitched they allowed only 1 earned run, 13 hits, 3 walks and 7 strikeouts. Our relievers were lights out when they were called upon. Over 9 innings they allowed only 3 hits and no runs scored. Chris's thoughts on Justin Malone's performance in the opener, "Malone scattered 7 hits over 6 innings and hit one batter but was clutch throughout the afternoon when he needed an out." Two of the hits were surrendered by newcomer (Georgia Perimeter transfer) Brandon Bast. After striking out the first batter he worked himself into some trouble with the bases loaded. Thanks to an outstanding double play by 2B Rob Lind and SS Bryan Condotta, Bast escaped the inning un-harmed. This was Brandon's first appearance on the mound for GSU and he maintained composure throughout his outing. Brandon's fastballs were topping out at 88 mph on the radar gun.

Newcomer freshman Sam Agnew-Wieland enjoyed a perfect first outing at GSU. Sam retired all 6 batters faced in the 7th and 8th innings of Saturday's game. He recorded one strikeout and no walks. Sam's fastball was also topping out at 88 mph on the gun. I'm anxious to see Sam and Brandon perform against tougher conference play. They both appear to be good pickups for out pitching staff.

For the most part, the team played solid defense. The infielders turned key double plays when needed yet there were some must-make plays that were missed. I don't want to go into dogging on anyone after the first series as several factors were likely present and I'm confident the guys who had a little trouble will turn it around in a quick time frame. Three errors in three games cannot happen against teams such as James Madison.

Chris made an excellent observation about our offense after game 1 and his observation was true for game 3 as well. Chris said, "What was great to see was our guys bringing in people on base. To have 9 runs on 10 hits is incredibly efficient and something I am sure Coach Frady would love to see more of." During today's game, our offense produced 5 runs on 5 hits. Granted, they had help from the TSU pitchers as they gave up 7 walks in both games, yet when you win you win. Walks, hits, hbp's, or home runs can get it done and we used all methods. DH Joey Wood hit the 1st home run of the season. Wood blasted a shot over the left field wall on Saturday scoring 2 runs.

Now for the few areas I noticed room for improvement. Bunts and on-base awareness. Successfully laying down bunts seemed to be a challenge. The batters were lucky in that none of the popped-up bunts were caught for outs. If I recall correctly, GSU base runners were picked off on one occasion. During Saturday's and Sunday's game there were many close calls. The TSU pitchers pick-off moves were not that outstanding. It appeared the base runners were a little slow in picking up the pick-off moves. This is just my observation from the stands, I did notice others sitting around me sharing the same opinion. Like the defensive snafus, I expect these minor issues to be quickly resolved and I don't have any concern for this causing greater problems (increased pick-offs) in the future.

Overall, Chris and I both believe we have a very good team this year. We haven't even seen our weekend conference pitching rotation and I already feel much better about the group. I'll close with a comment from Chris, "for our team to be as good as they are with the facilities we have speaks volumes about Coach Frady. He has done so much with so little. Our stadium is not a D-1 caliber stadium. But hopefully the team will get the recognition they deserve after what looks to be a promising road ahead this season."

More to come about the stadium situation and the already prevalent effects of the new NCAA bat rule.