Kennesaw State Baseball Visits Panthersville

The 27-11 Georgia State Panthers baseball team hosts the 21-18 Kennesaw State Owls today at 6 PM for the 2nd and final matchup of the 2011 season. GSU defeated the Owls on March 23rd in Kennesaw by a score of 6-3 after a dominant outing by pitcher Will Campbell.

Freshman reliever and recent mid-week starter Sam Agnew-Wieland will get the start today for the Panthers. This will be his 3rd start of the season and he's 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA. Sam has a WHIP of 0.96 and has struck out 29 batters in 25 innings pitched (11 total appearances). Opposing batters are hitting just .202 on him for the season and have managed only 2 extra base hits, both doubles. Sam's wins have come against a powerful Mercer lineup and Alabama State.

The Owls will send sophomore Catlan Kendrick against Sam. Catlan is 1-0 with a 2.78 ERA and will also be making his 3rd start on the season and 11th total appearance. He's pitched 22.2 innings with a WHIP of 1.32 while opposing hitters are batting .274 against him. He' thrown 17 strikeouts on the season. Catlan pitched the 9th inning in the 6-3 GSU win and allowed 1 hit and walked 1 but allowed no runs to score.

The Georgia State lineup is hitting .314 as a team currently led by Mark Micowski who's hitting .369. Sophomore Drew Shields is now hitting .362 and has really stepped up for the Panthers during Joey Wood's injury. The team is scoring 7.7 runs per game on the season. Micowksi, Brandon Williams and Rob Lind all had a 3-hit game against the Owls in March.

KSU is hitting .278 as a team and has scored an average of 6.1 runs per game this season. Ronnie Freeman, who was 2-for-4 in the first game, leads the team with a .367 average. Ethan Herron also had a 2-for-4 day against the Panthers in March and is hitting .328 on the season. Home run leader Andy Chriscaden homered in the March meeting and drove in 2 runs. He still leads the KSU offense with 9 home runs and 45 RBIs.

I expect the Panthers to complete the season sweep over the Owls in front of the home crowd. GO PANTHERS!!!

GSU Baseball Goes Round 2 with Alabama State

Photo Courtesy of MEACSWACSports.com

GSU is coming off a huge series win at James Madison and looks to continue momentum as they host always bat-friendly Alabama State today. This is the 2nd matchup of the two teams at Panthersville this season. The first meeting was back on March 15th when the Panthers clubbed the Hornets 14-4 in a staff pitching game. The Panthers enter today's game with a 25-9 record, being the fastest team to hit 25 wins on the season in school history. The Hornets enter at 11-16.

The Hornets bring a struggling and weak offense with a .264 team average but are scoring 6 runs per game in a hitting friendly league. However, only 1 starter with over 20 starts is hitting over .300 and a couple are flirting with .200. They have hit only 8 home runs and are slugging just .353 as a team. Jordan Mims has been the offensive crutch hitting .326 in 27 games with 12 RBI's, 2 doubles and a triple. The Hornets like to use their speed on the bases as they have 75 steals on the season in 89 attempts which is 3rd best in the NCAA. (Prior opponent James Madison is leading and GSU is tied for 12th.)

The starting pitcher is not yet known but the team ERA is 5.52 and they're allowing almost 7 runs per game this season. The Hornets have used 8 different starting pitchers this season with only 2 receiving at least 6 starts. The majority of their most frequently used pitchers are pitching around either 4.00 ERA or 6.00 ERA. No matter who is on the mound, the Panthers bats should have no problem connecting well with the ball.

The Panthers enter today's game with a .319 team batting average and slugging .489 as a team with 5 offensive regulars hitting above that mark. They've pulled their runs scored per game average up over 8. Look for Brett Maxwell to have a big game against this out-of-conference opponent as he's done all season hitting .483 outside the CAA. Ryan Fleming has been on a home run tear with 5 bombs in the last 6 games. I'd expect Ryan to send another ball over the left-center fence this evening. The Panthers should put up big runs for the 2nd time this year on the Hornets.

Freshman Sam Agnew-Wieland gets his 2nd start of the season today. He earned a win last week against a strong Mercer offense while pitching 5 innings and allowing just 3 runs off 5 hits and a walk. Sam has made 9 relief appearances, 2nd most on the team. Opposing batters are hitting only .243 off Sam and his WHIP is a 1.36. Certainly outstanding numbers for a true freshman, Panther fans (including myself) are ecstatic to have Sam on the team.

The Panthers pitching staff is coming off a great series where they held the NCAA's highest scoring offense to 18 runs in 3 games, nearly half their runs per game average. In fact, of the top 15 highest scoring offenses in the country, GSU has faced 3 of them going 5-1 in the 6 games and have held them all to around half their runs per game average. Those three teams are Mercer, Georgia Tech and James Madison.

Today's game should be two things for GSU. First it will be a game for the offense to keep their hitting eyes tuned up before a very good pitching team in ODU comes to Panthersville for a very important 3-game CAA series. Second, this should be a staff pitching game meaning it's an intentional "tune-up" outing for many guys. Sam will probably go 3 or 4 innings and then give way to another 3-5 pitchers to get work in. GO PANTHERS!!!

Panthers Baseball Remains Unbeaten Against Ivy League

The Panthers defeated the Harvard Crimson today by a score of 9-3. Will Campbell had an odd first inning allowing 2 runs on 2 hits, 2 walks and 3 steals. He settled in and pitched another 5 innings allowing a total of 6 hits and 3 runs. Our outstanding freshman Sam Agnew-Wieland entered and pitched a quick 2 innings allowing only 1 hit and recorded 2 strikeouts, I know, what's new. Zach Chastain closed the game for the Panthers in the 9th. Zach has now pitched 5.1 innings without giving up an earned run.

I give the game ball on offense to Joey Wood after going 2-for-3 with 4 RBI's including a 2-run HR to left center field in the 5th inning. Joey received the start in left field today to allow Brett Maxwell the day off. Drew Shields had a productive game going 3-for-4 and driving 2 runs. Mark Micowski, Rob Lind and Carter Sackett also had a multi-hit day at the plate.

Box Score: 3 Runs, 8 Hits and 1 Error for the Crimson; 9 Runs, 14 Hits and no Errors for the Panthers

The Panthers host out-of-conference Murray State for a 3-game series Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Game times are at 6 PM, 1PM and 1PM respectively. Sunny skies ahead so wear the sunscreen when you get out there this weekend, especially on Saturday. Should be in the upper 70's for tomorrow's first pitch, sitting around 80 on Saturday and Sunday will be a little cooler in the high 60's.

Look for the series preview tomorrow.

GSU Baseball Checkup 2/28/2011

With the first full week of the season in the books I'd like to take a look at where the Panthers stand and compare to the rest of the CAA.

First off, the baseball Panthers are 7-1 through the first 8 games of the 2011 season. In comparison to last year that's 5 wins better, even if you remove the opening series against #7 ranked FSU it's 2 wins better. The top three teams in the CAA are currently GSU @ 7-1, James Madison @ 7-1 and George Mason @ 6-2.

I think the obvious statement of the season so far would be this: the new bat rule IS affecting offensive production. The Panthers scored 72 runs through the first 8 games in the 2010 season (9 RPG). The run total for this season so far is 55 or 6.9 RPG which is far below the 2010 total of 10.5 RPG. I have personally seen about 6-8 balls hit (by the Panthers) to the outfield and caught for outs that would have been a home run last year. Just for the Panthers to keep up with last year's production they will have to score 17.9 RPG over the next 8 games and I don't see this happening, especially considering the next 3 opponents are Georgia Tech, Iowa and Mississippi State. The point is, run production for the Panthers is down thus far however they are 3rd in the CAA for runs scored behind George Mason (72) and James Madison (132). Yes, you read that correctly. Allow me to expand on JMU for a minute.

Can someone check the bats the JMU baseball team is carrying around??? Here's some numbers for you. 132 runs scored (2nd best is GM at 72), batting .431 as a team (2nd best is GM at .327), 29 home runs (2nd best is GSU at 8) and slugging .869 (2nd best is GM at .472). Those are crazy numbers my friends. In addition they've stolen 29 of 31 bases and you're next best in that category would be GSU at 20 of 23. You may say to yourself, "well they probably strike out alot with those numbers." Nope, they're currently sitting on the lowest K/AB ratio in the CAA. Now that I may have frightened you about JMU's offensive production let's move on.

Back to the GSU offense for a quick look at individual performances. Brett Maxwell, Joey Wood and Bryan Condotta are the only three Panthers batting over .300. Maxwell leads the team at .444. There are 13 CAA batters with higher averages, 8 on the JMU squad. Joey Wood (leads in slugging on the Panthers), Rob Lind and Ryan Fleming both have 2 home runs each. Mark Micowski is repeating his early 2010 performance with a somewhat slow start. He's hitting .281 but does have (team leading) 7 RBIs.

It's undisputable that the early season MVP goes to the GSU pitching staff. After being a middle of the road crew last season, the Panthers are sporting the league's lowest team ERA at 2.34 (starters at 1.99). The next best is Old Dominion at 3.04 and VCU at 3.38. The Panthers also lead in shutouts with 3 (2nd best is UNCW with 1) and opposing hitters are batting only .214 against them which is also best in the CAA. A stat I like looking at is walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP). The Panthers lead here with a ratio of just over 1.0. Here's where I can give you some comfort if you're still scared about JMU. Their team WHIP is near 2.0 and team ERA is 7.94. The Panthers have proven to be a far superior pitching team thus far and typically pitching wins games. Good pitching will cool off hot hitting. James Madison has their record because of their offense. Our series against them will be an interesting one for sure.

This needs to stand out and be seen because these guys have worked their tails off for us so far. In the top 5 of CAA pitchers with an ERA of 0.00 who've gone the most innings you'll find 4 Panthers. Starters Justin Malone and Nick Squeglia as well as relievers Jake Dyer and Sam Agnew-Wieland. Jake (junior) and Sam (freshman) are both new additions to the pitching squad for the 2011 season. Good job guys.

The worst news for the season so far is the fielding effort. The Panthers find themselves dead in the middle for fielding percentage in the CAA. I'll be honest, I assumed we were bottom 3 so this is good news I guess. The defense has turned the most double plays at 10, some of which being highlight makers and ERA savers.

Well that's it for now. We'll look at the run production level in another couple weeks after we have more data. My early guess is that RPG will edge closer to 8/8.5 but I don't see it reaching last year's NCAA leading number of 10.5.

On to Tech!