No surprise here, but Coach Mingione just said it would be hard to imagine them not starting Sean Hjelle Friday.
Said his philosophy in tournament play like this is do whatever you need to do to win the first game. Then do whatever you need to do to win the second game. Then figure out the third or fourth game or whatever. Seemed like everybody would be available to pitch. Also said that he had not taken a good look at their opponents yet, implying that there is a possibility he would look to match up a particular pitcher against a particular team, depending upon their strengths and weaknesses.
The SEC now crew has suggested that Indiana will be a tough matchup for Kentucky because of their left-handed-hitting playing well at The Cliff. One of their two announcers said that Kentucky would not come out of the regional as the winner, but the other one had them as one of the five SEC teams he thought would emerge victorious in their Regional.
Mr SEC Now is disregarding the 5-2 UK win at the Cliff over IU, and is giving the NC St game to IU as well?
IU has sluggers; moreso than any other team. But their pitching isn't the equal, and neither is the batting average.
Here's a quick and dirty look I took at each team. I'm sure I'll have somebody quibble with me, but I tried to guess the # 1 and # 2 starting pitcher for each team based on number of starts, and if tied, innings pitched. Closer is usually obvious by number of saves. Just something to chew on. I'd think ACC competition and SEC competition are also a little heavier (for example, UK's Hjelle got hammered by LSU and his ERA just took a whipping. I'm sure others will have similar anomalies, too, but for our sit around the kitchen table talk, this is good enough.) Attachment 6590
IU hit 2 solo homers against UK in that game, but they did it against the mid week starter Thompson. They also only managed 5 hits against a trio of Thompson, Machamer, and Salow versus 15 strikeouts. Having said that, you know I think Thompson should have been the weekend for a month and a half, but he did not have the experience of a Hjelle or a Lewis in that game. If the Cats do not do what Thompson did in the previous match up, which is to leave a curve ball, or slider up in the middle of the plate, I will not worry about the slugging power of IU. jmho
A few more stats for IU. In conference play they were in the top five in most strike outs, 11th in most base on balls, and 11th in ERA. The Big 13 conference ERA is a run and a half worse than the ERA in the SEC. The worst team ERA in the SEC would have ranked 9th in the Big 13.
Do they have some hitters that can knock it out of the park? They obviously do, but they were doing it against pitching that is not what they would have faced in the SEC. Lets do a what if, and put UK's sluggers in the Big 13. Reasonable to give them 20 more homers in conference play against the Big 13 pitching? I think that is realistic. jmho
I listened to Mingione today and he's pumped, and said they had a great practice. I think these Cats are chomping at the bit to play a team outside the SEC.
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