2024 Baseball Season
- Thread starter MDspider8
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Gameday at 1:30 ET today at Pitt field, as Eight Legger mentioned we host Princeton. They are coming down from Navy, where they won a wild 22-12 game yesterday after dropping the first two games by one run each.
Nick DiPietrantonio has three HRs in nine games (but only good for seven RBIs), and has swiped three bags. Jake Koonin is probably their best overall hitter, slashing .333/.436/.455, and racked up six RBIs over the weekend at Navy. Not sure who the starters will be today, but based on his workload, Senior Jason Ramirez should be available. He has a 1.29 ERA in 7 innings of work this season.
Nick DiPietrantonio has three HRs in nine games (but only good for seven RBIs), and has swiped three bags. Jake Koonin is probably their best overall hitter, slashing .333/.436/.455, and racked up six RBIs over the weekend at Navy. Not sure who the starters will be today, but based on his workload, Senior Jason Ramirez should be available. He has a 1.29 ERA in 7 innings of work this season.
The bats have shown up in a big way today - we're up 17-5 in the top of the 5th (!). We had a 12-run bottom of the fourth including a Rickabaugh grand slam and a Shockley three-run homer. Everyone in the lineup already has at least one hit.
Kraemer doing his best Ohtani impression - started the game on the mound and was the DH in the lineup. Went 3.2 innings and gave up 4 ER, and has picked up 2 hits and drove in a run.
Kraemer doing his best Ohtani impression - started the game on the mound and was the DH in the lineup. Went 3.2 innings and gave up 4 ER, and has picked up 2 hits and drove in a run.
Another Shockley homer, this time a solo shot. Spiders up 19-8 heading into the bottom of the 7th.
Was getting a little nervous with the Tigers getting two in to make it 19–8 and then having runners on second and third with no outs, but then we got a couple of K's and a groundout to get out of it.
Loved the dominating win. We'll have Lafayette stop in for a mid-week on Wednesday before hosting Cornell for a three-game weekend series.
For some bad news, I did see Jaffe on the bench with a sling on his left arm. Can't imagine that means he'll be back anytime soon. I hope we're able to get him back at some point this year.
For some bad news, I did see Jaffe on the bench with a sling on his left arm. Can't imagine that means he'll be back anytime soon. I hope we're able to get him back at some point this year.
The Spiders take a small two game winning streak into today's game against 1-13 Lafayette. This... would be a really tough game if we dropped. Lafayette was picked 5th out of 6 teams in the Patriot League, and Massey Ratings has them as the 284th ranked team out of 305 D1 programs (feel like there is enough game data at this point for these "computer stats" to start to matter).
Their one all conference preseason pick is Junior 1B Michael Zarrillo. He's off to an extremely slow start, slashing .120/.214/.320, and that's with two homers. He has been striking out in over 40% of his at bats, but when he connects, he does damage. Junior infielder Ben Patrone is really their only potent bat at the moment, as he already has four homers this season, good for nine RBIs, but is also striking out at an insanely high 50% of his at bats.
Joe Skapinetz won Patriot League pitcher of the week on 3/5, and could be available today as his last appearance was 1.2 innings on March 10. Otherwise, hoping our offense can do damage off of these arms.
Their one all conference preseason pick is Junior 1B Michael Zarrillo. He's off to an extremely slow start, slashing .120/.214/.320, and that's with two homers. He has been striking out in over 40% of his at bats, but when he connects, he does damage. Junior infielder Ben Patrone is really their only potent bat at the moment, as he already has four homers this season, good for nine RBIs, but is also striking out at an insanely high 50% of his at bats.
Joe Skapinetz won Patriot League pitcher of the week on 3/5, and could be available today as his last appearance was 1.2 innings on March 10. Otherwise, hoping our offense can do damage off of these arms.
Spiders have been held scoreless for five innings after putting up 5 in the first, and now trail 6-5.
Richmond (7-9) takes on another Ivy League opponent, Cornell (1-7) this weekend at Pitt Field. Getting a bit tired of saying this, but this is yet another opponent that, on paper, we should expect to take two of three from at home.
Cornell was picked 6th in the Ivy Preaseason Poll (the Princeton team we dominated earlier this week was picked 4th), and as a team so far they are hitting .226, have not displayed much power, and as a pitching staff posses a 11.08 ERA and 2.43 WHIP. Last Sunday at Georgetown, they played a doubleheader and lost both games by a cumulative score of 44-6.
If there is one player to call out from their roster to watch it would be Senior Catcher Nathan Waugh. He leads the team in AVG (.333), OBP (.412), SLG (.467), and RBIs (7), and has one of their three HRs this season.
For the Spiders, I will certainly be watching to see if Kyle Roche can continue his epic streak of no walks, and maybe drop his season ERA below 2.00. I want to do a deeper dive on Spider hitting (maybe right before A10 play), but for now, just want to give a shout out to Phil Bernstein, who has quietly racked up 21 RBIs so far, while hitting for .339 Average, striking out only 7 times in 62 at bats, and swiping 3 bags. He has been super fun to watch in what has been a pretty "meh" season so far for the Spider offense.
Let's take two!
Cornell was picked 6th in the Ivy Preaseason Poll (the Princeton team we dominated earlier this week was picked 4th), and as a team so far they are hitting .226, have not displayed much power, and as a pitching staff posses a 11.08 ERA and 2.43 WHIP. Last Sunday at Georgetown, they played a doubleheader and lost both games by a cumulative score of 44-6.
If there is one player to call out from their roster to watch it would be Senior Catcher Nathan Waugh. He leads the team in AVG (.333), OBP (.412), SLG (.467), and RBIs (7), and has one of their three HRs this season.
For the Spiders, I will certainly be watching to see if Kyle Roche can continue his epic streak of no walks, and maybe drop his season ERA below 2.00. I want to do a deeper dive on Spider hitting (maybe right before A10 play), but for now, just want to give a shout out to Phil Bernstein, who has quietly racked up 21 RBIs so far, while hitting for .339 Average, striking out only 7 times in 62 at bats, and swiping 3 bags. He has been super fun to watch in what has been a pretty "meh" season so far for the Spider offense.
Let's take two!
Big news - Jordan Jaffe is back in the lineup today, batting 3rd and playing first base. It's the first time he's ever played 1B from my memory.
Slightly sad news - Kyle Roche just walked his first batter of the season.
Slightly sad news - Kyle Roche just walked his first batter of the season.
Spiders take the first game of the series 8-4, though it got a bit nerve wracking towards the end as Hentschel loaded the bases before striking out the final batter.
Kyle Roche gets the W with 5.2 IP, 6H, 1 BB, 5K on 91 pitches.
Hentschel picks up his second save of the season, pitching 1.2, 4Ks, and 2 BBs.
Pacheco has 2-5 day, including a Grand Slam in the 2nd inning, and 2 more RBIs on an 8th inning single.
Overall as a team, the Spiders hit .281, but a nice .353 clip with runners on.
Back at Pitt Field tomorrow at 1PM.
Kyle Roche gets the W with 5.2 IP, 6H, 1 BB, 5K on 91 pitches.
Hentschel picks up his second save of the season, pitching 1.2, 4Ks, and 2 BBs.
Pacheco has 2-5 day, including a Grand Slam in the 2nd inning, and 2 more RBIs on an 8th inning single.
Overall as a team, the Spiders hit .281, but a nice .353 clip with runners on.
Back at Pitt Field tomorrow at 1PM.
Cornell took Game 2 today with a final score of 9-3. Reinke was able to get through 4.1 innings giving up 3 runs, but ERod struggled through 3.2 innings in relief, allowing 6 runs on 8 hits. On the bright side, Jaffe hit a pinch-hit home run and I'm hoping he can continue getting back to full strength for us.
Final game of the series is tomorrow at noon. We'll probably see Corso to start followed by a host of relievers.
Final game of the series is tomorrow at noon. We'll probably see Corso to start followed by a host of relievers.
on positive note we won the base ball game 8-4 to win 2 of 3 in series,
Nice series win. In this postgame interview, Aoki reveals they're hoping to get Whitley back soon, which is good news. Topolski and Hinchliffe are also dealing with what sound like minor injuries, so they should add some depth to our bullpen options soon.
We finally hit the road this week, taking on a pretty solid Old Dominion team (12-8) tomorrow at 4:00PM, followed by a weekend series against High Point (7-13). First night game of the year on Friday should be fun. I think if we can go 2-2 in this stretch that would be nice before taking on Virginia in Charlottesville a week from tomorrow.
The latest Baseball America Top 25 came out this morning and Arkansas (17-2) sits at #1 and Clemson (17-2) is at #3, which made me want to check on how our old friends Jared Sprague Lott and Alden Mathes are doing.
JSL has started in 14 of Arkansas' 19 games, and is slashing .353/.476/.490. He has scored 14 runs, and has driven in 6 himself. His fielding, however, has been a sub-par so far, with a fielding percentage of .865. He has been playing mostly 3B, splitting time with Peyton Holt.
Mathes has started and played in 18 games, and leads the team in batting average (.333). He is also getting on base at an awesome .506 clip, and has tallied 2 home runs, 10 RBIs (including a grand slam in the opening game), and 3 stolen bases. He has been on a minor slow down recently (competition will only get more tough from here), and this past weekend went 1-11 with two runs scored against Duke. Seems like he has mostly been playing Right Field and batting 4th in the order.
Awesome that these two are contributing on such high profile teams!
The latest Baseball America Top 25 came out this morning and Arkansas (17-2) sits at #1 and Clemson (17-2) is at #3, which made me want to check on how our old friends Jared Sprague Lott and Alden Mathes are doing.
JSL has started in 14 of Arkansas' 19 games, and is slashing .353/.476/.490. He has scored 14 runs, and has driven in 6 himself. His fielding, however, has been a sub-par so far, with a fielding percentage of .865. He has been playing mostly 3B, splitting time with Peyton Holt.
Mathes has started and played in 18 games, and leads the team in batting average (.333). He is also getting on base at an awesome .506 clip, and has tallied 2 home runs, 10 RBIs (including a grand slam in the opening game), and 3 stolen bases. He has been on a minor slow down recently (competition will only get more tough from here), and this past weekend went 1-11 with two runs scored against Duke. Seems like he has mostly been playing Right Field and batting 4th in the order.
Awesome that these two are contributing on such high profile teams!
There was a good amount to like yesterday:
Friday night under the lights coming up next, in our final weekend series before A10 play!
- As MDspider mentioned, Jaffe had a two run HR in the first inning, and drew a walk later in the game, to attempt to get a rally going in the 8th which ultimately came up short.
- Bernstein keeps getting on base in the 2 spot, adding a hit and two walks to his season.
- Freshman Jackson Hinchliffe pitched a clean 6th inning in his first appearance of the season.
Friday night under the lights coming up next, in our final weekend series before A10 play!
One negative to point out is that they ran all over us - 6 stolen bases in 7 attempts. That's something that hurt us during the Niagara series as well. We need to get better at controlling the running game for A10 play. SLU, Dayton and GMU all have over 30 steals on the season.
Good morning Spider baseball fans! I will be headed to some March Madness games so I will not be around to tune into tomorrow's game, nor have time during the day to post here. So providing a quick "What You Should Know" about out weekend opponent, High Point, today.
They are 7-14 (1-2) on the season so far, but they put together a pretty daunting non-conference schedule for themselves, taking on Appalachian State, two SEC opponents (Ole Miss and Tennessee), and most recently Wake Forest two days ago, where they lost 7-3.
Picked to finish 3rd out of 9 teams in the Big South (another historical one bid league), but they do have the Big South Preaseason Pitcher of the Year (Gus Hughes) and three preseason all conference bats (Brett Ahalt, Cael Chatham, Adam Stuart) in their lineup.
Hughes has started mostly on Saturdays, unclear which game exactly we will see him for, but he is off to a solid season, boasting a 4.66 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, and .181 BAA. Walks have been a bit of an issue this year, though he does also have 34 strikeouts in his 29 innings of work this year. He also is getting better as the season has gone on, and has gone beyond the 6th inning in his last two starts.
Chatham has been their best batter (and also has pitched in 4.1 innings and has not allowed an earned run), smashing 4 homers, 16 RBIs, and has an OPS of 1.086. He has started every game this season for the Panthers, so expect a heavy dose of him in both halves of the inning.
They are 7-14 (1-2) on the season so far, but they put together a pretty daunting non-conference schedule for themselves, taking on Appalachian State, two SEC opponents (Ole Miss and Tennessee), and most recently Wake Forest two days ago, where they lost 7-3.
Picked to finish 3rd out of 9 teams in the Big South (another historical one bid league), but they do have the Big South Preaseason Pitcher of the Year (Gus Hughes) and three preseason all conference bats (Brett Ahalt, Cael Chatham, Adam Stuart) in their lineup.
Hughes has started mostly on Saturdays, unclear which game exactly we will see him for, but he is off to a solid season, boasting a 4.66 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, and .181 BAA. Walks have been a bit of an issue this year, though he does also have 34 strikeouts in his 29 innings of work this year. He also is getting better as the season has gone on, and has gone beyond the 6th inning in his last two starts.
Chatham has been their best batter (and also has pitched in 4.1 innings and has not allowed an earned run), smashing 4 homers, 16 RBIs, and has an OPS of 1.086. He has started every game this season for the Panthers, so expect a heavy dose of him in both halves of the inning.
And they were 8-14 coming into this weekend. Blech. But hey on the positive side, Alden Mathes had the #1 play on Sportscenter a few days ago... for Clemson.
That second inning by High Point was brutal...
Double
Ground out
Single (RBI)
Single
Single
Grand Slam (4 RBI)
Single
Walk
Pop Out
Walk
Double (3 RBI)
Double (RBI)
Walk (Run scored on wild pitch)
Walk
Single (2 RBI)
K Looking
12 runs, 9 Hits, 4 Walks.
Double
Ground out
Single (RBI)
Single
Single
Grand Slam (4 RBI)
Single
Walk
Pop Out
Walk
Double (3 RBI)
Double (RBI)
Walk (Run scored on wild pitch)
Walk
Single (2 RBI)
K Looking
12 runs, 9 Hits, 4 Walks.
We're down 11-3 in the bottom of the 8th and heading towards being swept. Pitching staff did not have it this weekend.
In (maybe) better news, Aaron Whitley was back in the lineup today and got in 3 ABs before being pulled in the 5th inning. Hopefully it wasn't an aggravation of an injury.
In (maybe) better news, Aaron Whitley was back in the lineup today and got in 3 ABs before being pulled in the 5th inning. Hopefully it wasn't an aggravation of an injury.
Tomorrow is clearly going to be brutal (UVA was ranked 8th in Baseball America's latest Top 25 this morning), but I still want to do a little first half recap on the Spider season and a look around the A10 before our first conference series against GMU this weekend.
We have definitely reached a low point on the season (here I was thinking we bottomed out after the first series, a 0-4 sweep against a MAAC opponent). We are now 12th out of 12 in Atlantic 10 Massey Rating, and that's with the lowest strength of schedule as well (yikes).
The good news is that the race for the conference tournament spots is looking like VCU, SLU, and then five other spots up for grabs. As poor as Richmond's results and opponents have been, the rest of the A10 is not a whole lot better, as almost every team in the conference has had a bottom third Strength of Schedule, two thirds of the league sit on losing records at the moment. Anything can happen in conference play, though I am certainly less optimistic about snagging that 6th or 7th spot than I was a week ago.
We have definitely reached a low point on the season (here I was thinking we bottomed out after the first series, a 0-4 sweep against a MAAC opponent). We are now 12th out of 12 in Atlantic 10 Massey Rating, and that's with the lowest strength of schedule as well (yikes).
The good news is that the race for the conference tournament spots is looking like VCU, SLU, and then five other spots up for grabs. As poor as Richmond's results and opponents have been, the rest of the A10 is not a whole lot better, as almost every team in the conference has had a bottom third Strength of Schedule, two thirds of the league sit on losing records at the moment. Anything can happen in conference play, though I am certainly less optimistic about snagging that 6th or 7th spot than I was a week ago.
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