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2024 Baseball Season

Jake "RAKE" Topolski hits a grand slam to put us up 4-0 in the first inning!! Could there be some magic brewing down in Charlottesville?

I will guarantee you we'll need a lot more than 4 runs to pull off this upset though.
 
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We're through 5 with UVA leading 7-5. UVA took the lead off a three-run bomb after a single and HBP.
 
Spiders fall to UVA 15-5 on Tuesday evening, and fall to 9-15. On that note, let's now look to A10 play, as that is really what these seasons are all about! Going to do a quick wrap around on the league, followed by some players to watch out for on George Mason this coming weekend.

The A10 Standings look as follows:
  1. Saint Louis (16-6)
  2. VCU (16-9)
  3. Dayton (15-10)
  4. George Washington (15-10)
  5. George Mason (12-12)
  6. Davidson (11-13)
  7. Saint Joes (9-12)
  8. St. Bonaventure (8-12)
  9. Richmond (9-15)
  10. UMass (7-12)
  11. Fordham (8-16)
  12. Rhode Island (5-13) --> 15th hardest Strength of Schedule (at VTech, at Wash. St, at TAMU... woof)
None of these teams has really stood out in the non-conference season, and every team sits below 100th in the Massey Ratings. In terms of team statistics, the only stat that really stands out on the hitting side is that SLU is batting .343 (and also lead the league in almost every major hitting stat: HRs (32), RBIs (203), Stolen Bases (54)).

GW has the most impressive pitching so far this season from an ERA standpoint (4.91) and BAA (.234), and the Dayton staff has racked up the most strikeouts (238 in 216.2 innings).

Overall, it looks like this is SLUs conference to lose, if they can get their pitching right, though VCU and our upcoming opponent also have some really potent hitting as well.

George Mason Roundup
  • Won the 2023 A-10 Championship, and picked to finish 2nd in the 2024 A10 Preseason poll, along with two 1st Place votes.
  • They returned 2023 Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year Chad Gartland. So far this season, he has only pitched 10.2 innings (and has not appeared since 3/8). Sports a 13.50 ERA and .302 BAA.
    • Pitching overall has been a problem for GMU, and their best starter appears to be Ryan Peterson, who has only appeared in 5 games this season. He has a 4.40 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, and .204 BAAA. However, he does not pitch many innings (only 14.1) and does not strike people out.
  • Senior outfielder Jordan Smith won Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Honors on 2/27, but is having an excellent campaign overall. He has started every game and is slashing .385/.500/.692, with 4 HRs, 6 doubles, 3 triples, and 20RBIs.
  • South Trimble (First Team All-A10 Name) has swiped 20 bags in 21 tries. Probably could have even more stolen bases if his OBP were higher than .374. As a team Mason steal a lot of bags as MDSpider previously mentioned (48 already).
  • James Quinn-Irons is their main power guy, and has crushed 8 Home Runs already, good for a .630 SLG and 21 RBIs (also a team lead)
Expect a high scoring series! First game tomorrow at 2PM!
 
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When will we get strong pitching, I don't understand even though we are in the OOC
part of the schedule, why is a pitcher who comes in relief in early innings cause your starter is getting bombed, go just 24 pitches in 3 innings, giving up one hit, no walks,
no runs and gets several strike outs and is taken out. Then the bombardment continues
with the next pitcher(s). How is 24 pitches in 3 innings so taxing that you remove him
when he is going so strong. There had to be some limit for him due to recovery from a shoulder or arm injury.

Also is Aoki throwing so many pitchers simply to narrow down his top 5 or so for league play? Sometimes I think our pitching staff is a bunch of sacrificial lambs being lead to the slaughter. Where are the Tim Stauffers, Roger Hatchers, and Rennie Martins?
 
TobiasCatsup said:
Spiders fall to UVA 15-5 on Tuesday evening, and fall to 9-15. On that note, let's now look to A10 play, as that is really what these seasons are all about! Going to do a quick wrap around on the league, followed by some players to watch out for on George Mason this coming weekend.

The A10 Standings look as follows:
  1. Saint Louis (16-6)
  2. VCU (16-9)
  3. Dayton (15-10)
  4. George Washington (15-10)
  5. George Mason (12-12)
  6. Davidson (11-13)
  7. Saint Joes (9-12)
  8. St. Bonaventure (8-12)
  9. Richmond (9-15)
  10. UMass (7-12)
  11. Fordham (8-16)
  12. Rhode Island (5-13) --> 15th hardest Strength of Schedule (at VTech, at Wash. St, at TAMU... woof)
None of these teams has really stood out in the non-conference season, and every team sits below 100th in the Massey Ratings. In terms of team statistics, the only stat that really stands out on the hitting side is that SLU is batting .343 (and also lead the league in almost every major hitting stat: HRs (32), RBIs (203), Stolen Bases (54)).

GW has the most impressive pitching so far this season from an ERA standpoint (4.91) and BAA (.234), and the Dayton staff has racked up the most strikeouts (238 in 216.2 innings).

Overall, it looks like this is SLUs conference to lose, if they can get their pitching right, though VCU and our upcoming opponent also have some really potent hitting as well.

George Mason Roundup
  • Won the 2023 A-10 Championship, and picked to finish 2nd in the 2024 A10 Preseason poll, along with two 1st Place votes.
  • They returned 2023 Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year Chad Gartland. So far this season, he has only pitched 10.2 innings (and has not appeared since 3/8). Sports a 13.50 ERA and .302 BAA.
    • Pitching overall has been a problem for GMU, and their best starter appears to be Ryan Peterson, who has only appeared in 5 games this season. He has a 4.40 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, and .204 BAAA. However, he does not pitch many innings (only 14.1) and does not strike people out.
  • Senior outfielder Jordan Smith won Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Honors on 2/27, but is having an excellent campaign overall. He has started every game and is slashing .385/.500/.692, with 4 HRs, 6 doubles, 3 triples, and 20RBIs.
  • South Trimble (First Team All-A10 Name) has swiped 20 bags in 21 tries. Probably could have even more stolen bases if his OBP were higher than .374. As a team Mason steal a lot of bags as MDSpider previously mentioned (48 already).
  • James Quinn-Irons is their main power guy, and has crushed 8 Home Runs already, good for a .630 SLG and 21 RBIs (also a team lead)
Expect a high scoring series! First game tomorrow at 2PM!
Click to expand...

Awesome writeup. I'm worried about Trimble running wild on us this weekend. We've allowed a whopping 56 stolen bases so far this season, which is 16 more than the next closest team in the A10. That's 2.3 SB allowed per game. No way we can be competitive this year if we can't control the running game at all.
 
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Before the series against GMU kicks off, I figured now would be a good time to take stock on the Spider stats so far, and call out a couple of key performers.

Hitting
  • Team Stats (Atlantic 10 Rank, out of 12)
    • Batting Average: .270 (8th)
    • OBP: .384 (7th)
    • SLG: .428 (3rd)
    • HRs: 26 (4th)
    • SB: 21 (9th)
  • Key Performers
    • DJ Pacheco: Has been probably our best hitter that has appeared in 20+ games. Slashing .329/.446/.645, leads the team in runs scored (20), home runs (5, tied with Topolski), and triples (2). Has also been successful in 4 stolen base attempts.
      • He is 7th in the A10 in slugging and OPS.
    • Phil Bernstein: Has appeared and started in all 24 games. Slashing .319/.432/.429. Leads the team in hits (29), doubles (7), and runs batted in (23). Also has 4 stolen bases to his season.
      • He is 10th in the A10 in doubles and hits.
    • Jordan Jaffe: A name you see a lot on this thread, mostly because he started the season with injuries, but lately because he has picked up where he left off last season. If he could be in the lineup every day for the Spiders for conference play, it is a complete game changer. In 12 starts this year, he is batting .391 and getting on base 50% of his plate appearances. Has scored 11 runs and has driven in 6 himself (and has 2 home runs).
      • Also pretty solid in the field, sporting a .973 fielding percentage which, see below, is above the team average.
Pitching
  • Team Stats (Atlantic 10 Rank, out of 12)
    • ERA: 6.71 (5th)
    • BAA: .288 (6th)
    • SO: 197 (6th)
    • BB: 114 (5th Best)
    • HR Allowed: 32 (11th Best)
  • Key performers
    • Kyle Roche: Another gem of a pitching transfer so far, he has started 6 games now, sports a 2.21 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, .269 BAA, 28 strikeouts, and only 2 walks in 36.2 IP (~6 innings per appearance).
      • Definitely has a shot to be in the running for A10 pitcher of the year if he can continue to pitch quality starts in conference play, and maybe get his strikeout numbers up. But he currently ranks 2nd in ERA and innings pitched, and 10th in the conference in Strikeouts.
    • Cole Hentschel: Has been basically our closer, best reliever, whatever you want to call him. 11 appearances, 11 innings, 3.27 ERA, 1.82 WHIP, 19 Ks, .179 BAA, 2 Saves. If he could just get the walks down... Aoki will likely continue to use him in this role the rest of the season.
    • Shoutout to Freshman Jackson Hinchliffe who has pitched 4 (almost) squeaky clean innings in 2 appearances. Not sure if he will continue to get used in conference play.
    • Esteban Rodriguez has had some trouble this year, but has amassed 37 strikeouts in 28.2 IP, and when he is on, he is definitely our most electric pitcher.
Fielding
  • Fielding Percentage = .958, good for 7th in the A10
  • Stolen Base % (Stolen Bases Allowed / Total SB Attempts) = .789, 7th best in the A10
    • This percentage is better than I thought, but 71 attempts is by far the most against any A10 team.
  • Double Plays = 12, 9th in the A10

Overall, the team stats are weirdly better than I thought they would be, and point to a very average A10 team.

Three Wishes for the second half of the year:
  1. Continued health of the team, Jaffe in lineup every day, key pitchers staying healthy
  2. Getting that average up and taking more risks on the base paths
  3. Pitchers limit the home run ball
Fielding could obviously be better, but that has never really been a strong area for us, so not going to use one of my three wishes on that.
 
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We're through six at Pitt Field with Mason holding a 3-2 lead. Both Roche and GMU starter Martins pitched well.

True freshman Jackson Hinchliffe on the mound to start the 7th. Big moment for him.
 
Ugh. Hinchliffe looks he was out of the ninth inning, but Larson bounces a throw that Jaffe can't scoop. Hentshcel comes on and gives up a walk and HPB to load the bases, then GMU hits a bloop that plates two runs before being caught in a rundown to end the inning.

Last call for the spiders, bottom 9 down 5-3.
 
After two HBP and a bunt single, Spiders have loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the 9th. Get to ESPN+!
 
Woah, Mason is going to 2023 A-10 pitcher of the year Chad Gartland here. He hasn't pitched in a few weeks and has really struggled this year.
 
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Spiders were down 16–2 in the middle of the 6th, but stormed all the way back including 6 runs in the 9th to send it to extras. Spiders have loaded the bases with no outs in the 10th, so they’d better finish the job!
 
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E3: Mason lead 1-0. Esteban Rodriguez looks good, not great, and has yet to have a 1-2-3 inning. Spider hitting is once again off to a cold start, and is 0-6 with runners on and 0-4 with RISP.
 
Your Scrappy Spiders are at it again! We've put up four runs in the bottom of the 5th to take a 4-3 lead. Wilga with a solo homer, Bernstein with a sac fly, and Topolski with a two run single to put us in front.
 
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down 9-6 last bats (bottom 9th), can we pull another rabbit out if the hat,
 
Last edited:
Excited about the series win and that the lineup is seemingly back to full health. Many more questions on the pitching side (like every year) but I think we can be in contention for a top-7 seed again this year. We'll have a midweek @ Longwood tomorrow before heading up to Fordham this weekend. The Rams are 1-2 in conference after losing their opening weekend series @ Dayton.

Elsewhere in D-1 baseball, we have Spider alumni all over the place in the latest top 25 rankings. As we've mentioned, Sprague-Lott and Mathes are having great years at Arkansas and Clemson, who are #1 and #2 in the rankings respectively. Jeremy Neff has settled into a relief role with #11 Virginia Tech, pitching to a 6.39 ERA over 12.1 innings for the Hokies. New to the top 25 are #25 UCF and Mikey Kluska, who is slashing .237/.322/.313 and holding down a 0.963 fielding percentage as the everyday SS. Would be cool to see some of these alums make a run at Omaha this summer.
 
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Will try to make it to the Saturday or Sunday game at Fordham this weekend. Would be so nice to start the conference season 4-2!

Thanks for sharing some of our alum stats, I know some on this message board don't care, but I think a fair amount of us do.
 
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Gameday, 6PM at Longwood. Our second Big South opponent of the year, let's hope we have a little more success than we did during our High Point series.

Picked to finish 8th out of 9 teams in the Big South, Longwood has a 13-15 record this year, and has started conference play 2-4. Their only preseason All-Big South player is Ethan Walker, a Sophomore pitcher who we likely won't see given he has been exclusively pitching weekends.

The hitter to watch is Noah Campanelli, a Graduate Student transfer from D3 St John Fisher University. He is batting .410/.489/.538, with 21 runs scored, 17 RBIs, and 14 stolen bases (in 17 tries). He may be injured though, as he did not play in Longwood's most recent weekend series against Samford.

This is a team that does not hit for power, but will draw their walks and steal bases (52 SBs on 63 tries as a team). Should be an interesting matchup for us.
 
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Another note: also our first road win, bringing our season road record to 1-5. Not a bad time to get it as we head to The Bronx this weekend.
 
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Good morning Spider Baseball! Looks like the weather has cleared up here in NY, and we should be able to get all three games in. I did an extensive write-up this morning and then when I tried to post it got deleted, so just going to do an abbreviated version here.

As a team, Fordham (9-18, 1-2 A10) is unimpressive on the offensive side of the ball, and they are 11th out of 12 A10 teams in Average (.252), OBP (.351), and SLG (.367).

Their two batters to watch would be Ryan Thiesse and Daniel Bucciero. Thiesse is the Rams best average hitter, and is slashing .337/.430/.404. He does strike out at a good clip (a team "leading" 30 Ks), and has stolen 7 bases in 11 tries. Bucciero, who was on the All-A10 freshmen team last year, leads the team in doubles (8), and has collected 15 RBIs on the season, along with being a perfect 8-8 stealing bases.

Pitching is also rough as a team, but they do have two stand out starters that we will see today and tomorrow.
  • Declan Lavelle is a senior who is finding his groove after having a rough 2023 campaign. He has pitched to a 3.69 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, and .245 BAA in 39 innings for the Rams, good for about 5+ innings per start on average. Last Friday, he had a solid win at Dayton, pitching 7 innings of 2 run ball. Also should mention he started the season pitching 4 innings of 2 hit ball at Wake Forest, not an enviable season opening assignment.
  • Aiden Dowd is a true freshman that has seen his workload increase as the season has gone on. He sports a 0.93 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and .134 BAA in 19.1 innings. He definitely has some good stuff, as he has tallied 27 strikeouts on the season (about a 12.5 K/9 and 2.7 K/BB). He did not go past the 3rd inning in his first four appearances, but in his last three, he has pitched 5, 3, and 5 innings.

Overall, I think this is a series where we can take two games, especially if we can get Lavelle or Dowd out of the game by the 4th or 5th innings. If we make it to a Sunday rubber game with E-Rod on the mound, I like our chances against whatever 3rd starter Fordham throws.
 
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Fordham executes some small ball to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st - single, stolen base, groundout to move the runner to third, and a sacrifice fly.
 
Roche was cruising through 5, but ran into some trouble in the 6th, allowing three runs. We head to the 7th down 4-1.

Fordham starter Declan LaVelle is carving us up. He's got 8 strikeouts through 6 innings.
 
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