A team finding itself

FWHORN

FWHORN

10,000+ Posts
The first 14 games of this year have been a painful process of a team trying to find itself. In years past Augie has had teams that overcame offensive deficiencies through extraordinary pitching and timely hitting. This year the pitching is good not extraordinary and the timely hitting just hadnt been present.

But beginning with the midweek game against a ranked Texas State and now two games into conference play the offense seems to have finally appeared. The first three game win streak of the season has gone hand in hand with the bat coming to life and a team that seems to be finally finding itself.

Three games does not a complete turnaround make and this is not an Omaha bound team based on their performance to date, but it certainly seems like the complete meltdown of a season that the Horns were headed toward may well be avoided
 
It appears that the hitters now are believing that they are going to get a hit.
That is different from the first part of this season. The ousux pitchers are
not bad, but the Horns are hammering them. This, too, shows that ousux
believes they cannot beat us. Mind games. The power of positive thinking
is starting to take hold.
 
Tomorrow is huge. We are going for a road series sweep against one of what is supposed to be one of the better teams in the conference.

OU will most likely be missing two starters tomorrow, catcher is definitely out, and the centerfielder most likey will be out also or hobbled.

Their pitching staff is severely depleted, most likely the starter and Magnifico, don't know if they have a true closer or not. All others don't appear to have great stuff, unless Johns can pitch some more.

A 3-0 conference start would sure build some confidence as well as help to bury OU at an 0-3 start. With two more consecutive road series at KSU and Tech to start conference this is a very big game as I see it. Such a big diffrence between 3-0 and 2-1 as is 1-2 and 0-3 for OU.
 
I'm not ready to place an order just yet, but if this continues I am going to have a metric **** ton of crow to eat in regards to our hitting.

The jury is still out, but it sure as hell seems like a switch has been flipped! I am ALL for it if so.
 
Todays effort further confirms that this team is finally finding what it need to be successful. Its just one series and just four games so seeing Omaha in a couple of months is still a pipe dream but a week ago I worried if this team would even win a series in the Big XII and even make the NCAA tourny, I am still worried about the latter but less so than just a mere seven days ago.
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They have a lot of work to do, but they have shown that are capable.

I hope and believe that they will be more fun to watch now that they are swinging the bats.
hookem.gif
 
It's really hard to say at this point. OU was suppose to be pretty good, playing at home in the opening conference series, certainly they had plenty of incentive considering their record against a hated rival over the last several years.

There is no doubt we played better than we have all year especially in the field. That was impressive as the bats to me. How good or bad is OU? I guess time will tell

Two more road series in a row? Who made up this schedule? Open the conference with three consecutive road series. They should have stuck that on Aggy or Mizzou for leaving the conference not us.

KSU is next and they can hit, but pitching is suspect. They took one game by outlasting A&M 15-12. They had a 7-0 lead in that game and lost it. They trailed 11-9 late but rallied to win.

The next two games they were not competitive really. Looks like games much like we had this weekend. Depends on the wind direction again.

Then Lubbock, we all know what the conditions are like there. They just got swept in Waco after everybody thought they were going to be pretty good. They play OU next weekend, that should tell us alot about both teams.

If we could come out of this road stretch say 7-2 we will be in great shape. Maybe these are bottom level conference teams, still too early to tell. Winning series on the road is still a very valuable commodity in this conference.

I say this, I have seen alot of baseball in my time as a player, coaching some and some as an umpire. I can't recall a team ever just turn it around like Texas did in the last four games. I mean we were shut out at home by LMU 1-0. It does not get much worse than that.

Can we keep it up? Hard to say, but I think we will, at least much better than earlier this season. If you watched these games, the attitude and discipline was so much better at the plate. The pitch selection to hit was like a switch was just somehow turned on. OU threw fastballs early in the count for strikes and we squared them up and put good swings on them. With two strikes in the count our batters were keeping their weight back and not lunging at pitches. How many two strike hits as well as two out hits did we get that scored runs? It was amazing and very encouraging to see.

In the field we finally stopped aiming throws and just let them go. As great as Weis was hitting, it was the fielding that was more impressive. Always knew he was going to hit sooner or maybe (Sooner) or later. But his throws had been all over the place in field. This weekend he just let the ball go on throws without all the excessive crow hops and glove pounding. He has a great arm and finally showed it off.

Walsh was having an awful time in left till this weekend. Yet against OU he is racing back catching line drives over his head in a tricky wind. Again amazing stuff. Felts had been terrible behind the plate, but again looked liked last year as in the line up for his defensive ability not his bat. Till this weekend as bad as this team was hitting it looked like the other way around.

It's alot to digest so quickly. This Zen stuff wasn't around when I played. Sometimes Augie seems like some kind of a baseball Yoda. I wonder what he just said sometimes. Now after seeing that special about his locker room chew out sessions I know he has another side too. That I understood all too well and grew up on in baseball.

Whatever is going on, I hope it continues. I would really like to send Aggy to the SEC in the fashion as we beat down OU this weekend. Will it happen, who knows? I do know I feel alot better than I did a week ago.
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Great wins. OU had the WORST ERA in the conference...but it should give us some confidence. I will sit tight on this...hopefully, it will allow us to move forward.
 
Son of a Son, I hope you do eat crow. (I probably will as well based on my own concerns.) But, we'll still eat your barbecue!
smokin.gif
 
The power of positive thinking is starting to take hold.

Umm not to be negative but ill hold my opinons until we play a much stronger squad then OU...
 
Just a simple game of hitting the pitches thrown, especially with RISP, catching the balls in your zone(and a few that might be a stretch), and making the throws count every time. (whether pitching or fielding)

Simple.
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