endurance and never giving up

O

orangecat

1,000+ Posts
This regional is extremely special, because of the circumstances.

Re: the 25 inning game, this compares favorably to the endurance that was required to win a regional when you come out of the loser's bracket..

In fact it was almost as if we went into the loser's bracket and came back to win it. I say that because we had to play the equivalent of 4 games before we got to tonight's game.

Before tonight's game Army had played only three games, so
they did have an advantage in pitching depth.

Throw in the fact that we were giving a certain number of outs via sac. bunting, and we really put ourselves in a bad situation.

Hats off to the players for never giving up.

Questions remain for Augie:

1. Do you really have to bunt every inning? Why not throw in a fake bunt, or hit and run, or maybe just plain old let the batter hit the ball? It kind of makes sense to keep the other team off guard, just bunt every other inning or every third inning, something like that. Just mix it up.

2. Do you have relievers you can trust? I don't think you're getting another 169 pitches from Austin Wood any
time soon.
 
Why do people ALWAYS question Augie's approach when it comes to bunting? Small ball is an offensive philosophy, not a strategy to be used every third inning. When the situation calls for it, you do it, especially when you don't have a great hitting team, and Augie doesn't this year. It is way past time for our fans to accept and embrace the small ball concept, especially with this particular team.
 
But Augie doesn't call for it "unequivocally." All four times Texas bunted tonight, we were behind 2 runs or less, and it worked (i.e. resulted in getting the lead runner home) all but once. Augie also played his hunch with Preston Clark in the second inning after Belt's leadoff double. He let Clark hit instead of calling for a bunt. Belt scored, and then we went back to the bunt and scored again. I think Augie is doing a fine job of determining when it's called for and when it isn't.
 
I agree with Jim. The Horns gave up a lot of outs with the bunt this weekend. There were several failed bunts, and none (that I can recall) for a hit. I just think we would have scored a lot more runs in the tournament without the small ball, particularly tonight's game.
 
I stopped questioning Augie at the Tempe regional in 2000.

Bunting just destroyed Arizona State that year and it was like they were helpless to defend against it.

Odd because I was just thinking about Hale coming in to close that regional out. That was my favorite regional up until this weekend.
 
I love small ball with runners at 1st or 3rd, but it seems to be less effective with runners at 2nd. Or is it that the bunts have been poorly executed in those situations?
 
Rowe apparently didn't see the bunt sign, or the bunt, either. He spent the rest of the game on the bench. There was nothing wrong with the call or the execution of the bunt itself.
 
Possible alternative take on the bunting thing: Remember Mr. Miyagi? He had the karate kid do all those obnoxious chores -- paint the fence, wax on wax off, etc.. Ralph Machio was getting pretty cheesed about it until he learned it wasn't about painting the stupid fence -- it was about the discipline.

Anyway, maybe Garrido-san was using our relatively easy regional as training ground for greater performances down the road. Just a theory.

Then again, maybe we just bunt too much.
 
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