Starting Lineup (per Augie)

[Brad Austin]

Saw recent vid on the main site with Augie discussing the starting lineup on LHN. Said the positional players had all separated themselves with the results below. Pitching and DH were still to be determined.

1st - Travis Jones (Fr.)
2nd - Brooks Marlow
SS - C.J. Hinojosa
3rd - Bret Boswell (RS-Fr.)
C - Tres Barrera
LF - Ben Johnson
CF - Zane Gurwitz
RF - Collin Shaw
DH - unsettled
Pitching - unsettled

 

[NBHorn7]

The pitching match ups according to the coaches of both teams will be these:

Friday- Parker French vs. Blake Fox, who has never lost at Rice.

Saturday Game 1-Josh Sawyer vs. Kevin McCanna
Game 2-Kacy Clemens vs Austin Orweiler

Sunday- Chad Hollingsworth vs. Ricardo Salinas

Jon Duplantier, who we faced multiple times last year against Rice is injured or he would have gotten the start in one of the games. He is not expected to pitch at all, but some on the Rice board say he might get an inning or two in relief.

Of course Texas will be without a probable starter of their own in Morgan Cooper, who is out for the season with the ever more common Tommy John surgery.

Still no definite closer yet, Duke is a possibility, but others are in the mix too.

The rotation is not set in stone either as Skip said the non conference will be used to set the rotation and the starters for the conference slate.

The freshman Cantu is a DH candidate when not catching, but again others will be considered and tried as well.

So let the games begin and they will a week from today at Rice!

 

[Orangeblood]

In reply to:

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[Brad Austin]

First real games using the new balls with additional carrying distance (Augie estimated 10-15 feet on flies hit square on the barrel). Should be interesting to see the difference in a park other than the monstrous Disch. Also with high quality pitching, it'll be fun to watch for increased pitch movement as our pitchers are claiming. Got a feeling this small adjustment to the ball threads is gonna make this year much more eventful.

 

[Orangeblood]

True, though I'm not too sure how high of quality the pitching will be for either side on the first weekend.

 

[Brad Austin]

If anything I'd think the bats are a little slower to come around in the first weekend as hitters face opposing pitching in a highly competitive real situation with adrenaline they don't get in practice.

For the most part pitching is pitching aside from those inexperienced on the college level. Speed, break, etc won't change all that much from start 1 to start 7. They have some experienced vets starting (one may be top 3 in all of college), we have 2 playoff experienced vets scheduled. Should be good pitching in H-town no doubt. I expect Friday to be low scoring for sure.

 

[Orangeblood]

I agree with that, though we'll see how long the starting pitching can go before early season fatigue starts to degrade performance.

 

[Brad Austin]

I agree with you on that for sure. Thought the same thing after posting my last comment. Forgot to factor in fatigue with the starters burning out a little sooner before gameday endurance builds up. Good point.