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Saturday May 3rd, 2008
8:31amBig 12 Football Spring Roundtable
Crimson & Cream Machine emailed out a list of roundtable questions so I decided to get out of baseball mode for 30 minutes, put on my football helmet, and answer the questions. You should see me in that helmet....I look ridiculous. Seriously.
And now back to Fightin' Texas Aggie baseball....Q1. Who are some of the new faces that emerged in the spring who could be serious play makers for your team this fall?
A1. I think the name that we all heard the most this spring was Bradley Stephens, the redshirt freshman RB. With Jorvorskie Lane now playing fullback I imagine that Stephens will get 10 or so carries per game with Mike Goodson getting the bulk of the action.
I also think that Jamie McCoy will be a big part of our offense. McCoy has moved from QB to WR to finally to TE this spring. With Sherman's offense I expect to see him getting lots of touches. I see him in the TE mold that can line up as a WR and go vertically down the field.
Q2. What is your biggest concern following the spring?
A2. My concern ending last season was the lack of experience we have at offensive line. Four months later I'm still highly concerned about that unit. We have one player returning with more than 4 career starts.
Q3. Any major changes (philosophy, coaching or personnel) that you are concerned about?
A3. We had all sorts of major changes in philosophy, coaching, and personnel. To be honest, I'm not worried about the coaching change....at worst it can't be worse than what we've had. Our key personnel hasn't really changed all that much. The only concern will be how quickly we can make the change in scheme.
Q4. Looking over the 2008 schedule which home and away game are you most concerned about?
A4. Our road schedule is not very intimidating. The biggest game will be in Austin against the horns. Our home schedule is a little hairier with Miami, tech, and OU. We always play OU well at home and Miami will be fun but we always struggle with tech so that would be my pick.
Q5. Time for your way too early predictions (Yes, you can change them in August). Rank how you see your division finishing up this coming season.
A5. Big 12 South will be 1) OU, 2) texas, 3) TAMU, 4) tech, 5) OkSt, 6) Baylor
Thursday May 1st, 2008
12:01amAgs Beat TCU on the Road
The men's baseball team continues to amaze. Tuesday night at TCU they beat the Horned Frogs 3-2 infront of a record crowd. I really wonder how many record crowds we've drawn while on the road. I know we have UT-A, Rice, and TCU.
We start a three game series with Dallas Baptist tonight as we play Thursday, Friday, & Saturday to allow for finals.
In order to keep regular rest for our normal starters, Kirkland Rivers will start tonight and we'll get Brooks Raley and Barret Loux on their regular Friday and Saturday spots.
With the sweep of Mizzou we have now moved into everyone's Top 10, including the reluctant Baseball America who moved us from #18 to #10. The most important thing is that we were ranked #12 in the RPI prior to the TCU game (Boyd's World has us at #8 after the TCU game). All of our remaining opponents are in the Top 40 (DBU is #39, texas is #34, and Nebraska is #7).
BTHO DBU! WHOOP!
Sunday April 27th, 2008
8:42pmTwo More Weekends = Two More Sweeps
The Aggie baseball team is flat out unreal. We have now swept a Big 12 record FIVE consecutive series winning a Big 12 record 15 consecutive conference games. We're 20-1 over our last 21 games.
Team Meeting Colligan at Home on Sunday (photo by Wildmen03)Last weekend it was Baylor and this weekend was the biggest of the five as #4 Missouri came into Olsen Field and left 3 games further back in the standings.
Friday night was incredible. We were facing the top pitcher in the nation, in Aaron Crow. I listened to the first inning and a half on the radio on the way home from work but didn't get to catch the rest of it. Ben Feltner robbed a grand slam to end the second inning and get us out of a huge jam.
We ended up getting down 8-1 but starting in the bottom of the 6th we fought our way back and won it with a little Olsen Magic in the 9th inning. Bases were juiced with no outs and Mizzou balked home the winning run. It was kind of a crappy way to win a game but really I think that we would have pulled it out either way. How many times have we been held scoreless with the bases loaded and no outs?
Saturday was an old fashioned romp. We won 15-0 behind an excellent start from freshman Barret Loux.
Sunday was one that will live on in Aggie lore.
Before I get into the game I should probably bring up a dispute Ags are having with Baseball America's current poll. I know that baseball polls aren't worth the paper they're printed on but we're ranked no lower than 8th in the other three polls and BA has us at #18. They've got Mizzou at #4 despite the fact that they were trailing us by 6 games in the conference standings AND were 17 slots below us in the RPI rankings.
The Sunday game was on FSN so I was able to watch it at home. Clayton Ehlert threw a gem for us on the mound and after he came out in the 7th inning we had a 2-0 lead. In the 9th inning Travis Starling gave up the game tying hit and we had to bat in the bottom of the 9th. Starling didn't have his "A" game at all but he battled with what he had and gave us three innings of work.
We were unable to scratch anything across in the 9th inning against Mizzou's starter Rick Zagone, who was throwing a masterpiece. He was at 142 pitches and I didn't think there was any way we'd see him in the bottom of the 10th. We did and Kyle Colligan hit Zagone's 143rd pitch into Aggie Alley for the game winner. It was awesome.
To top it all off, Baylor beat Nebraska and we were able to pick up another game on the Huskers in the standings.
We play at TCU on Tuesday and then host Dallas Baptist for a non-conference weekend series. All 4 of those games are going to be big for us, even though they're not Big 12 games because both of those teams have solid RPIs (going into this weekend TCU was #27 and DBU was #29....we were #23). After those four games we have a Tuesday game at Sam Houston against Mark Johnson's club and then we have the HUGEST series of the season in Lincoln against the Huskers. We follow that up with a three game set with the horns. Talk about a back loaded schedule.
As we sit right now our Magic number is 4 games in conference play.
What a season!
BTHO TCU! WHOOP!