Notre Dame

[PushupMan]

First pitch in South Bend scheduled for 7pm tonight. As far as nabbing one of those top 16 NCAA tourney seeds goes, winning this series is critical for UofL. Our Cards are just 4-8 in true road games, having lost at Cincinnati and at UK and beaten IU in mid week games while also going 1-2 at Virginia Tech, at NC State and at Clemson in ACC play. We are looking to win our first road series in ACC play this weekend. Let’s get this done, fellas!

 

[earsky]

Mowrey absolutely struggling with offspeed pitches. Reminds me of...me!

Not sure why we can't pinch hit there.

 

[Cardiac Red]

Cards up 2-0 but ND has tying run on 2nd. Eberle out, West in.

 

[Cardiac Red]

2 - 1 Cards. Heading to top of 7th. West did a good job getting out of the inning.

 

[Bardman]

More runners left on base. Not sure why we needed to send Moore on that play. Munroe needed to show a little bit of patience.

 

[Bardman]

Unfortunately for both Eberle and West - too many walks and HBPs.

 

[CardX]

ND’s gold football helmets; pretty bad ass.

ND’s gold baseball helmets; pretty stupid.

 

[PushupMan]

Cards outhitting the Irish 7-2, but clinging to a 2-1 lead. Need some clutch hits this 8th inning.

 

[Cardiac Red]

That was a big run to tack on. Bad base running getting picked off at 2nd. Over the years we have had soooo many base running errors.

 

[PushupMan]

Yep, just a mistake there by Lippe. No reason ro be more than a couple steps off second base there.

 

[PushupMan]

Umpire driving me nuts. Called that very same pitch a strike against Eddie King before he got his base hit last inning, but called it ball 4 against Biven. Make up your mind!

Love rhe Double play!

 

[Cardiac Red]

Another base running error.. ! Damn

 

[earsky]

Yep, just a mistake there by Lippe. No reason ro be more than a couple steps off second base there.

That's that clean baseball we like to talk about. Can you imagine if these guys became a mostly mistake free team how good they could be. I love em but I want to see them know when to go and when to whoa.

 

[PushupMan]

Ump also called chin high pitch against Alicea a strike. Come on ump - pay attention to the fact that Alicea is about 5 feet 6 inches tall.

 

[PushupMan]

Another base running error.. ! Damn

Almost certainly cost us a 4-1 lead there.

 

[CardX]

G1 locked up. Good win.

 

[Thecycle27]

Another good start and relief. Offense just didn’t string enough hits together but got enough to win.

 

[Cardiac Red]

Biven closes it out with a fly ball to the wall. Couple of wild pitches to give up a run but all in all a great win.!

 

[earsky]

Biven closes it out with a fly ball to the wall. Couple of wild pitches to give up a run but all in all a great win.!

Biven's stuff as good as anybody over there. He's got to get it together between the ears.
Nobody's got ball movement like him. He's a key to being that closer again down the road.

 

[73Card]

Biven's stuff as good as anybody over there. He's got to get it together between the ears.
Nobody's got ball movement like him. He's a key to being that closer again down the road.

Biven seems to continue to struggle with his control. Last night Sean said, "He needs to throw strikes, but he can't throw waist high fast balls right over the plate". Batters too often make solid contact. I get nervous as hell whenever Biven gets on the mound.

 

[earsky]

Biven seems to continue to struggle with his control. Last night Sean said, "He needs to throw strikes, but he can't throw waist high fast balls right over the plate". Batters too often make solid contact. I get nervous as hell whenever Biven gets on the mound.

He has trouble locating his stuff, but it looks like he wants to throw just outside the strike zone too much. Let's hope he figures it out as he's been the guy since last Spring.

I'll stick with him getting it together in that hickory head of his. Lol
He's very talented.

 

[Thecycle27]

It won’t happen in college but if Bevin ever figures out how to locate his pitches he will be filthy. He does have a ton of movement on his pitches.

I didn’t like some of their pitch sequences. He would throw a nice sinking fastball for a strike low in the zone. Follow that up with one that drops out of zone not a slider that he has zero control of. Trying to stack pitching with a high probability of a hitter chasing.

Each hitter is different one let a tailing inside fastball go and the other chased the same pitch. 92-94 fastball with that kind of movement is tough to square up. 92-94 fastball with little movement and poorly located easy to square up.

 

[2330859]

Not sure how the next two games go, but I believe that we just saw the two best ND pitchers they have, and while it was just 3 runs, those 11 hits were impressive. Interesting comment by Dan, “5 more feet of elevation and King has a grand slam that would have changed everything.

If we can get Klein back anywhere close to where he was before his injury …… this lineup will be scary good at the plate.

 

[earsky]

didn’t like some of their pitch sequences. He would throw a nice sinking fastball for a strike low in the zone. Follow that up with one that drops out of zone not a slider that he has zero control of. Trying to stack pitching with a high probability of a hitter chasing.

So,I think you hit on something that might be directly related to what I see as him not being locked in all the time. It could be him not liking what Williams is calling. Interesting 🤔
Whatever it is, he's got 4 pitches,maybe 5 if he's got a change up. Super talented arm. He's definitely hot and cold though.

 

[CardX]

Interesting. Forbes is throwing tonight. Hopefully, rest served him well.

 

[Cardiac Red]

Biven's stuff as good as anybody over there. He's got to get it together between the ears.
Nobody's got ball movement like him. He's a key to being that closer again down the road.

He does have crazy movement on his pitches. Those two wild pitches that he threw that tailed outside the plate broke 2 feet.. I do believe he tries to work too much out of the strike zone though. If he threw those pitches and they actually started in the strike zone nobody could hit it..

 

[PushupMan]

Sometimes the rules of baseball confuse the hell out of me. Why wasn’t that “strikeout, passed ball, run scored and no out, batter advances to first base” not a simple foul ball? How in the hell could any catcher be expected to catch that after it glanced off the bat above the head of the umpire at 90+ mph?

 

[PushupMan]

Gotta give credit to the Irish in the second -great small ball to manufacture that second run after the lead off double. Advanced on a ground ball to third after Munroe had to throw to first for the force out. Then a perfectly executed squeeze butt to get the run past the throw by Forbes.

 

[PushupMan]

Ok, I’ve seen enough of Carson Tinney. I think we walk him every at bat the rest of this series unless a walk wins the game for Notre Dame.

 

[Thecycle27]

Well, you can’t try to sneak a fastball by him. That is what they have tried to do especially when you are consistently working the outside of plate.

That last run was on the catcher. He is terrible.

 

[Bardman]

7 walks, 4 wild pitches. I don’t see hit batters stats. Just can’t pitch that poorly and expect to win.

 

[Thecycle27]

The offense hasn’t been very good this weekend. Kind of unlucky hitting the ball right at people.

It is really hard to win series on the road with this staff. They haven’t been good on the road but today was a combination of walks, wild pitches and passed balls. You can’t struggle with the bottom of their lineup or you end up with trouble with their best hitter with opportunities.

They need to pitch around him. He is on that kind of heater.

 

[73Card]

Last night was a clown show. In a break with tradition, the clowns came out of the bullpen and not a Volkswagen.

 

[earsky]

All hands on deck today,back to the wall mentality to get this series. Mac needs to put his best 9 out there and pitch whoever can go after Michaels.
Forget about Vandy and get this one. We'll worry about Vandy on Tuesday. We need this series...and so do the Irish. Should be fun..as long as we win.😅

 

[2330859]

We have seen this repeatedly; walks, HBPs and failure to recognize the ones who can hit from those who can’t. Pitching has been unexplainable; Forbes strikes out 3, but wild pitches accounted for surrendering a run. At the same time our hitters failed to produce.

 

[Cardiac Red]

Too many self inflicted mistakes with this team, and let's be honest, it's been a reoccurring theme at least the last 4 years. Wild pitches, walks, hit batsman, untimely errors in the field, no clutch hitting, poor base running, and poor coaching..

Ever once in awhile we'll throw in a really solid game and funny enough it's usually against a really good team like Clemson or FSU. Then we'll throw in a complete all systems failure game against weak competition.. That has got to be linked to coaching as well..

I'm not saying coach Mac needs to go but he does need to tighten things up with his players and coaches..

 

[PushupMan]

The Notre Dame announcers said that yesterday’s starter and the closer we saw last night are their best, most consistent pitchers. They throw strikes, and do so with great precision and at least some variety.

The announcers also said that Sunday has been problematic for ND because they haven’t had consistent pitching. Hopefully we can capitalize on that today.