you play it how you do entire season and hope your bats do what they did 85% of the season. most D1 coaches would all agree.

Hendrix had some bad outings, but he's still the pitcher that pitched 6 MASTERFUL innings against LSU. I wouldn't mind him starting a game again.

I can see both sides of this argument but in this case I think we should try it - save long and Kent for the 2nd and third round games. Start someone else vs tsu

There are really 3 possibilities here:

1. You start 2-0 and only have to win 1 game on Sunday/Monday

2. You start 1-1 and have to win 3 games on Sunday/Monday. Whether that loss comes on Friday or Saturday doesn't really matter because the consequences are the same.

3. You start 0-2 and you're done. This means we lose a game that Long started and if that happens, we likely weren't going to advance anyways. If we lose to TSU with Kent and to Cal/CoC on Saturday with Long going, then so be it. This means the entire team and coaching staff choked and we got what we deserved.

What gives us the best chance to go 2-0? It's Kent on Friday and Long on Saturday unless Childress now views Kent as a superior pitcher to Long after his performance against Vandy. I don't think that's the case.

If Childress really wants to let em hang and start someone besides Long or Kent on Friday and rely on the offense to put up double digits and save Long for Saturday and Kent for Sunday, then I say go for it!

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Texas Southern is pretty bad. A record of 26-15 against a no. 287 strength of schedule.

If the Aggies are going to get past this next weekend they need to have a pitcher other than Long and Kent step up. RC needs to decide if that's going to be Hendrix, Simonds or Vinson, and then I hope he starts them Friday. The Aggie's bats will pound whoever pitches for TSU.

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...and if we can't find a way to pound TSU pitching then we don't deserve to advance. Period.

I would go Hendrix, but I expect it to be Kent.

id save hendrix for the BP

TSU is bad -- our Tuesday starters played against better teams

start Corbin Martin -- have Brigham "Young" Hill

have Simonds, Kopetsky, Sherrod, Larkins, Stubbs to back him up

hes looked good recently, especially last game

This might be crazy, but If I were Childress I'd throw everyone not named Grayson Long or Matt Kent one inning against TSU and trust the offense to win the game.

If it works (and it should), everyone is still available for relief duty the remainder of the weekend and you still have your two best arms available for the winner's bracket games. If it doesn't, you go into the loser's bracket and fight like hell to get back.

This could be the kind of game Hendrix needs to start. Work on mechanics and build up confidence without worrying as much about getting shelled. He has had some great games and terrible games. This could be a great chance for him to work out some kinks and become more consistent.

if we do start someone other than our top 2 guys it needs to be someone with god off speed stuff and command of his pitches other than fastballs, hendrix can hum it pretty good but these guys can hit a fastball at this level whether they are tsp or lsu. hendrix is a great setup guy, not s tartar right now. shoot, start stubble field, and see how long he can go. not overpowering but can mix up his pitches pretty well.i still think rob goes with long.

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twk, if they tourney got to monday, its despiration mode for both teams, i didn't mean long would be able to go a whole game, but if you limit his pitches friday, then he could throw a few innings monday. this is usually the case when the games go to monday. both teams pretty much have everyone available.

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Limit to what? 80? That's about four innings (sometimes 3) for Long. That's just the way he pitches. Too many 3 ball counts, and too many foul balls. Maybe it would be different with TSU, but would you want to gamble on that just so that you could have Long do something he hasn't done this year? I'll pass. I don't think you can completely diss TSU by running out a Simonds or a Larkins in game one, so I would be willing to use Kent, partly because he is more the type of pitcher that might get 5 or 6 innings without topping 80 pitches and be able to give us something on Monday if it came down to it.

Texas Southern on the bases is scary -- they can really put the pressure on a defense and their fans get worked into a frenzy, even if a small group. Pitching and defense will be their downfall, however. Get a big lead early and cruise to victory. Play a close game or fall behind and it's very unpleasant.

in the interviews after the selection announcement...

Childress was noncommittal on the Friday starter.

However Grayson indicated that he was going to start Friday vs. TSU

I really think if we play this "safe" and go with long on Friday night....

We are putting ourselves in a dangerous position of not even getting out of this regional. Whose to say Kent comes in and just automatically can get us a win in game 2? He has had shaky stretches this year.

I would rather him go against lesser competition and have long against cal/charleston #2

I think it's long and Kent in the first two games to earn the bye to the winners bracket. Only question is which order.

My pitching rotation would be:

Kent
Long
Martin
Hill
Larkins

Stubb and simonds in middle relief. Ecker and Hendrix in set up role. Vinson as the closer. Freeman would be my long relief guy in a game where we were behind a good bit. Kopetsky and Schlottman would be situational guys.

I'd like to say I'd start a mid week guy Friday, but tsu held DBU to 6 or fewer runs in 3 of their 4 games. Lost 1-0 to tcu. Can't take the chance....

Hasn't Childress thrown his Friday night ace every game 1 since he's been at A&M?

Yes...he always says "dance with who brung you". This is one time he might want to think a little longer about it, but I assume we'd see Long on Friday.

TSU will be pitching Felix Gomez (I assume). He's 4-2 with a 4.61 ERA and a .288 Opp BA. We should crush him.

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Yes...he always says "dance with who brung you". This is one time he might want to think a little longer about it, but I assume we'd see Long on Friday.

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If we still had Minter or Stubby appeared to be in good form, I wouldn't have that much of a problem with it. But we've struggled getting consistent starts out of anyone not named Long for the last month. Let our offense carry us against a very inferior team and then throw Long.

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Hasn't Childress thrown his Friday night ace every game 1 since he's been at A&M?

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He has shown he is willing to shake things up a little more this season. If we saw better performances out of Vinson, Stubby or Simonds on Saturday I think we would have definitely seen Long against TSU, now I think there is a reasonable chance we'll see Kent.

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Hasn't Childress thrown his Friday night ace every game 1 since he's been at A&M?

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We've been in better position starting pitching wise in previous years.

If RC does not go with Long on Friday and we were to lose this board would have to be shut down.
Throw long Friday then worry about Saturday after that.

3 years later I'm still trying to figure out how TCU won the CS regional without facing Wacha or Stripling.

in Childress' 8 prior regionals with the maroon-n-white on just 2 occasions (2008 & 2011) have the Ags won the first 2 games of the regional. So starting the ace in the opener guarantees nothing.

I really like the lefty to slow TSU's running game. I think Childress will too

Agree with Keegan. if we suck so bad we can't light up TSU we are done. Play for advancement.

I think Martin and Hill make one great starter be it game one or 3. They may only be able to go one or two times through the line-up each, but they both have good stuff, just a little inconsistent.

We are judging our pitchers based on SEC bats. We won't have to face those until Omaha. We have guys that can pitch in the regional. In a Super you play to not have to.

Texas Southern lost to TCU 1-0

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Texas Southern lost to TCU 1-0

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It's baseball, a top 10 team can lose to an RPI 200+ team on a given day.

However, I'm pretty safe in saying that our offense is stronger than TCU's. If we can get someone to hold them under 5 or 6 runs, we should be in great shape. In a perfect world, we'd do to them what we did when we played Sam at home.

We cannot afford to use Long or Kent on Wednesday period.