Quiz: What's the NCAA record for most consecutive 8-run games with single digit hits? We're at 3. We're at 4 games in a row with single digit hits.

This team is WAY too talented to be hitting as bad as it is right now. Wolf, Patton, and Infante, are all in 5+ game slumps, Ruggs and Stinson haven't looked as good as I thought they would although Ruggs had a good UCLA series, Mav has finally gotten it going in the past couple of games. Hell, even Penny has lost 46 points off of his average in the past 4 games, dropping all the way to near .400 . Of the 8 players above the line, 4 are hitting below .300. Has Ruggs seen the field yet this year? We've got to get Infante's .236 average out of there. It's a bit comical that, in this lineup, Boggs is carrying the best average, but that is the case by a great number of points, 40 more than Penny and nearly 100 points better than the next guy, Baldwin.

I don't want this to sound like a sky is falling post, I know better. 2 of the 4 below .300 hit better than .330 last year, Wolf and Patton. Stinson is too good of a hitter to stay down for very long as well. And I'm thinking that if Ruggs gets back out there in CF we'll start to see more of Scheidt at DH. But right now watching us struggle the way we are to produce hits is frustrating. We've got 5 games between now and Big 12 play. Baylor isn't looking real good, but we know they can pitch, so we need to be cranking it up before we face them.

I was at the game yesterday. We didn't have a lot of hits. However, I think we hit the ball well. Didn't we only have one strike out?

We hit the ball hard all night. Made plenty of good contact. Unfortunately it was all at 'em ball. And they have very good infielders that really saved them.

The cougs did worse at batting then us. But they got more hits because most of the hits they got were bloopers where they didn't get most of the bat on the ball and it would fall between the infield and the outfield.

Im not too worried about baylor yet. If we struggle this weekend, then i might be. I think our team gets hits when they need them. WE go through dry spells during the game, but when the other team scores, we usually come back with a little something. Baylor lost to UT-A last night 5-1 bringing their record to a striking 4-11. Im not too worried unless we dont win this weekends series.

91

Still, 4 consecutive games with single digit hits isn't far below what this team should produce. UCLA ran a guy out there Sunday with an opposing BA of .364 and we managed only 6 hits in 5 innings and 9 for the game.

We aren't hitting well, this team should be cranking out 12+ hits a game, it's just too talented for 7-9 hits to be the norm.

Like I said, I'm not worried at this point, but it's going to get worrisome in a hurry if we don't turn it around.

This team gets on-base and makes contact. This makes for a solid offense.

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We are batting .311 but with OBP of .402. We have more walks than K's.

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You guys are too focused on the hits-it's getting runners on base that counts so add the 8 walks (which means we are selective with our hitting with only 1 SO) and you get 16 men on base. That's more than enough to score 8 runs in my way of thinking. Walking is just as important as hitting. More important in a close game when the opposing pitcher gets a bit nervous.

PS-JJ you were posting while I was typing-glad to see someone else appreciates the value of the walk.
And teams with good hitters get lots of walks because the pitchers are afraid to throw them anything near the strike zone.

[This message has been edited by Ishmael-Ag (edited 3/10/2004 10:52a).]

I'll take a team that gets on base and plays good defense over a team that hits for power, strikes out, and is just so-so in the field. Patton will heat up, just give him time. I like Infante's defense and I don't think that he will be a liability at the plate when it's all said and done. Have a little patience.

I think as long as we continue to get more runs than the other team, we will be o.k.

We are not popping up and striking out(except Wolf)a lot. We are moving runners and getting sacrifice flies. We are walking instead of chasing bad pitches. Boggs, Cliff and Baldwin
have been consistent all season...and the others have their moments...playing good team ball over all. Mark is concerned about the over all slump at the plate, but I look for us to be back on track soon...like this weekend!
We are getting clutch hits from a variety of players!

exactly.

Without the two walks to start the eighth, we wouldn't have had the bases loaded after our first hit of the inning and might not have won the game.

I can certainly appreciate the high OBP we have and the walks have been good to see, but walks are a result of bad pitching. Yes it takes a patient batter to let 4 balls go by, but in the end the pitcher has thrown 4 balls to one batter, we didn't do a whole lot to influence that.

Bottom line is that we are hitting .246 in the last 4 games. Go back to the classic and we are hitting .279 for our past 10 games with less than 10 hits in 7 of those games. High water mark was 16-40 in game 2 v. New Mexico, low water mark was 7-32 twice, game 2 v. Arkansas and game 1 v. UCLA. We lost both games with only 7 hits, drawing a combined 4 walks, one against Arkansas and 3 against UCLA. In other words, without gifts from the pitcher, we weren't able to get it done.

Folks, .279 ain't gonna get it done. Teams that get past regional play don't give up a walk an inning, more like a walk every 3 innings. Last night we had more walks than hits, that's not a good sign for a team that has big aspirations.

I agree our sticks haven't been stellar, however we have gotten clutch hits when they matter late in the game. Hopefully we can get these throughout the game and not sit down 10 straight batters anymore..

agree with LoyalAg, we should be getting more hits. it all starts and ends with Patton IMO

Patton should come around soon which will help everyone...

NO. All the credit/blame does NOT go to the pitcher for a walk. Some does, but just as much goes to the hitter. Drawing a walk is not something that just happens to you because the pitcher is wild.

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My guess is that more hitters strikeout swining at balls than at strikes. A team with plate discipline will not just work the count in hopes of getting a walk, but rather, will force the pitcher to throw the hitter a pitch he can hit. We are managing to score runs, despite our hitting slump, because of plate discipline. If we can keep that discipline when some of our better hitters get it in gear, you will really see the difference.

Ruggiano has his average back up to .323 and I think we're going to start seeing him in the lineup every game.

Infante is going to need to drop a few spots.

Boggs and Baldwin will probably settle in at the #5 & #6 spots.

Boggs is hitting .443 and has an on base % of .500.

He should be settling into the 2 or 3 spot, not 5 or 6.

I agree that walks are just as good as hits... a few of you are saying that we are not being patient.. well with one SO and 8 walks I would say that we are being patient. This team has a strong offense.. if we didn't we wouldn't be at the record we have.

Whoop! '02

xvi

I think twk does a good job of reinforcing your point, but the bottom line is that the pitcher still throws 4 balls to one batter. If he throws 4 strikes the batter will be out. Yes it takes a good eye to take those balls, but if the pitcher throws no balls and the batter does HIT the ball, the batter still loses. Not that difficult to see that, without gifts from the pitcher, we didn't score enough to beat UCLA or Arkansas.

twk

quote:

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My guess is that more hitters strikeout swining at balls than at strikes. A team with plate discipline will not just work the count in hopes of getting a walk, but rather, will force the pitcher to throw the hitter a pitch he can hit. We are managing to score runs, despite our hitting slump, because of plate discipline. If we can keep that discipline when some of our better hitters get it in gear, you will really see the difference.

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Agree on all counts. Like I said early in this thread, we're good enough to keep me from worrying at this point, it's going to come around.

All

Boggs should stay where he is. When the top 1/2 of the lineup gets it going Boggs is going be a a catalyst for the bottom of the lineup. We're going to have 7-9 tough outs on any given day, there's no need to bunch the best guys at the top with this lineup. Leave Boggs down there where he'll continue to see good pitches. I like him in the 7 hole, personally.

I was looking at the SO/BB ratios for the team and for those of you who are down on Shindewolf, he may have a high SO rate but compared to his BB rate he's doing fine (13SO/15BB)

here are the rest of the team ranked by ratio from best to worst (only players with +30 ABs)[SO/BB in ()]....(you want it to be <1.00):
.25 (2/8) Pennington
.33 (2/6) Ruggiano (a huge improvement from
last year's 1.57 (44/28)
.38 (3/8) Patton
.87 (13/15) Shindewolf
1.00 (5/5) Baldwin
1.13 (9/8) Mav
1.17 (7/6) Boggs
1.50 (9/6) Infante
1.75 (7/4) Stinson


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[This message has been edited by AgRyan04 (edited 3/11/2004 12:42p).]

15-2 and all aspects of our play are solid. Our pitching is good enuf to carry our hitting a little if necessary, and our on base % is good which is the bottom line along with runs scored.