ball5podcast/LSU Recap/ Florida Preview

Tune in as Scott recaps the Aggies series sweep in Baton Rouge over the LSU Tigers. Scott also gives his take on the construction of the Aggie Lineup and the damage that offense does as well as a quick preview of the upcoming series in Gainesville against the Florida Gators. Enjoy!!

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Hey everybody, Scott Livingstone here in the Fall 5 Clubhouse, bringing you the LSU recap series that the Aggies played in Baton Rouge. 3-0 series tweet. Three wins are always big in this conference. So it doesn't matter how LSU played or whether their team was up to last year's snuff, doesn't matter because three wins are three wins on our side. So that's huge for us. So taking a look at game one, real quick, we won 10-4. And Sedeo got the start. He uh threw the ball pretty well. I was pretty impressed with him. Four and two thirds, six hits and four K's. Uh he was a little upset when he came out, but I was I was okay to see that. Uh Gavin Lyons, he earned the win for two and a third innings. And Darden, he closed for the final two innings. Uh, as far as the hitters, Jake Dewar, I mean, Mr. Professional, came up with the uh two RBI single. That was clutch after having a battle, battle through that at bat. Jorian Wilson, two for four with four RBIs and two bombs. Man, he crushed those balls opposite field. It's really good to see Jorian hitting the ball opposite field because that's starting to show you that he believes he can wait on the ball a little bit longer. Because what I've been impressed with about Jorian is, you know, he just needs more at bats. That's what he needs. He needs more at bats, more time in the batter's box against these guys that have, you know, like uh partita, you know, he said during the uh podcast, he goes, Yeah, you see guys that throw hard during the summer, during summer ball, but once you get in the SEC, they all have really good second and third pitches. So I've seen Jorian swing at balls in the dirt on 2-0, because you got to remember these guys pitch backwards a lot. They're not gonna give you a cookie right down the middle every time. So one thing being said about that is I saw him swing at a 2-0 pitch in the dirt, one at bat, and then the next at bat, somebody threw him a 2-0 changeup in the dirt, same pitch, and he took it. So he's learning. He's getting at bats, he's growing, he's getting better. So that's really good to see. Uh Gavin Grahovac, 2 for 6 with an RBI and a home run. Uh, I mean, the guy's on a heater, man. Guys on a tear. Chris Okopian, two for four with one RBI, and uh one hit by pitch that looked a little critical because uh lot of blood coming out, and it's a tough dude. So to have him not come back in the game, which I guarantee you, and I heard that he was wanting back in the game, uh, but they couldn't stop the bleeding. So, but he showed up next day and he was ready to play. Sorell, he had an on-base streak to 30 straight games. That's pretty impressive. Uh Grahovac had a hit streak, uh, 11 games, which is really impressive too. And Partita has one with seven games. And Kellner increased his on-base streak of 35 games out of 36. And you talk about a guy that's at the bottom of the lineup that turns it over for a hitter like Grahovac. I mean, that's great. And I mean, that's huge for any team to be able to know that you're gonna have a guy at the bottom of the lineup that's gonna battle and at bats, hit by pitches, take close pitches, but he's gonna get his swing on when he's ready, too. All right, so let's move on to game two. Seven to two win by the Aggs. Series win right there, sealed the deal. Uh Aiden Sims was throwing that Saturday. Seven innings pitch, three hits, two runs, two earned, two walks, and six K's. Guy had a nice uh nice outing like he has been doing. So doing really well. And then Freshcorn came in to close it out with uh two innings pitched, and he looked pretty sharp as well. Uh that guy, Grahovac, two for five, two RBIs, and a home run. That makes uh, I don't know how many times he's done it, but that's another time that he's done consecutive home runs in back-to-back games. So it's pretty impressive. Like I said before, the guy's on a heater. Jake Dewar, two for four with an RBI. Mr. Professional gets it done, man. I love his at bats. Bear Harrison, one for three, two RBIs, and a home run as well. He has reached base in 12 straight games. So I think that's about as many hit by pitches he has, too. He may have more than that by now. But anyway, kids getting on base. Sorrell on base streak to 31. Um, he had a double, nice double. Uh Pertita, eight-game hitting streak, and a copian back after getting hit in the face, if you hadn't heard that before. And I think he's gonna have to have some teeth fixed. Uh, had a nice double and an RBI. And then I really liked what I saw from TK. I know he had a stolen base, but to see him trying to bunt, fake bunt, do some things like that to move the infielders around, I think that's huge for strategy because, you know, he's a speed guy. He makes good contact, he puts the ball in play. And people need to be afraid of the bunt from him, whether it's a push bunt or a drag bunt. I mean, you got to see that from him. I mean, I think that's that's huge for his game. All right, so moving on to game three, we uh completed the sweep five to two. Weston Moss, four and a third, three hits, no runs, two walks, five Ks. One of his better outings here recently. So it's pretty good to see after the long layoff he had of having the rain out against Texas. Uh Grahovac, two for five with an RBI. Hit streak to 13 now. Also had a stolen base, showing the wheels. Chris Okopian, one for four, two RBIs, a home run. Remember, he got hit in the face. Sorrell on base average, 32 games and still going. He had a nut home run as well. And it was his 41st home run, I believe 18th for the year. And Boston Keller, 37 of 38 games on base. And uh, I mean, doing doing a great job getting on base, like I said before. And then Lions came in and got his fifth conference win. That's crazy for a reliever. Fifth conference win. So kids have been dealing. And uh Freshcorn came on to shut it down. So we took the sweep. It was a nice weekend for us, and up next, we have Florida. So before we move on into the uh talking a little bit about Florida, I want to talk a little bit about our team because I think we're trending up, as they like to say. But when you look at our pitching staff, I mean, everybody, you know, you're concerned about the depth in the bullpen and stuff like that. I mean, I think everybody is starting to kind of figure out what their role is when they're coming in the game. So I I can tell you, as a pinch hitter or somebody that went in to pinch hit in the National League, you have to be ready for any situation. So you have to play the game in advance and know when to be ready. And a lot of that's mental. So mentally you have to be ready before maybe you warm up in the in the bullpen because you got to be ready to go in the game. And you can't just spur the moment, go, okay, I'm gonna be ready mentally, but you can get set beforehand. And I think these guys are starting to realize that that's their role in the bullpen of when they come in, uh, when they might come in, and just start kind of preparing mentally. So I think you know, the coach Kelly's doing a great job down there at the bullpen. Of course, you know, Early's doing his thing with the hitters. And when I talk about the hitters, I think it's great because you look at the guys, nobody else, maybe UCLA, Georgia, Georgia Tech, I would think that's probably about it, that has the offenses that we have. I mean, top to bottom, top to bottom. I mean, they've put this team together, and you know, I'm gonna use the word constructed, constructed this lineup. And the reason I'm using that word is because uh I think it's G.A. Johnson of uh LSU. He had an interview and he said that he was he did not feel like they constructed their lineup correctly through the portal and all that stuff, and wanted freshmen, were looking for freshmen to kind of rebuild, but they went and tried to replace people with um transfer portal guys, transfers. So that made it tough for us. You gotta look at the lineup. I mean, the top three, I mean, geez, Grohovac, Sorrell, uh, Okopian, those guys are bangers, man. And then you don't have your typical four hitter in the four-hole, but Dewar, professional hitter, he's gonna foul balls off, he's gonna make the pitcher work, he's gonna do all sorts of things to frustrate the pitcher. And he may frustrate the third base dugout too, because he keeps fouling balls over there at him. Um, you know, when when we look at, you know, Partita, Partita, I mean, super hitter, powered all fields, takes the close pitches. You know, he's gonna strike out some, but that's okay because he's gonna put the ball in play and he's gonna make contact. He's a good good guy to have there, and he plays a solid third base. You know, if you go on down the line, now you start to look at uh Jorian, look at Jorian and what he's doing. I mean, the guy's learning on the fly is basically what he's doing. So I think that's pretty pretty cool how he's doing it, making some adjustments. Yeah, he's got swing and miss. He's a big guy. He's gonna swing and miss. Nowadays in the big leagues, you can hit 215, I don't know, 30, 40 home runs and 60 RVIs, and you get $25 million for the next year. I mean, it's just crazy what they're giving out now. And let's not forget about TK. I mean, he's now been inserted in the lineup, back in the lineup, doing his thing, making plays defensively out there. Huge, you know, it's a huge lift for the team. And I believe, you know, him doing the bunting and the hitting, the making good contact and stealing bases and doing stuff like that, he's a threat. And you need those types of guys in the lineup too. And he's that guy. And so the more that he plays and gets back into it, I think he's just gonna get better and better. And, you know, Bear and Boston at the bottom of the lineup, I mean, it's just crazy what they're able to do. And to roll that lineup over to the three big boys, I mean, it's it's huge. Nobody else has that depth. And when I think of it, I think about back in the day where Cortez came in and would shut teams down for like five innings in the middle of the game and give our offense a chance to catch up. And I feel like that's kind of what you know, LSU needed yesterday from the guy that came in was their closer. We did strike out 14 times, and I think he got nine of them, but they used their closer to shut it down. But the difference is they don't have the lineup to do that, to make that comeback. They just don't have the lineup like we do. So it's it's a tribute to Coach Early putting that roster together, Pennington, and those guys being able to get the job done of training with these players and splitting their jobs. This guy runs the hitting, this guy runs the defense, this guy runs the pitching, and coaches are doing their job. So it's definitely trending up, and I think it's gonna be an interesting finish here. All right, let's move forward to a little bit about Florida for this upcoming series. Uh, well, first of all, we're ranked number seven now in D1 rankings, which that's great, but if you've watched my podcast, you know that I just say all the time rankings don't mean anything. And the reason rankings don't mean anything is because I don't even know if we got knocked out of the rankings, we were 25th, and now all of a sudden we're seventh. LSU was number two behind UCLA. Now they're not in anymore. So RPI, which is important, we're eighth now. We've moved up, so pretty good there. Florida is actually ranked 21st, but their RPI is ninth. So, like I said about the RPI, that goes back to who they've played and who their opponents have played. So it's that's kind of where it all falls. Uh, they are 28-13 and 10-8 in conference, so they're gonna be tough at home. They are now. I don't want to overlook UTSA, but that might game may get rained out. But they're ranked actually 34th, and we played them Tuesday, and their RPI is 41. So won't hurt us too bad playing them. Um, but we need to get a win because they're they're pretty softy themselves. Uh, and in comparison with that, LSU is 65th RPI, Vandy 72, Missouri 113. So minus Missouri. There's some teams there, Vandy and LSU, that you usually see in the top 15, 18 RPIs. So uh as far as Florida, like I said, they've actually beaten Miami twice and Florida State twice. So that's that's pretty big. So you can look at their record at 10 and 8, 28 and 13, but they swept South Carolina. They were swept by Alabama, they actually swept Arkansas on the road. I don't know if you remember all that week when everybody was getting swept. It's pretty crazy. Uh they lost two to Ole Miss, who Ole Miss is on a heater. Um, that was at home. And they took two or three at Georgia, so that's that's pretty impressive in itself. And then they lost two at Auburn here at home. So it's kind of like one loss, one loss, one loss. And so hopefully they're on the loss part of this in the in the next one. Uh their conference batting average is 231. Not too good. Uh they have one guy hitting over 300. Uh, they have 21 home runs as a team and 21 doubles. In comparison to their hitting 231, we are hitting 283, 36 home runs, and 34 doubles. So it kind of shows that, you know, we got the power, we got the bang, we're banging that ball around the park, but we're also getting our hits, which that's huge. And so I think that's going to come into play because Florida, they're sneaky. You never know what you're gonna get. Plus, it's Gainesville. So they're at home. So it's a tough place to play. And uh, you know, we've had some success there, and we haven't had some success there. So, excuse me, as far as their pitching, they've got uh they're pitching Aiden King is one of their starters. He's at 250, 2.55. Liam Peterson, who's supposed to be a number one pick, maybe top ten, is at a 3.23 ERA, and Russell Sandifer at a 5.12. Now, there's one thing that these guys look at now. Um, you know, it's called whip. It's walk plus innings, walks plus hits divided by innings pitched. So it shows you how much they're letting these guys get on base. You know, you look at ERA, ERA can also be affected by your defense. Guys are missing balls, guys aren't getting the balls. But with their walking guys and giving up hits, then you can figure that easier. So Aiden King's whip is 0.85, Liam Peterson is 1.53, Russell Sandifer is 1.14. So to understand that, below 1.2 is good, under one is elite. So Aiden King, which is probably their Friday guy, has got an elite whip average. So our ERA for our pitchers, uh, they're for a team, this is conference, is 4.36, and ours is 6.02, which I think is a little bit misleading. Um, and the opponents are 9.38, so we're banging the ball around and they're 4.88. So they're pretty even. Um I think it's a little bit like Texas, even though Texas didn't do that well on the pitching side of it. But like I said, we are a great hitting ball club. So um if their pitching's going, then they go. It doesn't seem like they've had a lot of blowouts and stuff like that, but you know, they're gonna be tough. They're at home. So um it's gonna be interesting to watch us the rest of the way. And, you know, you heard it here maybe first or second, depending on if you listen to Richard Zane, but I don't know, Coach Early might be SEC coach of the year. Bam! Just said it. All right, gang. That's it for the wrap up. I really appreciate you guys tuning in. And uh let's go at it until next time.