Solid season. Had the potential to be good or great with a better finish last night.
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State of the program
- Thread starter HuskerDB
- Start date
baseball and basketball.
Well the season is now over and it ended in disappointing fashion. However, with our late season rally, I consider this a very solid showing. We played for a BIG title, and we were one pitch away from being in really good shape to reach the supers.
However there are clearly areas that need improvement. I've been in the fire Kirby camp for the last 4 years. That hasn't changed. Our batters are totally lost at the plate. We rarely hit the ball hard and rely more on hoping it finds a hole. With no power hitters and no high avg hitters, you'd think we would be ideal candidates to play small ball. However it is clear our batters have no idea how to bunt and no idea how to make contact to advance runners (you could probably just say they have no idea how to make contact). There is an old adage that the first two strikes are for you, but the third strike is for the team. I don't think our batters even know how to choke up, defend the plate, and try to put the ball in play. They clearly don't know how to protect the plate. Long story short, this team needs to figure out how to hit and needs to find an offensive identity.
On the positive side we are young. I actually see some quality position players this year. I couldn't say that last year at this time. We have some quality pitchers returning, but we need to develop some of the additional young ones we have. We have about half of a batting lineup (assuming we had a hitting coach) but need more.
Overall I am proud of this year's team and think we've made progress over last year, but we still have a long ways to go.
Looking forward to next year. GBR!
However there are clearly areas that need improvement. I've been in the fire Kirby camp for the last 4 years. That hasn't changed. Our batters are totally lost at the plate. We rarely hit the ball hard and rely more on hoping it finds a hole. With no power hitters and no high avg hitters, you'd think we would be ideal candidates to play small ball. However it is clear our batters have no idea how to bunt and no idea how to make contact to advance runners (you could probably just say they have no idea how to make contact). There is an old adage that the first two strikes are for you, but the third strike is for the team. I don't think our batters even know how to choke up, defend the plate, and try to put the ball in play. They clearly don't know how to protect the plate. Long story short, this team needs to figure out how to hit and needs to find an offensive identity.
On the positive side we are young. I actually see some quality position players this year. I couldn't say that last year at this time. We have some quality pitchers returning, but we need to develop some of the additional young ones we have. We have about half of a batting lineup (assuming we had a hitting coach) but need more.
Overall I am proud of this year's team and think we've made progress over last year, but we still have a long ways to go.
Looking forward to next year. GBR!
Good Lord.
The team just finished in the top 48 in the country. Out of the 11 position players that played in the Big 10 championship game, 7 were sophomores or freshman; of the other four, only one was a senior. They won 32 games, finished runner up in the Big 10 tourney, and gave Baylor, Texas Tech, Arizona State, and Oklahoma State everything they could handle and then some. They return loads of pitching; new faces, sure, but we have TWO back end freshman studs, Shanamen and Gomes; Palkert looks like the lead to get Friday night.
Breathe, have a beer and a dog, and enjoy the rest of the summer as these boys get loads better in the Cape, North Woods, Alaska, Beatrice, or wherever else they end up.
The team just finished in the top 48 in the country. Out of the 11 position players that played in the Big 10 championship game, 7 were sophomores or freshman; of the other four, only one was a senior. They won 32 games, finished runner up in the Big 10 tourney, and gave Baylor, Texas Tech, Arizona State, and Oklahoma State everything they could handle and then some. They return loads of pitching; new faces, sure, but we have TWO back end freshman studs, Shanamen and Gomes; Palkert looks like the lead to get Friday night.
Breathe, have a beer and a dog, and enjoy the rest of the summer as these boys get loads better in the Cape, North Woods, Alaska, Beatrice, or wherever else they end up.
I'm not crushed by any means. I don't know that we can expect much more out of a coach on a 200k salary. I think Erstad met his 200k value. A 3rd place finish in a regional is really about all I expect out of Nebraska baseball. Sure, I'd like more. More may be possible. But that would require UNL putting greater emphasis ($$$) into the baseball program. And I don't think that will happen anytime soon. So yes, I can say Erstad met expectations. I don't know that he ever exceeds expectations, but about half the time he meets it. That's probably enough for what is the 4th most important team sport at UNL.
We were young this season. So maybe there's some building blocks in place. I would expect we should be at least as good next season. But college baseball is the most difficult sport to predict in regards to year-to-year rosters.
We were young this season. So maybe there's some building blocks in place. I would expect we should be at least as good next season. But college baseball is the most difficult sport to predict in regards to year-to-year rosters.
Level of bummed-ness is high today. Last night’s game was a gut punch for sure. Would like to laud some seniors who did some really nice things down the stretch: Matt Waldron, much of the season, in the B10 tourney and last night, wow!; Angelo, tough season, surely not what he had hoped, but a nice finishing run and leadership (imagine if his numbers all season were those of late how much positive influence he could have had earlier); and Nate Fisher, Friday’s UConn game aside, he had three gems post-NW that were huge.
Long way to next season now, but optimistic (surprise!) about the youth and promise for the future. GBR!!
Long way to next season now, but optimistic (surprise!) about the youth and promise for the future. GBR!!
Snap On Husker
Scout Team
Program is fine, stop whining and support the team
This is about where I'm at. The postseason felt different, this season, but with similarly disappointing results, at the end of the day. Nebraska couldn't have asked for better conference tourney or regional assignments.
I don't think we've fallen far enough as a program to be satisfied with a fifth place finish in the Big Ten (absent a rash of injuries), nor with a 1-2 record in a regional, but the team was mostly competitive. The cold reality of 2-8 in the NCAA under Erstad remains unnerving, but hopefully the glimmers of light are a sign that Erstad is figuring stuff out, since Moos doesn't seem interested in putting much pressure on the baseball program (I don't really blame the guy--I mean how many Osborne hires can he successfully replace, every year!?). If he's ever going to put it all together, he has to find a way to improve recruiting, hitting instruction, and defensive schemes/performance--all of which have been on steady decline since Bolt bolted.
I'm particularly concerned that the graduation of our entire starting pitcher cohort will mean another step back, next season, as pitching is the only area that has generally improved, under Erstad (that factor alone meant that this year lined up pretty well for a postseason run, but c'est la vie). That suggests that the team will be pretty shaky in the early going (not as many noncon upsets to improve RPI) and, hopefully, begin to catch stride in early conference play. You would have thought Eddins struggles to finish the year would have provided an opening to see what so of the young arms could do.
Next year's expectations should include winning all but a few/3 B1G series, a top three conference finish (regular season), conference tourney semis, and two wins at a regional...good God was that boring to type, but that is life in Big Ten Baseball, I suppose....damn.
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Lots of things to improve on, but let's look at the one area that's totally improved over the previous 7+ years. How many times have we complained that the team peaked too early? Erstad certainly got over that hump this year. One out away from playing for a super regional berth...
Doesn't make a difference now with the way we finished.
And now Darin has resigned.
D
Deleted member 3889
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It is SOOOO hard to get your pitching talent and hitting talent to match up in college baseball.
A solid season that built an outstanding foundation for next season that which the players and coaching staff should be proud.
