Cats baseball listed as a team to watch

[SkeeterZX190]

I kind of felt sorry for those Texas Southern pitchers. They struggled mightily.

[Kid In the Hall]

Apparently, Baylor got hit again with Covid (seems like all of their athletic teams have at some point) and will be missing several players for the series this weekend (including their Friday ace Tyler Thomas - one of the better starters in the Big 12).

Certainly don't ever wish that on anyone, but hopefully K-State can capitalize.

[bhoovy]

Yeah that’s a big blow for Baylor. Thomas currently sits #3 in the conference with a 2.02 era. So cats definitely need to take advantage.

This is a huge series. Article in the Wichita Eagle today with coach Hughes said he does believe they are an ncaa tournament team, but know they have work to do. Cats have been bad on the road this year. 0-6 in conference play, 1-7 overall. This is a chance to turn that around and with Thomas being out it certainly can’t hurt their chances.

Overall Baylor is #1 in the conference in hitting and #2 in conference play. KSU is #4 overall, but #9 in conference. Baylor is #2 overall in pitching era and #5 in conference. KSU is #4 overall and #8 in conference.

KSU is a much more power team having almost double the homers that Baylor has on the season. Baylor is also not much of a running team as they are tied for last in steals.

Hughes started a new strategy with the pitching rotation, making McCollough the Friday night started and Wicks the Saturday guy. He said Wicks has been the most consistent so having him pitch the middle game, and hopefully going longer, will hopefully tax the bullpen less. Ford started Sunday and Seymour came out of the pen and looked fantastic. Not sure if Ford will still be the Sunday guy but looks likely.

Cats are one game behind Baylor in the conference, so winning the series would tie them with Baylor but the Cats would have the tie breaker.

Just 9 conference games left and to be considered an ncaa tournament team they probably need to go no worse than 6-3, maybe 7-2. Hopefully they can take the momentum from the last 12 games, going 10-2, and find another series win starting in Waco.

6:30 tonight on ESPN+
3pm Saturday on ESPN+
12pm Sunday on ESPN+

[SkeeterZX190]

Ouch! Getting really ugly.

[bhoovy]

Same old road song, just another verse. 9-0 after 3.

Cats absolutely stinking it up in just the first 3 innings.
McCollough couldn’t have been much worse. Couldn’t even get thru 3 innings. Gave up a homer in each inning and threw as many balls as strikes. But when he grooved it they didn’t miss it. His year has not been good. I just don’t see him being drafted as he doesn’t look any better than any conference starting pitcher, but in fact looks worse than most.

So Baylor has to sub for the very Good Friday night starter because of Covid and he’s making them look silly thru 3.

Cats picked off twice, once on a steal and once just wandering off 1st too far.

Baylor hadn’t played in 10 days and the cats came in on with a 10-2 record and you would have thought it was the other way around. This team just doesn’t seem to have the mental makeup to go win on the road. The road games tend to follow the same theme as the football team season and men’s and women’s basketball seasons. Woof!

[bhoovy]

I will have to give one guy credit, Chris Ceballos. He hammered one off his knee with two strikes and came back to hit it out. And that’s 5 straight games.
He’s been on fire after a very slow start hovering around .200. Kid has really good AB’s.

[Wyldkatz]

Team to watch? Watch do what? Beat up on the smaller schools and get shelled against Conference opponents?

They are an average team. But, they are by no means an ncaa tournament team. They can't win on the road, and have a bad record against the top half teams in this league. They are probably about as good as they were picked, which is 7th. Better than our basketball teams, but 7th out of 9 teams isn't anything to be thrilled with.

[bhoovy]

17-2. Just inexcusable. If it was a one or two game thing then maybe one could still see their possibilities. But they are now 0-7 in conference road games and have been outscored 80-20, an average of 11-3 per game. That’s either bad baseball or lack of talent or maybe some of both. I just don’t know how Hughes can say this team is a tournament team with a straight face.

We’ll see how Wicks pitches tomorrow but this series is looking like another road sweep and the cats are looking to be batting ku for the cellar and playing in the big 12 tournament play in game.

[BronxCat1]

Really nothing to take away from this. No clue why they can't play on the road. Must be a mentality thing or maybe Tointon really is just a massive home field advantage.

One thing I did notice is that several well hit balls that probably would have been gone at home died at the warning track. Maybe this teams power has been mostly fueled by home field advantage. Boom-or-bust offense strikes again.

I dunno what to say really. Lost a bad game vs West Virginia last conference series on Friday night, so maybe they'll bounce back.

[SkeeterZX190]

Awesome 9th inning for the Cats. Now if our bullpen can hold the lead.