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Who’s been following our ball club closely? Can you give us all a quick season summary?
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WELL boy howdy dont everyone run each other over trying to answer your question!! (well boy howdy was a phrase that was often used by a native texan, semi redneck, entertaining character, coaching colleague, from my time in TX. he used it to kinda say- would you look at that! i thought it was appropriate in this instance. you have to imagine it with a heavy TX accent to get the full effect / enjoyment out of it)
anyway, i would like to keep this brief (well i totally totally failed at this so if you dont want to read everything maybe just read they bolded parts for a sort of cliff notes version) since it is obvious i am not paying much attention to baseball, just like apparently everyone else, but i have been known to have some trouble keeping things brief
In about an hour, you should start to get a much better understanding of where this team stands. we play UNO at home this weekend. 1pm today, tomorrow, and sunday. that information like basically anything i can tell you, ANYONE could look up fairly easily
Omaha is a good measuring stick because they have been basically at the top of the league, probably slightly behind ORU, since they joined the league AND their 3b Boeve is the reigning POY. it is hard to believe he is only a junior, it seems like he has been in the league since UNO joined- going on about 10 years as i recall.
Another reason I mention Boeve is that our top player Ryan McDonald put up numbers not so far from Boeve last year and to be honest appears to me that he is currently the best hitter in the league
McDonald leads the league in OPS, Slugging %, and On Base % and he leads every one of those categories by a pretty comfortable margin. IF you look at league stats he is NOT listed as the TOP hitter, but that is because the league still uses batting average as the first statistic for ranking hitters. I dont think that is as useless as some stat heads think it is but it is probably a bit outdated
Just to give you a little more understanding of the outstanding year McDonald is having OPS basically tells you how often someone gets on base combined with how much damage they do when they do it
McDonald has 37 hits and 27 walks in ONLY 26 games played. that is pretty incredible i would say maybe he deserves to have a few more of us paying attention!! ON BASE 64 times in 26 games is pretty wild and on top of that in his 37 hits TWENTY of them have been for extra bases
to give a little context Boeve the reigning POY has played 2 less games, 24, and does have almost the same number of hits 34, BUT has only 11 extra base hits and 18 walks (9 less than McDonald)
I said i would try to keep this brief (obviously i failed!!!!) so i wont keep giving examples of this and how impressive it is but nobody in the league is really close to McDonald in getting walked and Boeve is CLOSE to him on On Base % but i already showed you how much less damage Boeve is doing when he gets hits
ORU has a couple hitters who have about the same # extra base hits but one has almost 30 more ABs and one has almost 50 more
anyway i will leave it at that regarding McDonald but he is obviously worth paying attention to, also BTW a Mechanical Engineering major so he is taking the easy way thru) haha
beyond that we have 4 of the top 14 hitters in the league based on OPS which is a FAR more informative stat than batting average
in league stats we are listed as the #3 team on offense but again that is based on batting average
we are the top team in ON BASE % and Walks. second to ORU in slugging but WAY ahead of the 3rd team
so it appears that we have a VERY strong offensive team, led by the pretty obvious best hitter in the league- not saying he will be POY but he is really putting up Peak Steroid Barry Bonds type numbers!!! basically he does not get out and when you dont walk him he gets an extra base hit OVER HALF the time
it appears pitching is more the concern but I DO NOT think i know enough just from the stats i can see!!!!!
we DONT HAVE a single pitcher listed among the top 15 pitchers in league stats, BUT i think that might be due to not having anyone with a very high innings pitched number
we dont have any pitcher listed individually BUT we are the #3 team in overall team ERA.
i will end with this ORU is listed as #1 in every category (again i disagree with listing them first in team offense based on batting average) but we are the only other team to be top 3 in Hitting, Pitching, and Fielding
the area where ORU is blowing everyone away is Pitching!!!
the SLT for baseball is a 4 team tournament. IF that started today it would be the same 4 teams from last year - ORU, NDSU, UNO, and our Jacks (i listed these in current league standings)
we are playing UNO starting now so any matchup between these top 4 teams is important
I am SORRY Salem! I failed you but you did ask for a summary of an entire season (so far). i did the best i could -
and right on que
McDonald hits a solo HR to put the Jacks up 1-0 in the bottom of 3
Jacks starter on the mound is throwing a one hitter thru 4, Jacks middle of the order coming up in bottom of 4Comment
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bottom of 5 UNO SS misplays a potential double play ball to keep the inning going
brings up McDonald with runners on 1b and 2b
second hit of the day brings in another run. Jacks up 2-0 with runners on 2b and 3b with one out in bottom of 5Comment
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LGR, I actually read one of your novels for once. And this one was worth it. Thank you!Comment
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UNO was throwing a no hitter today thru 5 innings. ooopps except for against Ryan McDonald. thru 5 we had 2 hits both by mcdonald. ends the day 2 for 4 with another walk, 2 RBI and a run
Jacks pitchers get 12 Ks and give up ZERO walks and 7 hits
meanwhile the jacks end up with 9 hits and 4 walks on the day and strikeout 8 times
Jacks jump out 5-0 thru 6
UNO puts up 4 in the 7th to get back in it
Jacks add 3 in bottom of 8th to mostly nail it shut
Boeve was largely held in check today. no hits. got on once HBPComment
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hahaha Thanks, i guess?))Originally posted by salemjack View Post
believe it or not i really hate writing. i have never once set out to write a novel. but you know there is a lot to say about the jacks)) even on a baseball team, who NOBODY apparently is paying much attention, including me, we have amazing athletes.
(i will give myself and everyone a bit of a pass here. we did just finish a season where our WBB dominated the conference and had a solid chance to play hoops more than one weekend into the ncaa tourney. they came up a little short of that but no doubt many of us were pretty focused. also just finished a great wrestling season!! and the softball girls had been playing an OOC schedule filled with teams in the top 25. and it says a LOT about MBB that winning 19 and finishing second in the conference feels as big a disappointment as it does)
i always pay more attention to baseball when conference starts but i was definitely behind this year
anyway GREAT start to a big weekend! winning the series would put us in 3rd place (which eventually keeps someone out of first round SLT game with ORU). sweeping the Mavs would be VERY BIGComment
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Jacks play 2 today against the mavs. middle of first game at the moment
batting in the bottom of 5th McDonald hits a 2 run homer to increase lead to 5-2
McDonald led off the game with a double (so 2 for 3 so far with 2b, HR)
jacks got 2 runs on 3 hits in the first inning
LF Kozal hit a solo HR in the second
uno got 2 in either the 3rd or 4th
sounds like a LOT of wind today. according to our announcer both HR probably had help from windComment
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jacks batting in bottom of 2 in game 2
they won the first game 9-3
jacks took a 1-0 lead in first with McDonald walk and two singles
second inning bases loaded and none out McDonald comes up again and homers
he had 3 hits in the first game and he is one for one in the second. overall 4 for 6 with a walk, a double, and 2 HR- one of them a grand slam
NOT TO MAKE THIS the ryan mcdonald journal
i mentioned in the opening message on this thread that the jacks have 4 hitters in the top 14 in the conference in OPS, 3 of the 4 homered in game one and the jacks had a total of 13 hits and 4 homers
sorry i cannot remember first names and i am trying to watch softball too
but the other of those top OPS hitters for the jacks
are senior SS Ira, second baseman Stuff, and 3b Nelson
if the jacks can hang on and win this one they would sweep UNO, i am guessing it has maybe been a while since we swept the mavs, but i dont know it for sure
we were tied with UNO coming into this weekend for 3rd place in the leagueComment
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after the grand slam in the second
1b Parry and 3b Nelson both had solo homers put jacks up 7-1
uno did get 2 in the 3rd
uno stud Boeve has 2 hits in this one. I think he only had 1 hit total in the first 2 games this series
SOMETHING INTERESTING that I for one knew nothing about- Pitching in game 2 today for the Jacks is Blake Kunz the former TE for our FB teamComment
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Jacks pitching change in top of 6 with 2 outs
UNO gets 3 so far in the 6th including the second HR of the game for RF Bales
Jacks hanging on to 8-7 lead
Jacks had held Boeve to 1 hit in the first 2 games but he is 4 for 4 all singles this game, but he has scored once and has no RBI, as opposed to mcDonald 2 hits and a walk but 2 runs and 4 RBI
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UNO takes the lead top of 7 on a 2 run HR
Jacks 9 hole hitter makes a strategic error in the bottom of inning
with runner on first and 2 down, 9th hitter Anderson hits a grounder up the middle. runner on first goes to 3b on the hit. the Hitter RISKS getting to 2b on the throw to third by the defense
runner was very fortunate he got to 2b it looked like he could have been called out
BUT going to 2b left 1b open with 2 outs and runners on
UNO intentionally walked McDonald without one second of hesitation. Next batter grounded out to end the inning
going to the 8th down by one and we will need to get at least a couple on to give McDonald another AB, but Parry, Ira, and Nelson will come to bat in bottom of 8 and all of them have homered todayComment
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Jacks Reliever Ks all 3 Mavs batters in top of 8
Jacks 3,4,5 batters coming up down by 1Comment
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well had an unexpected visitor so did not get to watch very close
saw 3 batter Parry ripped a line drive right at the LF for an out to start the 8th
then SS Ira ripped a double on 2 strikes down the LF line
then i guess the jacks got at least a couple homers and put up 4 runs and held in th top of 9 to win 12-9Comment
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SDSU taking on St. Thomas at Bob Sheldon Field right now. What a nice facility. Jacks up 5-4 heading to the bottom of the 5th.Comment
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