Sometimes it's hard to keep up with all the different aspects of errors going on, especially when having to type answers.
I did notice the mental errors too, which goes along with the base running mistakes. I just don't have the time to type everything that happens. They are bad things as well, but pale besides the depth of the hitting ineptness, which has been going on for years.
All the different lineups are an attempt to get as much offense in the lineup as possible. When you have as many hitters slumping or just not able to hit, it doesn't matter a whole lot. That included the Cantu and Barrera rotation. Clemens got off to a very shaky start, as a pitcher. His defense at first is stellar. It saves runs by preventing throwing errors, with his scoops and long stretches. He just has a great glove that's hard to keep out of the lineup. It's not like many are hitting any better. The rotation has not been a big mistake, nor has it been the answer either. Hinojosa is not an outfielder, but again, every attempt is being made, at least in a different lineup way, to get more offense. I described it once as, shuffling the chairs on the Titannic. The boat is still sinking.
One coach that is not in disarray and may be the best in the country, at what he does is Skip Johnson. He is working this year with a short deck, due to injuries to Hollingsworth, Goins, Marlow, and above all the very talented Morgan Cooper. The long extra inning games and constant pressure, due to the continual lack of any run support has been very taxing, to say the least. Also this is a very young staff and this is the new ball era. Remember the new ball, it's helped nearly all other college hitters, but ours has gotten worse.
The succuess of last season only happened, because the pitching became super human down the stretch and even better in post season. You can look it up. The terrible run production was there last season, the pitching just covered it up, for the most part. There is just so little difference in the baseball teams between 2012-2015, other than the pitching. Well the 2015 team is starting to exceed all the past futility in hitting.
The pitching is fine. With all the injuries, being overworked, stressed beyond belief,the new baseball and being very young. The era coming into this game was 2.87. That's 17th in the nation of about 300 D1 schools playing baseball. The team won last year, when it counted because the pitching was just that good. See Hollingsworth in the Houston Regional, the Supers, and the CWS. It's unreasonable to think that could happen again and certainly not this year, with all the reasons I have pointed out.
In contrast, the team batting average was .246, coming into tonight's game. That ranks 258th of those 300 D1 teams. It's even lower now.
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