TIED WITH SOUTH ALABAMA AFTER 10!?!?!??!?!

[GtownRebel]

Let's see...we started out last year with a strong pitching group and won 11 games in a row. Then had a meltdown. Maybe we have unrealistic expectations of our baseball team this early and they will peak for SEC. Of course, if we have an OC losing record before entering the SEC, what will be said then? Just playing devil's advocate on this one.

If you don't have your sights set for the CWS now, then by the time your conference tournament rolls around you will have too much pressure placed on the players and coaches to make it.

I know Bianco says win the SEC and you don't have to worry about seeding, hosting, etc. But it sure would seem to me that he would have teh team figured out as to who starts, who pitches, who relieves, who is the clutch hitter on the team before you play the first game of the season. I also have seen his tendenacies to use certain batters against certain pitchers, even leaving your top hitter on the bench because he has someone else that is batting a much lower % but is good against that type pitcher - in otherwords, he is playing the percentage he says, but more times than not it doesn't pan out. You get better, consistent by playing every day. If you didn't then why do they do it in the MLB? Just wondering out loud. Maybe Bianco is smarter than those coaches...who knows.

[oxfordrebel]

Let's see...we started out last year with a strong pitching group and won 11 games in a row. Then had a meltdown. Maybe we have unrealistic expectations of our baseball team this early and they will peak for SEC. Of course, if we have an OC losing record before entering the SEC, what will be said then? Just playing devil's advocate on this one.

If you don't have your sights set for the CWS now, then by the time your conference tournament rolls around you will have too much pressure placed on the players and coaches to make it.

I know Bianco says win the SEC and you don't have to worry about seeding, hosting, etc. But it sure would seem to me that he would have teh team figured out as to who starts, who pitches, who relieves, who is the clutch hitter on the team before you play the first game of the season. I also have seen his tendenacies to use certain batters against certain pitchers, even leaving your top hitter on the bench because he has someone else that is batting a much lower % but is good against that type pitcher - in otherwords, he is playing the percentage he says, but more times than not it doesn't pan out. You get better, consistent by playing every day. If you didn't then why do they do it in the MLB? Just wondering out loud. Maybe Bianco is smarter than those coaches...who knows.

You do have to have sights set on CWS now, but it's way too early to start panicing. I did a little bit this weekend and i was disgusted by our performance, but looking at it with more of a level head today it seems like this might just be what this team needs to get their heads screwed on straight.

You have to remember that most of their off-season stuff was done at Oxford High School due to the stadium renovations.

To play devil's advocate, a losing OOC record would be pretty devastating for Regional hosting opportunities and would probably result in the Rebels not hosting for all intents and purposes IF they made the Regionals. But if we end up with a losing OOC record then there's more important things to think about than Regionals at that point. Then it would be all about winning one game after the next. And that needs to be the focus right now. CWS is a long way off. If they will focus on one game at a time and win those then any Regional, SR, CWS hopes will take care of themselves.

One game at a time right now...like every season. The goal is Omaha, but you have to win today or else there won't be a tomorrow.

This is the most unprepared team I've seen thus far. I can only hope it was an abnormality and chalk some of it up to the fact that they haven't got to practice just a whole lot in a collegiate sized field this off-season. We just wait and see. All in due time.

[olemissreb10]

The next 5 games will be important. If we can sweep Central Arkansas and win the series against a solid TCU team, I think we will be alright. But if we go 2-3 or even 3-2 this week I'm going to start worrying