MSU @ ISU--Game Two (5/1)

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bluepower

Baseball Mod
With almost an inch of rain overnight and perhaps a bit more by the 2:00 p.m. first pitch, the infield should be OK with a slick outfield. The gametime temp is expected to be 70-degrees under mostly cloudy skies with a chance for an isolated thunderstorm. Winds will be much lighter than last night at up to 10 miles per hour from the NNW. See the separate thread on the weather for complete forecast details.

Petricka update: A lot of scouts were at the game and I'm hearing that Petricka's fastball was hitting about 97 most of the time with a top speed of 99! With an awesome change-up and good breaking stuff, he was able to mix things up nicely for most of the game...although he struggled at time over the last three innings. It was "struggling" for him...pretty normal for the rest of us! Over his last five starts, Petricka's ERA is a miserly 1.70.

After a masterful performance last night by Jake Petricka, ISU looks to take two more from an MSU team that is but a faint image of the dominance they showed last year. Prior to last night, MSU had won the last 11 games played in Terre Haute.

Today, the official field inauguration will be at 1:30, followed by the first pitch at 2:00. Joe Rodriguez (4-1, 5.26 ERA, 63.1 innings, 51 K's) will be looking to put together a strong outing. Joe has the stuff, but has had setbacks, like last week's game where he took on a lot of water in the form of earned runs.

MSU is throwing RHP Pat Doyle (4-6, 3.77 ERA, 52 innings, 58 K's) who has started ten games. On average he's completing just five innings. Opposing batters are hitting .294. He has walked 19, hit 10 and has eight wild pitches. Let's try to do what we did last night and strike early to see if we can tap Doyle's wild side.

Today's game will be braodast on ESPN Radio, WBOW (1130 & 1300) and is available through live stats. The link to both is below:

http://www.gosycamores.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=15200&KEY=&SPID=7256&SPSID=65130

I WILL NOT BE DOING A PLAY-BY-PLAY TODAY, SO PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST COMMENTS DURING AND AFTER THE GAME. I PLAN TO POST SOME POST-GAME COMMENTS AS WELL. GO TREES!
 
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My youngest's little league game was just cancelled here in Fishers. Provided the wife doesn't have anything for me to do, I'll try to fill in for bluepower.
 
sycamores lead 5-1 after 2 1/2 innings....

five runs in the bottom half of the first inning for indiana state.....
 
sycamores jump lead to 8-1 after three full innings......

two big missouri state errors in the bottom of the third allowed indiana state to push more runs across the plate....scattered showers in terre haute area....
 
sycamores still lead 8-1 through 4 1/2 innings.....

showers off and on during the game...dark clouds over bob warn field.....
 

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Let's hope the Sycamores take a hungry bite out of the Bears...a 3-sweep would be a real MVC confidence builder!

I'm getting ready for the KY Derby. A Castle '69 classmate owns 1/25th of Noble's Promise...he and 24 of his Army Corp of Engineers chums in Paducah, KY shelled out $1,000 each to buy Noble Promise - who's won $1.6m so far, not a bad investment, eh?
 
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In a game that officially went 3:07 in almost constant light rain...the Sycamores pulled out an ugly contest by a score of 10-3 over MSU. As you read above, we scored early, starting with a Strausborger lead-off single, followed by five other Sycamores reaching base before the first out was tallied. 5-0 ISU after the first. Another three hits in the third resulted in three more runs...and we got a couple of insurance runs in the eighth.

Joe Rodriguez was not at his sharpest, but got through the first six, giving up just one run. He walked five and struck out seven. Then things got ugly in the seventh...as Rodriguez walked the first two batters and was removed after throwing 134 pitches. Merkley walked the first batter he saw and had a two ball count on his second batter when he was pulled. Harlan came in with the bases loaded and no outs. Harlan got a strike on that batter, but he ended up walking bringing in a run for MSU. The Harlan threw a breaking ball that hit the carpet behind the plate and Lucas got a glove on it, but it rolled from the dish and another run scored. Perhaps with dry carpet, the catcher would have been able to block the pitch. Harlan then struck out the next three batters in succession, one swinging and two looking. Barandon Flora came in to start the eighth and hit a batter and walked the next one but regained his control to forces three ground ball outs. Then in the ninth, Dorsett came in and walked the first batter he saw and hit the next, struck out the next and then gave up another walk. With one out and two on, closer Tyler Browning came in to get the final two outs of the game with and strikeout and a groundout. Browning, after a couple of shakey outing recently was spot on in his pitching today...which was great to see.

We gave up lots of walks and HBP's, but somehow managed to get out of messy situation after messy situation. MSU stranded 12 baserunners.

Tomorrow, ISU looks for a sweep, if we can squeeze the game in between the raindrops. With another inch of rain possibly tonight and early tomoorw, the outfield will be a mess and if the rain doesn't end entirely, the infield drainage may be lagging. Without the Field Turf, today's game would not have been possible.

Jason Van Skike will lead the charge on Senior Day's game which gets underway at 1:00 p.m. (ET) at Bob Warn Field.
 
in other MVC games, Illinois State pounded WSU (helps ISU catch WSU, but obviously not ILS), and Creighton beat Evansville.

SIU beat SIUE
 
ValleyFanatic said:
Just curious.

Which is more important to you guys? Catching WSU or catching the Valley leader?
Click to expand...

i think its the leader but he was saying that WSU getting beat helps us catch them (being second place) but not first place... just stating facts about what the game does
 

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Jason Svoboda said:
If you're in a race, don't you try to catch the guy in front of you and then set your sights on whomever is ahead next?
Click to expand...

Very good point. But even if it means it distances yourself further from I'm assuming the ultimate goal?

I'm not trying to make it a big deal, I just was seriously curious.
 
This article was in Sunday's Springfield, Missouri News-Leader about Saturday's game. I particularly love the part about "ISU will go for the sweep at Noon (CT) today." But, the scarry part is that MSU was 1-21 with runners in scoring position! We were living too close to the edge for my comfort. However, the MSU players seemed to have been placed in a stupor after ISU went up 5-0 in the first.

Here's that link:

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20100502/SPORTS/5020395/1002/SPORTS/Indiana-State-thumps-Bears
 
Could be the big 3-0 for Sycamores today...30 wins is quite a cornerstone to rally around, given Coach Heller's 1st season in the 'Haute. Way the go, Trees!
 

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Was at yesterday's Bob Warn Field dedication and "rainy" game. Not the best of conditions but enjoyed it anyway. Had to leave after 5 innings as too many pitches took up a lot of time. Heard a blurb about a "new format" for the Valley tourney; maybe with two pods like the College World Series? Anyone that can shed any light on that?
 
I was hoping WSU would win, so ILS would fall back closer to the pack, but catching WSU 1st is obviously more important, then ISU has to keep winning and hope MSU, UE, and Bradley can win some games vs. ILS. and have WSU lose a few more MVC games too. We'll see how it all plays out in the next 3-4 weeks.

ValleyFanatic said:
Just curious.

Which is more important to you guys? Catching WSU or catching the Valley leader?
Click to expand...
 
ISU_TREE_FAN said:
Was at yesterday's Bob Warn Field dedication and "rainy" game. Not the best of conditions but enjoyed it anyway. Had to leave after 5 innings as too many pitches took up a lot of time. Heard a blurb about a "new format" for the Valley tourney; maybe with two pods like the College World Series? Anyone that can shed any light on that?
Click to expand...

When I was talking to RP I told him that I was tired of the "Wichita Invitational" at the end of the year and he said that this was the last year that it would be in WSU and then it was going to change, but said that was the most he could say right now.
 
SycamoreFan317 said:
When I was talking to RP I told him that I was tired of the "Wichita Invitational" at the end of the year and he said that this was the last year that it would be in WSU and then it was going to change, but said that was the most he could say right now.
Click to expand...

In college baseball, neutral sites don't work except for in the SEC and the College World Series. That's it. That's why the NCAA Tournament is not played on neutral settings. The teams with the best records and perhaps more importantly the teams with the best fan support is where you'll see baseball played. Do people complain every year that Baton Rouge, Austin, and Tempe always host the regional games? No. Why? Because that's how the system works.

In the Valley's case, WSU has been the perennial power in this conference and more importantly has drawn more fans by about a 10:1 ratio or more. That's the deal with this sport. If you don't like it, then I suggest you stay competitive for more than 2 years at a time AND have more than 300 come watch your baseball games. Otherwise, you will be crying on deaf ears.
 
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