Notes from Rick Heller Show:
Talked about the wind, rain, finals and the fact that things just didn't fall our way this weekend, even though our starters Saturday and Sunday had improved performances and we hit the ball hard...just at people. Heller said that everything we tried backfired. The last time this happened was early in season at San Antonio.
He said, as Strausborger goes, so goes the team. Straus was 2 for 12 on the weekend. He hit the ball hard six times...right at people and Wallace made a diving catch on one. All you can do is to hit the ball hard. We did that. He mentioned that Ort went 2 for 11, but that Fieser had a good week in the four hole.
One error in our past six conference games.
Over the weekend, Van Skike was the best he's looked over the first five innings and JRod had his best outing of the year.
We know we can't win the conference during regular season, so we have to play good ball getting ready for the tournament. Happy with the way guys are approaching at bats and on base.
Talked about pacing Jake Petricka for the next two starts getting him ready for the MVC Tourney. This year, the tourney starts a day earlier, on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. That makes for a short turnaround between the Friday night game at Bradley and the first game of the tourney. The thinking is that he might be limited to 80-90 pitches on the Bradley start. We'll just have to see where we're falling in the bracket and then work our pitching accordingly. One the other side of the coin, with the tourney starting a day early, it provides the opportunity for the Tuesday starter to pitch in the Saturday championship game.
Talked about Ort, saying he has never been around a freshman player who believes in himself in a positive way. Not egotistical.
Scott Harlan was really strong in relief Friday and Saturday. A hip flexor injury has him hurting pretty bad. On Saturday, he didn't expect Harlan to be ready, but Harlan said that while he was hurting, don't hesitate to call on me, I'm ready. He did a fantastic job this weekend. Heller and Coach Herbst talked about how much they're going to miss him. He has minimized runs scored by the oppostion many times. I'll take nine Scott Harlans any day of the week. He works his tail off. Scotty's a tough kid and he does things the right way.
Talked about the composure freshman Tyler Browning showed in the face of some bad calls as he came out to get his ninth save on Saturday night.
The job that Rodriguez and Van Skike did Saturday and Sunday in throwing strikes and limiting hits gave Heller a renewed hope for our success in the tournament.
Talked about how difficult it is to get high in the RPI rankings as a northern school. The southern schools, like Wichita and Missouri State can play the Big 12 schools several times in their schedule. So, getting an invitation to the NCAA Tourney as a non-winner of the MVC Tourney is impossible for most of the teams in the MVC.
Talked about Dallas Baptist filling the Northern Iowa spot in the baseball line-up. Heller says it would be a big bonus for the league. The play a lot of highly ranked RPI teams and that puts them in the 30's RPI wise. Athletic Director Ron Prettyman and the other league athletic directors are in Dallas today touring the school and talking with officials. Heller says it would be great to place Oral Roberts in our league as well.
Finishing third in the league this year will be a feather in our hats this season.
The games this weekend were late entries and Heller appreciates those two programs adding us to their schedules. This would have been the weekend we were supposed to have played Northern Iowa. There has been a change in the locations for the games...as now both games will be played in Charleston.
Ferguson is getting back in the mix, but he has a theigh injury that is hurting bad...but he is toughing it out on the base path and in the outfield.
Burnam had a good weekend and also hit in the clutch. He's a great player and a great hitter.
Talked about senior defenders we're losing this year. Ferrell makes play after play at shortstop. He's as consistant a shortstop as you could possibly have. Fieser at third makes tough plays look easy. And, Strasborger's speed and natural instincts in the outfield will also be missed.
