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Wake Forest 2023 baseball season thread (Deacs end historic season with extra inning loss to LSU: Final record 54-12 and top 4 finish nationally)

The world is far from perfect, but in a perfect world, WF would drill GMU, and save its best bullpen arms (WF's deep bullpen is one of the reasons why WF has been so good in midweek games), while MD and Northeastern play a tight, perhaps even an extra inning, game.
 
Yeah it's the postseason and anything can happen. I'll also say that at least half of those games were with midweek starters/bullpen going rather than Keener.

Not only should we be able to keep them from putting up a ton of runs, I'd expect our bats will also come out firing. Baseball is high variance but George Mason needs a lot to go right on both sides to win this one.

I think this ends up in the 14-3 territory.
 
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TheIshThatSaved WakeForest said:
We are playing the worst RPI team in the tourney. You just don’t waste Rhett there when the highest leverage game is game 2.

Now I agree that it takes some balls not to go Hartle there, but if we do what we’ve done all year we will be set up perfectly. Bats need to make it a non-issue in the first 3 innings.
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Every dog has their day in this tournament at one time or another. What happens if that is with GM and they come out smoking? Walter will have egg all over his face by not tossing one of his aces.
 
DeacWatcher said:
Every dog has their day in this tournament at one time or another. What happens if that is with GM and they come out smoking? Walter will have egg all over his face by not tossing one of his aces.
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If it happens it happens. You don't win the region by winning one game, the winner has to win at least 3 even if they don't lose the first two days and so you're maximizing the chances of doing so. I have no problem at all sending Keener out there. We beat better teams than George Mason midweek this season with Mascolo/bullpen going and no chance of the weekend guys coming in.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
oh i get it. For someone who is as devoted to stats and analytics as I am, you'd think this would make feel better. Yet I draw no comfort from such things in this moment.
And this isn't my bit either. This is true feelings of angst.
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I was going to post George Mason's jerseys to help you feel better, but they're really sharp.

Baseball 2023 NCAA Tournament
 
Keener is going to have to pitch a significant number of innings for us to win the regional. Those innings might as well be against the team that is not only the worst in our regional, but maybe in the whole field.

Throwing the 2x ACC pitcher of the year against a team as bad as George Mason would be ridiculous. Of course there’s a chance everything goes right for Mason and wrong for Wake, but that’s true regardless of who is on the mound.
 
If our board is like this about the SP decisions, can you imagine what the LSU board is like regarding Skenes in Game 1 or not? They actually don’t have anything near the pitching depth that we do, so I’m sure there’s some fans screaming to start Skenes against a 19-40 Tulane team lol.
 
deacon14 said:
If our board is like this about the SP decisions, can you imagine what the LSU board is like regarding Skenes in Game 1 or not? They actually don’t have anything near the pitching depth that we do, so I’m sure there’s some fans screaming to start Skenes against a 19-40 Tulane team lol.
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I actually looked at a couple of their boards this morning. Their only disagreement is with who to start between their Saturday starter and midweek guy against Tulane. Obviously nobody there believes they should start Skenes lol.

A couple folks mentioned starting their Sunday guy but it seems like he may have been dealing with some struggles lately based on responses there
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
I actually looked at a couple of their boards this morning. Their only disagreement is with who to start between their Saturday starter and midweek guy against Tulane. Obviously nobody there believes they should start Skenes lol.

A couple folks mentioned starting their Sunday guy but it seems like he may have been dealing with some struggles lately based on responses there
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Interesting, every pitcher on that team other than Skenes has been pretty bad lately, so that regional might be a fun one.

Even still I bet LSU wins a bunch of high scoring games to win the regional.
 
You aren't winning anything if you can't beat GM at home throwing your 3/4 option. You gotta win a lot of games to make it far and your top guys will only get 3-4 starts total in the whole post season. It takes a village. Our hitting is also elite so that has to show up every damn game especially when Lowder isn't out there.
 
Here are the game by game stats of LHP Ben Shields. He was George Mason's Friday starter for the end of the season:

Shields, Ben - Pitching
DateOpponentIPHRERBBSO
2/17/2023FIU5.021109
2/24/2023Rutgers6.031107
3/4/2023Niagara5.020037
3/11/2023Saint Peter's5.052244
3/18/2023Cornell5.044318
3/24/2023East Carolina5.167744
3/31/2023Rhode Island7.0422114
4/7/2023Dayton5.122246
4/14/2023VCU4.055228
4/21/2023St. Bonaventure4.145537
4/29/2023Richmond5.0521210
5/5/2023Fordham5.042224
5/12/2023George Washington2.155533
5/18/2023Saint Joseph's2.011112
5/24/2023Davidson6.022237
5/27/2023Saint Louis2.000012
 
ECU hammered him. Otherwise, Shields was able to keep his team in the game. Granted the only lineup that Shields faced which was comparable to WF is ECU.
 
ECU scored 1 in the 3rd, 1 in the fifth, and finally broke it open in the 6th inning

Shields took the mound tied 2-2 to start the 6th. Facing the #4 hitter for the 3rd time through the order, he went:

1. 7 pitch walk
2. HBP on an 0-2 count (ouch)
3. sac bunt
4. intentional walk of the #7 hitter
5. HBP on a full count scores a run
6. walk the #9 hitter scores a second run

and that was it for Shields. The relief pitcher gave up a bases-clearing double, allowing 3 inherited runners to score. So in the inning that lost the game for Shields, he had 3 walks, 2 HBP, zero hits allowed
 
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Gonna be key to take pitches (which we do very well) and punish bad pitches/mistakes. Work hard to get the pitch count up and take opportunities while you can, but all-in-all play your offense and get to the pen to punish if we're not up a lot early.
 
also key for the fanbase to not panic if it's 1-1 after 5 innings.

What am I saying, there will be panic
 
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