Baseball Vs. Sacramento State Game 3

[AU64 10,122]

California puts out a ton of good baseball players so a teams like Sacramento State have a lot of good options. Its going to take time for Thompson, who is learning how to be a HC, to get the team where it needs to be mentally. Losing is contagious, and this program caught the fever over the last few years. Going to have to find a way to break out of that and start winning the winnable ones.

First let me call bs to this because most of the guys on this team were new last season and went to the NCAA tourney for the first time in quite a while. Most of those guys with "losing mentality" were drummed out of the corp by CSG who helped bring in some pretty good players with a 10th ranked recruiting class.

On the other hand, I can accept that since Butch got here after fall practice, he has not had time to evaluate most of these guys against pretty good competition. Might take a while for him sort out the practice players from the game-time players....kinda like football perhaps.

[jared52 4,358]

California puts out a ton of good baseball players so a teams like Sacramento State have a lot of good options. Its going to take time for Thompson, who is learning how to be a HC, to get the team where it needs to be mentally. Losing is contagious, and this program caught the fever over the last few years. Going to have to find a way to break out of that and start winning the winnable ones.

First let me call bs to this because most of the guys on this team were new last season and went to the NCAA tourney for the first time in quite a while. Most of those guys with "losing mentality" were drummed out of the corp by CSG who helped bring in some pretty good players with a 10th ranked recruiting class.

On the other hand, I can accept that since Butch got here after fall practice, he has not had time to evaluate most of these guys against pretty good competition. Might take a while for him sort out the practice players from the game-time players....kinda like football perhaps.

Call it want you want, but AU baseball has been underperforming for years. They used to be up there with LSU and Florida nationally on a yearly bases. That ended with Baird retiring. AU hasn't been feared since. It took time to get there and it will take time to get back.

[auburnphan 6,050]

Butch's first look at his team in live action, not worried at all, pitching is his strength, he will get the right guys in the right spot. Until you see them in live acton, he can' t put together a pitching staff.

[AU64 10,122]

California puts out a ton of good baseball players so a teams like Sacramento State have a lot of good options. Its going to take time for Thompson, who is learning how to be a HC, to get the team where it needs to be mentally. Losing is contagious, and this program caught the fever over the last few years. Going to have to find a way to break out of that and start winning the winnable ones.

First let me call bs to this because most of the guys on this team were new last season and went to the NCAA tourney for the first time in quite a while. Most of those guys with "losing mentality" were drummed out of the corp by CSG who helped bring in some pretty good players with a 10th ranked recruiting class.

On the other hand, I can accept that since Butch got here after fall practice, he has not had time to evaluate most of these guys against pretty good competition. Might take a while for him sort out the practice players from the game-time players....kinda like football perhaps.

Call it want you want, but AU baseball has been underperforming for years. They used to be up there with LSU and Florida nationally on a yearly bases. That ended with Baird retiring. AU hasn't been feared since. It took time to get there and it will take time to get back.

"Underperforming" .....That was the past.....and has nothing to do with the guys playing at AU now. Maybe some/many of AU's fans share your feeling but since none of them are on the field, what matters is that the coaches and players have a winning attitude. Butch (as did CSG) has a winning history and the guys wearing the uniform played in the NCAA last year and have some reinforcements to make them better this year.

Sad sack fans can moan about what used to be and difficulty in changing the attitude....but that's about the fans IMO. Looks to me that the program started getting turned around last season...and AU has the talent to follow up with something better this year....if Butch is the coach everyone thinks he is.

[jared52 4,358]

California puts out a ton of good baseball players so a teams like Sacramento State have a lot of good options. Its going to take time for Thompson, who is learning how to be a HC, to get the team where it needs to be mentally. Losing is contagious, and this program caught the fever over the last few years. Going to have to find a way to break out of that and start winning the winnable ones.

First let me call bs to this because most of the guys on this team were new last season and went to the NCAA tourney for the first time in quite a while. Most of those guys with "losing mentality" were drummed out of the corp by CSG who helped bring in some pretty good players with a 10th ranked recruiting class.

On the other hand, I can accept that since Butch got here after fall practice, he has not had time to evaluate most of these guys against pretty good competition. Might take a while for him sort out the practice players from the game-time players....kinda like football perhaps.

Call it want you want, but AU baseball has been underperforming for years. They used to be up there with LSU and Florida nationally on a yearly bases. That ended with Baird retiring. AU hasn't been feared since. It took time to get there and it will take time to get back.

"Underperforming" .....That was the past.....and has nothing to do with the guys playing at AU now. Maybe some/many of AU's fans share your feeling but since none of them are on the field, what matters is that the coaches and players have a winning attitude. Butch (as did CSG) has a winning history and the guys wearing the uniform played in the NCAA last year and have some reinforcements to make them better this year.

Sad sack fans can moan about what used to be and difficulty in changing the attitude....but that's about the fans IMO. Looks to me that the program started getting turned around last season...and AU has the talent to follow up with something better this year....if Butch is the coach everyone thinks he is.

If you don't believe that psyche plays a big role in sports, you are mistaken. Any "change the culture" talk comes with the underlying "this is an under-performing program" belief and it's very easy to fall into the losing ways over and over when things don't go as expected. It takes strong leadership to overcome that. This weekend didn't serve to help ward off the "under-performing program" part and guys, regardless of their talent level, can begin to perform worse when more of those under-performing things happen.

It WAY, WAY too early to say what's going to happen this year, or even next week. There's a TON of games left. But until AU baseball is more consistent all around, the threat of being beaten by much "lesser" teams will always exist.

[AU64 10,122]

California puts out a ton of good baseball players so a teams like Sacramento State have a lot of good options. Its going to take time for Thompson, who is learning how to be a HC, to get the team where it needs to be mentally. Losing is contagious, and this program caught the fever over the last few years. Going to have to find a way to break out of that and start winning the winnable ones.

First let me call bs to this because most of the guys on this team were new last season and went to the NCAA tourney for the first time in quite a while. Most of those guys with "losing mentality" were drummed out of the corp by CSG who helped bring in some pretty good players with a 10th ranked recruiting class.

On the other hand, I can accept that since Butch got here after fall practice, he has not had time to evaluate most of these guys against pretty good competition. Might take a while for him sort out the practice players from the game-time players....kinda like football perhaps.

Call it want you want, but AU baseball has been underperforming for years. They used to be up there with LSU and Florida nationally on a yearly bases. That ended with Baird retiring. AU hasn't been feared since. It took time to get there and it will take time to get back.

"Underperforming" .....That was the past.....and has nothing to do with the guys playing at AU now. Maybe some/many of AU's fans share your feeling but since none of them are on the field, what matters is that the coaches and players have a winning attitude. Butch (as did CSG) has a winning history and the guys wearing the uniform played in the NCAA last year and have some reinforcements to make them better this year.

Sad sack fans can moan about what used to be and difficulty in changing the attitude....but that's about the fans IMO. Looks to me that the program started getting turned around last season...and AU has the talent to follow up with something better this year....if Butch is the coach everyone thinks he is.

If you don't believe that psyche plays a big role in sports, you are mistaken. Any "change the culture" talk comes with the underlying "this is an under-performing program" belief and it's very easy to fall into the losing ways over and over when things don't go as expected. It takes strong leadership to overcome that. This weekend didn't serve to help ward off the "under-performing program" part and guys, regardless of their talent level, can begin to perform worse when more of those under-performing things happen.

It WAY, WAY too early to say what's going to happen this year, or even next week. There's a TON of games left. But until AU baseball is more consistent all around, the threat of being beaten by much "lesser" teams will always exist.

I understand the culture thing....especially in football where it takes several years to turn over the personnel on a team and there is lots of carried over "attitude".

In this case, there was almost a complete turnover last year and very few players and no coaches have been part of the "past problems" and the team should have ...and likely this squad came into this season with high expectations after making the NCAA last year. And one thing about baseball, the unknown or unrespected teams can slip up on anyone so losing two this weekend was not a disaster. The bullpen letting leads get away twice in a row was disturbing....contrary to WarTiger's observation above. In both games, the bullpen was given a 2 run lead to hold for two innings....which even in the era of a slightly livelier baseball, is still a reasonable request.

It was obvious that Butch has not found a "closer" yet...considering that he shopped around quite a bit and put a number of guys on the mound trying to find a "stopper" who could get out of an inning with a struggle. It's probably going to take some time to determine who can step up and do the job a couple times a week.

It was hard to tell who is going to be the "man" so early in the season but Mize and Yarbrough had good outings. I am curious about not seeing Sprinkle yet. His name was mentioned but nothing about him not being able to pitch...perhaps this week. Not sure if he is to be a starter or in the pen.

I'm not discouraged about the weekend....thought it was good to see some guys who can power the ball....just need to get better pitching late in the game....and Butch is a pitcher's coach so he should be able to find some answers pretty soon.

[autigeremt 7,131]

Butch's first look at his team in live action, not worried at all, pitching is his strength, he will get the right guys in the right spot. Until you see them in live acton, he can' t put together a pitching staff.

I agree. Outside of the errors in game 1 I saw some good signs for this team. If we can get our starters conditioned for 5-6 innings we can bridge the pen better to the closer. Sac. State is a pretty good team out of the WAC so the competition was a good test for this team out of the gate. Ken. State will be here tomorrow and they had a good weekend at the plate (23 runs).

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

Will say this much: Sac State made about eleventy-six thousand great defensive plays to save runs/save games both on Saturday and Sunday. Team looked pretty fundamentally sound. We got our hits but they weathered the storm. That was a pretty good ball club.

[AU64 10,122]

Will say this much: Sac State made about eleventy-six thousand great defensive plays to save runs/save games both on Saturday and Sunday. Team looked pretty fundamentally sound. We got our hits but they weathered the storm. That was a pretty good ball club.

After the first game, some good plays by both teams. Palacious (sp) saved the game momentarily with a great throw to the plate from left and cut off a ball that could have gone to the wall....and the AU 3B took a double away late in the game with a good play. I thought the AU defense was solid after game #1.

So....still no comment from someone in the know about Sprinkle?

[PowerOfDixieland 3,236]

So....still no comment from someone in the know about Sprinkle?

Supposed to start against Kennesaw State Tuesday. Not many freshaman have done that at Plainsman Park. Could be one of the answers to the questions from this weekend.

As for the mental makeup of this team and the insinuation that they have a losers makeup, that is dead wrong. If this group did nothing else last year, they learned how to fight. Golloway kicked the absolute crap out of those guys and they proved their toughness. Don't doubt that. Anybody making any predictions off of one weekend doesn't know much. Pitching was not good, Thompson will correct that. Count on it.

[autigeremt 7,131]

So....still no comment from someone in the know about Sprinkle?

Supposed to start against Kennesaw State Tuesday. Not many freshaman have done that at Plainsman Park. Could be one of the answers to the questions from this weekend.

As for the mental makeup of this team and the insinuation that they have a losers makeup, that is dead wrong. If this group did nothing else last year, they learned how to fight. Golloway kicked the absolute crap out of those guys and they proved their toughness. Don't doubt that. Anybody making any predictions off of one weekend doesn't know much. Pitching was not good, Thompson will correct that. Count on it.

Agreed! I see some positives in this lost series. FYI....I spoke to the Sac. State coaching staff via email today. They said our staff is the classiest group they've been around. Outside of baseball they enjoyed the experience and really liked the park.

[AU64 10,122]

Thanks for the comments POD and autiger.....agree wholeheartedly about the assessment of the team's mental attitude...no reason these guys should be toting any baggage along from previous years. CSG could/was an a** from all I read, but he did know baseball and got a lot out of a young team that had modest talent. Those who went through that season are probably better for it. JMO

Hope Sprinkle does start....since he is apparently not on the injured, list, it does sound like Butch was saving him for a starting role.

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

As much as we'd like to be at a top level, we are not at this point in the season. Thompson has to learn about his team and try to scratch out as many non-conference wins as he can at this point. We will make our greatest impact in SEC play. If we have a good enough SEC record and are over .500 overall, we'll be in the tourney. Let's build a team over the season and be playing our best baseball come gut-check time.