The Aggies came into Fresno Friday night with a good chance at coming away with a win. The reason for that was the Ags were throwing their ace Dayne Quist. Friday night was the first time all season Quist looked human on the mound. Before facing the Bulldogs Quist had 4 wins in 4 starts along with a 1.83 ERA while only allowing opponents to hit .167 against him. Friday was a very different story for the young southpaw. He looked very hittable against the potent offense of the Fresno State Bulldogs. The Aggie ace lasted 6 innings, which is his shortest appearance on the season, and he gave up 8 runs on 11 hits. I'll be looking at Quist more in depth later this week but Friday night presented a laundry list of things that he needs to improve on to get back to his dominant ways.
The Aggies offense didn't do much to help out their pitcher, being held to just 2 runs on 6 hits. Even worse, two of the Aggies top batters went with out a hit on the night. Scott Lyman and Eric Johnson both had very rough nights as they went a combined 0 for 8 with 2 strikeouts and left 7 runners on base. The other hitter in the heart of the lineup for the Aggies, clean up hitter David Popkins, preformed decently going 1 for 3 with a walk and a run scored. Scott Kalush also had a nice night at the plate, going 1 for 2 with a walk and a run batted in. As far as the bullpen went, Scott Chew got some game time for the first time this season and looked decent. Chew could work out to be a nice southpaw coming out of the pen.
Overall Friday night was a good example of how the Aggies don't want to play once they hit the conference schedule. The pitching was sub-par for pretty much the entire night and the hitting left a lot to be desired. What made it even worse was just how good the Bulldogs looked in those two facets of the game.
From the outset it was clear that this Bulldogs team could mash, scoring 3 runs against Quist in the first inning. The offense continued in the second inning behind the bat of Junior second baseman Danny Muno, who finished the night 2 for 3 with a walk, 1 RBI and 2 runs scored. To start the bottom of the second, Muno drilled a no-doubter home run to right field. Quist held the Bulldogs scoreless for a couple innings but in the 5th the Bulldogs broke the game wide open with 4 runs. Quist was outpitched by fellow lefty Josh Poytress, who went 7 innings for Fresno. The 7 innings was a career high, and he held the Aggies to just 5 hits while walking 4. After the 5th inning of this game you could tell the the Aggies had been morally defeated.
The Saturday night game also had a 6:05 first pitch time but had a very different feel to the start of the game. Anthony Kupbens pitched very well through 6 innings but the term hit the wall seems to fit for how the game ended for the young lefty. He had a very nice slow loopy curve working off and on throughout the game that, when combined with his 84-85mph fastball, was very effective. His command was iffy from the get-go walking 5 and leaving the game with multiple runners on base that the bullpen had to deal with. Writing about this game is especially hard because of how it ended.
As I said before, I was on site for KDVS calling the game. To watch the Aggie pitching completely fall apart at the end of the game was difficult to say the least. The Aggies tried to hold off the Bulldog offense but the combination of strong Fresno State hitters and the struggles in the UC Davis bullpen gave the feeling that, even though the Aggies had led big early, the momentum was no longer in their favor. The Aggies allowed 6 runs in the last 3 innings to finish with a disappointing 7-6 loss. That will be a point of high concern going forward in my opinion. The starters won't be able to go 9 innings every game so they're going to have to get some help from the other pitchers on the roster.
It only took Lyman 85 pitches to complete the game and get his first victory of the year. Lyman had what was easily the best showing of his on the mound this season. He did walk a few too many batters at 4 but he held the Bulldogs to 6 hits and only 1 earned run. One of the most important things for Lyman was keeping Danny Muno hitless and only allowing him on the bases 1 time. Paul Politi lead the Aggie offense chipping in at 3 for 5 for the night with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI. Politi went yard in the top of the 9th to put the game out of reach of the Bulldogs.
Hey guys, my name is Trevor and like Brett said on the message board, I'm going to be the new Baseball beat writer.
Before I jump into things I figured I would share a little bit about myself. I'm currently attending UCD as a History major. While I study History in school, my passion from a young age has been Baseball so I'm excited to step in and write about the hometown team. I'm actually one of the few local students that actually sticks around to go to college. I graduated from Davis High class of '04 and then spent sometime at Sac City until starting at UCD this past fall. Also, I post on the board under foolintherain. But enough about me, I wanted to start off my period here at AST with a run down of some of the players on the squad this year, and I figured the starting rotation would be a good place to begin. While Dayne Quist has been extremely impressive thus far this year I figured I'd start with the more interesting player in my mind, Scott Lyman.
The Sophomore RHP/OF has performed extremely well from the plate but has struggled thus far from the mound. Lyman is the only member of the Aggies' weekend starting rotation that is also a normal member of the everyday lineup; David Popkins has appeared in 4 games while also leading the Aggies with a .475 average but he has only appeared in relief. Some people have started to question what can be done to right Lyman's ship as his record stands at 0-2 while his earned run average is at 8.66 though 17.2 innings. While those numbers look really bad, he also has 17 strike outs in that span so on some level there is clearly something going right.
Lyman is just a sophomore but already has an overpowering arsenal of pitches. He has a strong fastball with a nice sink to it, a sharp curve he can break off and he also throws a change up, but not as often as the other two. The problem so far this season has been his lack of command of those pitches.
In his first start of the season against the Utah Utes, Lyman started off well but was removed after only 3 innings when his hamstring acted up. That week was a decent showing of his potential before the injury. The next week against BYU he got hit much harder, while making it through 3.1 innings he gave up nine hits and seven runs that were all earned. While Lyman's day on the mound was not great he did K 6 Cougars so he clearly had some stuff going right that day. His start against the Hornets was another case of taking the good and the bad. In 5.1 innings he gave up 7 hits and 5 earned runs but he did strike out 6 Sac State hitters.
Lyman is a very talented pitcher and has shown that early on this year, but there is pretty clearly something wrong. It might just be that he needs time to work on his command but Rex Peters and the rest of the coaching staff has shown they are willing to try to help Lyman be the best pitcher he can. His start against the San Jose State Spartans marked the first time that Lyman did not take his normal spot in the lineup while he was also pitching.
Not having him hit while he's pitching is just one of many steps that I think the team could take in order to get him back on track. One suggestion from our very own Brett Rodriguez was that Lyman pitch on Friday instead of Sunday. This would give Lyman the best chance at being a successful pitcher but it could hamper his hitting and playing outfield later in the weekend. After pitching on Friday he might not be able to play outfield the next two days, and hurting the chances of success for your best hitter is not a smart idea when the offense is going the way it is early this season. He could potentially play DH after pitching but then one of the Aggies' other best hitters so far this year, David Popkins, would be out of his lineup spot. So pitching on Friday may not be the best option.
All of this could be for nothing; maybe all Lyman needs is time, but doing nothing isn't a very realistic option either. The coaching staff has taken some steps and Lyman will be one of the more interesting situations to keep an eye on as the season progresses. In my opinion one thing is for sure, Scott Lyman has the potential to be an amazing Aggie. On the mound and at the plate he has the tools and the skill set to be an amazing player.
In the coming weeks I'm hoping to bring more in depth looks like this for other players on the roster as well as keeping up with how the team is doing this season in general.
Labels: Baseball, Scott Lyman
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