Wednesday, May 26, 2010
UCSB Series Recap
Now that is more like it. It wasn't pretty at times but the Aggies found away not only to win but they swept the Gauchos this past weekend. The Aggies starting pitching was still impressive but they did struggle at times, in turn the bullpen still struggled but was also decent at times. Dayne Quist set the stage again with a solid outing on Friday

Friday-
Quist was on top of his game again in his second to last start of the year. The young southpaw went 7 innings, giving up just 2 runs. Those 2 runs Quist gave up were in his last inning of work, when the Aggies already had a 6 run lead. Scott Chew came in on the 8th inning but was ineffective, only retiring 1 batter whiling giving up 4 hits and 3 runs. Matthew Lewis came on in relief of Chew and was much more productive than his last appearance. Lewis went the final 1 and 2/3 innings in the game while only giving up 1 hit.

Offensively the Aggies were on top of things. They were assisted by some rough defense by the Gauchos, only 1 of the Aggies runs were actually earned. David Popkins started his Big West player of the week series off with a bang going 3 for 5 with 2 RBI. The two Scott's, Lyman and Heylman went a combined 4 for 8 with 2 runs scored and 1 RBI.

The Aggies being able to hold off the surging Gauchos late in the game was a big step in the right direction for this young team as they look to be more competitive in Big West play next year.

Saturday-

This time the Aggies played from behind and were able to make a come back late, with 7 runs scored in the last 3 innings. Sean Watson struggled, something that is unusual after his last couple outings, but Scott Heinig picked up the slack going 3 and 2/3 innings in relief. Heinig would only allow 2 walks while not giving up any hits.

The Aggies offense was even more in sync than Friday, David Popkins was 4 for 5 with 2 runs and 1 RBI. Scott Lyman did his job as clean up man, driving in 6 off his teammates on the day. 3 of Lyman's RBI came on his 5th home run of the season in the 7th inning. Seth 'The Secret Weapon' Batty was on top of his game on Saturday, going 3 for 5 and chipping in both a run and RBI.

The win on Saturday secured the 3rd conference series win for the Aggies and give them their 7th win in conference. The Aggies winning from protecting a lead and coming from behind was something that has to make Coach Rex Peters feel good. The momentum was in their favor heading into the Sunday match-up.

Sunday-
The Aggies seemed to be in the fast lane heading into Sunday but would soon fall behind 8-0 by the 5th inning. Scott Lyman struggled on the mound and at the plate but was picked up by his team mates in both aspects. Nathan Slater and Matthew Lewis combined to go 6 innings, allowing 2 hits and only walking 1 Gaucho.

Offensively the Aggies top of the lineup carried the team on Sunday. Justin Schafer went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored an 1 RBI. Scott Heylman went 1 for 5 with a walk, 2 runs scored, and 1 run batted in. David Popkins finished off his amazing weekend going 4 for 5 on Sunday, he scored twice and drove in 5 Aggies.



Looking Forward-
The Aggies only have 3 more games on the schedule this year after Tuesday nights game in Palo Alto got rained out. They'll travel down to the Inland Empire and take on the UC Riverside Highlanders for the final weekend series of the year.

While there has been plenty of negatives this year as far as performance goes, David Popkins has not been party of that. The Aggie DH/OF became the first position player to get Big West player of the week since Kyle Mihaylo received the honor in 2008. The switch hitting slugger leads or is tied for the lead in the following categories; in batting average, runs scored, hits, triples, runs batted in, total bases, slugging percentage, and on base percentage. I for one would like to congratulate Popkins on an amazing year.

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Posted at 9:10 PM by Trevor.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Cal Poly Series Recap
The big story of the weekend was great starting pitching, unfortunately the other story of the weekend was the bullpen and not for the same reason as the starters. The Aggies looked to bounce back after struggling in Big West Play, they showed a lot of good things on the field as well as bad things. The 12 inning battle on Friday set the tone for the rest of the weekend.

Friday-
Dayne Quist was back on top of his game Friday, he went 7 innings while only allowing 4 hits and 5 walks. Quist was able to keep the Mustangs to only 1 run during his time on the bump for the Ags. After He left the mound the rest of the Aggie pitchers were unable to have the same amount of success as the southpaw. Slater, Lewis and Blom combined to go 4 and 1/3 while giving up 6 hits, walked 6, and gave up 5 runs that were all earned. Over on the Mustangs side, Jeff Johnson came in and shut down the Aggies. In 4 and 2/3 innings of relief, Johnson allowed 2 hits and 2 walks while throwing shutout ball.

Offensively the Aggies had their ups-and-downs also. Scott Lyman continued his torrid season, going 2 for 5 with a run scored and 3 RBI. David Popkins went 2 for 4 with a run and RBI. Aside from those two guys the rest of the Aggies struggled for the most part. The Mustangs lost one of their better hitters part way through the game, Ross Brayton was hit in the neck/head area during his first inning of catching. Brayton did not return Friday or the rest of series.


Saturday-
Again on Saturday the Aggies had a great performance from a starter get spoiled by the bullpen. Sean Watson went 8 innings, gave up 6 hits and only walked 1. He struck out 4 while holding the Mustangs to 3 runs, 2 earned. DJ Mauldin went the distance for the Mustangs, giving up 9 hits and walked 2. He gave up 4 earned runs against the Aggies. David Popkins and Nathan Slater combined to give up the lead in the 9th inning, giving up 2 hits and 2 walks, also 2 earned runs. They also allowed one of the runners inherited from Watson to score.

Lyman and Popkins were the top performers at the plate again for the Aggies. Combined, they went, 3 for 7 while scoring 2 runs and driving 2 runs in. David Van Ostrand lead the Mustangs, going 3 for 4 with 1 run scored and 2 RBI.

The amount that the games Friday and Saturday looked the same, aside from the extra innings, was interesting and upsetting for Aggie fans. The lack of bullpen help really has hurt the Aggies all year but This weekend it really showed.

Sunday-
Senior Day for the Aggies, Kyle Mihaylo, Sean Watson, Scott Heinig, and Tim Busbin were all honored before the game. The Aggies will be returning everyone else next year.

Scott Lyman was on the mound and he continued the strong starting performances. He went 7 and 2/3 innings, he scattered 9 hits and 5 walks. 2 runs was all that came across on Lyman's watch and Scott Chew came in and was able to do something no other reliever had done that weekend, shut down the Mustangs. Chew went the remaining 1 and 1/3 innings while only giving up 1 hit and striking out 1.

The Mustangs starting pitching showed some weakness for the first time all weekend, Eugene Wright was roughed around during his 1 and 1/3, he walked 2 and gave up 5 hits while letting 4 runs score. The Mustangs bullpen worked a little better with Tommy Erlin pitching well before the Aggies broke loose against him also. Frankie Reed and Mark DeVincenzi pitched 4 shut out innings to end the game for the Mustangs. At that point the Aggies didn't need anymore runs, playing with a sizable lead.

The Bats came alive on Sunday for the Aggies, with the team scoring 8 runs on 11 hits. All the Aggies runs came in 2 different innings, the 1st and 4th with 4 runs scoring in each inning. Lyman continued the recent trend of being back in the lineup while he was on the mound, he went 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI and 2 walks. Kyle Mihaylo had a strong Senior day, going 2 for 3 with a run scored and 2 RBI. Justin Schafer and Scott Heylman went 4 for 8 at the top of the order, with Heylman also scoring 2 runs.

Looking forward:
The Aggies struggled against Nevada on Tuesday losing 6-8, but then came back and won their last game at Dobbins for the year, 11-6 against the visiting Broncos of Santa Clara. Scott Lyman even made a start at 1B on Wednesday, going 3 for 5 and scored 3 runs.

The Aggies will hit the road for their final 7 games, with the next three down in Santa Barbara against the Gauchos. Then they'll have a midweek game against Stanford in Palo Alto, before finishing off the year down in sunny southern California against the Highlanders of Riverside.

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Posted at 8:51 PM by Trevor.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Pacific Tigers Series Recap
Unfortunately for the Aggies they're struggling with some of the key parts of their game, mostly pitching, and there's no time outs in conference play. The Aggies struggled last weekend against a tough Cal State Northridge team, except for the exceptional performance from Scott Lyman. This past weekend the Aggies pitching struggled again, and this time they were not bailed out on Sunday by Lyman.


Friday-
Dayne Quist has been a bit of an enigma throughout the season. His first 4 starts of the year were extremely dominant, but since then he has had big swings in performance, with more downs than ups. This past Friday was definitely a down on the scale of the season. Quist made it to the 5th inning against the Tigers but was unable to record an out and was removed after facing 7 batters that inning. CJ Blom came in on relief for Quist, and while he performed better than Quist, he still allowed another 3 runs over the final 5 innings. Overall it's a day the Aggies pitching staff may want to forget, the two southpaws combined to allow 16 hits and 12 runs of which 9 were earned. They also walked 5 batters while only striking out 6. The bigger problem with the game on Friday was that at the same time that the pitching was struggling, the hitting wasn't doing much better.

The Lineup was short one of the more important hitters for the Aggies, Justin Schafer, who is currently injured with an upper leg injury. Justin Andrade took Schafer's spot in the line up but played second base, with Heylman sliding over to play shortstop. The Aggies were able to put together 8 hits and 5 walks but only 1 run on Friday. That run came after Justin Andrade got on base with a walk and stole second base, he would come around to score on a Scott Kalush single. That's about it for good news on the offense. Marcus Pointer for the Tigers was able to, in the truest sense, spread the 8 hits and 4 walks that he surrendered. One last good note, every starting player for the Ags reached base at least once.

Saturday-
The pitching held the Tigers to a little less on Saturday and the offense was able to put more runs across the plate, but in the end it turned out to come just a little short as the Aggies. The Aggies would fall 7-5 on Saturday but there are a lot more good things to take away from the game.

While Sean Watson wasn't extremely impressive on the mound, he has given the Aggies a sense of stability that had been missing since Anthony Kupbens was lost for the rest of the year. David Popkins and Matthew Lewis were very strong in relief of Watson, keeping the game close for a potential come back.

Seth "the secret weapon" Batty, making his second start of the weekend, went 2 for 3 with a walk and drove in 3 runs. Paul Politi, who made a movement into the 3rd spot of the lineup, finished the game 3 for 5 and scored a run. The Aggies line was active from top to bottom, with Scott Kalush the only starter to not collect a hit, although he did reach base on a walk. Overall the Aggies offense put together 16 hits, 2 more than the Tigers. but the Tigers were able to capitalize on scoring opportunities better than the Aggies were. For the Tigers, Nick Longmire continued a very good weekend, going 4 for 5 on Saturday, after going 4 for 5 on Friday.

The Aggies showed once again that they are a very young team that is going to have their ups-and-downs in different facets of the game.

Sunday-
Scott Lyman, who was masterful last week, took a step back against the Tigers. The Aggies Sophomore Righty lasted 5 and 2/3 innings, he struck out 7 Tigers but walked 7 also and allowed 10 hits. Scott Chew went 2 innings of relief, giving up 2 hits and walking 1 while striking out 3. Matthew Lewis struggled finishing up the game, in 1 and 1/3 inning he allowed 3 run on 2 hits and 2 walks.

Lyman, who was reinstalled back into the line up last weekend, went 1 for 4 with 2 RBI in his batting duties Sunday. Paul Politi was back in the 3rd spot of the line up but did not preform at the same level as Saturday, going 0 for 5. Seth "the secret weapon" Batty finished off a strong weekend where he started all 3 games, he went 3 for 5 and scored 2 runs. Davis Popkins went 2 for 3 while driving in a run and scoring 1.


Looking forward-
The Aggies are in Moraga today taking on Saint Mary's. This coming weekend will be the last home series of the year for The Ags, with the Cal Poly Mustangs coming to town with their 6 and 12 Big West Record. The Mustangs are only a couple of games ahead of the Aggies, which means if UCD can win this series there is potential for them to move out of the last place position of the Big West.

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Posted at 4:27 PM by Trevor.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Cal State Northridge Series Recap
To say the Aggies had been struggling in conference play might be an understatement. They had been swept by both Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine, while taking 2 out of 3 against Long Beach State. The Aggies went into Northridge this past weekend with a conference record of 2-7 and were occupying the basement of the Big West Standings. The Aggies opened up their weekend series putting their ace southpaw, Dayne Quist, on the mound.

Friday-
Quist on a solid but unspectacular outing. He went 6 innings while giving up 5 runs, all of which were earned. He did strike out 8 Matadors on the day while only walking 2. Overall the outing from Quist was not the dominant performance the Aggies had come to expect early in the year but it was an improvement over what he had thrown in some recent conference games. Nathan Slater and Matthew Lewis worked in relief of Quist, with Lewis picking up his 5th save of the year. While the Aggies pitching was decent, the story of the weekend for the Aggies was the offense.

The Aggies put up 15 hits against Northridge on Friday in route to scoring 9 runs. Kyle Mihaylo, Eric Johson, Paul Politi, and Scott Lyman lead the way for the Aggies going a combined 9 for 18, scoring 7 runs, driving in 6, and walking 2 times. Mihaylo and Lyman both went yard on Friday also giving them 5 and 4 on the year respectively at the time. The Aggies played with a a lead for all of the game, the final score coming in at 9-7.

Saturday-
Everything that went right for the Aggies offense on Friday, didn't on Saturday. The Aggies managed 6 hits and 4 walks but only one of the Ags had more than 1 hit, Scott Kalush had 2. The Aggie hitters were stifled by Junior righty Paul Tremlin, he went the full 9 innings on 117 pitches. Tremlin was abled to spread the hits and walks around and only give up 1 run on a Seth "the secret weapon" Batty sac-fly.

Aggie pitching struggled on Saturday, Sean Watson started but only lasted 4 and 2/3 innings while giving up 4 runs. Scott Heinig came on in relief of Watson but struggled even more than Watson did, giving up 7 runs in 3 and 1/3 innings.

Sunday-
The Aggies offense was firing on all pistons on Sunday to finish out the series and they didn't even have one of their best hitters in the line-up. Scott Lyman took to the mound for the Ags so, given the plan that has been set out by Rex Peters, Lyman would not be hitting that game. The Aggies didn't even have help from David Popkins, another one of the most dangerous hitters on the team, he struggled going 0 for 3 on the day.

The offense was lead by Senior outfielder, Kyle Mihaylo. After going yard on Friday, Mihaylo did it again. Thats gives him a team leading 6 home runs on the year. Mihaylo finished the day 3 for 6, scoring 3 runs and driving in 4. Paul Politi and Eric Johnson were in sync again to finish out the year, going a combined 8 for 12 on the day. they scored 8 runs and drove in 3. While the offense was slugging on Sunday, they didn't need to score much to win because of the performance that Scott Lyman had on the mound.

It took the Aggies starter 105 pitches, his third highest total on the year, to get through 8 innings and hold the Matadors scoreless. He only allowed 3 hits and walked 1 batter while striking out 6. Lyman was named Big West pitcher of the week for his outing in Northridge. Mattew Lewis came in to finish the game and only needed 8 pitches to retire the last three batters.


Looking forward-
The Aggies have a match-up in Santa Clara on Wednesday this week before a weekend series at Dobbins Field against Big West Rivals the Pacific Tigers. The Aggies are currently tied for last in the conference but will have a better chance at wins moving forward because they already faced the three hardest teams in the division in Long Beach, Fullerton, and Irvine. The Aggies still have 4 more conference weekend match-ups to play with Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Riverside on the schedule after Pacific.

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Posted at 4:55 PM by Trevor.