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 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.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Cal State Fullerton Series
The Aggies knew that coming into Fullerton they were going to have to fight for everything. The Fullerton Titans had struggled before conference play but there is a reason that they were ranked 4th overall in the nation in Baseball America's pre-season College rankings, the Titans are a perennial powerhouse in the world of college baseball. They have produced a long line of major league talent including among others: Aaron Rowand, Kurt Suzuki, Phil Nevin, and Mark Kotsay. The Titans currently have some more potential major league talent in the pipeline with Christian Colon and Gary Brown. The Aggies knew that the Titans could be even better offensively than the opponents from last week, the Fresno State Bulldogs, and Friday night the Titans started the series off with a bang.

Thursday-
Double digit runs is not very common in baseball, even less common is putting up 20 in one game which is exactly what the Titans did Friday night. Dayne Quist looked a lot like he did last week against Fresno State, very hittable. His ending stat line is pretty ugly, one of the most telling stats was that he had his shortest appearance of the season at 5 innings while still throwing a lot of pitches, 109 to be exact. Quist, as the Friday starter, if often called upon to go deep into games to set the tone for the weekend and anytime he exits the game early it is a fairly clear marker to see how he's done. Quist also gave up 10 earned runs and 11 total. The worst ratio in my opinion for the Thursday start was that he walked 6 while only striking out 1, when you're that hittable and unable to get any outs yourself it's going to be a really bad day. That was the one thing Quist had in Fresno, so this outing was that much worse. I am still confident that the young southpaw will bounce back but back-to-back weak showings is never a good thing. Unfortunately for Quist his bullpen wasn't able to help him out at all.

Tim Busbin very likely had his worst outing of his pitching career during his only appearance for the weekend in Fullerton. Busbin went 1/3 of an inning on 37 pitches while giving up 9 runs, all of which were earned. Busbin gave up 3 hits and walked 6 and struck out 0. At that point the game was beyond reach, Scott Chew made his second appearance on the year and went 2 and 2/3 innings while pitching pretty well but "junk time" has possibly never been more fitting then his time in the game Thursday night.

Daniel Cepin and Paul Politi had the best nights for the Aggies at the plate but hardly any hitters played a full 9 innings and compared to the Titans hitters no one in the Aggies lineup did anything notable. The Titans were lead by exactly who we thought they would be, Christian Colon and Gary Brown. Colon and Brown were a combined 8 for 11 with 6 runs scored and 6 RBI, so a very impressive night for the top two hitters for Fullerton.

Friday-
The Aggies had 24 hours to regroup but when they took to Goodwin Field Friday night it was a very similar outcome. The Ags did have more bats come alive Friday, with Scott Heylman, Scott Lyman and Justin Schafer leading the way with a combined 7 for 11 from the plate with 4 runs, and 2 RBI but it still wasn't nearly enough to keep up with the Titans.

The Titans put the game away quickly, scoring 6 runs in each of the first two innings. They were once again lead by Colon and Brown, going 3 for 5 and 3 for 4 respectively. Brown also scored 4 runs Friday night while also knocking in another.

The Aggies once again had a weak performance from their starter, Anthony Kupbens this time. Kupbens stat line comes across as pretty ugly, 4 and 2/3 innings and he threw 115 pitches which gives a indication of the trouble to come. The lefty gave up 15 hits, walked 4 and allowed 16 Titans to cross the plate, all of which were earned. Sean Watson had one of his worst outings on the year in relief of Kupbens, going 2 and 1/3 innings while allowing 10 hits and 7 runs to score. It took the Aggies 186 pitches to get through 7 innings of baseball.

Saturday-
The fact that the Aggies came out to the field on Saturday and actually put up a fight is impressive, but unlike in Fresno last week they were unable to come away with the W. The game on Saturday was a pitchers duel, with Kyle Mertins and Scott Lyman facing off.

Lyman had another strong performance, which makes it back to back good outings from the struggling Sunday starter. His stat line doesn't look great but Lyman did a good job battling and keeping his team close throughout the game. The young righty went 7 innings, gave up 9 hits and walked 4 while only striking out 2 but he kept his team withing striking distance, which is a feat after how much offense the Titans put together the prior two games. It looks as though Lyman has turned a corner with the new tactic from Rex Peters, on days that he pitches Lyman no longer is in the lineup. The question will be if the Aggies offense continues to struggle on days that Lyman starts, will Peters be able to hold one of his best hitters out of the lineup.

David Popkins was the only Aggie hitter to have a strong day, going 2 for 4 with 2 RBI. The Titans top two hitters were pretty quiet also, Colon went 1 for 5 and Brown went 0 for 2 with a walk. After the output the Titans had on Thursday and Friday it is understandable that they didn't have much left in the tank, but they still had enough to get the W. The Titans broke the 2-2 tie in the 8th inning when Billy Marcoe went yard over the center field fence off of Scott Lyman. The Aggies had a chance to sneak away from Goodwin field with a win but instead they start conference play off with the 3 game sweep.

Upcoming week-
The Aggies game against the Wolfpack of Nevada, which was scheduled for Monday, has been postponed so the next time they take the field will be back in Davis at Dobbins Stadium this Friday the 9th where they will host Long Beach State for a weekend series. The Aggies have a little more pressure now that they will be starting their second week of conference play still looking for win number 1. I would imagine that we will see a strong bounce back from Quist and Kupbens as well as hopefully the offense as a whole. Kupbens has been one of the more quiet starters early on this year with Quist dominating his first 4 starts and Lyman has the flashy tools but Kupbens still is a capable starter and I will be looking at him in depth later this week. The Aggies next 5 games are at home in Davis and that chance to regroup is exactly what they need after weak showings in Fresno and Fullerton.

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Posted at 6:04 PM by Trevor.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Scott Lyman

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.

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Posted at 9:20 PM by Trevor.