Well, it’s Monday, and the sun came up, so perhaps this weekend wasn’t as bad as everyone thinks.
Last season South Carolina won two games in a row against Arkansas in Omaha to eliminate the Hogs and advance to the College World Series finals. This season South Carolina was swept at home for the first time since 1999 by those same Hogs. Carolina lost by scores of 15-3, 4-2 and 5-3.
Fire Chad Holbrook. Just kidding. Seriously, I’m kidding. Anyone who wants to draw conclusions about the new head coach based on the Arkansas series is jumping the gun. In fact, anyone who wants to draw conclusions about this season is jumping the gun. Nonetheless there will be some fans who will want to use this weekend as an excuse to attack the head coach. Such attacks are misguided and wrong. Coach Holbrook is still a tremendous coach, and this team may still turn out to be very good.
If Holbrook is still great, and the team is still pretty good, how did this happen? Well, lots of reasons. First, and most important is Arkansas. The Hogs are an elite team. Carolina is used to fielding elite teams, but this year’s team isn’t there yet. Arkansas was a preseason #1 team, and with the exception of one weekend, they’ve pretty much been steamrolling everyone.
Second, injuries. South Carolina has been without Friday night starter Jordan Montgomery for weeks. He is a very important player and is needed back. Graham Saiko, the lead off left fielder, is needed back as well. He is one of the most productive hitters in the lineup, and there aren’t many seasoned alternatives. Tanner English just came back from an injury and was batting above .300 before then. Don’t forget that Max Schrock spend the weekend either playing sick or too sick to play. That’s a lot of personnel to do without.
Third, hitting. Carolina is not hitting. The outfield, where two injuries have been, and the designated hitter slot haven’t been producing. The outfielders combined have 10 hits in 52 at bats in SEC play. That’s a .192 average, not good enough. Designated hitter has been worse. In the two weekend series the DHs have hit safely twice in 22 at bats, a .091 average. That’s terrible.
Fourth, defense. The defense wasn’t good, but it wasn’t the bloodbath it has been described as. With no offense to speak of, the pressure on the defense was great. Mistakes were bound to happen. Add to that terrible, terrible weather and some errors are to be expected. As the weather gets better and the offense strings together some hits, the defense will sort itself out.
This is still a very talented group of baseball players who are in the process of becoming a very talented team. With a few notable exceptions the pitching has been very strong with potential to be even better. There are plenty of talented batters as well, but they haven’t been hitting. It probably hasn’t helped that the lineup has been turning over very, very often. Perhaps settling on the 9 best and seeing how they do for a few games might remedy that.
There’ll be no time to wallow because Carolina has to go to Charleston on Tuesday to play a club that would love the beat them while they’re down.
Posted with Blogsy
