The Lamar Cardinals come into this mid-week rematch having won six of their last seven games, with the lone loss coming on the road last week at LSU. This hot streak has upped their overall record to 21 - 15 (16-10 at home, 2-5 vs. Top 100), but their national rankings are still lagging due primarily to their very weak schedule to date-- they have played a whopping 23 games against teams with RPI below 200 (vs. zero such games played so far by Rice), and are only 3-10 vs. teams with RPIs better than 200. Consequently, it's not surprising that their national rankings are: #158 ISR, #187 RPI, #247 Strength of Schedule (vs. #13 ISR, #11 RPI, #19 SoS for the Owls). However, lest we even think of taking them lightly and looking past them to our big upcoming weekend series vs. UAB, let's not forget that they did beat UH earlier this season, and lost 2-3 heartbreakers to both Rice and Baylor on the road. Here's their schedule and results to date...
http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2014/schedule/Lamar

Here's my preview posted prior to our March 26th game against Lamar...
http://www.csnbbs.com/thread-683803.html

Here's the games notes from the Lamar site...
http://www.lamarcardinals.com/sports/m-b...14aaa.html

Sr LHP David Carver will once again get the start against us. In the March 26th game at Reckling, he took the loss, but pitched reasonably well given it was by far his longest outing of the year (4.0 IP, 5 hits, 3 runs, 1 BB, 3 Ks)-- with all the runs coming in his final inning of work. In that game, the Lamar bullpen totally shut us down for the final four innings of the game, allowing 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 BBs and striking out 6. For the season, his stats are not very good: 6 app, 4 starts, 0-1, 13.1 IP, 5.40 ERA, .280 BAA, 8 BBs, 9 Ks. Here's the box score for that earlier game...
http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-basebl/...62014.html

Offensively, the Cardinals have really caught fire since we played them 3 weeks ago-- in the 10 games since, they are hitting .320 as a team, are averaging 7.1 runs per game, and have compiled double-digit hit totals in all but two of those 10 games. Overall, for the season, they're now hitting a very solid .292/.389/.369 as a team, with 10 HRs, 34-50 stolen bases and averaging 5.8 runs/game. They are led by Sam Bumpers (.350/.423/.497, 4 HRs, 8 doubles/triples, 18 RBIs, 7-9 SBs), who is hitting over .500 over his last 20 games. Though their stats are obviously inflated by their VERY weak SoS-- one of the weakest schedules played to date in the entire country, this is a team that has exhibited excellent plate discipline. They are averaging just under 5 walks per game, and have been hit by the pitch 49 times in 36 games. In other words, our pitchers will have to pound the strike zone consistently, as they WILL try to work the count and get on base via free passes. However, given that they only feature two left-handed batters in their everyday lineup, this poses a favorable matchup for our right-handed pitchers.

Here's the individual and team stats for Lamar over their first 36 games...
http://www.lamarcardinals.com/sports/m-b...mcume.html

I suspect we'll be going with a very short bullpen for this one, as Trevor Teykl will certainly not be available after throwing 5.0 innings on Sunday (and an additional 5.2 innings last Tuesday vs. UT), and I very much doubt Jon Duplantier will be available after throwing 3.2 innings on Sunday (and well over 50 pitches). This means a couple guys who haven't seen action in the past several weeks (e.g., McCarthy, Orewiler) or who have seen quick exits due to control issues (e.g., Smith) are going to be called upon to pitch quality innings. It presents a big opportunity for them to step up and earn a regular spot in the mix going forward.

This shapes up as a classic trap game after our big road sweep at Tulane, and with UAB upcoming this weekend. We can ill-afford to let up. Let's keep the focus, energy level and aggressiveness. Let's build upon our strong bounce back week and end our current road trip with a perfect 5-0 record. Let's keep the confidence and momentum building as we head into another crucial conference weekend test (vs. UAB). Time to reestablish that swagger. Go Owls!

At the Coach's radio show, The OG just mentioned that Chase McDowell would get the start vs. Lamar and go 1 - 3 innings max (I'm presuming so he still could start on Sunday). I suspect McCarthy, Orewiler and Smith will be next in line.

Did the coach say anything on the show about why McDowell came out so early Sunday? Even though he wasn't looking too hot that's still a short hook.

(04-14-2014 11:42 PM)elf owl Wrote:  Did the coach say anything on the show about why McDowell came out so early Sunday? Even though he wasn't looking too hot that's still a short hook.

Coach actually took part of the blame, saying he didn't do a good job preparing Chase for the game. Apparently, the wind was blowing out quite hard; so much so that it adversely affected Chase's bread and butter changeup pitch. Couple that with the fact that Chase didn't have his usual stuff from the get-go, and Wayne saw little value in keeping him out there.

BTW, The OG also mentioned that in addition to injuries to Stephens, Lemond, Rutter and Byrd, Reeves is playing in pain (both hand and leg injuries) every game, and Hoelscher is playing through a sprained ankle and another leg injury...but both want to play every game. He said he can't remember a year the team faced so many serious injuries to key players.

If we can somehow make it through the next two weeks heading into the 10-day Finals break with no worse than a 5-3 record (and, prefereably, 6-2 or better), we should be in great shape returning for the home stretch and post-season. Note, however, that with Memorial Day so early this year, we only play two weeks of regular season games after the break this year, as opposed to our usual 3+ weeks of games prior to the start of the post-season.