2017 AAC Baseball Championship Clearwater Fla

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Bearwave
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tpstulane wrote:
BC Wave wrote:
Profoundwizard wrote:
tpstulane wrote:Final 15-14 Memphis wins a wild one in the bottom of the 10th. Winner of our 10am CT game tomorrow will face Memphis in an elimination game.
I thought Memphis was on the other side of the bracket
They are.

Winner of UCF - TU plays loser of ECU - USF

Winner of that game must beat ECU - USF winner twice
That's correct. I knew that. Was posting while driving thinking ahead. Shhhh
Posting while driving! Never a cop around when you need one.


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tpstulane
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Bearwave wrote:
tpstulane wrote:
BC Wave wrote:
Profoundwizard wrote:
tpstulane wrote:Final 15-14 Memphis wins a wild one in the bottom of the 10th. Winner of our 10am CT game tomorrow will face Memphis in an elimination game.
I thought Memphis was on the other side of the bracket
They are.

Winner of UCF - TU plays loser of ECU - USF

Winner of that game must beat ECU - USF winner twice
That's correct. I knew that. Was posting while driving thinking ahead. Shhhh
Posting while driving! Never a cop around when you need one.
:lol:
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winwave
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The game will be on CST on channel 1037 locally.
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6-4-23:Now all of the mistakes Tulane has made finally catches up with them as they descend to CUSAAC.
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tpstulane
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4-0 UCF mid 3rd
Just got this text message except we never had a party yet. :oops:

phpBB [video]
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tpstulane
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6-0 Knights. Still batting top 6th.
I've just been told the 10 run rule is in play.
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HoustonWave
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tpstulane wrote:6-0 Knights. Still batting top 6th.
Good chance the Mercy Rule will end our season. But our socks all look good, and uniform.
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tpstulane
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HoustonWave wrote:
tpstulane wrote:6-0 Knights. Still batting top 6th.
Good chance the Mercy Rule will end our season. But our socks all look good, and uniform.
For sure.
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winwave
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Appropriate ending to this season as we fail in all phases.

Thanks to the seniors for all their efforts:

Big Country
Willsey
Hope
Kaplan
Brown
Montalbano
DeHart
France
Merrill
Colletti
BAYWAVE&Sophandros are SPINELESS COWARDS
YOU NEED LEVERAGE TO BE PROACTIVE!
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6-4-23:Now all of the mistakes Tulane has made finally catches up with them as they descend to CUSAAC.
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tpstulane
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Your 2&Q Final 8-3. UCF ends the Wave's season.
Good luck to those guys leaving especially the Sr's that went through 4-5 different coaches over their careers. And thanks for the two great regional years.
Hopefully we'll see some make it to the next level in pro ball.
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Congratulations to the seniors and to those transferring. They represented themselves tremendously during their time here. It's a shame this the way they had to go out considering the leadership they were accustomed to.
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I'm glad to see Jeremy got to pinch hit today in his final game at Tulane
It was a morning paper line drive single
That's my story and I'm sticking to it

Congratulations to all the seniors
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It's been a long time since I've replied on this TULA message board. But , thanks to those seniors that have done so well and ridden this bus of coaches. Hopefully we will have better years in the near future. I usually can be sarcastic about things at TU, but you guys have endured a lot. Congrats and good luck in the future!
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tpstulane
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Troy Dannen mentioned at the Cut Off Spring Tour Event Tulane's cost of attendance rises to over $71,000 for 2017-18 school year. That should be fun for Jewett to manage.
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Aberzombie1892
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tpstulane wrote:Troy Dannen mentioned at the Cut Off Spring Tour Event Tulane's cost of attendance rises to over $71,000 for 2017-18 school year. That should be fun for Jewett to manage.
Well, what should Tulane do about that? Tulane alumni can't say they like Tulane's US News undergrad rank but then complain about tuition, as the games that universities play with tuition factor into that rank.
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tpstulane
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Aberzombie1892 wrote:
tpstulane wrote:Troy Dannen mentioned at the Cut Off Spring Tour Event Tulane's cost of attendance rises to over $71,000 for 2017-18 school year. That should be fun for Jewett to manage.
Well, what should Tulane do about that? Tulane alumni can't say they like Tulane's US News undergrad rank but then complain about tuition, as the games that universities play with tuition factor into that rank.
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tpstulane
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ECU trying to live up to its preseason favorite role and top 10 ranking. In the drivers seat for now.
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winwave
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Not that anyone is probably interested but CST, channel 1037, appears to be carrying the whole tournament.
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6-4-23:Now all of the mistakes Tulane has made finally catches up with them as they descend to CUSAAC.
Wave755
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Dave breslin wrote:It's been a long time since I've replied on this TULA message board.

Dave, I, and I am sure, ULALA's most famous graduate, the Waterboy himself, Bobby Boucher (pronounced "Boo-shay") both welcome you back to this forum. And, I am equally certain Bobby Boucher now has big glass on quality H2O just waiting for you on your next visit to Acadiana. :D
anEngineer
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tpstulane wrote:ECU trying to live up to its preseason favorite role and top 10 ranking. In the drivers seat for now.
Absolutely. ECU showing they were the team to beat without the early problems they had.
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This is a post by a former player from our Rivals site that has followed the program religiously for decades. I think it a good analyses of all phases and thought it should be seen by more than just of us there(to which he agreed to let me share it here):



Baseball- What went wrong this year

Last year, Tulane finished with a record of 41-21 with an RPI good for 33rd place in the country. We won the AAC regular season title and finished in 24th place in the Coaches’ poll. We were also ranked #19 by Baseball America after being eliminated in the Oxford Regional. This year, we finished with a 27-31 record and an RPI of 77. We weren’t even close to being ranked or getting a bid to the NCAA regionals. What happened? What caused the 44-place slide in RPI?

To some Tulane fans, the reason is obvious. Andy Cannizarro is coaching at Mississippi State and our inept Athletic Director, arrogant and determined to show his independence, continued a series of poor coaching selections in choosing a career assistant coach who some claim is “clueless” and “doesn’t know what he is doing?”

No one could argue that the team’s record this year was comparable to that of last year and coaching certainly must be considered in the calculus. But, I’m not sure Coach Jewett (or the AD for that matter) should carry quite the burden of blame being placed on them. I think the stronger schedule, the loss of Rogers on defense, and the near total collapse of the remaining half of our pitching staff were very important factors. Add to that the inept recruiting of the past two years and we got what we got—a disappointing season.

But, let’s look at coaching. All manner of complaints have surfaced from various fans but several continue to arise. The first, and to me, a legitimate concern, was the poor start to the season. Was the team unprepared as some would suggest? Hard to argue; they played very poorly. Did Coach Jewett prepare them differently than his previous teams, coached by some of the finest coaches in college baseball? I don’t know, but I doubt it. Was it simply a chemistry problem between a new coach and a mostly veteran team? Possibly. Was it a team-wide slump from a team packed with notoriously “streaky” players? I doubt we’ll ever know. It was what it was and it wasn’t good.

The second major complaint is his handling of the pitching staff. Two of the three pitchers we really expected to perform, Merrill and Massey, pitched worse and horribly worse respectively than they did last year. And beyond Merrill, France, Solesky, and Colletti, why did our other ten pitchers perform so poorly that even our most ardent fans held their breath whenever one of them took the mound? In my opinion, some (maybe a great deal) has to be laid at the feet of the coaching staff and, in particular, the pitching coach. Another complaint is that Coach Jewett did a poor job of managing pitching changes. This is a common refrain across baseball at every level, but how true is it? To be honest, why would anyone replace Merrill, France, Solesky, or Colletti on the mound with anyone on our pitching staff other than one of those four. Sure, Merrill or France got tired and didn't have the same “stuff” as they did earlier in a game. But you can’t replace them with the pitcher they were earlier in the game. Most of the time you have to bring in guys named Andrews, Issa, Gillies, Price, Hogan, etc. Talk about a “Hobson’s choice!” Outside of the Santa Barbara series, I watched almost every pitch of this past season and, without benefit of hindsight, wouldn’t have changed much in regard to pitching changes.

The most recent accusation regards the decision to pitch Merrill rather than France to open the AAC tournament. Frankly, with what I know, I’d have pitched France in the opener also. But, of course, I don’t know what the players and coaches knew at the time. But, some of the “rationale” for pitching France first doesn’t face reality. The least credible is that Merrill pitched so much more than France this year and through his career and was simply tired. But, on further examination, prior to the tournament, France actually pitched slightly more than Merrill (1434 pitches to 1419). He even threw over 120 pitches three times to Merrill’s twice. And, of course, France pitched an entire season last year while Merrill was injured and out for much of the season. The reason to start France was simple. He was pitching better. And, in my view, barring information not available to me or any other fan, that should have been the choice. As it happened, neither guy had much success so it probably didn’t matter.

So, what’s the verdict on coaching? I think it’s an incomplete. We started poorly which may or may not have been on coaching, but probably some. At least some of the blame for poor pitching has to be placed on coaching. I’d be surprised (and disappointed) if the pitching coach returns. But, even that assumes we can hire a better coach as a replacement. Personally, I’d give it a shot. As for managing of the pitching staff? Considering what he had to work with, I don’t have a problem with Coach Jewett on that score.

Next, let’s look at the schedule. Last year our SOS was #61. This year as it stands, it’s # 8, undoubtedly the toughest schedule in Tulane history. Had last year’s team played this year’s schedule, they’d have finished with the same RPI (#33) if they had gone 32-30. Hmmm!?! With this year’s schedule, five more wins would have taken us to #39 in RPI and six more would have taken us to #32 (one ahead of last year). For interest, had we not played our first 15 games (but, of course, we did), our 24-19 record since then would have been good for an RPI of .5659 or #31 in the country. Yes, the losing record is hard to take and very disappointing, but against this schedule, many of our past “regional teams” would likely have also sat home in the post season. Of course, that’s not any consolation.

Pitching: At the beginning of the year I thought we had three proven starters and nothing but question marks for the rest of our pitching. I was concerned that having lost half of our pitching staff from last year and needing at least seven pitchers to be competitive, we could be in trouble. As it has turned out, we had one solid starter (France), one who was up and down (Merrill), and one, Ross Massey, who seemingly has lost all confidence and rhythm to his pitching. Eventually, we found one solid short guy (Colletti) and one (Soleski) who was up and down in both starting and relieving rolls. Everyone else was bad most outings with a rare good one. We walked more batters than any team in the history of Tulane baseball and struck out fewer than any team in the last 27 years. Our team ERA was 5.72, the worst since 1990, during the era of “gorilla ball,” and the second worst on record. You can’t make do with that. Was that coaching? Maybe. I pitched a great deal in my youth and like to think I know something about it and some of these guys were just really bad. Better coaching should help, but we need better talent.

Offensively, we lost two of our best players and a third starter. We returned a bunch of guys (Williams, Kaplan, DeHart, Montalbano, Willsey, Hope, Brown, Rowland, and Witherspoon) who had a combined career batting average of .251 at Tulane. In 2016, they hit .260 as a group; nothing to strike fear in the hearts of opposing pitcher, but they had good power numbers a total of 56 HR’s. This year, despite periods of slumps from virtually all of them, they hit a combined .285 with 69 of the team’s 70 HR’s, far and away their best season playing for the Wave. The five youngsters who have played the most (the Gozzos, Hoese, Heinrich, and Owen) had a combined batting average of .219 with one HR. Those are the guys replacing Alemais, Rogers, and Carthon, who hit .282 between them with 8 HR’s. Our problem at the plate wasn’t lack of hitting from our returning players; it was lack of hitting from our “new” guys. How much did coaching play in the improved hitting from the returnees? As much as poor coaching affected our pitching? Who knows? But I think it unfair to blame coaching for poor performance by the pitching staff and suggest it has nothing to do with improved performance by the hitters.

Defensively, we lost our most important two defensive players, Alemais and Rogers. Despite some egregious errors from Hoese and Gozzo at shortstop, percentagewise they fielded better than Alemais. He made a lot of egregious errors also. But, I don’t think either of them has his range, so that’s a minus, but not a glaring deficiency for this team. The loss of Rogers is a different matter. His presence probably helped our pitchers last year. His absence hurt—a lot in my opinion. When Montalbano was in there, he did a great job, however. Through the first eleven games he played, we obviously didn’t win much (3 - 8), but defensively, he made no errors and had no passed balls. He also threw out 8 of 17 baserunners trying to steal; not Rogers’ type numbers (only 16 of 43 were successful in 2016), but damned good. For the rest of the season we had 19 passed balls, two catcher’s interference, and threw out only 16 of 73 (21.9%) runners attempting to steal. Those are truly terrible numbers. Worse, I think lack of confidence in the catchers could well have affected our pitchers. Our outfield was adequate defensively, but certainly not “stellar.” And Williams, Hope, and Willsey have been fine, though both Williams and Hope are not fielding nearly as well as last season. Willsey has made a couple more errors than normal but has been a magician on the double play. He may be our best defensive second baseman since Holland, over a dozen years ago. But other than catcher, our defense has been OK. Catching, despite the effort, has been woeful. Did coaching affect our defense? Probably not, though somewhere among Tulane’s undergrads there must have been a kid who played catcher in high school who could have spelled Gozzo on occasion. I think we should have found him.

Continued Below
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6-4-23:Now all of the mistakes Tulane has made finally catches up with them as they descend to CUSAAC.
winwave
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The rest:

Recruiting. As I understand it, I don’t believe any players on the current roster were actually recruited or signed by Coach Jewett. The best I can tell we have seven players who predate Coach Pierce and the rest were recruited/signed by him. On the mound, only Merrill and France were on the roster prior to the arrival of Coach Pierce. Between them, this year, they threw 181.1 innings, allowed 193 hits, walked or hit 89, stuck out 90 and had a combined ERA of 4.42. The “Pierce guys” threw 329.2 innings, allowed 362 hits, walked or hit 287, stuck out 236 and had a combined ERA of 6.44-- an awful result.

In the batter’s box, Kaplan, Brown, Hope, Willsey, and Williams all joined the team during the Jones administration. Between them this year they batted .292 with 49 HR’s in 897 at bats. The “Pierce guys” hit .240 with 21 HR’s in 1048 at bats. Such statistics don’t prove anything but they tend to illuminate the truth. To me, they suggest that Coach Pierce did not bring in the talent necessary to continue the winning ways he produced with Coach Jones’ players.

Anyway, the year is done and everyone is entitled to his/her opinion on what happened or did not happen. I hope Coach Jewett learned from his mistakes this year, does something about our pitching situation, and proves to be the recruiter he is acclaimed to be. I like several of the players he has currently signed for next season but am less impressed with several others. From what I’ve read our schedule next year, depending on how the AAC turns out, could be even more daunting than the one this year. Time will tell.

Roll Wave!!!!

WaveON
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tpstulane
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Thanks for posting.

All one has do is ask, "Did we underachieve this year and why?" I thought under Pierce we overachieved. Was it the AD, coaches or players. Each will have their own opinion.
Here's mine.
As far as Dannen, hiring AC would have been the best thing for the long run of the program. I was ok with Jewett but he would have been my 3rd choice. I was concerned that he had been an career assistant coach for almost 20 years without anyone giving him a shot to be HC. No doubt he has to take the blame for the poor start because we were underprepared to start the season. Player wise yes we lost guys like every team does but the retuning talent being a year older was definitely good enough to make our 3rd regional in a row or at least have a winning record.
Pierce lost out on a number of recruits because of the tuition BS that still exists today. Now it's $71,000 cost of attending. Jewett is going to have to sign JC's kids every year because they only need to borrow money for one or two years to get a Tulane degree. Signing a big Freshman class in the future is probably going to be much more difficult with the rising cost of attendance. And Tulane now requires a student to live on campus for the first two years. At one time you didn't even have to live on campus at all.
Looking back I had us going 13-11 in conference but had us with 32 wins total before the tournament and a regional. Had we won some of those early non-conference games and a couple in the tournament that would have likely happened.
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tpstulane
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ECU vs Houston on Sunday for the auto bid spot.
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tpstulane wrote:ECU vs Houston on Sunday for the auto bid spot.
YAWN...bring on the Mel Ott or Audubon League....
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tpstulane
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golfnut69 wrote:
tpstulane wrote:ECU vs Houston on Sunday for the auto bid spot.
YAWN...bring on the Mel Ott or Audubon League....
1-0 UH leads top 3rd. On EPSNEWS
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