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2008 DAWGS Need a Short Memory Tonight

Moreau needs to give us three good innings. He will have to throw his curve for strikes because those guys will crush his not-so-fastball if it is across the plate. Mendonca should NOT see another fastball under any circumstances. He looks worse than Andruw Jones flagging at curve balls, but groove a fast ball and you better have a flight attendant onboard – going to be a long trip. Both Mendonca and Susdorf are left-handed hitters and Moreau’s curve ball could slow down their bats if it is thrown for strikes. Can’t fall behind in the count against those two (or any of their hitters for that matter.) And for God’s sake, do not walk the nine hole every time tonight.

We have Weaver and McRee coming out of the bullpen. Those are our best two middle relievers and they should be ready. McRee made a mistake on Monday night, but previously in the CWS, he has pitched 6 innings allowing only 2 hits, 1 run, 3 walks and 8 Ks. His curve ball can also give Mendonca and Susdorf trouble if he is ahead in the count and they can’t afford the luxury of waiting for a fastball strike.

Weaver has thrown 4 and 2/3 innings allowing 7 hits, 4 runs, 0 walks, 2 Ks. He’s a righty, so he will not have an advantage against their two biggest bats, but if he can continue to not allow any walks, he should be able to limit base runners and thereby reduce the chances for more monster innings from their obviously corked bats.

In a perfect world, I would prefer that Joshua Fields remain a spectator tonight because we are two touchdowns ahead of them in the ninth. But, I wonder if he can be effective for 6 outs? If so, we will need McRee and/or Weaver to give us less than 3 innings apiece – assuming Moreau gets through no less than three innings. Ideally, Moreau would get us through the 4^th without allowing more than 2 or 3 runs. Then McRee gets us through the 6^th and possibly the 7^th. Weaver gets us through the 8^th and hopefully they have been limited to 6 runs or less. Then we can hand the ball to Fields for the 9^th. If all goes according to plan, we won’t be batting in the bottom of the 9^th.

Their bullpen... any live arms remaining? Seems like if we can get to The Cajun Cook, Justin Wilson, early and often we could be the team putting up a football score tonight.

Sprague and Hower each threw 3 innings last night and Sprague threw an inning Sat. and an inning Sun. I think those two are probably done.

Miller and Allison are also probably both done, but Allison, who pitched 6 against UNC Sun. may be available.

That leaves Bonesteele (3 on Mon), Breckley (2 on Mon), Tomlinson (1.1 Mon), Floethe (0.2 Mon) and Burke (2 on Sun and 1 on Mon). Other than Burke, those are all 6+ ERA guys - not that that seemed to matter much at times on Monday night. But, I still think that if we can get their starter off the hill, we can rough them up sufficiently to bring home the hardware. It may take double digit runs, but our Dawgs are plenty capable. Regional Final vs GT = 18-6; Super Regional Final vs NC State = 17-8. In fact, in our 5 elimination games thus far this post-season, we have outscored the bad guys 66 to 25. That is an average of 13.2 runs per game for our Dawgs and 5 runs per game for the other guys. How about one more football score for our Dawgs tonight!

If FSU musters more than a dozen again, then we will be talking football by midnight tonight.

Go DAWGS! GATA!

UPDATE - Congrats to FSU. They played great baseball and continued their unstoppable run through a gauntlet of highly seeded teams. No one could stop them. Hats off to those Bulldogs and a large hand for our Dawgs and their outstanding season. They have much of which to be proud. Go DAWGS!