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ORU at Western Illinois


theeagleman5

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The Good Guys are back on the diamond this afternoon in Macomb vs. WIU....the Leathernecks have dropped 5 in a row but still hang on to the final Summit League playoff spot. So this could be a preview of an opening round tournament game...ORU has gotten better pitching in the past week to go with the bats so could be a tough series for WIU....they still need one win or an Omaha loss to clinch 4th place.....:tb-blue:

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ORU up 8-5 in the 7th after being down 5-3....HR by Whatley... 3 hits and 2 RBI for Hungate. Howe has come on for McGregor with 3 innings of strong one hit relief...TheEagleman is amazed....:eagles:

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Nice 16-5 win. Hopefully, Bryce is coming into form just in time for the postseason!

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9th inning HRs by Hungate, Smith and Cummings put a little icing on the cake today....first time 3 HRs in one inning since 2010....ORU scored the last 13 runs to rally for the 16-5 win....Eagles now 38-14. Howe gets a win....:clap:

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Great job by Howe, and great job by the coaching staff using him in this situation. He really came through when the game could have gotten away from us- 6 K's in 3.0 IP!

And Henson with the rare 9-out save in which he finished the game with an 11-run cushion.

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Nice job by both Howe and Hinson.  Glad to see them getting it together, especially heading into Tourney play.

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Pitching depth is of course a key in post season play....especially if we lose an early game and have to play in the losers bracket where you can end up playing 4 or 5 games in 4 days.....right now ORU has maybe 8 pitchers that we can trust in a big situation....McGregor, McMinn, Ausua, Michaels, McCutchin, Glaze, Stout, Varnell, and Stout have all been fairly consistant...if we can add Henson, Howe and Lovvorn to that mix in the post season it makes us very dangerous....no other Summit League team has that kind of pitching depth but teams we will play in the NCAA tournament often do...especially the Power 5 conferences.....Plus, ORU seems to have a lot more consistent hitting than in recent years....based on that, I think there is a reasonable chance that we can cause some damage in an NCAA regional and even win if we get a favorable draw.....we will need some things to fall our way....but we have a shot to win 40 games in the regular season with a sweep this weekend....when is the last time that an ORU team has done that?....:geek:

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ORU and WIU tied at 1-1 thru 5.....McMinn went the first 4 innings and now Ausua is on in relief.....I guess the coaches are going with a bullpen game tomorrow to get guys some work....no reason overusing anyone before the post season tournament starts next Wednesday at JLJ....:oru-logo:

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We are into the 9th now and ORU has grabbed a 4-1 lead....RBI hits by Snypes, Roark and McCutchin have put us ahead....Ausua with four 1 hit innings of relief so far.....GO BLUE!!!:eagles:

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ORU wins it, 6-1....a 2 RBI double by Snypes in the 9th caps a 3 hit/3 RBI day for our SS...Ausua went the last 5 innings giving up just 1 hit....outstanding pitching today by the kid....Golden Eagles now 39-14 and will go for win #40 on Saturday afternoon to close out the regular season.......:oru:

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Doesn't Ausua have to be our #1 starter in the post season?...he has 10 of our 39 wins....:geek:

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17 hours ago, theeagleman5 said:

Doesn't Ausua have to be our #1 starter in the post season?...he has 10 of our 39 wins....:geek:

I don't know, our Friday night starter (McGregor) is 8-0 with a 2.83 ERA. It is nice to know we have McMinn and Asusa behind him though, just in case we end up in a loser's bracket game. I would keep it that way

The bullpen is a different story. Hopefully the first game at WIU was an indicator of changes for the postseason. My preference would be Howe early, with Glaze and McCutchin as your main 7th/8th inning guys. however you want to stack them.

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Yeah....good thing we got some work for Ausua yesterday....ORU finishes 39-14 and plays Western Illinois again next Wednesday night in round 1. 

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McGregor is 8-0?..yeah....he gets the nod next Wednesday for sure....:eagles:

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Eagleman,

Upon further review, you make a great point, especially when you look at the numbers from the conference schedule and the last few starts of the season (these are my unofficial calculations from the ORU athletics website):

In Summit play:

McGregor: 54.1 IP, 6-0, 3.49 ERA

Asusa:       60.1 IP, 8-0, 1.06 ERA

Last 5 starts:

McGregor: 21.2 IP,  5.52 ERA

Asusa:       28 IP, 1.61 ERA

And that's without having the full compliment of a fresh bullpen behind you, like the Game 1 starter would. Although, that might support the argument to leave the rotation as is, in case you need an Asusa to give you 7 IP+ in the conference tournament or regional.

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it may come down to who they face in game 1.  if they do not match well against a lefty, ORU could go with Ausua.

nice to have a couple options....

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18 hours ago, ORUalum said:

it may come down to who they face in game 1.  if they do not match well against a lefty, ORU could go with Ausua.

nice to have a couple options....

What happened to to Varnell? Is he coming off of an injury or something? I noticed he hasn't pitched much but he has good numbers. 

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