UCLA Starter?

[sjheel72]

Anyone know anything about him. Is he a leftie? Like the fact that the Heels (especially Moran) seemed to break out of their hitting doldrums the past couple of games. Whomever Fox decides on as a starter needs to employ the same approach as Johnson. Get the first pitch over, let them take it or put the ball in play. UCLA is not a great hitting team and if we can avoid the free passes and play defense like we did last night I like our chances of getting to Saturday.

 

[Raising Heel]

Nick Vander Tuig, a rightie. Yay.

2.31 ERA

13 W - 4 L

18 appearances, all starts

17 walks, 87 strikeouts

.234 opponent batting average

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Also, this from the L.A. Times:

Update: UCLA, undefeated in two World Series games, has a safety net. A victory sends the Bruins to the best-of-three World Series final. A loss forces a second game Saturday in the double-elimination tournament. That allows Coach NCAA season record. North Carolina was the top-seeded team in the tournament but had to claw back from the losers' bracket after dropping the opener to North Carolina State. The Tar Heels are expected to start ace Kent Emanuel (11-4, 3.22 ERA).

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Hearing Moss isn't going to start tonight.

I don't quite get it. KE has looked rough his last few outings and Moss is way more rested. Thoughts?

 

[berens007]

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:
Hearing Moss isn't going to start tonight.

I don't quite get it. KE has looked rough his last few outings and Moss is way more rested. Thoughts?

My guess is the staff believes that moss has been pretty rough as well lately (although seemed like he was not too bad against south carolina), so go with the guy with the better upside. i bet moss will stand ready in case of trouble for kent

 

[Carolina Way]

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:
Hearing Moss isn't going to start tonight.

I don't quite get it. KE has looked rough his last few outings and Moss is way more rested. Thoughts?

I really expected Moss tonight and I'm really concerned about Emmanuel just based off of his last handful of outings. I'm hoping he channels the positive "mojo" from Hobbs last night and has a great outing. I believe he only threw around 50-60 pitches on Sunday so he should be as rested as he has been in a while.

Givem' hell Kent!

 

[jlmcn]

UCLA won each of their World Series games by scoring the winning run on an error in one and a wild pitch in the other. The announcers the other night gave UCLA's team batting average rank (can't remember exact ranking, but it was between 200 and 250 of all NCAA Div. 1 teams), and talked about what a poor offensive team they are, but how capable they are of taking advantage of the opposing teams miscues in manufacturing runs. Of course they rightfully praised their pitching and team defense. They have the most one run victories this year in the NCAA (tied with Arkansas) with 8(?). My point in all this is if Carolina can limit allowing them free runners by walks, HBP, or errors and play defense like they have been doing, I like our chances. Last night the Heels beat the best pitcher in college baseball as stated more than once by the ESPN announcers. Granted he was going on short rest, but the Heels got to him early, making him work. The first game of the World Series for Carolina against Rodon I thought the team looked tight and nervous, and to me they played that way. Since that loss, I don't know what Coach Fox and the staff have done, but the Heels look like the team they are supposed to be carrying the number 1 seeding. They seem to be loose and carry the swagger of a number 1 while playing like it. If they can manufacture a couple of runs early like last night, that will put tremendous pressure on a team (UCLA) who is a weak offensive team, especially if the pitching staff can continue to deliver like last night. (What a grand outing by Hobbs Johnson!!) They just need to play Carolina ball the way they have played all year. I don't want to put out a jinx (I'm not usually a great optimist in games of this nature), but I truly like the Heels chances against UCLA. GO Diamond Heels, send the Bruins back out west!!

 

[UNC71-00]

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:
Hearing Moss isn't going to start tonight.

I don't quite get it. KE has looked rough his last few outings and Moss is way more rested. Thoughts?

Official Carolina baseball twitter account says it is Emanuel

I don't get this either, but whatever. Maybe UCLA has a ton of left handed bats?

 

[Littlejon]

Well, look at it this way. Moran broke out of his slump this week, so maybe Kent is due as well. When he is on, he is hard to hit and UCLA has the worst batting average of the entire field. They have gotten by with small ball and luck. IIRC, they won against Epic Fail U the other night because of an error, so IF we were to get into a crunch, they are less likely to power their way back.

Also, they aren't pitching their ace against us tonight, so with the low batting average, him not pitching more than 50-60 on Sunday and having all week to rest and the way we have been hitting, this might be the best time for him to break out. If we can get a couple of early runs and force them to press a little, he might settle in and give us a good start and go deep into the game. I would love for him to give us 7-8 innings.

If he is still shaky, we have Moss who can also come in and McCue only threw 5 pitches last night, so he would be good to go as well.

All in all, having Johnson go 8-1/3 last night was a tremendous help to us and I like our chances tonight. Tomorrow worries my, though. They have their ace on the mound if we get that far and I am not sure who we would throw out there at them.

 

[sjheel72]

No free passes or defensive miscues and I like our chances. Go Heels!

 

[Raising Heel]

Originally posted by jlmcn:
The announcers the other night gave UCLA's team batting average rank (can't remember exact ranking, but it was between 200 and 250 of all NCAA Div. 1 teams)

The Bruins bat .249 as a team, worst in the Pac-12 and 261st in NCAA Div I out of 296 teams.