2026 Baseball Mega Thread

[311neers]

It's only going to be around 40-44 degrees for the highs here the next couple of days. The princesses at HPU can't be out in this weather.

Purple Pansies!

[SlappyAppy72]

Seems that we just need a legit shut down closer. How many games have we lost going into the 8th with a lead? That should rarely happen.

Its somewhat not having a closer but also on the coaches for not finding a closer the first 15 games of the year.
Find your go to guys early on, not now, when it matters.

Might be worth sliding DiRito back to Closer and Tibbett to a Sunday starter.

It’s good we have some depth, but also gives us too many options. Puzzling we throw a guy vs Wake and Coastal late that hasn’t pitched in 2 years. We doubled down on it too.

Coaching is the key for sure, you better know who your guys are before the season starts. Injuries are one thing, but no excuse for not having the right guys in the right places to start the season. And we clearly do not have the right guy(s) closing out our games.

Our closer is now our Friday night starter and we're clearly having to scramble to find someone who can get outs late in games. Look at the lineup on Sunday vs. opening day - didn't have our 4, 5, or 6 hitters. Steven Smith is playing SS out of necessity while fielding under .900 because Mummau has been sick (I'll keep my thoughts to myself on Xuereb but he hasn't been healthy his whole career). On the weekend we threw 15 2/3 innings of shutout baseball. I think that coaching is the least of our worries at this point. The fact that we were in a position to win these games (especially Sunday), and to win the series, is a testament to the coaching staff IMO.

At some point it just boils down to execution. We did not do a good job of simply throwing and catching the baseball this weekend. That's not X's and O's, that's Jimmy's and Joe's. I can think back to specific plays that were not made that hurt us.

Just off the top of my head... T9 on Friday night on 3 straight batters - we dive for a sac bunt instead of just fielding it on a hop and getting and out, E1 on sac bunt, E3 that allowed 2 runs to score to put Coastal up 2. That's not coaching.

B9 on Saturday - HBP, stolen base, wild pitch puts runner on 3rd then an E5 allows the tying run to score. Field it cleanly and the guy is dead to rights at home. Instead we boot it then throw it away at first. That's not coaching.

T4 on Sunday - Nolan goes from shoving to single, HBP, HBP, HBP, BB, Single. 4 runs on 2 hits. So we go to Harris and he gets the double play ball we want but we sail the throw to first. Still got out of the inning without giving up another run, but it fits my narrative lol.

I'm sure I'm missing some, I know they scored on an E9 at one point. I'm not saying that every coaching decision that's been made has been perfect, but I also have a hard time blaming coaches for every loss when they've coached it so well that we're in a position to win a series against the #16 team in the country with a bandaided lineup.

[Appmountaineers19]

Seems that we just need a legit shut down closer. How many games have we lost going into the 8th with a lead? That should rarely happen.

Its somewhat not having a closer but also on the coaches for not finding a closer the first 15 games of the year.
Find your go to guys early on, not now, when it matters.

Might be worth sliding DiRito back to Closer and Tibbett to a Sunday starter.

It’s good we have some depth, but also gives us too many options. Puzzling we throw a guy vs Wake and Coastal late that hasn’t pitched in 2 years. We doubled down on it too.

Coaching is the key for sure, you better know who your guys are before the season starts. Injuries are one thing, but no excuse for not having the right guys in the right places to start the season. And we clearly do not have the right guy(s) closing out our games.

Our closer is now our Friday night starter and we're clearly having to scramble to find someone who can get outs late in games. Look at the lineup on Sunday vs. opening day - didn't have our 4, 5, or 6 hitters. Steven Smith is playing SS out of necessity while fielding under .900 because Mummau has been sick (I'll keep my thoughts to myself on Xuereb but he hasn't been healthy his whole career). On the weekend we threw 15 2/3 innings of shutout baseball. I think that coaching is the least of our worries at this point. The fact that we were in a position to win these games (especially Sunday), and to win the series, is a testament to the coaching staff IMO.

At some point it just boils down to execution. We did not do a good job of simply throwing and catching the baseball this weekend. That's not X's and O's, that's Jimmy's and Joe's. I can think back to specific plays that were not made that hurt us.

Just off the top of my head... T9 on Friday night on 3 straight batters - we dive for a sac bunt instead of just fielding it on a hop and getting and out, E1 on sac bunt, E3 that allowed 2 runs to score to put Coastal up 2. That's not coaching.

B9 on Saturday - HBP, stolen base, wild pitch puts runner on 3rd then an E5 allows the tying run to score. Field it cleanly and the guy is dead to rights at home. Instead we boot it then throw it away at first. That's not coaching.

T4 on Sunday - Nolan goes from shoving to single, HBP, HBP, HBP, BB, Single. 4 runs on 2 hits. So we go to Harris and he gets the double play ball we want but we sail the throw to first. Still got out of the inning without giving up another run, but it fits my narrative lol.

I'm sure I'm missing some, I know they scored on an E9 at one point. I'm not saying that every coaching decision that's been made has been perfect, but I also have a hard time blaming coaches for every loss when they've coached it so well that we're in a position to win a series against the #16 team in the country with a bandaided lineup.

So far for the year - Overall APP is top 5 in both pitching and hitting out of the SB teams. Dead last in fielding

In conference (3 games) 7th in hitting /10th in pitching / last in fielding.

That being said - they competed and stayed with CCU. I think most of their line up was back this year. They are missing 3 key pitchers but they have the depth and they didn't panic/make mistakes in key situations. That's something APP obviously has a hard time with.

Definitely think the ODU series is a series that they should win.

[AppGrad78]

If I could magically wish for one thing for our baseball team is to find one pitcher who can reliably get three to six outs at the end of the game. Maybe it’s Tanner Nolan. Maybe it’s Cal Clark. Maybe it’s Connor Barrozino. Who knows? So far we haven’t found him. The other elements of our team (save for our perplexing lack of defense) is on par or perhaps better than the majority of Sun Belt teams.

[BUTCH1991]

We should have taken 2 out of 3 from CCU. We definitely should have won Saturday and I thought we were the better team Sunday, but blew it. Felt Coastal earned Friday night despite our 9th inning defense.

[t4pizza]

Seems that we just need a legit shut down closer. How many games have we lost going into the 8th with a lead? That should rarely happen.

Its somewhat not having a closer but also on the coaches for not finding a closer the first 15 games of the year.
Find your go to guys early on, not now, when it matters.

Might be worth sliding DiRito back to Closer and Tibbett to a Sunday starter.

It’s good we have some depth, but also gives us too many options. Puzzling we throw a guy vs Wake and Coastal late that hasn’t pitched in 2 years. We doubled down on it too.

Coaching is the key for sure, you better know who your guys are before the season starts. Injuries are one thing, but no excuse for not having the right guys in the right places to start the season. And we clearly do not have the right guy(s) closing out our games.

Our closer is now our Friday night starter and we're clearly having to scramble to find someone who can get outs late in games. Look at the lineup on Sunday vs. opening day - didn't have our 4, 5, or 6 hitters. Steven Smith is playing SS out of necessity while fielding under .900 because Mummau has been sick (I'll keep my thoughts to myself on Xuereb but he hasn't been healthy his whole career). On the weekend we threw 15 2/3 innings of shutout baseball. I think that coaching is the least of our worries at this point. The fact that we were in a position to win these games (especially Sunday), and to win the series, is a testament to the coaching staff IMO.

At some point it just boils down to execution. We did not do a good job of simply throwing and catching the baseball this weekend. That's not X's and O's, that's Jimmy's and Joe's. I can think back to specific plays that were not made that hurt us.

Just off the top of my head... T9 on Friday night on 3 straight batters - we dive for a sac bunt instead of just fielding it on a hop and getting and out, E1 on sac bunt, E3 that allowed 2 runs to score to put Coastal up 2. That's not coaching.

B9 on Saturday - HBP, stolen base, wild pitch puts runner on 3rd then an E5 allows the tying run to score. Field it cleanly and the guy is dead to rights at home. Instead we boot it then throw it away at first. That's not coaching.

T4 on Sunday - Nolan goes from shoving to single, HBP, HBP, HBP, BB, Single. 4 runs on 2 hits. So we go to Harris and he gets the double play ball we want but we sail the throw to first. Still got out of the inning without giving up another run, but it fits my narrative lol.

I'm sure I'm missing some, I know they scored on an E9 at one point. I'm not saying that every coaching decision that's been made has been perfect, but I also have a hard time blaming coaches for every loss when they've coached it so well that we're in a position to win a series against the #16 team in the country with a bandaided lineup.

I guess this just boils down to how you look at it. I think the inability to field bunts (or to bunt well ourselves) is actually a coaching issue. Sure, the players have to make the plays, but when the same, or similar, mistakes keep getting made then it points to coaching in my eyes. I like Kermit, I think he has done a very good job in elevating our program from where he found it. That being said, I do think we need to win more games and whether that is Jimmys and Joes, or x's and o's it really doesn't matter as both fall squarely on the coach's shoulders. Hoping the team is learning from these tough losses and it galvanizes the group and we turn it around for the remainder of the season. I would like nothing better than to see Kermit lead us to a very successful season.

[spacemonkey]

If I could magically wish for one thing for our baseball team is to find one pitcher who can reliably get three to six outs at the end of the game. Maybe it’s Tanner Nolan. Maybe it’s Cal Clark. Maybe it’s Connor Barrozino. Who knows? So far we haven’t found him. The other elements of our team (save for our perplexing lack of defense) is on par or perhaps better than the majority of Sun Belt teams.

It looked like to me a bunch of "E"s cost us the games. I am not sure the pitchers can do anything about fielder errors.

[Stonewall]

We find a way to lose. The clock is ticking on turning it around, or starting over.

[AppGrad78]

I’m guessing App leads the nation by a wide margin in fielding errors committed by its pitching staff. Combine those miscues with excessive pickoff attempts last Friday and Saturday (not so bad on Sunday) and a balk (dropped ball) with a runner on third and you have a definite area for improvement.

[SlappyAppy72]

Seems that we just need a legit shut down closer. How many games have we lost going into the 8th with a lead? That should rarely happen.

Its somewhat not having a closer but also on the coaches for not finding a closer the first 15 games of the year.
Find your go to guys early on, not now, when it matters.

Might be worth sliding DiRito back to Closer and Tibbett to a Sunday starter.

It’s good we have some depth, but also gives us too many options. Puzzling we throw a guy vs Wake and Coastal late that hasn’t pitched in 2 years. We doubled down on it too.

Coaching is the key for sure, you better know who your guys are before the season starts. Injuries are one thing, but no excuse for not having the right guys in the right places to start the season. And we clearly do not have the right guy(s) closing out our games.

Our closer is now our Friday night starter and we're clearly having to scramble to find someone who can get outs late in games. Look at the lineup on Sunday vs. opening day - didn't have our 4, 5, or 6 hitters. Steven Smith is playing SS out of necessity while fielding under .900 because Mummau has been sick (I'll keep my thoughts to myself on Xuereb but he hasn't been healthy his whole career). On the weekend we threw 15 2/3 innings of shutout baseball. I think that coaching is the least of our worries at this point. The fact that we were in a position to win these games (especially Sunday), and to win the series, is a testament to the coaching staff IMO.

At some point it just boils down to execution. We did not do a good job of simply throwing and catching the baseball this weekend. That's not X's and O's, that's Jimmy's and Joe's. I can think back to specific plays that were not made that hurt us.

Just off the top of my head... T9 on Friday night on 3 straight batters - we dive for a sac bunt instead of just fielding it on a hop and getting and out, E1 on sac bunt, E3 that allowed 2 runs to score to put Coastal up 2. That's not coaching.

B9 on Saturday - HBP, stolen base, wild pitch puts runner on 3rd then an E5 allows the tying run to score. Field it cleanly and the guy is dead to rights at home. Instead we boot it then throw it away at first. That's not coaching.

T4 on Sunday - Nolan goes from shoving to single, HBP, HBP, HBP, BB, Single. 4 runs on 2 hits. So we go to Harris and he gets the double play ball we want but we sail the throw to first. Still got out of the inning without giving up another run, but it fits my narrative lol.

I'm sure I'm missing some, I know they scored on an E9 at one point. I'm not saying that every coaching decision that's been made has been perfect, but I also have a hard time blaming coaches for every loss when they've coached it so well that we're in a position to win a series against the #16 team in the country with a bandaided lineup.

I guess this just boils down to how you look at it. I think the inability to field bunts (or to bunt well ourselves) is actually a coaching issue. Sure, the players have to make the plays, but when the same, or similar, mistakes keep getting made then it points to coaching in my eyes. I like Kermit, I think he has done a very good job in elevating our program from where he found it. That being said, I do think we need to win more games and whether that is Jimmys and Joes, or x's and o's it really doesn't matter as both fall squarely on the coach's shoulders. Hoping the team is learning from these tough losses and it galvanizes the group and we turn it around for the remainder of the season. I would like nothing better than to see Kermit lead us to a very successful season.

I 100% hear you, and don't necessarily disagree. Especially on the bunting well piece. That's infuriating. I look at it like this - according to App Baseball Twitter, this staff (Kermit and Britt) has coached 6 of the top 10 fielding teams in program history and have been in the top 7 in the SBC in fielding in 4 of the last 5 years. They didn't just forget how to coach, and the pitching coach didn't forget how to call pitches when we took DiRito and Peterson out this weekend. You're right though, it doesn't matter whose "fault" it is, we've got to start winning games. Plain and simple.

[Appmountaineers19]

I’m guessing App leads the nation by a wide margin in fielding errors committed by its pitching staff. Combine those miscues with excessive pickoff attempts last Friday and Saturday (not so bad on Sunday) and a balk (dropped ball) with a runner on third and you have a definite area for improvement.

It made my wonder after your post. So I wanted to see just how many errors were committed from pitchers. 5 out of the 31 errors so far are from pitchers. (Smith has 8 - not sure if any are from pitching) The 31 errors ranks them 12th most in the nation. .954 fielding percentage ranks them 276th.

I think you guys are spot on that if they can clean this up, they can be a Top 5 or 6 team in the conference. I think the top 4 teams are pretty strong but with that 2nd tier of teams APP can be right up there.

[BambooRdApp]

My personal opinion as it relates to this year. Not sure how we could be top 5 or 6 with our relief staff. In addition, lacking power hitters with guys injured.
I hope, wish we were. I am just not seeing it unless the SBC is down in talent compared to prior years.

[BUTCH1991]

And how does a guy show enough to be the Sunday starter, but after not performing well on Sunday, just totally disappear. If we're going to play Tuesdays by committee, you need to get him back out on the mound.

[Appmountaineers19]

My personal opinion as it relates to this year. Not sure how we could be top 5 or 6 with our relief staff. In addition, lacking power hitters with guys injured.
I hope, wish we were. I am just not seeing it unless the SBC is down in talent compared to prior years.

Well here's some surprising stats - * I say this as of now - in 2023 Team over .500 7.92 '24 team w/ XH - ERA 6.92

Right now in '26 - ERA is 5.10 - thats almost 2 earned runs less - injured guys luckily aren't season ending. League is top heavy but the rest are very similar so far.

[BUTCH1991]

My personal opinion as it relates to this year. Not sure how we could be top 5 or 6 with our relief staff. In addition, lacking power hitters with guys injured.
I hope, wish we were. I am just not seeing it unless the SBC is down in talent compared to prior years.

Well here's some surprising stats - * I say this as of now - in 2023 Team ERA was 7.65 with XH. '24 W/L record still over .500 - ERA 6.92

Right now in '26 - ERA is 5.10 - thats almost 2 earned runs less - injured guys luckily aren't season ending. League is top heavy but the rest are very similar so far.

I'm guessing we have quite a few unearned runs. We're giving up 6.37 runs per game.

[Appmountaineers19]

My personal opinion as it relates to this year. Not sure how we could be top 5 or 6 with our relief staff. In addition, lacking power hitters with guys injured.
I hope, wish we were. I am just not seeing it unless the SBC is down in talent compared to prior years.

Well here's some surprising stats - * I say this as of now - in 2023 Team ERA was 7.65 with XH. '24 W/L record still over .500 - ERA 6.92

Right now in '26 - ERA is 5.10 - thats almost 2 earned runs less - injured guys luckily aren't season ending. League is top heavy but the rest are very similar so far.

I'm guessing we have quite a few unearned runs. We're giving up 6.37 runs per game.

26 unearned

[Appmountaineers19]

I flipped the years and team ERA by mistake. I fixed it in the original post

[311neers]

My personal opinion as it relates to this year. Not sure how we could be top 5 or 6 with our relief staff. In addition, lacking power hitters with guys injured.
I hope, wish we were. I am just not seeing it unless the SBC is down in talent compared to prior years.

Well here's some surprising stats - * I say this as of now - in 2023 Team ERA was 7.65 with XH. '24 W/L record still over .500 - ERA 6.92

Right now in '26 - ERA is 5.10 - thats almost 2 earned runs less - injured guys luckily aren't season ending. League is top heavy but the rest are very similar so far.

I'm guessing we have quite a few unearned runs. We're giving up 6.37 runs per game.

26 unearned

We're missing a shortstop.
Neither X or Smith are SS but they are doing the best they can. Their bats are too good to sit.

We're having to throw our best pitchers as Starters thus leaving the bullpen open with question marks.
But, at some point... you just have to go with who you know can get you outs, even if that means throwing them twice in a weekend.

Clark
Harris
Fisher
Watson
(Where is Marks)
Tibbett
Smith.

I wouldn't mind going Peterson, Marks, Nolan and having DiRito go relief in 2 of the 3 weekend games. If he's going 6 innings on Friday, could he go 3 on Friday and 3 on Sunday? Need some stability back there.

When does Kam Miller come back?

[Appmountaineers19]

My personal opinion as it relates to this year. Not sure how we could be top 5 or 6 with our relief staff. In addition, lacking power hitters with guys injured.
I hope, wish we were. I am just not seeing it unless the SBC is down in talent compared to prior years.

Well here's some surprising stats - * I say this as of now - in 2023 Team ERA was 7.65 with XH. '24 W/L record still over .500 - ERA 6.92

Right now in '26 - ERA is 5.10 - thats almost 2 earned runs less - injured guys luckily aren't season ending. League is top heavy but the rest are very similar so far.

I'm guessing we have quite a few unearned runs. We're giving up 6.37 runs per game.

26 unearned

We're missing a shortstop.
Neither X or Smith are SS but they are doing the best they can. Their bats are too good to sit.

We're having to throw our best pitchers as Starters thus leaving the bullpen open with question marks.
But, at some point... you just have to go with who you know can get you outs, even if that means throwing them twice in a weekend.

Clark
Harris
Fisher
Watson
(Where is Marks)
Tibbett
Smith.

I wouldn't mind going Peterson, Marks, Nolan and having DiRito go relief in 2 of the 3 weekend games. If he's going 6 innings on Friday, could he go 3 on Friday and 3 on Sunday? Need some stability back there.

When does Kam Miller come back?

I was going to ask how Marks is doing. I think he's only pitched 2 innings so far. He's coming off an arm injury right? The kid from Belmont Abbey?

[311neers]

Well here's some surprising stats - * I say this as of now - in 2023 Team ERA was 7.65 with XH. '24 W/L record still over .500 - ERA 6.92

Right now in '26 - ERA is 5.10 - thats almost 2 earned runs less - injured guys luckily aren't season ending. League is top heavy but the rest are very similar so far.

I'm guessing we have quite a few unearned runs. We're giving up 6.37 runs per game.

26 unearned

We're missing a shortstop.
Neither X or Smith are SS but they are doing the best they can. Their bats are too good to sit.

We're having to throw our best pitchers as Starters thus leaving the bullpen open with question marks.
But, at some point... you just have to go with who you know can get you outs, even if that means throwing them twice in a weekend.

Clark
Harris
Fisher
Watson
(Where is Marks)
Tibbett
Smith.

I wouldn't mind going Peterson, Marks, Nolan and having DiRito go relief in 2 of the 3 weekend games. If he's going 6 innings on Friday, could he go 3 on Friday and 3 on Sunday? Need some stability back there.

When does Kam Miller come back?

I was going to ask how Marks is doing. I think he's only pitched 2 innings so far. He's coming off UCL right?

I thought he looked great against Duke. Was sitting 89-91...
Haven't seen him since.
He's a year out from surgery. Kinda odd unless something happened but I haven't heard anything.

No Marks was our Saturday starter last year then tore his UCL after his CG @ CofC mid March 2025. I think he transferred from D2 2 years ago.