Rightfielder

[mk23]

First off, I am in complete support of Coach Mercer. I think he's done an absolutely outstanding job in getting to know his players and fixing just about everything that seemed problematic early in the season. I've never been more Bulls-ish (see what I did there?) on this program and can't wait to see how things progress in the next few years. To win a conference title his first year out of the gate should be applauded by all IU fans.

That said, I am really curious what's going on with our right field situation. Richardson started off like a star in the making, then faded just a little. Crail has been getting starts over the past couple weeks and hasn't contributed much of anything. Each time Richardson comes in as a defensive replacement, he catches everything and gets a late inning hit. The lone start vs Rutger resulted in his 9th HR. Soooooo...what gives?

I'm asking not so much to question or second guess the staff, but I just don't see what they're hoping to accomplish. Anyone have thoughts?

 

[kraft cheese+macaroni]

Grant was in a 1 for 30 stretch.

 

[cd_hoosiers]

Grant was in a 1 for 30 stretch.

Coach Mercer talks about collectively executing the game plan. This is his team and the guys have bought in...they've worked really hard on every aspect of the game and ended up on top because of it. Huge first year.

 

[rcaulfie]

Grant was in a 1 for 30 stretch.

I didn't realize it was that bad, but I knew he hasn't hit much at all lately and his average has continually fallen. I'm not surprised at all Crail has been given some opportunities if he is in that much of a slump. Perhaps he needed to watch from the dugout for a little. And I'm pretty sure Crail can hit, and would if given more at bats. But he hasn't.....his average went from .275 to .238 with these recent opportunities. Although, with only 63 at bats, all he has to do is go 3 for 4 in his next game and top Richardson's .267 average. But Sam doesn't seem to be anywhere close to Grant's power numbers: 1 HR in 63 AB's vs 9 in 150.

 

[biglewexpress]

Simple answer, Grant hit the freshman wall. His first season of being a student athlete at the D1 level and the grind of a college season. Sometimes a little break can bring you back into focus. Grant will be fine.

 

[Dude Where Is My Car]

Any question now why Richardson was benched? He's been good all year but hit a complete freshman wall with his bat and after a solid year in field, now handed the opponent a run each of the last two days with an easy dropped fly ball in RF. Still a bright future but this year has gone south on him.

 

[mk23]

Any question now why Richardson was benched? He's been good all year but hit a complete freshman wall with his bat and after a solid year in field, now handed the opponent a run each of the last two days with an easy dropped fly ball in RF. Still a bright future but this year has gone south on him.

These 2 errors are unbelievable.

If his replacement had done anything at all, I wouldn’t have asked the question. When zero replaces zero...

 

[rcaulfie]

Crail just came in for him. Let's see if this game he can take advantage of his opportunity.

 

[mushroomgod_1]

Crail just came in for him. Let's see if this game he can take advantage of his opportunity.

Came up with tying runs on & popped out.

 

[mk23]

Came up with tying runs on & popped out.

Skrine didn’t fare any better.

 

[ptrich]

Skrine didn’t fare any better.

We can look at a lot of areas of our game that cost us in this tournament. It was a team effort in our inability to win even one game in the tourney.

 

[rcaulfie]

We can look at a lot of areas of our game that cost us in this tournament. It was a team effort in our inability to win even one game in the tourney.

Agreed. Nobody faired very well, 3 hits total (in reference to this past game). Gorski and Lloyd were just as bad as all of our RF'ers. The only reason we scored 4 runs is because Minny GAVE them to us.