Some stuff from Friday night's 6-5 baseball win against Brown in the home opener...
The night before lefthanded sophomore pitcher Michael Ellis gets his start against Brown, he helped produced the game-winning run. Senior Mike Martinez, who went two for three (.533 this season) and walked twice, joked after the game about junior Adam Kirsch continually seeking counsel about his swing and said he told Kirsch he was fine. Kirsch admitted he was asking about quite a bit, but felt he'd missed on some good pitches earlier in the game. Kirsch said Ellis advised that he was getting his foot down late.
The next time up, Kirsch got a first pitch fastball and put it over the fence to break a 5-5 tie.
Freshman shortstop Julius Gaines has five errors in seven games so far, but head coach Turtle Thomas said, Julius is a freshman. He’s played every inning of all seven games. He’ll continue to play because he’s a good player. He’ll figure it out sooner or later.”
Thomas seemed to have more concern about redshirt junior starter Mason McVay, who didn't get the Ivy League visitors under control until the third inning or so.
“That’s what’s happening with him right now," Thomas said. "He goes out , struggles the first couple of innings, he settles in, he does fine as long as he stays in the game. The problem is, he’s got to figure it out earlier so he doesn’t throw 70 pitches the first two innings. Four innings, he had 95 pitches.”
That said, Thomas also complimented Brown on tenacity at the plate. One of the reasons McVay reached such a high pitch count in the first two innings was the Bears weren't leaving anything up to the umpire. If it was close, they were swinging and making contact and foul balls were fine with them.
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