Reflections: Oilers @ Bucs 6/9/2010

Naturally, I was very excited when the Oilers came up to Anchor-Town to take on the Bucs for the first league game of the season. It's the official opening day, who wouldn't be excited? But when they announced the starting pitchers -- Casey Hauptman for the Bucs and Cody Kendall for the Oilers -- I was super stoked. I knew it was going to be a pitching duel, and I love a good pitching duel. I turned out to be right with a final score of 2-1, in a game that was scoreless until the fifth. The only bummer part for me is that I'm still in Oregon, so I had to catch the audio, and as I give you my reactions keep that in mind and I'll try not to over-imagine what happened.

Hauptman is the ace of the Nebraska staff and one of its best prospects. And man was he dialed in tonight. Right from the get-go, he seemed like he was on top of his game. He mixed his pitches well and used his curve and change-up effectively for strikeout pitches. Though he plunked one guy, it seems like overall he was hitting his spots and showing really good control. His line for the evening: 5.0 IP 1ER 3H 5K 0BB 1HB. Besides the hit batter, there's nothing wrong with that.


Cody Kendall looked pretty good as well; he didn't seem like he was locked in as much as Hauptman, especially during the first inning; he was missing the zone a lot, especially with his breaking ball. But when it counted, he managed to induce the outs and get himself out of a jam. He also showed a nice pick-off move to second to nab Sean Sullivan. Kendall left the game after four even frames, but surrendered only one hit and two walks. A very effective performance.

On a night with a 2-1 score, I have a tendency to gush about the pitching, but how about the other guys? The hurlers couldn't have done it all without some great defensive work. On a night when he made two errors it might seem weird to mention Bucs first-bagger Chris Serritella in this paragraph, but I will. Serritella might not have come up with all the plays but he was scrappy and aggressive, and I like that. And speaking of errors, how about that new Mulcahy turf that's supposed to be helping the infielders? Three errors for the Bucs, two for the Oilers. I don't know if we can draw any conclusions from that; the Oilers haven't played any exhibitions and even with the Bucs there are still guys just arriving, so who knows. But I'm just throwing that out there for pondering material. 


Who else? Bucs catcher Dominic Piazza made a couple throws down to second to catch stealing runners; one was right on the money and nabbed the guy, the other was so far over the bag that it would have sailed into center field had Zach Vincej not had the ability to leap tall buildings with a single bound. Again, I'm just getting this out of the audio, but when I'd seen Piazza with my eyes before my analysis was that he's got a nice strong arm but could use some work on his accuracy. This seems to confirm that.


Finally, one other player that stood out to me was Oilers 2B Justin Charles out of Fresno State. He didn't get a hit during the game, but he hustled down the line to reach first on an error and went on to swipe second as Serritella went to field a ball in foul territory. He seems like an aggressive base runner and a big hustle guy, and those are two things I like.

The Bucs didn't score a run until the bottom of the ninth, but they put a bunch of runners on against Kyle Barraclough and threatened to claw back. Barraclough allowed one run but managed to pitch out of the jam and shut the Bucs out for a 2-1 final score. Overall it was a hard-fought match for both sides. Tonight in the league the Bucs will head out to the valley for a match against the Miners, while the Pilots will come home to take on the Oilers in another game at Mulcahy. Both of these will be league games and start at 7pm.