tigerman

Three pretty good games with each going down to the wire. 1) Cornersville lost 15-14 after leading 14-0 in the 1st quarter. Loretto scored with less than a minute to go & won the game by converting on two point conversion. 2) Lincoln 14-10 over Giles. Giles impressed me in this one. I don't think last year was a one year fluke. Bobcats threw into the endzone on the final play & had a chance, but pass gets picked & Lincoln holds on. 3) Coffee County over Marshall County 26-22. More offense than most imagined. Coffee moved the ball all night long & Tigers showed big play ability. Coffee scores with less than 30 seconds left to pull out win, after Marshall had gone up on about a 60 yard scoring pass play on fourth and long with about a minute left. Big Country, it's got the makings of an exciting season in Region 5-3A. BTW, who was Cheatham's big time runningback a couple of seasons ago. Coffee had a player that reminded me so much of him.

Ok, I'm confused. I thought we were playing Coffee County in the Pigskin Preview & opening at Hickman County on Aug. 31. Does anyody know for sure.

CoachT, I heard your name mentioned on the radio this morning about being kin to Tori. More than once I might add. It was a good fundraiser with lots of community support. Just over $2000 in about 90 minutes time. Lewisburg loves all its state champions !!!

Lewisburg 1 Bolivar 0 in 9 innings in the sectional. Great pitchers duel between Seth Lintz & Will Irvin. Second choice: Lewisburg 9 Giles County 8 (region finals) Great hitters duel.

I agree with you. By this point in the week pitching staffs are spent, especially if you had to travel through the losers bracket. Heck, USJ scored 18 on us and it was just day two. I don't know what we would have done or could have expected had we won. When we lost to them 4-2 on day one, I think we knew we were living on borrowed time. And let me tell you, having 18 scored on you does not leave a very good feeling, especially when you've had a wonderful run up to that point.

Once upon a time it was a best 2 out of 3 series between two teams at one of their homefields. Once upon a time you did have to win the region to advance. Once upon a time it was a four team state tournament. Now a days we have teams stay alive longer, more make it to the state and pitching staffs go kaput if you don't stay in the winner's bracket.

Why are you not going to pay them ? And give them a cold hot dog after the game.

David, do you really think that many good teams are being left out ? I'm just asking. You really seem to have done a lot of homework on this. Different sports but good teams get left out of state tournaments (basketball) all the time because of how they pair up in the sub-state. What's the answer for that ? I think as long as there is sports, there is always going to be somebody left out. I know that doesn't seem fair, but I had a teacher tell me years ago, "life's not fair."

Tells me a whole bunch of people who got here don't have a whole lot of pitching. Plain & simple. But I don't necessarily think there is somebody sitting at home that would have done a whole lot better. You can't expect to play baseball with this type of format and expect to see a whole bunch of pitchers duels. Especially in the public A & AA tourneys. There just aren't enough numbers at that level. Even tomorrow's championships could get ugly. Even for teams who swept through their bracket undefeated, the best case scenario is their day one pitcher back on the mound with two complete days of rest. David, I didn't study the brackets all that close, but did any team make it to the 'Boro with a suspect record ? Say something like 21-17. That would be a better indicator to me that they relied on one guy a whole bunch. What bothers me more is the way the tourney is divided into two "pools." That leaves open the chance for the two best teams to be in the same pool just by the bad luck of the draw. Plus, since the team I root for was knocked out on day two, there were four teams we never even saw play a game. I don't like that. I know you can't compare the two, but softball has a much better tournament feel & atmosphere to it. Gosh, if I said that ten years ago I would have had someone wash my mouth out with soap !!!

Are you calling coaches ignorant & unqualified ? I've heard more than one this year question the CONSISTENCY of umpires, especially on balls and strikes. I don't believe for one minute an umpire picks one team & favors them over the other with his calls. I would never suggest that. I've seen them hurt both teams that were playing. And I get sick of this mentality of if you don't like the way we're calling, go pick up an application and join us. I don't care to thank you very much.But if I did, you can be darn sure I would bust my rear end to the best umpire I could be. And if I saw I wasn't getting it done ( and trust me, when coaches, players and fans from both sides are upset, you ain't getting it done), I'd be smart enough to step aside.

First of all, I don't have a kid playing so I'm no griping parent who thinks his little Billy didn't get all the right calls. Second, one error MIGHT not lose a game for you, but a lot of mistakes WILL beat you. Just like one bad call from an umpire MIGHT not beat you, but a whole lot of inconsistent calls sure can. And believe it or not, the worst umpired game we had in the state tourney we won. How did that happen ? The two we lost, we lost fair & square. But you're still going to have a hard time convincing me we have a lot of good umpires out there.

I see what you mean. Our district even played each other on back to back days this year to prove your point. I didn't do a study on it, but my guess is the Monday games were a little more low scoring than the Tuesday games if all things were equal. But postseason is a different animal. Even with a first round bye we played four games in the district ( forced into the loser's bracket ) two in the region, one sectional & three in the state. That was 10 games in a space of 17 days ( 8 were off days). We rode our ace as far as we could, but we also leaned on numbers 2,3 & 4 as well. We wouldn't have made it to the state without them. Our scores...12-2, 4-5, 2-1, 4-10, 2-0, 9-8, 1-0, 2-4, 14-11, 5-18. All through this run, I'm sure we saw everybody else's numbers 2,3,&4 as well. The result. Some great pitchers duels and some great offensive slugfests.

Last I checked they do get paid. And I don't seem to hear anybody begging them to do it, so they umpire of their own free will and thus accept terms 1-5 of that list. Look, in baseball there's a lot of close plays and somebody is always going to be happy with the call & somebody's going to be upset. Most of the time it ends up 50-50. But sometimes missed calls lead to extra outs that lead to game changing plays. Those are the killers. Umpiring had nothing to do with favorite team losing out this week. Nothing, so this isn't sour grapes. But I've seen enough inconsistency this year to last a lifetime. And that's frustrating. I always taught my kids to adapt to an umpire & if he was consistently calling a pitch on the ankles a strike, then you had sure better start swinging at it. Likewise on a pitch at the letters. But when the strike zone changes from pitch to pitch, inning by inning, it's frustrating for EVERYBODY. Likewise for reversed calls from guys who are so far out of position it's not even funny. That's what gripes a lot of baseball fans...even us Babe Ruth league graduates.

There are very few teams in the state that have enough pitching depth to make postseason baseball anything but slugfests once you get in the loser's bracket. Maybe AAA does, but quality pitching depth is a rarity in the public A & AA schools. Lots of years you're blessed to have two good ones, much less three, four or five. I saw a lot of teams on different levels (district, region, sub-state, state) and I didn't see a whole lot of pitching anywhere. I think a lot of hitters have caught up in the last 10 years and combine that with 2's & 3's who are being forced to groove pitches due to some tough strike zones & it's going to lead to some slugfests. I agree a lot of runs have been scored & they certainly don't look like baseball scores. Heck, Marion County scored 21 runs in two games ( 10 & 11) and LOST both. My school has won three state championships & I don't know if you add all the games up from all three years if we scored 21 runs !! There have been different formats through the years. I've seen 2 teams play on one's homefield in a best 2 out of 3 series, a four team double elimination, and an eight team double elimination. Is there a good answer ? I really don't know. Maybe wooden bats, maybe better strike zones, maybe better development of pitching staffs. Best answer I have now is simple. Stay out of the loser's bracket. Don't just watch state tourney results. Look at college conference results this weekend as well. I'll betcha there's going to be some wide & wooly high scoring games at that level as well. You never have enough pitching.

Where are they hinding them then ? I sure didn't see anyone that fits that description.

And just what was it they were supposed to learn from this clinic ? How to keep them guessing ?

Pageman, don't worry, Tiger fans have got your back. This week you're an honorary Tiger fan !!!

Pageman nails it again. Tough call against the Tigers was a bang-bang play at first that went against the runner, but in baseball you know those calls are about 50-50. Hurt even more when the Tigers got two more on which would have loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh. All in all, the pitchers from both squads made you forget about everything else. Umps Friday were definitely head & shoulders better than what we've seen the last two weeks. Should have made those guys come & take notes on how it's done.

Let's just call this one what it was. A great baseball game with two teams that battled hard down to the final pitch. Seth Lintz & Will Irvin were both tremendous. I think the linescore proves that. Both are assets to their team & are really good pitchers. And I'm sure Irvin is a top notch hitter as well. I cringed every time he came to the plate. Tigers pitched him carefully except for the one pitch he laced out into leftfield. How ironic is it though that Lintz won it with his bat. What a moment for that young man. One he'll remember for a long time. Quality ball player, quality young man. Both had help behind them. Stoltz and Barnes made a couple of dandy plays in the outfield for Lewisburg, and the Bolivar centerfielder left it all on the field, making a just short diving try on Lintz's hit on the last play. It was one of the games where it's a shame somebody had to lose. But on this night surrounded by an incredible crowd and an awesome baseball atmosphere, Lewisburg got it done. Tip your hat to both teams. That was high school athletics at its finest.

No it won't.

As always, that's exactly what happened. Except Edgemon's homer ended up more down the line in right didn't it LewisburgMan, oops I mean Pageman ? I don't give up easy PageMan !! I heard some of our folks saying it was close to being a foul ball. Anyway, great game is right. Both teams showed a lot of heart battling like they did. Good luck to both.

'Oh, let's hope not.

Pageman, every contract has a buyout clause. We'll be in touch. Come on, you have to admit it's pretty fun & wacky being around Tiger fans !!! As far as Wednesday, forget hitting, pitching & defense, our coaches have one simple task wednesday. Convince our players it's not wednesday but instead it's Monday !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pageman, would you consider becoming LewisburgMan if we can get the money right ?? Big win by the Tigers over DL and a revenge win at that. With it being Monday & with Lintz on the mound, I think true blue Tiger fans knew we had a pretty good shot today. And our guys came through !!! I can't wait for round five and the rubber match between us & Giles Wednesday. Ought to be a good one.

I second that Pageman. 16 hits should produce more than 4 runs. Eight of those 16 hits came from the last three batters in the lineup. It's a crazy game. Don't be suprised if we don't stand toe to toe with David Lipscomb. Our defense has to shore up though if we're to have a chance.