I'm sorry to be so negative, but that's just garbage. Long Beach was handed more runs for free than they actually earned. I believe fielding errors are for the unintelligent, the uncoordinated, and the unprepared. Our boys are intelligent, so it must be the other two things.

I can't really speak to how coordinated they are, but there's a definite breakdown in communication between infielders at least once a day. For good teams this happens rarely.

The problem with team fielding practice is they are only fielding grounders + line drives hit by coaches + teammates. Our best hitter- you can debate who that is -Fullerton + Long Beach have at least 10- 12 as good or better. Am I wrong here ? It doesn't reflect in overall batting stats so much because of the strength of the competition the Titans and 49ers face, but you can see it in the way they destroy the Aggies. Better hitters will generally have quicker bat speed, which generates harder hit baseballs. If UCD's infield is standing back anticipating one of their teammates' grounders, the screaming liner they'll actually get will take them by surprise. Sometimes they get a piece of it but can't do anything with it, but try anyway to make an impossible play on a runner who's already safe or to an infielder who's not in position to take the throw, so another error and another run scored.

Outfielders, on the other hand, should not be making errors at all. You have to mess up pretty badly to get one. You either catch the ball or you don't. If you don't then it's almost always a hit, even if the ball falls right in front of you. So where do those errors come from ? Inaccurate throws that don't find a glove, dropping flies, and taking a bad route on base hits, giving extra bases (some of those times are not even scored as errors). If you stand in the outfield grass picking your nose and watching butterflies, chances are you never make an error. So why do we have any errors from the outfield at all ?

Perhaps an effective drill in practice would be not catching the ball, going over what you need to do when you don't make the play, to limit damage. This team is not good at it. They could practice booting an infield grounder for instance, and holding onto the ball instead of throwing a Hail Mary over the 1st baseman's head. Or perhaps they get the ball to the next base to keep the runner from advancing. Part of this as well would be improving the player's judgement as to when to try for a bang- bang play or to try for a lead runner.

Errors really bother me. So much of the game is mental, and UCD is supposed to have the mental aspect covered. But you see all these errors and you're like, Why are all these smart guys making boneheaded plays ? They're representing the superior academic institution in most contests, but sometimes do so in dee- durp- dee-durp- dee- diddly- durp- dee- durp fashion. If you lose a game 10- 1 and the opposing team earned their runs by manufacturing them +or otherwise beating the snot out of the ball, it means they were the better team that day. If you lose 10- 1 and the scoring was significantly impacted by errors it means they're a much better team period..

The bonehead/clusterfudge errors need to stop. They're embarrassing to the team and the fans, especially the alumni.

If coordination is ever a problem then perhaps the player (s) could benefit from ballet classes, or really any kind of dance class where you have to concentrate on your footwork and work together with a partner. At the D- I level you wouldn't expect to have athletes who need this kind of assistance, but they're out there. A player might grumble about it, but Bo [Jackson] did ballet, and there are women in these classes as well, so they can't be all bad. Issues w/coordination may also contribute to otherwise avoidable injuries. Again, I don't know to what extent this is currently a problem for the Aggies.