Quite a pitching duel! I looked at the box score and the game started at 6:06 pm and finished at 10:52 pm...4 hours and 46 minutes long with a good crowd of 1885 in attendance. I wonder how many stayed until the end?

The Aggies are now 22-23 overall and 9-13 in the BW with 10 games to go. I'm sure they'd like to finish above .500 for the season. Go Ags!

They are fortunate to not be finishing against the top teams in the conference. Of their last 3 BW series (counting the one they're in) only UCSD has a winning record. There's really not much of a path to 5th place for the Aggies, so no ticket to the Big West tournament. As a result their season will end a week earlier this year.

They get locked in a fair number of these low-scoring wars of attrition because the team hitting isn't very good (.250 batting average is pretty weak considering aluminum bats are being used). It seems like all of the returning players except Nick Leehey (who seems to have missed significant time with injury), Ryan Lee, and Braydon Wooldridge are not hitting as well as they did last year. I wonder what's behind that-rule changes (such as an adjustment to the strike zone) ? A change in team hitting approach ? They do seem to be drawing more walks. I seriously doubt all of them went into a prolonged slump at the same time for no reason.

I'm not concerned with the freshmen. Players like Gentil, Story, and Houston Hirschkorn have shown some real promise. I seem to recall there was a game in which Gentil had two triples. He's a catcher. Catchers usually aren't supposed to be hitting triples !

These statistics are a little telling though. UCD has been shut out SEVEN times this year, to go with 8 times they scored only 1 run. In those 15 combined games they are (2-13) and scored 8 total runs.

What's really weird is the team batting average has been at or near .250 each year since Nicholson took over as head coach (per the historical stats on the UCD website). They hit .238 in 2022 but probably would have hit .250 had the hazing scandal not resulted in some of their regulars ditching the program. So this year is- consistent ?

One crucial element they've mostly been lacking is power. Seventeen team homeruns would've been ok in the D-II days. Homeruns end these types of games much faster than piecemeal offense (walks, getting hit with pitches, etc). They hit 33 last year and the year before that. Must be missing Damian Stone more than they imagined. He was the only major bat they lost to graduation last year. Seventeen is how many they hit in '22 (6-34 won-loss record). The 2022 Aggies hit that many in 5 fewer games.

Pitching, on the other hand, has improved significantly. The team ERA alone has dropped a lot in each of the last 3 years.