Rbi double for Pluschkell in the bottom of the first. 4 straight hits before the Gold pitcher got a force out at 3b then a 6- 4- 3 dp. 3- 0 Blue. Don't know who the Gold pitcher is. Hannah for blue.

Still 3- 0 blue after 2. A. 1- 2- 3 inning for whoever the Gold pitcher is.

Gold pitcher is Tim Wieser I believe. Whoever's playing 3B for Gold looks really good. He's made some great plays. Think it's Jando Lara

4- 0 Blue after 4. Another great double play turn by the Gold 3b.

Pitching change for Gold. 5- 0 with 0 out and 2 on. Don't know who the new guy is. Looks like # 19. Throws with lots of movement. Only allowed 2 more inherited runs. 6- 0 blue. Final line on Wieser 4 IP, 7 runs, all earned, 3 walks, 0 strikeouts. Hannah still pitching in the 6th.

7 shutout innings for Hannah. #44 replaced him and pitched a scoreless 8th. 7- 0 blue

And that's the final. 7- 0 blue.

Couldn't determine everyone in each lineup, but here's what I was able to determine:

The Gold lineup was:

"Chip"- idk who he is, but he's a returning player
Van Blake (0 for 4)
Aguiar (2 for 4 with a 2b
Al. Lara (2 for 4)
"Joe" (0 for 4)
O'Boy (0 for 3)
Who ? (0 for 3)
Arenado (1 for 3)
What ? (0 for 3)
Pitcher: Tim Wieser (L, 4 IP, 7er, 3bb, 0k)

Blue:

Hooper: (0 for 3 2rs)
Pluschkell (2 for 4, 2b, rbi, 2rs)
Anderson (2 for 4, rbi, rs)
Briggs (1 for 4, rbi)
Today (2 for 2, rbi, rs)
Denholm (1 for 3, rbi)
Tomorrow (2 for 2, 2 rbi)
Why ? (1 for 4)
Evans (1 for 4)
Hannah (W, 7Ip, 0r, )

How do you find out about these games?

They usually mention them on the team twitter site. In my case I just asked the coach.

Now you might wonder, why don't I ask him about the schedule instead of piecing it together every year ? I do, but I don't post it on here. And that's because it often changes (already has this year). It's not official until you see it on a school website. Also, . I don't think he wants it re-posted on the internet.

In general I'd say the coaching staff is very helpful if you have questions. I've learned if you want this kind of information you won't get it from a university sports media contact. They will generally just put it back on the coach and won't ask them for you. I just make a point of keeping my email questions short and restricting them to fundraisers and the schedule. They probably get a lot of questions from parents about why their kids don't play more.

I would not, however, recommend emailing coaches Les or Hawkins directly since they have a lot more media inquiries to deal with, I imagine.

Gold team is 2-1 against Blue. Game 4 at 1:00 pm today (weather permitting). Hopefully Blue can get the win to make an interesting game on Friday.

Interesting. Gold seems to always win when I don't attend, but I haven't seen them score a run yet in person ! Did you happen to catch the names of the starting pitchers ? I heard game 1 had a freshman starter (Moffitt ?) on the blue side. I'm guessing the Gold started Blais.

I always want to see the series go 5 games so as many players get a chance as possible. Seems like there are fewer players this year. Last year I remember there being about 40- 42 players for fall games.

After being down 2 games top 1, Blue wins game 4 by a score of 7-1 behind Hannah and Brown. This forced a continuation of game 3 that ended after 10 innings 5-5. This game goes to the 15th inning before Gold steals home on a wild pitch. Great series this year. Always great when it goes down to the final game. Saw some great stuff and some not so great stuff (game 1 had about 9 errors).. All in all, the coaching staff should have some good stuff to build on. GO AGGS!!

I read on Twitter Alex Trautner had five scoreless innings of relief. Very impressive.

In the video #19 r(the reliever for Gold who impressed me) ran out of the dugout, so he isn't Trautner. He had impressive movement on his pitches, and was a right- hander. #19 last year was infielder Steve Ouellette. Don't think that was he unless he's a super- quick study at pitching. At most only 8 pitchers that played last year returned. One of them started. One was playing infield. Two were lefties...probably a new guy. Or perhaps Andres Lara. I hadn't seen him pitch before.

What has really hurt this team is that the 2015 recruiting class hasn't panned out yet like the coaching staff hoped. While Van Blake and Briggs have taken big steps forward in the infield, the overall pitching from that class (which was supposed to include them) has been disappointing. To be fair injuries have played a big role. Blake Hannah is a good pitcher, but for some reason they haven't pitched him much. Steindorf showed potential, but he was used sparingly and now hasn't pitched in a year. Two other recruits were injured and never threw a pitch for UCD before they transferred out Another pitched decently but was gone after 1 year. That leaves Brown, who saves his rough outings for when I attend. Seriously he must have a sub- 4.00 era when I don't.

Your upperclassmen are supposed to be the backbone of the team (ideally), but the disappointing results (pitching only) of that recruiting class (and the departures of Razo, Stone, Mullins, and Garcia) has left the team without experienced pitching. Don't think they'll have trouble hitting, but I will say Hooper shouldn't be in the leadoff spot as he was in the game I attended. He's a power hitter with the ability to drive in a lot of runs...using him as a table- setter is just silly.

Yes. I have known Trautner for the past 5 or 6 years and he will play an important part this year. He comes in athletically as a Junior, so hopefully he can contribute for next 2 years. It all starts on the hill. What I have seen in the Blue/Gold series are a host of arms that can effectively contribute, which should spell a fair amount of success. I know a few of these pitchers that, given the chance, will rise to the occasion. I don’t think it will be as down a year as you suggest. The class of 2015 recruits will really start making things happen this year. By the way, Steindorf has medically retired. He will not be returning. That one is going to hurt. Potential starters from what I’ve seen: Blais, Hannah, Brown, Loar, Trautner. There are a few others that looked pretty good. Not sure how the series numbers shakes out, but I think they will be alright this season. Razo, Garcia and Mullins all had 3.50 - 4.30 ERA’s on the season. Not shut down stuff. More like keep ya in the game stuff. I think they have as many guys as last year that will hover around that ERA.. GO AGGIES!

That's too bad about Steindorf. He looked like he had potential. Unfortunately, as poor a season as 2016 was it looks like he only got into mop- up situations, didn't get to protect any leads. So he was likely not the player I saw in the stands.

I don't really have the connections you have (to hear about player injuries and such), so I base more of my ideas off statistics and history. And uncertainty about the schedule, the pitching, and the catching keep me from projecting more wins than 2017. As far as Trautner is concerned I'm basing my expectations more on what recent JC starting pitcher transfers (Hamby, Parucha, Burke, etc..) have done. They've all been good competitors but more of their contributions were in relief.

I have to take the fall ball world series results with a grain of salt too because the team is only playing itself (with some participants who may not be on the roster come Feb.), and all their opponents will be better than the level of play you see in November. You can count on that since, to my knowledge, UCD doesn't play any non- Division I schools (except for Grand Canyon last year and Seattle several years ago- transition teams)

Catching I wonder about. Will Denholm be at full health by Feb., and if so will he be better defensively than 2 seasons ago ? The Aggies were terrible at holding runners on (So many errors on pitchouts and pickoff throws !) and throwing out basestealers in 2016. And if he isn't, is O'Boy or someone else up to the task ? You like to think the best of the current crew, but it's difficult to do until the season starts. Catching is such an integral part of the pitching success.

I think you're right about the ERA's. I can only remember three seasons (2006, 2009, and 2013) with Vaughn as pitching coach where the team ERA wound up being really ugly. There were extenuating circumstances in two of those seasons, like all of the injuries in 2006. Even the 2016 team's wasn't that bad.

I think it's also a question of defense and timely hitting. In 2016 and 2017 you could count on Garcia to give you quality starts, but his career record was what, 5- 12 ? How many games did he receive a loss or no decision when he turned in quality ? At this level if you have a starter give you a 3.50- 4.30 ERA you would expect he would be near or better than a .500 record

I've noticed the Aggies tend to have smaller recruiting classes than other schools, even ones that don't rely heavily on transfers or have many players drafted. Do you think this is due more to budgetary reasons or less attrition (fewer players leaving the program for a reason other than graduation)?

While I remember (forget whether I talked about this on here before or not) I think ERA is probably not as relevant a statistic as it used to be.

Back in the old days it was plenty relevant when you had pitchers who would throw 9 innings most starts. That is extremely uncommon these days, so it's not that useful to know how many earned runs a starter would give up in 9 innings. Not to mention that a pitcher who averages 5- 6 innings would possibly be pretty gassed + might give up additional runs should their starts be extended.

At the same time it is completely irrelevant to know how many earned runs someone who pitches in relief gives up because they rarely would get even close to 9 in a single game. For a relief specialist, a Javier Lopez- type, it might take them a dozen or more appearances to amass 9 innings of work Also, it's highly inaccurate since relievers suddenly made into starters would be likely to tire earlier and give up more runs if they tried to pitch 9.

I think there are more relevant calculations that can measure a pitcher's effectiveness. I'm going to write MLB and only tell them beca use I want all the credit. :D