Blue/Gold World Series 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.