2026 running baseball thread

Becoming evident that Aoki is basically who we thought he was -- an average manager who is not going to noticeably change anything about the program. Of course, we aren't exactly investing much in it either, so it's hard to say who or what is most to blame. But there's obviously no reason we should be getting dominated in baseball by St. Joe's.
 
This weekend will be a big A-10 road test for the Spiders. They head to New York 0-3 in conference to play a Fordham team who is 2-1 in conference after taking 2 of 3 “AT” Davidson. In game 3 of that series Fordham put up 15 runs in the 9th inning to beat Davidson 26-3.
Last season we were 20-4 when Fordham came to Pitt Field and swept us. Things seem to spiral downward after that series. Time for payback!
Let’s go Spiders!
 
Fordham plays small ball to push 2 more runs across in the Bot 4th. They use a single, SB, a walk and a bunt to get runners at 2nd and 3rd and a single gets them home. 4-0 Rams
 
Fordham gets a single, bunt single and sacrifice bunt to put 2 more in scoring position and a double plates both runners and the Rams lead after 6 innings 7-2.
 
Fordham gets a solo home run in the bottom of the 7th to take a 8-2 lead. Thankfully the Spiders escaped only giving up the one run. After getting 1 out they allowed a single gave up 2 walks but the Rams hit into a double play to end the seventh.
 
When I was at Richmond, Baseball WAS the sport going to NCAA regionals. Now it seems the school is happy finishing mid pack and making the A10 tournament. Bob Black in the Introduction video for Coach Aoki brings up “understanding the academic challenges”coaching at Richmond. Vandy coach Tim Corbin or Chris Pollard while at Duke and now UVA do not get that question but run NCAA top 25 baseball programs at “ academic” schools.
 
Certainly stepping down to the A-10 was a huge blow to the baseball program. Coming from the much better CAA, we dominated the A-10 the first couple of years until things caught up with it. In roughly 45 years of sponsoring baseball, the A-10 has sent an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament exactly once, and that was us in 2002 when we made our Super Regional run.

(And of course, the CAA is no longer what it was back then either, with the likes of ECU, VCU, and ODU plus the Spiders all making some noise, and even GMU and JMU contributing.)

I'd certainly like to see us be competitive at the top of the A-10, and we should have a natural advantage with our southern location relative to most of the rest of the conference, but the deck is certainly stacked against reclaiming any of the national stature we had 20 years ago. The scholarship situation is obviously a significant issue as well and something we obviously have control over. Facilities as well, despite some recent improvements.
 
SFspidur said:
Certainly stepping down to the A-10 was a huge blow to the baseball program. Coming from the much better CAA, we dominated the A-10 the first couple of years until things caught up with it. In roughly 45 years of sponsoring baseball, the A-10 has sent an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament exactly once, and that was us in 2002 when we made our Super Regional run.

(And of course, the CAA is no longer what it was back then either, with the likes of ECU, VCU, and ODU plus the Spiders all making some noise, and even GMU and JMU contributing.)

I'd certainly like to see us be competitive at the top of the A-10, and we should have a natural advantage with our southern location relative to most of the rest of the conference, but the deck is certainly stacked against reclaiming any of the national stature we had 20 years ago. The scholarship situation is obviously a significant issue as well and something we obviously have control over. Facilities as well, despite some recent improvements.
Click to expand...
Not a big follower of Spider baseball so not fully up to speed on the funding issues. I assume we aren't at NCAA max on scholarships but where are we with respect to the rest of the A-10 (where I assume very few are fully funded on scholarships)??
 
It was discussed a bit earlier in the thread, but with separate scholarship caps now out the window, the roster cap and therefore scholarship cap is now 34. Few if any teams in the country will hit that number. I think even the big boys are probably aiming for the ~25 range.

The old max was 11.7 and we were not at that max. I want to say we were around 8, but that's really just a guess...others closer to the program may have a better idea. And they could be divided among players, as long as anyone who got money got at least .25 of a 'ship.

I assume some A-10 programs were at or close to the previous 11.7 max, but I really don't know. I would be surprised if any have gone above that since the cap was lifted, as it's a big enough task funneling extra money to the flagship sports.
 
Spiders strike first in New York today. Chris Schaller picks up an RBI and the Spiders lead
1-0 after 2 innings. Joey Giordano on the mound for Richmond.
 
Spiders leave the bases loaded in the top of the 5th. Spiders have 4 hits and as we head to the bottom of the 5th Rams have only managed 1 hit off Joey Giordano.
 
PittFieldDreams said:
Spiders leave the bases loaded in the top of the 5th. Spiders have 4 hits and as we head to the bottom of the 5th Rams have only managed 1 hit off Joey Giordano.
Click to expand...
As Ernie Harwell used to say, Elko "stood there like a house on the side of the road" and took a called third-strike right down the pipe. Then the next guy chases two pitches way out of the zone and whiffs.
 
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