The University of Akron Athletics
Zips Baseball Newsletter
February 26 | Baseball
Dear Zips Alumni and Fans,
Welcome to week two of our season and a recap of our three game series against No. 4 University of Louisville. Overall, our pitching staff really did another fine job with just a couple bumps along the way. Jon Pusateri struggled on Friday's series opener after a very, very good performance last week at Georgia Tech (5.1 IP, 9H, 6R, 5ER, 2BB). Not sure why, but he was tentative this outing as his pitches were not as crisp, he was pushing his change up, and you could see a passive look on his face, which inevitably resulted in not working ahead of hitters like he had the previous start. As he stated to me after I asked what changed in a six-day period, he indicated it was 'mental'! Not sure how that happens after dominating a team like Georgia Tech, but it did. The team sat in the box pretty comfortable, and took some very strong swings.
Two-thirds of the starting rotation are now freshman with John Valek taking the ball on Saturday and JT Brubaker on Sunday. Valek threw the ball well as he shows excellent command of both his fastball and changeup, which is his best pitch. He's not a big, hard throwing lefthander, but can handle a good lineup because of his command, despite allowing 4 walks. We dropped a fly ball (again) in the outfield, and our first baseman misread a bunt to John's left, which added more outs to the Cardinals' good bats. His numbers would've been better had it not been for these miscues (4 IP, 4H, 5R, 4ER, 4BB). JT had an outstanding performance on Sunday (7.2 IP, 4H, 3 SO, 0BB, 2 ER). He held Louisville to only 2 hits through 6 innings with one of them allowed because of slow play in the first inning, which scored Louisville's first run. We should've been out of the inning without the run if we played a slow hit ball better.
Otherwise, we played solid defense behind JT and outhit Louisville 6-4, which allowed us to stay in the game until the seventh inning. Junior catcher, Brady Stewart, is swinging well and has at least one hit in each of our 6 games, and Redshirt sophomore Joey Havrilak had a few hard outs and hits. The best showing so far offensively has been freshman Daulton Mosbarger in the leadoff spot. He's showing a good eye and has a good swing through the zone, which keeps him on the ball.
As always, it is a challenge this time of the year to go outside for three days in the weekend, and then return to practice indoors. Because we practiced indoors in the days leading up to Louisville, we had a difficult time making adjustments the first night going back outside, but we became a little more comfortable as the weekend progressed.
We knew going into the weekend at Louisville that we would be facing a very good pitching staff. Not only did we face good starters, the Louisville closer we saw on Sunday was clocked at 100 mph in his first pitch in the ninth! I can vouch that our players don't see that while they're in the cages in the field house! Each day is a learning process, and we continue to educate our guys to the highest level of college baseball. We are not overly concerned about the amount of strikeouts right now because it is understandable because of what they're facing. We have stressed with them during every at-bat you will have a pitch to hit. We can't take it and can't miss it!
As we prepare for this coming weekend at No. 11 Kentucky, we will likely be forced to practice indoors due to weather. Hopefully, we'll continue to improve in all phases of the game and have indicated to our guys that if they work on the small things, the bigger piece will come together.
Have a great week and as always, GO ZIPS!
Head Coach Rick Rembielak
