Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2977
Reg: 03-02-08
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 05-21-23 08:52 AM - Post#356381
I am arguably misusing this board to express my disappointment at the shocking fall from grace of what had been a great baseball program as recently as a month or so ago. Boretti coached teams had not been swept in a weekend series since 2006; yet we have been swept in four in a row to finish the season; after going into the season as the favorite to win the league, and having racked up 3 wins over nationally ranked teams, we have literally fallen apart. Our pitching has been the worst I have seen in the Boretti era—how could we allow ourselves to wind up with such horrific pitching? Moreover our fielding has uncharacteristically fallen apart, which may have led to yesterday’s loss. Plus I don’t see the energy and enthusiasm that I saw in other Boretti teams. One little aside—when our starting pitcher was pulled over his objection the reliever promptly gave up a grand slam home run—granted some decisions don’t work out, but the pushback to Boretti was pretty much unprecedented. I wonder if something is going on behind the scenes here.
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Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts: 2184
Reg: 02-14-06
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05-21-23 11:23 AM - Post#356383
In response to Chet Forte
My guess is that nothing in particular is going on with the Columbia Baseball Team other than everyone is very disappointed that the team lost its final nine games to finish the season on a low note. However, we knew from the beginning of the season that the Columbia Baseball Team had a very strong batting line-up and a very weak pitching staff for whatever reasons. At one point early in the season the Lions wwere even ranked nationally after winnning a three game series against Alabama. Yet it was clear early on that the pitching was not there. Columbia came from way behind too many times for the wins to continue. Then you had several unexpected injuries to key players including the team's only fireballer and the starting centerfielder and third baseman. Finally, our Ivy league opponents were all much stronger than prior years. With hindsight, something obviously went wrong with the pitching staff and that led to the team's late season collapse. Hopefully, Columbia will have a whole lot of fresh arms ready for 2024.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2977
Reg: 03-02-08
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05-21-23 02:56 PM - Post#356386
In response to Columbia 37P6
We are in accord but nonetheless how did Boretti fail to recruit a decent pitching staff? His third game starter throughout the IL season was TBD, which meant a committee of one of our better position players (Palfrey) for 3 innings if we were lucky plus whoever he could cobble together. I thought we were headed for this sort of disaster when we blew a 9 run lead in the last inning or so of the Dartmouth game and were lucky to walk off in extra innings. I don’t mean to point fingers, but we had an excellent pitching coach who we lost a year or two ago, and the results just haven’t been there both with recruiting and development. And in the IL series some of our top guys didn’t show up offensively while another must have been injured.
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Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts: 2184
Reg: 02-14-06
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05-21-23 05:53 PM - Post#356388
In response to Chet Forte
I
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Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts: 2184
Reg: 02-14-06
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05-21-23 06:11 PM - Post#356389
In response to Columbia 37P6
Strictly from afar and not with any specific inside information, my general understanding is that Boretti successfully recruited a number of high quality pitchers the last several years, but for various reasons including unforeseen injuries things have not worked out as planned. However, there is some good news as Perfect Game says we have five pitching commits coming in next year. Also, Sheets, Leon, Parkinson, Yoo and Vaughan are returning. Finally, I doubt the pitching coach change was a factor this season.
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