Jump to content

Thanks for visiting BtownBanners.com!  We noticed you have AdBlock enabled.  While ads can be annoying, we utilize them to provide these forums free of charge to you!  Please consider removing your AdBlock for BtownBanners or consider signing up to donate and help BtownBanners stay alive!  Thank you!

Aaron

IU Michigan Baseball: Last Big Series of Year

Recommended Posts

What a fun day!

I started the trip leaving from Indy very early in morning and headed to East Lansing which is where I took that picture of the owl at their zoo (no screecher at game today which made it all the better). East Lansing is kind of blah and looks a lot like Champaign and West Lafayette campus wise.

After that I moved onto Ann Arbor which is an awesome city. The campus has very nice buildings and the downtown of Ann Arbor in Kerrytown feels absolutely identical to downtown Bloomington with some new buildings, but many cool specialty local and ethnic restaurants and a charming feel. First Big Ten city besides Bloomington and Madison that I thoroughly enjoyed and city has lots of green space. 

The only complaint I have is Ann Arbor has a horrible parking situation that makes Bloomington's look not bad at all. It's impossible to find a space in Kerrytown and the lot to park in for the game after the tiny one at the stadium fills up is almost a mile away at Crisler Center.

As for the game this team has absolutely brought it's hitting shoes this weekend. It was great to see us punch back with runs every time Michigan punched for runs. Fun back and forth game and it was cool to see Dunham clear a required roughly 30 foot wall in left field for a HR in ninth. This was after Gorski, again, just missed a HR in first inning off that very same wall that would of been out of any other stadium.

Their stadium is also very nice and modern while staying historic looking with many renovations and has a great view of the game. 

Overall, it is great to see the team mix home runs in this weekend but not relying on them and also poke balls for clean hits around the park which is prefect approach. 

Tomorrow is now gravy and would be awesome, but this is now a very successful weekend regardless and winning the Big Ten is now very much in play. I will probably not be able to post tomorrow during game when I am back in Indy but we will see. As I depart dinner and get on the road for my 3.5 hour drive home it's been fun and I would definitely come back here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Aaron said:

What a fun day!

I started the trip leaving from Indy very early in morning and headed to East Lansing which is where I took that picture of the owl at their zoo (no screecher at game today which made it all the better). East Lansing is kind of blah and looks a lot like Champaign and West Lafayette campus wise.

After that I moved onto Ann Arbor which is an awesome city. The campus has very nice buildings and the downtown of Ann Arbor in Kerrytown feels absolutely identical to downtown Bloomington with some new buildings, but many cool specialty local and ethnic restaurants and a charming feel. First Big Ten city besides Bloomington and Madison that I thoroughly enjoyed and city has lots of green space. 

The only complaint I have is Ann Arbor has a horrible parking situation that makes Bloomington's look not bad at all. It's impossible to find a space in Kerrytown and the lot to park in for the game after the tiny one at the stadium fills up is almost a mile away at Crisler Center.

As for the game this team has absolutely brought it's hitting shoes this weekend. It was great to see us punch back with runs every time Michigan punched for runs. Fun back and forth game and it was cool to see Dunham clear a required roughly 30 foot wall in left field for a HR in ninth. This was after Gorski, again, just missed a HR in first inning off that very same wall that would of been out of any other stadium.

Their stadium is also very nice and modern while staying historic looking with many renovations and has a great view of the game. 

Overall, it is great to see the team mix home runs in this weekend but not relying on them and also poke balls for clean hits around the park which is prefect approach. 

Tomorrow is now gravy and would be awesome, but this is now a very successful weekend regardless and winning the Big Ten is now very much in play. I will probably not be able to post tomorrow during game when I am back in Indy but we will see. As I depart dinner and get on the road for my 3.5 hour drive home it's been fun and I would definitely come back here.

Man Dunham killed that ball. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I know a lot of people thought I was just being negative and hating on Lemonis but this is why guys. 

The best finish we had under Lemonis was a tie for third. Which is looking like absolute worst case this year. Second place or even first place much more likely.  That season  we went to Nebraska to finish the year and instead of competing we got humiliated losing all 3.  Had we won 2 of 3 we would have won the Big Ten outright. Going into that series Nebraska was below us in the standings they leap frogged is to finish second  

Sometimes winners just look like winners and Mercer looks like a winner. God I hope we can keep him. 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
36 minutes ago, Brass Cannon said:

I know a lot of people thought I was just being negative and hating on Lemonis but this is why guys. 

The best finish we had under Lemonis was a tie for third. Which is looking like absolute worst case this year. Second place or even first place much more likely.  That season  we went to Nebraska to finish the year and instead of competing we got humiliated losing all 3.  Had we won 2 of 3 we would have won the Big Ten outright. Going into that series Nebraska was below us in the standings they leap frogged is to finish second  

Sometimes winners just look like winners and Mercer looks like a winner. God I hope we can keep him. 

 

100% and when you hear Mercer talk he sounds like a baseball guy and much more a student of the game then Lemonis.

Also the player development is so much better this year with guys like Barr, Lloyd and Dunham taking huge steps forward. Under Lemonis hitters came in and never got better and now they are. 

We swing for the fences a lot but that is just because of the players Mercer inherited and an ideal team of his has the approach we have had this weekend when it comes to hitting of mixing things up and he's made it clear that is what he plans to do when he gets his guys in. Big credit to him for working with what he has for now and using the Lemo approach and making it better (even more HR's).

Hopefully since Mercer is from here he can build us in to the Louisville of the Big Ten (till UL found McDonnell they were nothing special) and be here a long time. The future looks a lot brighter now and as I have said I appreciate Lemonis keeping us a perennial tourney team but I have a feeling we may have a Todd Lickliter to Brad Stevens situation where the guy who is poached is an average coach and the team who loses the coach finds the next great coach instead and takes a huge leap (note the same thing happened to UL when McDonnell was hired). It's early but Glass may not of been far off in saying Mercer is the Brad Stevens of college baseball. Should be fun moving forward.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Brass Cannon said:

My hope would be that if Mercer can prove he is the Brad Stevens of of Big Ten baseball that we start funding baseball competitively enough that we can keep a coach 

If he is Brad Stevens it will take MLB to lure him away since Stevens turned down multiple other college jobs and only left when NBA came calling.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×