WKU Baseball: Quick Thoughts On WKU’s 3–1 Start
We are four games into the 2019 baseball season and, by all accounts, it’s a solid start for the Tops. They swept a weekend series against Northern Kentucky and dropped their first road contest of the year in a time-moved game to Lipscomb.
Sitting at 3–1 in a pivotal year ain’t bad, to be honest. Let’s take a look at what things look like and what we can infer from those things.
The Matt Phipps Show
Catcher Matt Phipps is leading the offense and in a big way after four games. He’s slashing .467/.579/1.446 with seven hits, a home run and six RBI (his hit total, RBI total and batting average are all team highs). It’s a bonkers pace and it’ll be interesting to keep an eye out on how JP uses him — he hit cleanup in the first two games and got moved to the top of the lineup in the second two games of the season. Maybe he’s that versatile or maybe JP just isn’t sure what’ll spark the Tops best. Either way, hope Phipps doesn’t slow down soon.
Hittin’ Good
Through four games, seven Hilltoppers are hitting .333 or better and the Tops as a team have combined for a .287 batting average. It’s a small sample size, but it’s a promising start.
Bullpen…Woah’s
Until we are led to believe otherwise, the Hilltopper’s bullpen is the catalyst of the team.
However, rumors of their horridness have been greatly exaggerated.
Outside of opening day, where all six of NKU’s runs came out of the bullpen, the Tops have a bullpen ERA of 1.89 (four earned runs in 19.0 innings), although, one of those runs did tie the middle game against NKU at 4–4 in the ninth.
But you know, I’m going to look straight past that.
Again, a small sample size, but the promise is there.
Startin’ Strong
Overall, pitching has been strong for the Tops to open the year. Only one starter has allowed any earned runs, and that was bailey Sutton who allowed two in the top of the third on Saturday.
Other than that, each final line has looked like this:
- Troy Newell (Fri. vs. NKU): 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K
- Bailey Sutton (Sat. vs. NKU): 3.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, BB, 4 K
- Reese Calvert (Sun. vs. NKU): 2.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), BB, K
- Hunter Crosby (Tue. @ LIP): 2.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R (0 ER), 2 BB
The two things that stickout are: Guys are throwing heat (that’s 11 strikeouts in 13 innings) and guys…aren’t…lasting…long? (Uh…phrasing?)
This could be getting relief guys innings in the opening week or so (and, honestly, bodes even better for those bullpen numbers we took a look at earlier) or it could be starters not having stamina (or a bit of both).
It also tells me
Keep it Clean
Hilltoppers starters have allowed just two earned runs, but five runs in total. A lot of that can be thanked to the messiness in the field: Over just their last two games WKU has committed five errors. Clean it up on the field, and we could be looking at a 4–0 start.
I make this claim having seen exactly zero of WKU baseball this year (because it’s almost impossible to watch from 560 miles away) but I think this team has some promise. Of course, last year’s team had some promise too, but we all know what happened with that.
The Tops open a five game homestand against Eastern Illinois and Murray State starting Friday at 3 p.m.
If you’re going to be at any, or all, of the five-game homestand and would like to help us with coverage, shoot us a message on Facebook or send us a DM on Twitter.
