Late collapses by Cowboys all too predictable (4/7)

Posted April 7, 2009 at 12:08 am
Filed Under Sports | 1 Comment

By ALEX HICKEY
AMERICAN PRESS

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but as a cost-cutting measure the American Press will cover all remaining McNeese State baseball games with a robot.

JournoBot, as he’s called — or maybe it’s a girl, I haven’t checked — has been pre-programmed to write the following phrases in all stories: “Lee Orr home run,” “extra innings,” and “McNeese blows huge lead.”

While there is some concern that JournoBot won’t be accurate 100 percent of the time, the general feeling is it will be right more often than it is wrong. Plus, I hear that it has been programmed to settle any disputes that may arise over the official scoring of the Baseball Bingo promotion at the ballpark — although you should probably be warned that it settles these disputes with eyeballs that shoot out laser beams.

Of course, none of this is actually true. I was just a week late on my April Fool’s joke. But if such technology existed, there is no doubt that I would be made obsolete. At this point you can almost write a McNeese game story before the first pitch is thrown. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, this weekend was like déja vu all over again.

Two Sundays ago, the Cowboys blew a 9-2 lead against Central Arkansas before escaping with a win in the 11th inning. Last weekend, they weren’t so fortunate, getting swept in a series where they held a five-run lead in two different games. It’s becoming readily apparent that this is not a habit that is threatening to go away.

“There’s six of them like this, at least,” said McNeese head coach Terry Burrows. “You just look back at it and it kills you.”

At this point, it’s hard to imagine if there is a solution available.

“If I knew how to cure it, I’d have cured it two months ago,” Burrows said. “We’ve got to be tougher on the mound. You can’t keep saying it’s bad luck when you give up 10 runs. Eventually, you’ve got to make pitches and execute. You can’t just cruise for a couple innings and then have one bad inning. The big inning is the one that kills us all the time.”

While the bullpen has taken most of the heat for these implosions, perhaps that group would do better if it was given a better chance to succeed. In a couple of recent examples, it seems like Burrows has stuck with his starter for too long.

For two straight Sundays, Matt Click looked strong for six innings before running into trouble and leaving the game in the seventh. Instead of earning the win that he deserved, he ended up with no decisions twice.

Maybe it is because he was a pitcher himself, but Burrows has a lot of faith in the ability of his starters to go deep. Unfortunately, it may be too much faith.

Former Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson was known as Captain Hook for his tendency to pull pitchers at the first sign of distress. I’m not sure if that makes Burrows Peter Pan, but he certainly does have the opposite approach when it comes to handling a staff.

Against Sam Houston State, Click ran into a bit of trouble in the sixth when he let the first two batters reach base. But he got out of it with a double play and a groundout to end the inning. With McNeese holding a 6-1 lead, it would have been the perfect high note for Click to finish the game on.

Jonathan Conrad, who was recently moved to the bullpen from the rotation, could have entered in the top of the seventh in a low-stress situation and cleaned up. (In case you think this is an example of 20-20 hindsight, just let it be known that everyone in the press box was incredibly surprised to see Click come back out in the seventh inning. And by everyone, I mean everyone.)

Instead, Click walked the first guy he faced and let the next four get on base before getting the hook. Conrad was now forced into a situation with the bases jammed, and before long we had a tie ballgame.

Understandably, the bullpen has not done much to instill faith that it would be capable of nursing the lead for those final three innings. But perhaps that show of faith — we’re giving the ball to you now, go get it done — is the type of thing the relievers need to start pitching with more confidence, because at this point that seems like the thing they are lacking the most. Getting them into the game with a clean slate rather than with the fire already started may be the surest way of getting that done.

ALEX HICKEY covers McNeese State athletics. E-mail him at ahickey@americanpress.com

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Comments

One Response to “Late collapses by Cowboys all too predictable (4/7)”

Zina Arnold on April 8th, 2009 1:19 pm

Right on, I was at some of the games, I agree the coach seems to be leaving the starter pitcher in way to long. I am sure that puts a lot of pressure on the poor pitchers that have to come in with bases loaded. Maybe the Coach will realize this before it is too late and the season is over.

What's on your mind?

Use this form to comment on the article above. This box is not intended to be a forum for readers to ask questions of the newspaper staff, but to express their thoughts about the article. To contact the News department, e-mail news@americanpress.com.