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If someone had told me before the weekend that Dillon Newman (8 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 5 Ks) and Max Garner (9 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 Ks) would both throw excellent games, I would have assumed that the Bears would win the series easily. Sadly, that was not the case. An imploding bullpen and general lack of offense doomed the Bears to their second sweep of the young season and curbed the rampant joy I felt after our basketball team decided to reach their potential for at least one game this season. Take a look at the official recap of the weekend HERE, but don't blame me for the pain/anguish/depression that you feel afterward.
Two good pitching performances and zero wins out of the weekend? Why did this happen? The "finger of shame" points directly to our lineup, which simply doesn't have the production of last year's group. In 2012, the Baylor offense averaged 6.47 Runs/Game. This year's crew is putting up a rather pedestrian 4.27 Runs/Game. That 2+ runs every game is going to make a huge dent on our wins column no matter what the pitching staff does.
I always knew that this team was going to have trouble duplicating the power of last year, but I really thought that they'd get on base at a similar level. That has not been the case. The 2012 Bears went .309/.406/.442 on the year. First of all, DANG. Last year's team was awesome. Those numbers actually tick me off because they remind me that we should have made it to the CWS. This year's team is hitting .254/.346/.331. That is not going to get it done.
At this point, I should mention that Nathan Orf is off to a great start, and Duncan Wendel and Logan Brown have stepped up beyond expectations. Adam Toth is putting together a nice year as well. However, several positions have been offensive black holes thus far. It's still early, and guys have plenty of time to improve their offensive output and improve, but if they don't find more production, it's going to be a very long season when we hit conference play.
The schedule for the coming week is a bit different, as the Bears play two against Houston and two against New Orleans in Houston. Hopefully, the team can get back on track and support the staff with a few more runs.