BC vs. Army Preview

Hey, they played 3+ games yesterday and if they want to stay alive they are going to need to win 2 games today. BC had the unfortunate draw of having to play Army after losing less than 11 hours ago in the 25th in but here is my preview of the game.

The Eagles, who are running out of pitchers will toss:
John Leonard (1-4, 7.24)

Leonard has an inflated ERA and a bad record because he struggled heavily for the first half of the year but he has been much better in the second have pitching pretty well and earning Coach Aoki's trust. Leonard is going to need a HUGE outing today to save the BC bullpen after last night and to give them a chance to play Texas again.

BC will probably run out the same lineup but they may have Tony Sanchez DH and have Harry Darling catch this game. Sanchez had the misfortune of squatting for 25 innings behind the plate last night. Here is my lineup projection:
CF Robbie Anston .358 1 HR 29 RBIs
2B Matt Hamlet .311 0 HR 11 RBIs
DH Tony Sanchez .355 14 HR 48 RBIs
3B Mickey Wiswall .318 14 HR 62 RBIs
1B Mike Belfiore .286 11 HR 60 RBIs
SS Barry Butera .333 4 HR 34 RBIs
C Harry Darling .292 0 HR 13 RBIs
RF Andrew Lawrence .320 3 HR 19 RBIs
LF Mike Sudol .275 6 HR 28 RBIs

The Eagles keys to victory for this afternoon's game are:
1. Pitching: The Eagles have taxed Mike Belfiore and Chris Kowalski out of the pen so they are going to need to have guys such as Leonard to step up today and have HUGE performances.
2. Hitting: The Eagles looked ugly at the plate last night and need to get the bats going against the Black Knights.
3. Execution: The Eagles we unable to steal, hit and run and most important sacrifice bunt yesterday against the Longhorns and if they want to win they need to execute them to perfection.

The Eagles are going to have a tough time coming out to play today after such a draining physical and mental defeat and are going to need to score early and often to get over the loss quickly, if they want any chance of winning. The Eagles most definitely want a rematch against the Longhorns and hopefully the can win today and get one.

The Army Black Knights look to take advantage of the long, tiring game the Eagles played last night and win to move on. The Black Nights are a pesky club that don't go away which is something the Eagles would love for them to do but it just won't happen.

The Black Knights will throw:
Kirk Porter (6-3, 4.19)

Porter is their 3rd starter who missed some of the beginning of the year after have torn labrum surgery. He is a ground ball pitcher who has a NASTY breaking ball. The Eagles need to work the count against him and try to get him out of the game early.

The Black Knights will probably roll the same lineup today against the Eagles:
2B Zach Price .347, 0 HR, 24 RBIs
CF Andy Ernesto .307, 3 HR, 38 RBIs
SS Clint Moore .391, 10 HR, 60 RBIs
DH Joey Henshaw .388, 12 HR, 70 RBIs
1B Kevin McKague .387, 6 HR, 42 RBIs
3B J.P. Polchinski .277, 7 HR, 32 RBIs
RF Kyle Fleming .288, 6 HR, 34 RBIs
LF David Darnell .250, 1 HR, 11 RBIs
C J.T. Watkins .256, 2 HR, 28 RBIs

The Black Knights keys to victory are:
1. Getting to the Bullpen: The Eagles bullpen is taxed and the sooner they can get to the Eagles pen the better for them. The need to take advantage of the 25 inning game BC just played.
2. Hitting: They are a big hitting club and need to continue that today against BC in order to have a chance at a rematch with Texas.
3. Pitching: They have gotten good pitching thus far in the tournament, giving up on 7 runs so far and they need to continue that against the struggling BC lineup.

This game should be very interesting. Army has the distinct advantage of not having had played a 25 inning game, 11 hours ago and needs to use that to its advantage. While BC has the confidence of know that they can play with anyone by almost being the #1 overall seed in the nation last year. GO EAGLES!