Wildcat Baseball ⚾️ Thread - not for the faint of heart
- Thread starter CoralSpringsCat
- Start date
FWIW: nusports.com has final score at 12-4, with all Cats' runs scored in 8th & 9th innings. Still a thumping.
The new coach inherited a depleted roster as we had guys transfer to Ole Miss (defending national champion), Kentucky, UVA, Duke and Wake Forest. If those guys had stayed, we’d have one of the most talented teams in NU baseball history.
Calarco was 2-4 with a ribbie for Ole Miss. Thin roster this year, but still some talent. But definitely a rebuilding year.
Yup…tough spot for new coach. Wonder how Spencer Allen is doing? It’s a shame he didn’t stick it out. I think we were very close to breaking through. Oh well.
Allen has been coaching in the Milwaukee Brewers minor league system since December 2021. He’s full-time in Arizona, though I presume he travels to minor league sites throughout the summer. Coaches outfield play and baserunning.
It looks like he tried to start a scouting or coaching service (‘Elite Sports Advising’) briefly after leaving NU.
No inside information, just pulled from LinkedIn.
Such a shame. He was really building something. Not sure why he threw in the towel. All the momentum he was building is gone. I wonder if those transfers would have occurred if we kept the interim guy? All that being said, I have confidence in Foster. He had success at Army and is in for the long haul at NU (as far as I can tell). Curious to hear @lunker35 tajr on the state of the program.
Now I know why Jack Lausch didn’t want to play baseball for the cats. I had no idea they were this bad.
I share your optimism. We were on the brink and then Allen left us high and dry. Our stadium is a real selling point.
The renovation eliminated a massive negative. But it is in no way a selling point. Here are a few examples:
Wake Forest (smaller private school)
Vandy (smaller private school)
Rice (even smaller private school)
No strong feelings here but would NU be better off with a hockey or lacrosse team? What is the best season in the history of the program?
The renovation eliminated a massive negative. But it is in no way a selling point. Here are a few examples:
Wake Forest (smaller private school)
Vandy (smaller private school)
Rice (even smaller private school)
Those are three of the top programs in the country. How do we fare against the BIG? I can guarantee you our stadium is better than Wisconsin.
Our stadium is very good in comparison to most of the country. The stadiums shown are some of the best baseball programs around and have very strong fan bases. We’re lucky to get a couple hundred at any game.
In the NCAAs, baseball is more of a southern sport. Sort of like how wrestling is more of a northern (especially Midwest) sport.The renovation eliminated a massive negative. But it is in no way a selling point. Here are a few examples:
Wake Forest (smaller private school)
Vandy (smaller private school)
Rice (even smaller private school)
When it's too cold to play outside in the northern regions, they go inside and wrassle. Then they go buy some pork loins at Menards.
Very tough start for our guys as they fall to 0-6 with today’s loss. They will be lucky top reach double digit wins this season. At least Coach Foster will be able to sell playing time to prospective recruits.
It’d be interesting to know if Gragg seriously considered giving last year’s interim coach, Josh Reynolds, the full-time job. He had a decent season by NU standards (24-27 and one game out of qualifying for the Big 10 tournament) and had a really solid group of young talent scheduled to return. But when Reynolds did not get the job those guys transferred out and the new coach is consequently fighting an uphill battle.
It’s still early but it appears likely that this is going to be a very tough season.
It’s still early but it appears likely that this is going to be a very tough season.
Must have been a tough decision for Gragg. Would have been easy to keep Reynolds and run it back. Gragg’s familiarity with Foster at Army obviously a big influence. I’m assuming he thought so highly of Foster he felt he couldn’t pass up the chance to hire him for the long term benefit of the program.
How about Nebraska, Indiana, Penn State , Minnesota, Michigan to name just a few of some Big Ten teams.The renovation eliminated a massive negative. But it is in no way a selling point. Here are a few examples:
Wake Forest (smaller private school)
Vandy (smaller private school)
Rice (even smaller private school)
I would say Penn State has the best baseball stadium in Big Ten as they play at a relatively new park shared with a NY-Penn league team. But there are a lot of good facilities in the Big Ten. Not been to NU's remodeled place yet.
It is a lot better than it was years back. A nice upgrade, but they are still way behind the rest of the Big Ten in all aspects when talking about baseball.
Actually, Wisconsin is way ahead of NU. They at least made the hard decision.
