ALL TIME Manager Blunder

The first day of the NCAA baseball tournament is in full swing (no pun intended), and the #1 overall seed in the tournament was on the ropes right away, as Wright State pitcher Cam Allen stepped into Nashville ready to dominate these Commodores.

Wright State used some big hits to build a 3-0 lead over the #1 overall seed, meanwhile their starting pitcher was chuckin'. He was flying through the lineup, not allowing a hit through six innings. With nine outs left toward multiple historical moments(no-hitter, and no overall top seed has ever lost their opener), though instead, the fun killer Wright State manager decided to pull his dominant starter. Now I know what you’re thinking chill chill...maybe the kid had a crazy amount of pitches? Nope. He was sitting at only 76 through six innings. So this reaction as of now is very justified!!! Also... its not like he had some tough, ninja wizard style-like moves to get out of a jam or something the inning before. This is what it is...Just a straight dumbass HOOK.

Well, I’m sure you can now guess the ending of this story. It starts with the first batter cranking a home run, followed by two more home runs in the 8th, including a game-winning 2-run blast(WHICH MAY HAVE BEEN FOUL...ANOTHER STORY THERE), allowing Vandy to escape becoming the first #1 overall seed to lose their regional opener.

Of course, we all know how this goes, as sports fans, they’ll now go on to dominate into the College World Series or something. Which is unfortunate for us, because other than a flame-throwing closer, this team is quite dull.

But let’s get back to the focus here: a #4 seed Wright State had the chance to do something really effing cool, and instead, some sort of analytics overthink occurred. If you're the manager, you gotta say he was cramping or give some injury-related excuse now, or else you're cooked in this presser. Barring a legit injury, I just don’t get how, as a coach, you don’t let the kid who got you six innings try to finish it. Does he not deserve that shot? Instead, he has to watch from the dugout as his performance gets curb-stomped by the bullpen serving up meatballs.

Look okay so...maybe the kid rarely goes more than five, let alone six or seven innings, but again, let the kid have his shot. This isn’t Week 1 of the season trying to build confidence type of ish...it’s the frickin’ REGIONALS, and you have the top national seed on the ropes with just 9 outs to get. It was a huge disservice to the pitcher, the team, and the fans. The coach out-coached himself.

Absolutely gutted for Cam Allen. having to watch all of that just slip away. Sports are never fair, of course, but when you may not have even had control of the choices made....YIKES. That has to be even worse to swallow. Coaches...let’s reward these guys by giving them the chance to finish what they started.

But as fans? We gotta move on. A lot more baseball and potential upsets still out there on the board.

Let’s get it!

UPDATE:

The presser....It was part of the "plan" great.... excuse, and yes of course he labored with only 76 pitches. Coaches we need to understand the BIG MO sometimes, and how it can give guys special sauce certain nights.