re: Jay Johnson on the pitching plan

Thought goes into the pitching lineup by the coach...

I think we see Skenes game 1, Floyd game 2.

Here's the way I read the tea leaves: Skenes is the better pitcher by a good bit, and Wake has a better lineup by a fair amount. But Tennessee is no slouch at all in terms of talent.

Tennessee's guys have seen Skenes and Floyd already. This was when we were cruising, and they were struggling. Skenes handled them, gave up 1 run in 7 innings. Floyd gave up 4 in 5 innings.

I think the idea is that Skenes is as close to a sure win as it gets, whereas Floyd against Tennessee is a tossup, and that will eat into the bullpen.

It would be nice to save Skenes for Wake, but at least they haven't seen Floyd once already. And if Skenes handles business against Tenn like he did with Tulane, you save the bullpen. Our guys will have a game under their belts, should be more relaxed and comfortable in game 2 at the plate.

Don't frick around and get cute in this tournament. A couple really good teams are going to go 0-2, first thing you want to do is not be one of them.