Last night’s 1-0 Virginia win over Florida<\/a> in the College World Series was, for me, anyway, an exercise in the power of first impressions, and the value of keeping score.<\/p>\n

Florida’s offense had looked scary the whole post-season, winning games with 19, 11, 13, and 8 runs. \u00a0Their only close game was in the regionals, the 2-1 clincher over Florida Atlantic.<\/p>\n

So when Brandon (don’t call me “Rube<\/a>“) Waddell opened up with a 20-pitch first inning, including an opening out that was a couple of feet short of a home run, a walk, and a hit batter, it stayed with me the whole game. \u00a0The impression was one of a starting pitcher who got rattled by that first batter almost taking him deep, and took a while to settle down. \u00a0It was reinforced by a lead-off infield single in the second, and aided by the ungodly amount of time he was taking between pitches.<\/p>\n

He was certainly throwing hard, but he wasn’t striking guys out. \u00a0And because Virginia only put up the one run, and because its pitching had been shaky (Waddell’s own stats this year haven’t been world-beating), and because college baseball is\u00a0still<\/em> shaking off its decades-long reputation of having beer-league softball scores, it didn’t\u00a0feel<\/em> dominant, it felt like Waddell was tiptoeing on the edge of disaster.<\/p>\n

Had I been keeping score, I would have seen how much he was owning the Gators. \u00a0His line until the 8th –\u00a0when he left with nobody out and runners at the corners – really was dominant. \u00a0From the 2nd through the 7th, Waddell faced only one batter over the minimum<\/a>, and had only two baserunners in all. \u00a0He averaged something line 10 pitches an inning during that span, but it wasn’t until the 7th that I looked up and realized the Florida pitcher, Puk, had thrown 10\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0pitches than Waddell had. \u00a0But because of that shaky first inning, where appeared not to have the confidence to pitch to the batters, I spent the better portion of the game not realizing that he had settled into a lineup-killing rhythm.<\/p>\n

The lesson? \u00a0Bring a scorecard.
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