Musings from the Disch:
永遠の悲しみ - roughly translates to eternal sadness. That is the feeling around the entire team and coaching staff was feeling yesterday. Safe to say that anger is the prevalent feeling amongst fans and family who have seen a pre-season#1 team who started extremely brightly slide to a 9-9 conference record and 31-16 overall. To add further salt to the wounds, Texas fans saw the Longhorns drop out of the Top 25 completely when the lists were released this morning by D1Baseball.
Instead of focusing on the problem, which is apparent to anyone that understands baseball (looking at you bullpen), lets take a wider view of where Texas sits and what needs to happen in the remaining 9 games of the regular season. The Horns will square off against the fighting Lance Berkman's aka Houston Baptist on Tuesday night at Disch-Falk Field, then will travel to Morgantown to square off against West Virginia, who the Horns have never taken a series from on the road. After the long road trip, Texas comes back home for the remaining 5 games of the year. On May 10th, they will face off against Texas Southern and then due to finals week they will not be in action again until May 17th against Sam Houston before wrapping up the season (Thu - Sat) against Kansas in the conference series finale.
Of the remaining 9 games, it is not unreasonable to think that Texas could go 8-1. Anything less than 7-2 would be not only less than ideal but would ensure that Texas is a #2 seed in a Regional. If Texas were to go 8-1 over the remaining 9 games with a sole loss coming to West Virginia, the Horns do still have an RPI that would put them into consideration for a Regional host. In order to gain that Regional Host, Texas would also likely need to win at least 2 games in the Big 12 Tourney in Arlington. As I said though, the much more likely scenario would be Texas as a strong #2 seed as Texas will need to win and get some outside help. The good news is that Texas has not lost more than 4 games in a row since 2019. Bad news is that Texas got swept in Stillwater by Okie State, then lost on the road to Texas State in San Marcos and then lost 2 of 3 to none other than West Virginia. While I do not think Houston Baptist is going to beat Texas, the series against West Virginia right now is a bit ominous.
Looking at where Texas might end up as a 2 seed is a bit premature as there are going to be a lot of changes, but I could easily see the Horns in the following Regionals (Texas A&M, Arkansas, Southern Miss, Auburn or if the committee wants to get crazy, Stanford).
Based on current RPI and Rankings, here is what I see for the Top 8 and then the additional Regional hosts. Note, this is very much going to change over the next couple of weeks as there are still 3 weeks of conference play left and some of these teams have very tough schedules.
Top 8: Tennessee, Oregon State, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Arkansas, Southern Miss, Miami and Louisville
Top 16: Stanford, Georgia, Auburn, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, TCU, UCLA and Virginia
As it currently sits, here are the Big 12 teams that will enter the NCAA tourney (Texas, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia).
Useless Stat of the Day:
While the season has been less than ideal with an unknown finish, I hope everyone realizes how good Ivan Melendez is at hitting. Yes, it has been talked about ad nauseum, but his numbers and production have just been outstanding. Looking at all of the candidates, at this point, I am unsure how he does not win the Golden Spikes award this year.
NCAA Stat Rankings (Numbers):
Bases on Balls - 25 (38)
Batting Average - 14 (.411)
Hits - 18 (69)
Home Runs - 2 (22)
On Base % - 4 (.531)
RBI - 4 (66)
Slug % - 2 (.893)
Total Bases - 2 (150)
Mid-week Preview:
Texas (31-16, 9-9) v. Houston Baptist (18-27, 11-7)
Coach David Pierce v. Coach Lance Berkman....yes, that Lance Berkman
Tuesday May 3rd
TV: Longhorn Network
Time: 6:30pm CST
Texas leads the all-time series against Houston Baptist 6-0 with the last win coming in 2012.
BA: .316 v .249
OPS: .963 v .690
ERA: 4.32 v 6.88
WHIP: 1.27 v 1.74
Fielding %: .984 v .954
HBU Top Hitters (BA / OPS / SLG):
DH/1B - Bales (.318 / .816 / .426)
CF Roccaforte (.281 / .815 / .363)
RF Letney (.274 / .763 / .395
Probably Pitching Matchups:
RHP Zane Morehouse (1-0, 4.15 ERA) v. RHP King (0-3, 9.00 ERA)
Bullpen guys likely to pitch:
LSU transfer Will Ripoll (1-5, 7.54 ERA)
Tyler Zarella (1-0, 1.59 ERA)
Chad Ricker (2-1, 5.51 ERA)
Andrew Reitmeyer (3-2, 3.20 ERA, 8 saves)
Common Opponents:
Big 12 Recap:
Big 12 Weekend Series Ahead:
Big 12 Rankings:
Big 12 RPI/SOS:
Top 25 Recap (D1 Baseball Poll):
Top 25 RPI:
永遠の悲しみ - roughly translates to eternal sadness. That is the feeling around the entire team and coaching staff was feeling yesterday. Safe to say that anger is the prevalent feeling amongst fans and family who have seen a pre-season#1 team who started extremely brightly slide to a 9-9 conference record and 31-16 overall. To add further salt to the wounds, Texas fans saw the Longhorns drop out of the Top 25 completely when the lists were released this morning by D1Baseball.
Instead of focusing on the problem, which is apparent to anyone that understands baseball (looking at you bullpen), lets take a wider view of where Texas sits and what needs to happen in the remaining 9 games of the regular season. The Horns will square off against the fighting Lance Berkman's aka Houston Baptist on Tuesday night at Disch-Falk Field, then will travel to Morgantown to square off against West Virginia, who the Horns have never taken a series from on the road. After the long road trip, Texas comes back home for the remaining 5 games of the year. On May 10th, they will face off against Texas Southern and then due to finals week they will not be in action again until May 17th against Sam Houston before wrapping up the season (Thu - Sat) against Kansas in the conference series finale.
Of the remaining 9 games, it is not unreasonable to think that Texas could go 8-1. Anything less than 7-2 would be not only less than ideal but would ensure that Texas is a #2 seed in a Regional. If Texas were to go 8-1 over the remaining 9 games with a sole loss coming to West Virginia, the Horns do still have an RPI that would put them into consideration for a Regional host. In order to gain that Regional Host, Texas would also likely need to win at least 2 games in the Big 12 Tourney in Arlington. As I said though, the much more likely scenario would be Texas as a strong #2 seed as Texas will need to win and get some outside help. The good news is that Texas has not lost more than 4 games in a row since 2019. Bad news is that Texas got swept in Stillwater by Okie State, then lost on the road to Texas State in San Marcos and then lost 2 of 3 to none other than West Virginia. While I do not think Houston Baptist is going to beat Texas, the series against West Virginia right now is a bit ominous.
Looking at where Texas might end up as a 2 seed is a bit premature as there are going to be a lot of changes, but I could easily see the Horns in the following Regionals (Texas A&M, Arkansas, Southern Miss, Auburn or if the committee wants to get crazy, Stanford).
Based on current RPI and Rankings, here is what I see for the Top 8 and then the additional Regional hosts. Note, this is very much going to change over the next couple of weeks as there are still 3 weeks of conference play left and some of these teams have very tough schedules.
Top 8: Tennessee, Oregon State, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Arkansas, Southern Miss, Miami and Louisville
Top 16: Stanford, Georgia, Auburn, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, TCU, UCLA and Virginia
As it currently sits, here are the Big 12 teams that will enter the NCAA tourney (Texas, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia).
Useless Stat of the Day:
While the season has been less than ideal with an unknown finish, I hope everyone realizes how good Ivan Melendez is at hitting. Yes, it has been talked about ad nauseum, but his numbers and production have just been outstanding. Looking at all of the candidates, at this point, I am unsure how he does not win the Golden Spikes award this year.
NCAA Stat Rankings (Numbers):
Bases on Balls - 25 (38)
Batting Average - 14 (.411)
Hits - 18 (69)
Home Runs - 2 (22)
On Base % - 4 (.531)
RBI - 4 (66)
Slug % - 2 (.893)
Total Bases - 2 (150)
Mid-week Preview:
Texas (31-16, 9-9) v. Houston Baptist (18-27, 11-7)
Coach David Pierce v. Coach Lance Berkman....yes, that Lance Berkman
Tuesday May 3rd
TV: Longhorn Network
Time: 6:30pm CST
Texas leads the all-time series against Houston Baptist 6-0 with the last win coming in 2012.
BA: .316 v .249
OPS: .963 v .690
ERA: 4.32 v 6.88
WHIP: 1.27 v 1.74
Fielding %: .984 v .954
HBU Top Hitters (BA / OPS / SLG):
DH/1B - Bales (.318 / .816 / .426)
CF Roccaforte (.281 / .815 / .363)
RF Letney (.274 / .763 / .395
Probably Pitching Matchups:
RHP Zane Morehouse (1-0, 4.15 ERA) v. RHP King (0-3, 9.00 ERA)
Bullpen guys likely to pitch:
LSU transfer Will Ripoll (1-5, 7.54 ERA)
Tyler Zarella (1-0, 1.59 ERA)
Chad Ricker (2-1, 5.51 ERA)
Andrew Reitmeyer (3-2, 3.20 ERA, 8 saves)
Common Opponents:
- at Baylor (Loss 2-6)
- Rice (Loss 2-6)
- at A&M (Loss 2-3)
- at UTRGV (Loss 7-8)
- at Rice (Loss 1-13)
- at TAMU-CC (won series 2-1)
- at Sam Houston (Loss 3-19)
- UIW (swept series 3-0)
Big 12 Recap:
- Texas got swept by Oklahoma State at home
- As always, check out some excellent writing and recaps by @AaronLittleOB but be forewarned, your eyes may bleed and head explode from the results - Weekend Recap
- Texas Tech took 2 of 3 from Baylor, but Sundays continue to plague the Red Raiders
- West Virginia took 2 of 3 from Kansas, dropping Friday but bouncing back to win the series on the road
- Oklahoma took 2 of 3 from Kansas State, dropping the Sunday series finale
- TCU went on the road to Florida State and got shutout in game 1, lost game 2 by giving up 7 unanswered and were losing 6-5 in the 4th when weather halted the game
Big 12 Weekend Series Ahead:
- Texas at West Virginia
- Oklahoma at TCU
- Kansas at Kansas State
- Oklahoma State v. Southeast Missouri State
- Texas Tech - off week
- Baylor - off week
Big 12 Rankings:
- Oklahoma State (13-5)
- TCU (12-6)
- Texas Tech (11-7)
- Oklahoma (9-6)
- West Virginia (9-6)
- Texas (9-9)
- Baylor (5-13)
- Kansas State (4-11)
- Kansas (3-12)
Big 12 RPI/SOS:
- Oklahoma State (12/25)
- Texas (21/23)
- TCU (31/31)
- Oklahoma (35/17)
- West Virginia (42/61)
- Texas Tech (51/89)
- Baylor (65/6)
- Kansas State (90/66)
- Kansas (149/84)
Top 25 Recap (D1 Baseball Poll):
- Tennessee (40-4)
- Oregon State (34-9)
- Oklahoma State (31-13)
- Arkansas (34-10)
- Virginia Tech (31-10)
- Miami (32-12)
- Southern Miss (34-10)
- UCLA (30-13)
- Texas Tech (31-16)
- Louisville (31-12)
- Stanford (25-14)
- Gonzaga (28-13)
- Texas A&M (27-15)
- Virginia (33-12)
- Connecticut (37-8)
- Notre Dame (28-10)
- Texas State (34-11)
- Maryland (35-9)
- Auburn (31-14)
- LSU (29-14)
- Georgia Tech (27-18)
- Georgia (30-14)
- Florida State (26-15)
- TCU (27-16)
- UC Santa Barbara (30-10)
- Texas (31-16)
- Georgia Southern (29-15)
- Wofford (31-13)
Top 25 RPI:
- Tennessee
- Oregon State
- Auburn
- Georgia
- Virginia Tech
- Dallas Baptist
- Georgia Southern
- Notre Dame
- Vanderbilt
- Texas A&M
- Florida State
- Oklahoma State
- Southern Miss
- Miami
- Mercer
- LSU
- Georgia Tech
- Oregon
- Florida
- Virginia
- Texas
- Wofford
- Louisville
- Stanford
- NC State
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