MUSING FROM THE DISCH:
The long SEC grind is done as the regular season concluded this past weekend. The result? The Longhorns are the regular season SEC champions!
Let that marinate in your brain for a moment and then repeat it out loud…SEC Champions!
After ten weeks of brutal SEC conference play, the Horns ended up winning 8 out of 10 SEC series and won the league by two games over second place Arkansas with a conferece record of 22-8.
If history is any indication, the Horns will be at worst the number 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Even if they are not 1 or 2, which they certainly have the resume to be and continue to be projected there by nearly all baseball pundits, the Horns will not have to leave the friendly confines of Disch-Falk Field for Regional or Super Regional play.
Next up for the Horns is the SEC Tournament at the Met in Hoover, Alabama. The Horns will not play until Thursday at 3pm CST due to the double bye and won’t find out who they are playing until Wednesday afternoon. Unless there is a massive upset by Missouri, the Horns will play either Alabama or Tennessee on Thursday. The Horns did not play either team during the regular season, so it will not be someone that the Horns are familiar with. Regardless of who the opponent is, the Longhorns are not going to do anything to tax the team, especially the pitching staff before NCAA Regional play. I would look for the Horns to have their starting pitcher go just 2 innings and then get a number of guys one inning each of work as a tune-up. In addition, if there are any guys that are banged up, and there are several, they could potentially be held out as well.
Now that we have looked ahead, let’s turn our attention back to this past weekend as the Horns took on the Sooners of Oklahoma. The series was an interesting one for many reasons, but maybe the best news of all was the return of Junior OF Max Belyeu to the lineup. To his credit, he did not just bat, he also played RF the entire weekend. In addition to the return of Max to the lineup, Ethan Mendoza returned to play 2B on Friday and Saturday.
While he was certainly rusty at the plate and facing great pitching, Max Belyeu made his presence felt on Thursday as he crushed a 3 run HR late in the game to put the Horns up 7-4 and help them win game one.
Overall, I thought the weekend was a really good test for the Horns as they face some outstanding pitching. Despite the Sooners striking out a lot of Longhorns, Texas came away with a series win by defeating both Witherspoon brothers and really should have beaten the Sooners on Friday as they had the lead late in the game. Really good performances by Thomas Burns, Ethan Walker, and Grayson Saunier, and another outstanding start by Luke Harrison as well. One thing that was also good to see was Dylan Volantis, who was able to bounce back from giving up the tying run to holding Oklahoma in check to earn the win. Nice vulture moment there by the young southpaw!
Hitting wise, Adrian Rodriguez continues to get better and better from the left side of the plate, while the inclusion of Max Belyeu certainly raises the bar for the offense as he is only going to get more and more comfortable at the plate after the long layoff. As I mentioned above, there were a lot of strikeouts, but once again, the analytics show that both Cade Crossland on Friday and Malachi Witherspoon on Saturday both pitched better analytically and with better stuff than they have at any point in the season. That certainly is no excuse, but it should be factored in that the Horns were going up against three really good arms. It also illustrates that getting out of SEC play and into Regionals should be significantly easier for the Horns. Of course, this is baseball and ball don’t lie, so it remains to be seen what kind of further changes to approach and mechanics the Horns can make in the next two weeks.
By having accumulated the record they achieved, Texas has some freedom going into the SEC Tourney to get things aligned for NCAA Regional play. As mentioned above, I would not be shocked to see guys get into games for tune-ups.
Been a hell of a season so far....let's hope that the Horns can keep things going late into June!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Teams that impressed this weekend:
- Georgia Tech – won the series against #20 Duke and in the process won the ACC championship in their head coaches final season at the helm
- North Carolina – big time series win for the Tar Heels over #2 Florida State
- Oklahoma State – series sweep over Arizona State as their stock continues to rise and likely gets them into NCAA Tourney
- UTSA – Beep Beeps swept Rice to earn the AAC Regular season championship
- Kansas – Jayhawks swept West Virginia to set a school record in conference wins and eclipse the 42 win mark for the first time in a long time!
Teams that disappointed this weekend:
- Louisville – lost a series to Wake Forest knocking them down to .500 in conference
- NC State – Wolfpack really hurt their hosting chances as they lost a home series to Stanford
- Florida State – had the opportunity to make their case for a top overall seed but lost the series to North Carolina
- West Virginia – got swept at home by Kansas. Mountaineers still win the Big 12 but only due to overall conference record %. The series sweep also removes them from hosting contention
- Iowa – Hawkeyes got swept by Oregon costing them a shot at the Big Ten title and likely removing them from inclusion in the NCAA Tourney
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the latest episode of Around the Horns, as I sat down with Coach Schlossnagle to talk Texas Baseball
Link to YouTube video >> Around the Horns
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Useless Stat(s) of the Day:
- ONE – I fully expect the Horns will be named the #1 overall seed on Selection Day
- TWO – The Horns get a double bye as a result of being a top 4 seed in the SEC Tourney
- THREE – 3pm on Thursday, the Horns will begin their SEC Tournament experience in Hoover
Some other notable stats:
- ERA – NCAA Rank #6
- Fielding – NCAA Rank #12
- WHIP – NCAA Rank #2
- Hits Allowed per 9 – NCAA Rank #1
- Hit Batters – NCAA Rank #69
- Home Runs – NCAA Rank #41
- Win Loss $ - NCAA Rank #3
- Walks Allowed per 9 – NCAA Rank #33
- Individual Saves – Dylan Volantis – NCAA Rank #6
- ERA – Luke Harrison – NCAA Rank #47
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLAYER HIGHLIGHT
Speaking of Dylan Volantis…how special has the freshman been this season? Well, he has been named as one of the semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award which is awarded annually to the best player in college baseball.
Volantis was also named as a Dick Howser semifinalist
Dylan Volantis was also named SEC Freshman of the Year and SEC Relief Pitcher of the Year by USA Today Sports Network.
In addition, Coach Jim Schlossnagle was named SEC Coach of the Year and Rylan Galvan was named SEC Catcher of the Year by USA Today Sports Network.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Updates Rankings & RPI:
- RPI - #4
- D1Baseball - #2
- Baseball America - #5
- 64 Analytics - #3
Weekend Predictions:
- On the season, I am 67-43 for non-conference games:
- Week One: 5-3
- Week Two: 6-2
- Week Three: 5-3
- Week Four: 7-1
- Week Five: 4-4
- Week Six: 5-3
- Week Seven: 5-3
- Week Eight: 4-4
- Week Nine: 5-3
- Week Ten: 5-2
- Week Eleven: 4-3
- Week Twelve: 3-5
- Week Thirteen: 5-3
- Week Fourteen: 4-4
- On the season, I am 51-29 for SEC games:
- Conf Week One: 6-2
- Conf Week Two: 5-3
- Conf Week Three: 7-1
- Conf Week Four: 5-3
- Conf Week Five: 4-4
- Conf Week Six: 3-5
- Conf Week Seven: 7-1
- Conf Week Eight: 6-2
- Conf Week Nine: 1-7
- Conf Week Ten: 7-1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEC Weekend Recap:
- Alabama: Tide lost the first game and the series finale to a red-hot Florida team in a wild series that went back and forth
- Arkansas: Razorbacks lost game one to the Vols but bounced back behind strong pitching to win the series
- Auburn: Tigers lost the first two games of the series to Ole Miss before bouncing back to get the series finale
- Florida: Gators are having equipment managers get ready but they continue their hot streak as they took the series against Bama
- Georgia: Bulldogs got blanked in game two, but their bats were too much for A&M to handle as they won the first game and series finale
- Kentucky: Wildcats got walked off by Vandy in the first two games and then dropped the series finale to get swept
- LSU: Tigers shockingly lost game one via a walk off, but bounced back to win the series
- Mississippi State: Bulldogs swept a hapless Missouri team to continue their revival
- Missouri: Tigers finished the season as they had played every weekend except against A&M, by being swept
- Oklahoma: Sooners made it tough on the Horns and won the Friday game, but in the end, their pitching and hitting were not enough and they lost the series
- Ole Miss: Rebels took the series against an Auburn team that was on the rise
- South Carolina: Gamecocks took game one against LSU, but that was all they could muster as they lost the series
- Tennessee: Vols took game one against Arkansas but fell in the next two games to lose the series, their 5th series loss in a row.
- Texas: Horns won their eight SEC series of the season and in turn won the SEC regular season championship
- Texas A&M: Aggies fought to the end, including a 6-0 complete game shutout by Aggy pitching on Friday, but they lost the series
- Vanderbilt: Commodores swept Kentucky, winning the first two games via walk-offs
Final SEC standings:
Texas 22-8
Arkansas 20-10
LSU 19-11
Vanderbilt 19-11
Georgia 18-12
Auburn 17-13
Ole Miss 16-14
Tennessee 16-14
Alabama 16-14
Florida 15-15
Mississippi State 15-15
Oklahoma 14-16
Kentucky 13-17
Texas A&M 11-19
South Carolina 6-24
Missouri 3-27
As a reminder, here are the pre-season predictions from the SEC Coaches, D1Baseball, and myself.....just a bit off
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEC RPI Rankings:
Georgia – 1
Auburn – 2
Vanderbilt – 3
Texas – 4
Arkansas – 5
LSU – 8
Alabama – 9
Florida – 13
Tennessee – 16
Ole Miss – 18
Oklahoma – 27
Mississippi State – 30
Kentucky – 36
Texas A&M – 54
South Carolina – 72
Missouri – 144
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zach’s Power Rankings:
- Arkansas
- LSU
- Texas
- Vanderbilt
- Georgia
- Tennessee
- Ole Miss
- Florida
- Auburn
- Alabama
- Oklahoma
- Mississippi State
- Kentucky
- Texas A&M
- South Carolina
- Missouri
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Top 25 Rankings (per D1Baseball.com):
- LSU
- Texas
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Arkansas
- Florida State
- Oregon State
- Auburn
- Vanderbilt
- Georgia
- Coastal Carolina
- Southern Miss
- UCLA
- Clemson
- Florida
- Georgia Tech
- Ole Miss
- Dallas Baptist
- Northeastern
- UC Irvine
- Tennessee
- NC State
- Alabama
- TCU
- Kansas
West Virginia
Duke
Louisville
Troy
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEC TOURNAMENT BRACKET
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Latest NCAA Tournament Field of 64 Projections (per D1Baseball.com)
Top 16 Projected Hosts and Projected Tournament teams:
- 1. Texas
- 2. Dallas Baptist
- 3. Southern California
- 4. Houston Baptist
- 2. Arkansas
- 2. Kansas
- 3. Creighton
- 4. Wright State
- 3. Vanderbilt
- 2. Louisville
- 3. Austin Peay
- 4. Eastern Illinois
- 4. North Carolina
- 2. Florida
- 3. Rhode Island
- 4. Rider
- 5. Georgia
- 2. Wake Forest
- 3. East Tennessee State
- 4. Holy Cross
- 6. Auburn
- 2. Duke
- 3. Troy
- 4. Long Island
- 7. LSU
- 2. Arizona
- 3. Miami
- 4. Miami (OH)
- 8. Oregon
- 2. Kansas State
- 3. Notre Dame
- 4. Nevada
- 9. Oregon State
- 2. Northeastern
- 3. Oklahoma State
- 4. Sacramento State
- 10. Coastal Carolina
- 2. NC State
- 3. Kentucky
- 4. USC Upstate
- 11. Florida State
- 2. West Virginia
- 3. Mississippi State
- 4. Bethune-Cookman
- 12. Clemson
- 2. Alabama
- 3. Connecticut
- 4. Bryant
- 13. UCLA
- 2. UC Irvine
- 3. Virginia
- 4. San Diego
- 14. Southern Miss
- 2. Ole Miss
- 3. Cincinnati
- 4. Murray State
- 15. TCU
- 2. UTSA
- 3. Oklahoma
- 4. Oral Roberts
- 16. Georgia Tech
- 2. Tennessee
- 3. Arizona State
- 4. Columbia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regular Season Conference Champions:
- ACC – Georgia Tech
- America East – Bryant
- American Athletic – UTSA
- ASUN – Austin Peay
- Atlantic 10 – Rhode Island
- Big 12 – West Virginia
- Big East – Creighton
- Big South – South Carolina Upstate
- Big Ten – Oregon / UCLA
- Big West – UC Irvine
- Coastal Athletic – Northeastern
- Conference USA – Dallas Baptist
- Horizon League – Wright State
- Independent – Oregon State
- Ivy League – Columbia
- MAAC – Rider
- Mid-American –Kent State
- Missouri Valley – Missouri State
- Mountain West – Nevada
- Northeast – Long Island
- Ohio Valley – Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
- Patriot League – Holy Cross
- SEC – Texas
- Southern – East Tennessee State
- Southland – Southeastern Louisiana
- Sun Belt – Coastal Carolina
- SWAC – Bethune-Cookman
- The Summit League – Oral Roberts
- West Coast – San Diego
- Western Athletic – Sacramento State / Abilene Christian
NCAA Tournament Auto Bids:
- ACC – TBD
- America East – TBD
- American Athletic – TBD
- ASUN – TBD
- Atlantic 10 – TBD
- Big 12 – TBD
- Big East – TBD
- Big South – TBD
- Big Ten – TBD
- Big West – TBD
- Coastal Athletic – TBD
- Conference USA – TBD
- Horizon League – TBD
- Independent – Oregon State
- Ivy League – Columbia
- MAAC – TBD
- Mid-American – TBD
- Missouri Valley – TBD
- Mountain West – TBD
- Northeast – TBD
- Ohio Valley – TBD
- Patriot League – Holy Cross or Army
- SEC – TBD
- Southern – TBD
- Southland – TBD
- Sun Belt – TBD
- SWAC – TBD
- The Summit League – TBD
- West Coast – TBD
- Western Athletic – TBD
