The Book 2007 Ragin' Cajun Baseball

[NewsCopy]

The questions hovering over UL's ability to hit away from its Moore Field home park were pretty much answered last week. Now, the question is whether the Ragin' Cajun baseball team can hit at home like it did all of last week. The Cajuns (23-6) host Lamar's Cardinals (21-11) at 6:30 p.m. today at Moore Field in a battle of teams currently among the leaders in their respective conferences. UL moved into a share of first place in the Sun Belt (9-3) over the weekend by taking two of three games at Florida International, while Lamar sits stop the Southland Conference's East Division with an 8-1 conference record after a three-game home sweep of Nicholls State over the past weekend. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

[rhineaux]

_ just curious.... whats the relevance of FSU at #16? Just to show where we compare to them, or are they on our schedule? PS... where's Southern Miss? _

I thought i had southern miss up there. They're at #24 with a .598.

And, I put FSU up there cause they are ranked ahead of us because F starts before L...we have the same index percentage of .613

[BirdofParadise]

_ I do understand the 56 game season argument, but in retrospect, wasnt that UALR loss last year the one that essentially kept us out of a regional? That loss hurt bad, and I'm extremely worried that at the end of the season, we'll be looking back and going "man, remember when we had that 8-2 lead in Florida and gave up that 9 run inning...". There is also the chance that you'll be right and at the end of the season, this game will be an afterthought, but I will say this, That UALR game last year, and that USA game 3 years ago at the tigue are still ingraned into my memory.

On a different note, I have to do a mini-internship for my audio production class at UL (I think 16 hours or so), and I'd love to do it over at 1420, if you can point me in the direction of who I need to talk to, I'd appreciate it alot.

Take it easy,
Tuffguy _

The UALR game last year was costly because it kept us from tying for the conference championship and a #1 seed in the SBC tournament. The reg. season champ has always gotten in. That left it to the committee and our RPI kept us out.

We won't have that RPI problem this year.

Call Steve Peloquin. He'll fix you up.

[GoneGolfin]

Man, this loss is frustrating...I have a feeling that this game will be this years UALR...FIU is a RPI graveyard and we just tanked. FIU RPI is 188 right now, which is worst in the belt, and I dont see a reason why they will be much higher, they have no Pitching and no Defense...and we just blew this one big time. I'm expecting this loss to drop our RPI about 10 spots...ugh.

Tuffguy

First, if you are depending on a road sweep over FIU to make the postseason, you are falling short in other areas. 2/3 from FIU on the road was what I expected going into the weekend and I said so. Troy could not sweep FIU at home (they were smoked 9-1 in Game #2).

Second, FIU's RPI (now 175) should be higher at the end of the season. This is a case where the RPI is undervaluing a team. I touched on some of the reasons why the FIU RPI was where it was last week. FIU is not the worst team in the conference by a longshot. But the RPI says that it is right now. I do not believe it will at the end of the season.

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

I do understand the 56 game season argument, but in retrospect, wasnt that UALR loss last year the one that essentially kept us out of a regional?

Pick any conference loss from last season ... that was the loss that kept us out of the postseason last year.

Brian

[CajunProud]

_ Pick any conference loss from last season ... that was the loss that kept us out of the postseason last year.

Brian _

I agree Brian. You can "what if" every loss. However, I think what hurt us more last year that the Ark. Little Rock loss was all of the non-conference losses to La. Tech, Northwestern and McNeese, just to name a few. That kills us every year. I know it is difficult to schedule, but this year is a much better schedule with Sothern Miss, Houston and Arizona State. We need to schedule that way every year. It should be a lot easier to make sure that our RPI stays where it shold be with LSU and Tulane back on the schedule.

[rhineaux]

_ I agree Brian. You can "what if" every loss. However, I think what hurt us more last year that the Ark. Little Rock loss was all of the non-conference losses to La. Tech, Northwestern and McNeese, just to name a few. That kills us every year. I know it is difficult to schedule, but this year is a much better schedule with Sothern Miss, Houston and Arizona State. We need to schedule that way every year. It should be a lot easier to make sure that our RPI stays where it shold be with LSU and Tulane back on the schedule. _

I certainly agree with the scheduling thing. We have 20 or 30 games every year against the sunBelt schools. there is little we can do about what they put into their programs and their RPI. And, there are a certain group of schools that we have to play every year for mid-week games, there is just only so far that you can go on a wednesday in order to be back thursday and not break the bank or your players. Therefore the USM and ASU games are vital to our improving our programs, as well as scheduling mroe games with Houston, Rice, etc (and hopefully more tulane and lsu) during the weeks.

My apologies for changing sports, but, take Gonzaga Basketball for example. When they started to really get publicity, they started really increasing their SOS. They had some decent games against some big name teams early on, and their performances certainly improved, but by the time their season was coming down to the end, their tougher schedule got them more battle ready for the post-season, and the RPI that resulted from the tougher schedule, got them higher seeding in the tourney, and thus an easier path to the ultimate goal.

[CajunProud]

_ I certainly agree with the scheduling thing. We have 20 or 30 games every year against the sunBelt schools. there is little we can do about what they put into their programs and their RPI. And, there are a certain group of schools that we have to play every year for mid-week games, there is just only so far that you can go on a wednesday in order to be back thursday and not break the bank or your players. Therefore the USM and ASU games are vital to our improving our programs, as well as scheduling mroe games with Houston, Rice, etc (and hopefully more tulane and lsu) during the weeks.

My apologies for changing sports, but, take Gonzaga Basketball for example. When they started to really get publicity, they started really increasing their SOS. They had some decent games against some big name teams early on, and their performances certainly improved, but by the time their season was coming down to the end, their tougher schedule got them more battle ready for the post-season, and the RPI that resulted from the tougher schedule, got them higher seeding in the tourney, and thus an easier path to the ultimate goal. _

I couldn't agree with you more.

I know that due to budget constraints, we are limited with travel during midweek. However, there is no reason that we can't continue to pick up games against Southern Miss, Ole Miss, Rice, Houston, Alabama, Auburn etc.......

Hopefully, the scheduling will continue on the way it was arranged this year.

[Dad04]

I assume you are talking about weekend series and not mid week games in Oxford, Auburn and Tuscaloosa. Aren't those a bit out of the way for a midweek?

[BirdofParadise]

_ I assume you are talking about weekend series and not mid week games in Oxford, Auburn and Tuscaloosa. Aren't those are a bit out of the way for a midweek? _

Yes they are. Four hours is about the limit for a midweek game unless it comes during spring break, or after exams.

[GoneGolfin]

I agree Brian. You can "what if" every loss. However, I think what hurt us more last year that the Ark. Little Rock loss was all of the non-conference losses to La. Tech, Northwestern and McNeese, just to name a few.

Any one of the conference losses I previously mentioned hurt more than any of the non-conference losses last year. In fact, the Cajuns could have ...

1) lost even more non-conference games than they did last season
2) won just one more conference game (any game)
3) finished with a lower RPI than they did

and they would have made the postseason! This illustrates the importance of the conference championship.

Brian

[Turbine]

UL down 4-1 Hawkins hits a homer bottom of 6th