Ragin' Dave's La. Baseball Rankings 2009
I had been out of the loop for a while, but some interesting things so far in 2009. A couple of crazy suprises in the rankings.
1--LSU (23-8) No suprise here after taking 2 of 3 this weekend in Georgia vs the #1 team in the country, you can see they are clearly the best team in the state at this point.
2--Southeastern La (19-10) One hekuva a season so far for SLU took 2 of 3 from a pretty good UT-Arlington team this weekend. Nice wins over Tulane (twice) and UL.
3--Louisiana (15-12-1) After a slow start UL seems to be putting it together, sweeping MT was a huge weekend also big wins over a good Nebraska team, USM and LSU. Tough mid week games vs Tulane and Southern will be a real test.
4--Tulane (17-14) Tulane was swept this weekend by perennial power Rice. They have had a complete up and down season, good wins vs USC, UC-Irvine and LSU, but bad losses to Lemoyne, Nw St and others have made them the true Jeckyl and Hyde team in the standings.
5--ULM (18-12) Took 2 of 3 from Little Rock this weekend and have Louisiana coming in this weekend for a real test. They have not faired well vs the top 50 teams, but have a 6-3 record vs from 51 - 100 teams, including wins vs Tulane, UT-Arlington, USM, FAU and Mississippi State.
6--Centanary (19-5) WHAT???? you might ask, how is Centanary so high, well a great record and RPI for one, but wins over Texas A&M and Arkansas have helped. Don't know if they can hold on for a full season this high, but nice to see the little team from North La doing so well. They took 3-4 in the conference this weekend.
7--Southern (17-8) Another huge suprise to be so high in the rankings. They have one real qty win vs SDSU, but have held there own with a fairly easy schedule. It gets tougher with a midweek game at UL and one vs SLU later in the season. They should win the SWAC easily.
8--UNO (13-16) another Jeckyl and Hyde team, this team can hit the cr&p out of the ball, but cant stop anyone from scoring. Rough rough schedule coming up, two vs Ole Miss, 3 vs WKU, LSU and then FIU and finally 2 vs Tulane all teams with RPI's inside the top 100.
9--NwSt (14-13) Took 2 of 3 from Nichols this weekend to get over the .500. Split with Tulane and took 2 of 3 from UT-Arlington. Team can be tough, but will need to win the Southland tourney to get in.
10--McNeese (13-14) They seem to be turning it around after a number of really bad seasons, but still have a long way to go. Sam Houston swept them this weekend, but they have played very well earlier in the season and hopefully can keep it together to at least finish above .500
11--La Tech (13-12) The record is better then the team. No record vs teams in the top 50 and 1-5 vs teams in the top 100 RPI. There only quality win was vs USM. They do have a 3 game series with San Jose coming up though. Sim, needs to right this ship.
12--Nichols (11-17) Losing record and 0-9 vs teams in the top 100. Best wins were taking 1 of 3 from Lamar and 1 of 3 from NwSt. Schedule does not get easier with some of the better Southland conference teams coming up later in the season.
13--Grambling State (4-22) They flat out stink!!!!! Nuff Said. 4 wins have come against Texas Southern (2), Prarie View A&M and Arkansas Pine Bluff. They also have a loss vs a Non-Division 1 team.
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