Obviouisly, nobody has a crystal ball. I'm not shorting or criticizing Babb. I think he does a great job. I know GG helped softball w/ scheduling in the past. I just think it wouldn't be a bad idea to have GG and Babb talk regarding baseball - like I think he did w/ Loteif - just throw some ideas out there. Can it hurt?
We all want to host in baseball. How do we make it happen? Some things we obviously can't control (how opponents do)... There ARE a few things that can be done in the future to improve RPI... e.g. more road games. Don't need a crystal ball for that. Of course we all love home games - get to see our team and it's certainly easier on the team to get their school-work done, etc. with less travel, which is important... I'm not talking about NO home games... but maybe just a couple or few more road games could help? And of course taking care of business in games that can/should be won...
As far as the scheduling is concerned I think we scheduled fine except for a few games here and there. It just didn't turn out the way we wanted. Was it necessarily a good schedule? No. But losing 4 Q4 games at home will drag that RPI down. Just look at Texas sitting at #44.
Wright State is supposed to be a good RPI team. It didn't turn out that way this year.
Tulane actually worked their way up to RPI #100 after their sweep of ECU this weekend. I hope Tulane can work their way back to being relevant consistently on the diamond again.
Rice...well...I think we all wish and hope for them to get back to what they were years ago but its not happening. Its nice to have them on the schedule being so close to home for both fan bases. But they should stay off of our schedule until they turn things around.
La Tech is usually a good G5 team to play and it remains true this year.
McNeese and Nicholls can be tossups, but are generally good mid-week in-state opponents. I like having SLU on the schedule and would like to see them get back to what they were a few years back.
Going 2-1 in Houston would have been really nice. That was a disappointing weekend considering we were really in a position to win every game.
I would like to keep Southern, Grambling, HCU, and Prairie View off the schedule. Those are lose-lose situations.
My main gripe about the schedule is not getting a series against a P5 (be it home or away).
And of course there's nothing you can do about SBC opponents. We have to play Arkansas St and ULM every year. Again, just don't lose to Arkansas St at home. But those are conference opponents and it will happen from time to time. Good thing for everyone this year is that the Belt has improved significantly on the diamond. Its been a fun year for the Belt.
We played both LSU and Vandy in Houston. Those were supposed to be huge resume building games if we could steal a win. Well we lost both, and both teams have fallen greatly this season from their expectations.
Had those two had a normal season for their programs, and we happened to steal on, along with maybe sweeping Tulane (who appears to be having an off season as well), and won the series vs Coastal or Troy, it might be a resume to put us in the running to host. But none of that happened.
However, I think if you look at the schedule, and what was expected of some of those teams on it, the chance to host was there if we were to take care of business.
I would assume adding USM to the Belt threw a wrench in our OOC scheduling, as they were a frequent midweek opponent we could count on being fairly strong for years. Couple this with having two midweek drivable opponents (Rice and Tulane) as weekend series opponents, and maybe that’s how we ended up with 4 SWAC schools and a lower level Southland on the schedule this year? Seems like if we were to go a little further out for weekends or bring teams in from farther we could get Rice and Tulane back during the weeks and possibly be more selective with the SWAC and SLC programs we bring in.
Matters none. WE'RE GOING TO OMAHA, boys.
DAMN RIGHT.
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