The Field of 64 and The Bubble

[Dad04]

Gonna need quite a few guys to have great weekends to win this regional

We will need to have a complete team effort and show up hot at the line up exchange.

[GoneGolfin]

I felt TCU should have been in before Florida and Texas. Actually figured they’d be in Texas’s spot. Ironically I’m more afraid of Texas than TCU even though I think TCU should be there.

No way TCU evaluates higher than Texas. It is not close. Texas was on the bubble for a #2 seed.

Brian

[CajunVic]

pretty much every team in a regional will need to get hot to advance

once it gets to this level, every team can win and each team who advances is pushed beyond their respective depths

[Jacob81]

No way TCU evaluates higher than Texas. It is not close. Texas was on the bubble for a #2 seed.

Brian

Ok. Won’t question you on it. Haha. What about TCU compared to coastal and JMU?

[Turbine]

pretty much every team in a regional will need to get hot to advance

once it gets to this level, every team can win and each team who advances is pushed beyond their respective depths

True.

Some will have to stay hot, and some will have to get hot.

[Cajuns78]

For anyone who has attended our regionals in College Station in the past, how hard was it to get tickets to the games against A&M and other teams in the regional? Is it better to buy the session pass or is it easy to get single game tickets? We had no trouble getting tickets last year in Miami, but it sounds like this will be different.

[GoneGolfin]

Ok. Won’t question you on it. Haha. What about TCU compared to coastal and JMU?

I felt TCU evaluated better than Kansas State, Coastal Carolina, James Madison, and Indiana, to name a few. I do not think Indiana should have been in the field. This was a conference bid.

Meanwhile, Kansas State making it in ahead of TCU was just not right. Kansas State did finish one game ahead in the conference regular season. But Kansas State lost 3/4 to TCU . including being eliminated by TCU in the conference tournament. In all conference games, Kansas State finished 16-17 while TCU was 16-18. TCU had an RPI rank 6 spots higher, TCU had a 5-8 Q1 while Kansas State was 7-15. TCU had one Q4 loss while Kansas State had 2. SOS and NC SOS were similar.

But Kansas State and Indiana has representatives on the ten team selection committee. I felt Kansas State should have been in, but not in front of TCU.

In fact, Florida State (getting a Top 8 national seed), East Carolina (getting a national seed), Indiana (making the field), Kansas State (making the field, especially in front of TCU), Florida (making the field), and Coastal Carolina (making the field) all had representation on the selection committee. If fact, I am quite sure the chairman of the committee (Hogue - Coastal Carolina AD) played a part in JMU making the field.

Brian

[Jacob81]

I felt TCU evaluated better than Kansas State, Coastal Carolina, James Madison, and Indiana, to name a few. I do not think Indiana should have been in the field. This was a conference bid.

Meanwhile, Kansas State making it in ahead of TCU was just not right. Kansas State did finish one game ahead in the conference regular season. But Kansas State lost 3/4 to TCU . including being eliminated by TCU in the conference tournament. In all conference games, Kansas State finished 16-17 while TCU was 16-18. TCU had an RPI rank 6 spots higher, TCU had a 5-8 Q1 while Kansas State was 7-15. TCU had one Q4 loss while Kansas State had 2. SOS and NC SOS were similar.

But Kansas State and Indiana has representatives on the ten team selection committee. I felt Kansas State should have been in, but not in front of TCU.

In fact, Florida State (getting a Top 8 national seed), East Carolina (getting a national seed), Indiana (making the field), Kansas State (making the field, especially in front of TCU), Florida (making the field), and Coastal Carolina (making the field) all had representation on the selection committee. If fact, I am quite sure the chairman of the committee (Hogue - Coastal Carolina AD) played a part in JMU making the field.

Brian

Yeah when they interview hogue on tv they did end with that tough question about all the committee member teams fairing so well, so to speak. Answer was a lot of coach speak.

[GoneGolfin]

For anyone who has attended our regionals in College Station in the past, how hard was it to get tickets to the games against A&M and other teams in the regional? Is it better to buy the session pass or is it easy to get single game tickets? We had no trouble getting tickets last year in Miami, but it sounds like this will be different.

With the attendance and following of Texas A&M, Louisiana, and Texas, I think any tickets in the main structure will be a challenge (at face value). If you are fortunate enough to find All-Session passes, I would grab them. There are not any available to the public. They were gobbled up via donor pre-sales.

What may be available .

A limited number of Section 12 GA/SRO tickets. These are tickets that are not part of the main stadium, accessed from the third-base side between the stadium and student rec center. The seating available in Section 12 is behind the RF wall, LCF wall, along with designated standing areas.

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

Brian can probably answer that better than I can. I haven’t seen Texas since the weekend at MMP.

Going just off of that, they have a ton of power in their lineup and I remember quite a few balls DEEP into the seats in RF. And looking at their stats confirmed the “ton of power”. They’ve hit 109 HRs this season. Limit free passes and keep the HRs to solo shots.

They don’t have the typical U of Texas pitching that they’ve been known for over the last 40 years!

Cajuns will need to score some runs to beat them.

I do not have the splits for Texas, but their typical starting lineup features five lefties . including three of the first four in the lineup being lefties (59 HRs among these four . 42 HRs among the three lefties). They hit for power up and down the lineup, with eight of the nine hitters with 8 or more HRs. This is with 36 of their 57 games coming at Disch-Falk (a pitcher's park with cavernous outfields).

Jared Thomas is not your typical first baseman in that he has excellent speed and hits leadoff. But he also hits for power (15 HRs) and leads the team in hitting (.353). The Horns feature all of their offensive production despite Porter Brown having a down year (.213 with 8 HRs). He hit .323 with 12 HRs a year ago and was an important part of their winning the Coral Gables regional and giving Stanford all they could handle in the super regional.

As I mentioned earlier, the pitching is not as good as it has been historically (not your Dad's Texas Longhorns team). But they are very capable. All-American Lebarron Johnson Jr. has really struggled this year, having lost the command he showed last season. He did have a good outing in the final conference game against Kansas . but struggled mightily again in the final conference tournament game against Cincinnati (all over the place, as well as walking hitters). He has electric stuff (96-98 with movement to go with a hammer slider). But given his struggles, the approach to take with him is to be patient. If the Cajuns take an aggressive approach with him and are not patient (including taking the free passes), he will eat them up. You cannot bail out this guy.

The Cajuns could see lefty Ace Whitehead in the Friday opener. The other current starters are righties (Hurley, Grubbs, LBJ Jr.). The junior lefty played high school ball not far from where I live in the hill country west of Austin . and was an all-stater in multiple sports (including QB). He is not a hard thrower (upper 80's, maybe 90), but typically has good command, and quality change and breaking ball. I have seen him keep good hitters off balance.

Top prospect Tanner Witt (formerly a freshman All-American), son of Bobby Witt, never seemed to have recovered from his injuries. He has only thrown about 20 innings over the past two seasons.

Texas is the kind of team that could win this regional and make it to Omaha . or flame out in two or three games.

Brian

[Dad04]

True.

Some will have to stay hot, and some will have to get hot.

We in the have to get hot column

[Esqueleto]

For anyone who has attended our regionals in College Station in the past, how hard was it to get tickets to the games against A&M and other teams in the regional? Is it better to buy the session pass or is it easy to get single game tickets? We had no trouble getting tickets last year in Miami, but it sounds like this will be different.

We went 2 years ago and were able to get good seats on their resale marketplace prior to the start of the tournament. It was over face value, but IIRC it wasn't outrageous

[CajunAmos]

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