Cajuns Win In 11 Innings At Nicholls State, 7-1

[NewsCopy]

The fifth-ranked Ragin' Cajuns baseball team posted six runs in the 11th to win 7-1 in extra innings against Nicholls State on Wednesday night at Didier Field.

The rest of the story

UL-SI

[Cajunjeb]

The expectation train left the station and keeps powering on through every obstacle. In the beginning, we anticipated a good team but questioned pitching. After 21 games, does this team have any weaknesses? Is this a CWS or bust team?

[angeleast]

cws they that good Omaha at the least

[RaginScotsman]

This is a team that's on the track to a national seed in the regional tournament. While it's still early, if we keep this track, then nothing is out of the realm of possibility.

[ulforlife]

"The team is also 7-0 against in state opponents"

They're actually 8-0

[CajunJack55]

This is a team that's on the track to a national seed in the regional tournament. While it's still early, if we keep this track, then nothing is out of the realm of possibility.

Agreed. Kendall Rogers agrees with you too. He mentioned a couple of days ago that he thinks we will be national seed and not LSU. He likes our schedule going forward. This is very important as we would host the Super Regional.

[CajunAlum10]

Agreed. Kendall Rogers agrees with you too. He mentioned a couple of days ago that he thinks we will be national seed and not LSU. He likes our schedule going forward. This is very important as we would host the Super Regional.

Was it on a podcast that Kendall mentioned this? If so, do you remember which one? I usually try to listen to them at some point during the week, but I haven't caught the last 2 weeks.

[CajunJack55]

He did an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit's College Baseball Forum. I asked who he thought would be the National Seeds at the end of the year. He responded with"

"Still early, but as of right now, I have Louisiana-Lafayette, not LSU as one of my top eight national seeds. The good thing for the Ragin' Cajuns is I think their schedule sets up to where they're going to have quite the gaudy overall record at the end of the year. "

Here is the full AMA if you are interested.

http://www.reddit.com/r/collegebaseb...ll_rogers_ama/

[cajundiehard]

All sounds good... but this year Sun Belt opponents overall record is not as good as it has been in the past... Still early, but most OOC games are out of the way, with just conference weekends left (besides the midweek games). How much will RPI come into play when Top 16 and national seeds are given out?

Cajuns are 19-2 with only a 24 RPI at the moment... Sun Belt only 9th rated conference.l

http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2014...nce/Sun%20Belt

[GoneGolfin]

He did an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit's College Baseball Forum. I asked who he thought would be the National Seeds at the end of the year. He responded with"

"Still early, but as of right now, I have Louisiana-Lafayette, not LSU as one of my top eight national seeds. The good thing for the Ragin' Cajuns is I think their schedule sets up to where they're going to have quite the gaudy overall record at the end of the year. "

Here is the full AMA if you are interested.

http://www.reddit.com/r/collegebaseb...ll_rogers_ama/

Regarding a national seed … my concern at this point is the performance of Cajun opponents and particularly the performance of the Sun Belt. At the moment, the Cajuns' schedule will not get them the Top 8 RPI they will likely need to be a national seed (though I am confident a Top 16 RPI can be had). Thus, it is not too early to be pulling for wins by each and every Cajun opponent … except in situations when they play each other (then take the team more heavily weighted on the schedule).

Sun Belt opponents (at the moment) would contribute an OWP of .5112 (weighted by 27 games). This is not going to be enough to bring the all-important OWP to where it needs to be and ultimately the Cajuns' SOS. Thus, non-conference games are very important for our Sun Belt brethren.

Other things of significance …

Eastern Illinois is off to a horrible W-L record … due to a brutal schedule. As such, EIU is contributing a damaging .1579 (3-13, weighted by four games) to the Cajuns' OWP. This is why, with the RPI, you want to be wary of scheduling teams with difficult schedules themselves (unless they are a top 25 type team). It is very much in your favor to schedule teams that play weak schedules where their W-L % will benefit. EIU needs to pick up the pace as they enter conference play. Just getting the EIU OWP contribution to .3500 would be a big help.

Texas Southern (OWP contribution of .3125 * 3) is hurting the Cajuns at the moment, but there is much potential to turn this around as they enter SWAC play. That said, unfortunately TSU has 9 of their remaining 29 games against non-D1 opponents … which will not be included for OWP purposes. Of those 21 D1 games, they still have difficult match-ups against Dallas Baptist and Baylor looming. TSU dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to Houston last night.

LSU and Alabama are entering their tough conference slate. LSU will not continue to contribute its .8571 OWP, though this is only weighted by one game. Alabama is key from two standpoints. #1 we need Alabama to contribute a healthy OWP and their schedule only gets more difficult. #2 we need Alabama to finish in the RPI Top 25. It will be difficult to earn a national seed with a 1-0 record against the RPI Top 25. I do not expect to see any other Cajun opponent (other than LSU and Alabama) finish in the RPI Top 25. I was hoping for a strong South Alabama run … but it does not seem to be there.

I could analyze and provide the positive and negative for every Cajun opponent … but you get the idea.

Finally, remember that the teams from the elite conferences are going to get that artificial RPI bump as the season progresses through conference play. That is, simply playing strong opponents with strong W-L records gives you a boost. I have expounded on this ad nauseum for both softball and baseball. The Cajuns will need to contend with this down the stretch.

Brian

[campo118]

While I can't argue with your logic Bryan, surely we would get a top 8 national seed with say 5 or less losses on the season and a top 5 ranking in every poll regardless of RPI numbers right? Or is RPI the one and only contributing factor?

[CajunAlum10]

While I can't argue with your logic Bryan, surely we would get a top 8 national seed with say 5 or less losses on the season and a top 5 ranking in every poll regardless of RPI numbers right? Or is RPI the one and only contributing factor?

That's what I'd like to know.