Cougars sit at 18-15 Overall (4-2 in Conference Play), winning 7 of the last 10 games, including 2 series wins over ECU and Wichita State and midweek wins against SHSU and Rice.
Two Way Players:
Justin Murray: 1.23 ERA in 14.2 Innings (2 walks and 19 ks) AND batting .314 with 4 HRs
Malachi Lott: 2.57 ERA in 14 Innings (7 Walks and 11 ks) AND batting .374 with 2 HRs
RPI: 113 (NCAA)
Batting Average: .283 (123rd in NCAA)
ERA: 6.03 (167th in NCAA)
Prediction:
Cougars go 14-9 over the remaining 23 games, to finish 32-24 (2nd in conference) entering the Conf Tournament, needing a win to advance to a regional.
I appreciate those of you who have followed the team throughout the downs and now this nice upswing. Has the pitching reduced the number of walks, HBPs and wild pitches? Do we have a more settled rotation and established bullpen roles? Are there less base running blunders?
FWIW, my feeling is that a regular season Conference title may get us on the bubble, depending on other results. While I am not optimistic, hope springs eternal.
There have been a few exceptions, but to get an at large bid you almost always need an RPI rank in the mid 40’s or better. Sam is at 94 right now so they’re the only top 100 opponent left on the schedule. That doesn’t give us much chance of improving on our 113 ranking. It’s win the AAC tourney or season over for us… again.
This is what happens when your OOC sucks……then again if they had played a legitimate NCAA tournament quality schedule they would have 6-8 less wins right now.
Only way AAC gets two teams in is if someone other than ECU wins the conference tournament. According to WarrenNolan.com, AAC ranks 11th out of 31 conferences and independents. The Sun Belt and C-USA rank better than the AAC.
Pitching is not great but they are working around it.
Established roles but multiple @ 8 + ERA guys have to pitch alot.
Ekness (5.25 ERA), Schmitz (4.25), Citelli (5.40) are the rotation.
They all had good starts vs Wichita.
Schmitz has been good since OK start.
Ekness up and down but looks better.
Citelli had a rough March. Control issues. Had to start after LaCalameto hurt in his 2nd game.
Citelli instead as a long relief guy would have been ideal
Even the Colonial is making them look bad.
I had not seen the CAA membership in a long time.
A10 expansion and Navy leaving left a random collection.
Its embarrassing. 10 mostly smaller schools w 7 privates including Boston, Long Island x 2, & Jersey Shore locations are better than the AAC ? How ?
This pitching staff is doing it on tape & glue these days.
Good year for AAC to be dreadful.
Nails UH fielding and binge hitting can usually get it done.
Going to be tough to beat ECU in Clearwater w out Schmitz.
Appreciate the info.
ESPN+ announcers said LaCalameto will be back at UH for a 6th year.
They will need him. B12 salty except Baylor & to a lesser extent KU.
