Down to the Wire in the American

Cougar Baseball
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So there are 3 series’ left to go in American play.

ECU 11-4
UH 10-5
UCF 10-5

Looking at the remaining schedule, ECU has the easiest road. They play at Memphis, home vs. South Florida and then finish home vs. UH.

Houston is at Wichita State, home vs. UCF, at ECU. That is a much tougher stretch. But Wichita State is down this year, UH gets home field advantage in the UCF series.

The last 3 games of the season at ECU are going to be crucial in determining the regular season champ. Will help RPI (Wichita is going to hurt, not sure what UCF at UH does for RPI… RPI does favor road games I think).

But at the end of the day, we’ve come to realize the American is only getting one bid this year so really winning the regular season would be a very nice accomplishment for sure, but the path right now to get to a regional is simply to win the American tournament.

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This season, the AAC is likely a one bid league with the one bid going to the tourney champ.

Winning the regular season would represent a major improvement.

But I hope we can get that NCAA bid. The first step would be getting the tourney #1 seed.

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Sweet… Looks like I’m going to ECU soon.

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If I was a gambler I would say ECU is the favorite to go to the playoffs.

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Not so fast, my friend. Tulane is lurking at 9-6 and they have an easier schedule (Cincy / @Wichita / Memphis. Plus they own the tie-breaker against ECU.

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I’d agree ECU likely has the best chance. Tulane lost to Cincy last night, so that helps ECU, UH and UCF.

But as we’ve already established, the regular season champ is really just bragging rights this year. Gotta win the tournament and that that automatic bid – it’ll be the American’s only one in all likelihood

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I don’t know who else does these types of projections, but here’s one:

To the point of this thread… about the need to win the tourney. Look at the projected RPIs. Downright awful.

We need to root for ECU and UCF because we need them to have as high an RPI as possible. If they beat us, so be it, but we need them as strong as possible to get the biggest possible boost when we beat them

Go Coogs

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Lack of good pitching will continue to be our Achilles heel down the stretch.