Rule 2(b) Strikes Again
Friday, May 29 2009 by Tiki
Following a season in which the Hoos finished in the top 10 in the polls, top 10 in the RPI, and won the ACC tournament, they get sent to Irvine, California to play in the "regional of death."
Cal-Irvine, which finished the season as the Baseball America #1 team in the nation, gets the 6th seed in the tournament, and acts as host to this region. Obviously they are happy to be hosting, but they can’t be happy with their seeding or their regional. Irvine will get defending national champions Fresno State in their first matchup. Fresno finished the season barely over .500, at 32-28. Still, their top starter, Holden Sprague, is a senior with a lot of big games under his belt. He will be a tough matchup for the Anteaters. (Seriously, the Anteaters? I guess “Armadillos” was already taken by Texas State University).
Still, it's better than what the Hoos got. Their first game, this evening, will be against San Diego State and superstar pitcher Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg will be the #1 pick the MLB draft next month, and could very well find himself pitching in the majors by September. Strasburg is 13-0 with a 1.24 ERA in 14 starts this season. He has struck out 180 batters in just 102 innings. He is, arguably, the most dominant college pitcher of all time.
After losing to Strasburg and the Aztecs, the Hoos will face the loser of the other matchup. Assuming this is Fresno State, the Hoos will be heavily favored to eliminate the Bulldogs. FSU-West’s second starter is Derek Benny, who had an ERA over 5 this year. The Hoos would hope to light him up pretty good.
A win would set up a Sunday matchup with the loser of the SDSU-UCI game. Again, assuming this is SDSU, the Hoos would be favored, as SDSU’s starting pitching (other than Strasburg) is sub-par. A win here knocks out the Aztecs. The Hoos would then have to beat UCI twice in a row on Sunday evening and Monday afternoon in order to advance.
There are some legitimate questions that Brian O’Connor will have to answer before tonight’s game. Does he go with our top starter, and hope to completely shut down the Aztecs? Can we squeak out a run or two against Strasburg, and come up with a 1-0 or 2-0 win? Or do we use our third (or fourth) starter against SDSU, basically giving up on that game, and hold back our top pitchers for Saturday, Sunday and (hopefully) Monday? Either choice is a gamble. A loss to SDSU puts us in a very difficult situation, needing to win 4 games in a row to advance. A win over SDSU and Strasburg would probably give us a huge boost of confidence, and could be enough to propel the Hoos to their first Super Regional.
Editor's note: Tiki didn't know it at the time of writing this, but it appears that Robert Morey will get the start tonight, with freshman Danny Hultzen taking the mound on Saturday. Morey has a 2-0 record in 15 appearances with a 3.25 ERA. - Tim
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Wohoo! Hoos 5-1 - now tiki is going to have to write a new article.
Suck it Weiser!!!!
I can't even imagine a ferocious anteater.
I wrote that we were going to lose on the off chance that I could jinx it. I swear.
Great win. I wish I could be in the Nats locker room when Strasburg shows up in September, I wanna see Zimmerman talk some trash about this.
Not that it matters really, but let's see Fresno take down Irvine tonight.
Ever been to UC Irvine? They have a giant metal statue in the middle of campus of an ant eater trying to look ferocious. It is hilarious and sad. At least UC Santa Cruz had the common decency to NOT make their banana slug mascot ferocious looking.