My Sunday Thoughts

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Here are a couple of my thoughts from the games over the weekend.

Ritch Price of Kansas has to be happy to head down to Baton Rouge and pick up a series victory over the number 1 ranked LSU Tigers. His son Robby Price lead the Jayhawks attack on Friday night by having three hits and two RBI. On Sunday, Robby continued his strong hitting by going 3-5 with an RBI.

Alex Wimmers of Ohio State pitched eight strong innings on Sunday as he led the Buckeyes to a 2-0 victory over Tennessee. He is now 3-0 on the year with an ERA of 2.84 while striking out 23 batters in 19 innings pitched.

Boston College last year was one of the stories of the year with a trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1967. This year they have gotten off to a poor start as they have a record of 6-8 while going 1-2 this weekend against Miami (FL). What is the problem? The offense has been about the same in the early going with a .293 average this year while having a team batting average of .304 last year. The biggest difference is that the pitching staff has been atrocious this season with a staff ERA of 7.55 and allowing opponents to hit of of them at a .322 clip. Pat Dean has been the only consistent starting pitcher as he is 3-0 with a 2.79 ERA but Kevin Moran and Mike Dennhardt are filling the other two spots in the rotation. Moran is 1-2 with a 10.54 ERA and Dennhardt is 1-3 with a 10.91 ERA.

Conference USA squads have gotten off to slow starts this season. Rice is now 10-7 after splitting a four game series against Cal while Southern Miss is 10-4 on the year which is the best record in the conference. The Golden Eagles have a series loss to Lemoyne this season. East Carolina was supposed to compete with Rice for the conference title this year but have lost three out of their last four games. They have series losses to a good Virginia team and Pepperdine this season. We should see how the teams fare the rest of the season to see if some of these squads can bounce back.

One conference that I am keeping an eye on right now is the Sun Belt conference. Western Kentucky has the best record right now at 12-4 while being 3-0 in Sun Belt play after sweeping New Orleans. Western Kentucky has a couple of good wins including the QTI Baylor Classic when they beat Texas A&M (5-1), Texas State (4-3), and Baylor (6-2). South Alabama is the only other Sun Belt team to sweep their weekend series as they defeated Arkansas-Little Rock. South Alabama’s best victory this season has been over Tulane in mid-week action. The Jaguars are 12-6 overall with a couple of bad losses including losing twice to Siena and once to Tennessee Tech.

Since I started this site a few years ago, I have always followed the Ivy League conference since I live in the area. I have come to the conclusion that anytime you try to predict what happens in the Ancient 8 that the total opposite will happen this year. Dartmouth is everyone’s pick to win the conference title for the second straight year but the Brown Bears are playing some excellent baseball that their record does not indicate. The Bears were swept this weekend by South Carolina and have a total record of 1-6 with the only victory coming against Pepperdine. I think Bruno will give the Big Green a run for the Red Rolfe Division Title. Brown only finished last season one game behind Dartmouth. It should be an interesting season once the conference schedule kicks off on April 3rd.

Final thought: What is going on in Las Cruces on Sundays? Georgia State beat the New Mexico State Aggies on Sunday by a score of 30-24. Last Sunday, New Mexico State lost to St. Joes 35-16. (FULL RECAP) Special thanks to Ryan Rosenblatt of BruinsNation.com for pointing this out.