By: Aaron Kirby
The team that started the season on the top finishes the regular season on top.
#1 TCU (40-15) stays on top with another perfect week going 4-0 with a single win vs Oral Roberts and sweeping a road MWC series at New Mexico.
Troy (40-16) moves up 2 spots to #2 with a mid week win over Samford and taking 2 of 3 at South Alabama…….FIU (37-17-1) continues to play great baseball heading into the Sun Belt tourney as they took 2 of 3 from their rival FAU and slide up 2 spots to #3. The Golden Panthers are 18-2-1 in their last 21 games.
UCONN (39-15-1) jumps 6 spots to #4 with a 3-1 week. The Huskies won 4-1 at Rhode Island on Monday before traveling to Cincinnati and winning 2 of 3 and winning the Big East by 3.5 games.
Last weeks second ranked club Fresno St (36-14) falls to #5 going 1-3 on the week. The Bulldogs beat Neveda early in week but then traveled to a previously struggling Cal St Bakerfield club and got swept by scores of 6-0, 5-2, and 7-4 on Sunday…….Another top 5 club that struggled was Texas St (35-20) who dropped 4 spots to #7 after losing 6-4 at Rice mid week and dropping 2 of 3 games at UT-Arlington to wrap up Southland play. Even with the series loss the Bobcats won the SLC by 4 games over 2nd place Stephen F. Austin.
Dallas Baptist (39-17) moves up 4 spots to enter the top 10 at #9. The Patriots finished their regular season winning 2 of 3 games from Charlotte. Now all they can do is sit back and wait for selection Monday to see if their name gets called.
Stetson (40-16) dropped 3 spots to #10 with a 1-3 week. The Hatters lost 7-6 to UCF on Tuesday before dropping 2 of 3 at home to Belmont. Not a good final week for a team that is or was in running to host a regional.
Wichita St (36-24) moves up 3 spots to #11 with a 4-0 week. The Shockers beat Kansas St 7-6 in 11 innings mid week and in MVC play swept series at Bradley.
Creighton (39-13) makes a big jump to #13 with a very good week. The Blue Jays won at Iowa during the week then won the MVC regular season title in impressive fashion, sweeping a very solid Mizzo St club and winning the league by 1 game over Wichita St.
Two ASUN clubs entered the final regular season week on the regional bubble and both started the week great. Jacksonville (34-20) started the week great with a 11-2 win at Florida. However the Dolphins then traveled to Kennesaw St and lost 2 of 3. The 2-2 week dropped Jacksonville to #15………ETSU (36-19) had a very similar week. ETSU traveled to Atlanta on Tuesday and picked up a very nice 8-6 win over Georgia Tech. However they continued down I-75 to Macon and dropped 2 of 3 to Mercer. With the series loss the Bucs dropped to 5th place in the ASUN and dropped to #19 in the rankings.
Georgia Southern (32-23) dropped 4 spots to #25 after a 3-2 week. However Sophmore OF Victor Roache hit his nation leading 28th HR on Thursday at App St and his 29th on Saturday at App St but GSU dropped 2 of 3 on the mountain to App St. What new bats??
Two clubs dropped out of the rankings this week. #22 San Jose St (33-24) dropped 3 of 4 games to Neveda to drop out of the rankings…….#23 Sam Houston St (34-21) also dropped out of the rankings getting swept by Texas A&M CC at home. The Bearkats have to be dissappointed with the weekends results but they have to be very pleased with the seasons overall results. Last year they finished the season (19-36) and 10th place in the SLC. This year they finish the regular season (34-21) overall and (17-16) in SLC good for 5th place and a +15 game improvement.
2 out can only mean 2 new teams. Stony Brook (41-10) enters the rankings once again at #21 sweeping all 4 games vs Albany. The 41 wins ranks tied for 5th in country with Florida and their win percentage of 80.4% is good for 3rd nationally. If the Seawolves win the America East tourney, which they host at their new Joe Nathan Field, they will not be an easy round 1 game for anyone………Cal St Bakersfield (30-21) did not stay out of the rankings very long. Don’t tell Fresno St the Roadrunners were in a 3-13 funk because they sure did snap out of it in impressive fashion sweeping Fresno St and jumping back in the rankings at #22.
On a side note. Preseason #12 San Diego who has had a rough season and at one point was (10-26) but has now won 12 of 13 games to get to 22-27.
This is the last “Mid-Major Major 25” poll of the regular season so lets recognize the clubs in the poll that won their conference’s regular season titles.
| “Mid-Major Major 25” | 2011 WEEK #15 | ||||
| SCHOOL | (REC) | PVS | (WK) | WEEKS RESULTS-5/16-5/22 | |
| #1 | TCU | (40-15) | #1 | (4-0) | 1-0 Oral Roberts, 3-0 at New Mexico; |
| #2 | Troy | (40-16) | #4 | (3-1) | 1-0 Samford; 2-1 at South Alabama; |
| #3 | Florida International | (37-17-1) | #5 | (2-1) | Florida Atlantic; |
| #4 | UCONN | (39-15-1) | #10 | (3-1) | 1-0 Rhode Island; 2-1 at Cincy; |
| #5 | Fresno St | (36-14) | #2 | (1-3) | 1-0 Neveda; 0-3 at Cal St Bakersfield; |
| #6 | Elon | (36-19) | #6 | (2-1) | Furman; |
| #7 | Texas St | (35-20) | #3 | (1-3) | 0-1 at Rice; 1-2 at UTA; |
| #8 | SE Louisiana | (35-20) | #8 | (1-1) | 1-1 at Northwestern St; |
| #9 | Dallas Baptist | (39-17) | #13 | (2-2) | 0-1 at Baylor; 2-1 Charlotte; |
| #10 | Stetson | (40-16) | #7 | (1-3) | 0-1 Central Florida; 1-2 Belmont; |
| #11 | Wichita St | (36-24) | #14 | (4-0) | 1-0 Kansas St; 3-0 at Bradley; |
| #12 | Coastal Carolina | (37-18) | #15 | (3-1) | 1-0 UNCW; 2-1 Charleston Southern; |
| #13 | Creighton | (39-13) | #20 | (4-0) | 1-0 at Iowa; 3-0 Mizzo St; |
| #14 | Charlotte | (39-14) | #9 | (1-2) | 1-2 at Dallas Baptist; |
| #15 | Jacksonsville | (34-20) | #11 | (2-2) | 1-0 at Florida; 1-2 at Kennesaw St; |
| #16 | UNCG | (34-18) | #16 | (3-0) | at Wofford; |
| #17 | Florida Atlantic | (31-22) | #12 | (1-2) | 1-0 at Miami; 1-2 at FIU; |
| #18 | Western Kentucky | (32-22) | #19 | (2-1) | at MTSU |
| #19 | ETSU | (36-19) | #18 | (2-2) | 1-0 at Georgia Tech; 1-2 at Mercer; |
| #20 | College of Charleston | (36-20) | #17 | (2-2) | 1-0 Presbyterian; 1-2 at Samford; |
| #21 | Stony Brook | (41-10) | NR | (4-0) | Albany; |
| #22 | Cal St Bakersfield | (30-21) | NR | (3-0) | Fresno St |
| #23 | Kent St | (39-14) | #25 | (3-1) | 1-0 Cleveland St; 2-1 Akron; |
| #24 | St Johns | (32-18) | #24 | (2-1) | Villanova; |
| #25 | Georgia Southern | (32-23) | #21 | (3-2) | 1-0 Davidson; 1-0 at Charleston Southern; 1-2 at App St; |
| Dropped Out | |||||
| #22 | San Jose St | (33-24) | (1-3) | Nevada; | |
| #23 | Sam Houston St | (34-22) | (0-3) | TAMCC; | |
| Others Receiving Votes | |||||
| James Madison | (37-17) | ||||
| Hawaii | (32-23) | ||||
| Mercer | (36-18) | ||||
| Gonzaga | (31-17-1) | ||||
| Samford | (34-22) |
5 comments
TXST gave the series to UTA because the games did not matter and they were saving their pitching for the conference tournament.
ULL RAGIN CAJUNS swept FAU and are ranked 2 spots ahead in the SUNBELT CONFERENCE TOURNEY. I know they have a better RPI(FAU) but if UL swept them, they should at least be at the bottom of the MID major poll, or at leastu00a0″others receving votes”.The SunBelt is 5th or sixth best conference in the nation, some of the schools (STONY BROOK, ETSU, St. Johns, amongst others) wouldnt have a winning record in the SUNBELT.
u00a0Louisiana is a darn good team but if you look at their results the last month+ they are up and down up and down.u00a0u00a0 Their last really good weekend was over a month ago when they swept FAU.u00a0 So they entered the rankings that week but then lost 2 of 3 at WKU and feel down.u00a0 Then the following week they lost 2 of 3 to FIU and dropped out.u00a0 And in my opinion had not had a great or very good week since to get back in.u00a0 nnYou say Stony Brook but heck all they do is win.u00a0 They are 41-10.u00a0 Sure its not the sunbelt but still very impressive.u00a0
Can’t argue with that. The CAJUNS season has been like a roller coaster (although they have been scoring more runs to keep up with their pitching). We will see how bad they want the auto-birth by winning the SUNBELT this weekend. The SUNBELT has gone to an eight-team round robin tournament which could help them. They have FIU on Sat evening, so we will see. What do you think they have to do to get in the field of 64? (Tournament champs, runner up, etc.)
FYI the Seawolves of Stony Brook took 2 of 3 from the SUNBELT’S FAU!!!u00a0u00a0 The Seawolves staff is stacked with all 3 weekend starters ERA’s under 1.85.u00a0 Not too shabby not matter what league u play in..
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