It's either late or very early depending upon your point of view. As such, I'm not going to provide much detail on Wednesday's results. However, a couple of the games are so awful that I'm compelled to say something.
(23) Ohio State gets absolutely drilled by Ball State, 20-8. A horrible loss. You simply cannot give up twenty runs, at home, to an opponent with a RPI around 219, when your strength of schedule isn't all that good and hope to host a regional.
Keeping pace in the ugly department, Illinois lost to St. Louis, 11-10. Again, when you are seeking a potential at-large bid, you don't lose a game to an opponent with a RPI over 200. It's the kind of loss that destroys at-large possibilities.
I don't want to be too extreme here. It's been a wild and wacky college baseball season and there's is plenty of opportunity for both programs to overcome Wednesday's defeats. Yet, there's simply no denying the impact of losing games to teams with RPI's above 200. Just playing these teams hurts your strength of schedule. Losing to them damages both your credibility and RPI.
If OSU loses out on hosting a regional or the Illini fail to claim an at-large berth, we can look back at Wednesday night's games and get an idea where things may have gone south.
In other scores, Purdue crushed Butler, 18-4. Indiana State beat Indiana, 7-4. Michigan split a doubleheader with Notre Dame. UM wins the opener, 3-2. The Irish take the finale, 4-3. Both were seven-inning affairs. (Yes, I still don't like seven inning games. See, I'm cranky when I'm up past my bedtime.)
Central Michigan beat Michigan State, 7-6. Minnesota dropped North Dakota State, 8-1. Iowa got past Northern Iowa, 5-4. Northwestern put a hurt on Illinois State, 13-3.
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2 comments:
You'd be up further past your bedtime if it had been two nine-inning games, though....
OSU should still be fine. Their RPI is still top-20, and its only their 3rd bad loss.
The 15 of 20 runs came in the last 4 innings, against 4 pitchers who won't see the field in a regional.
Rucinski was bad as well, but given his season he'll get a pass. Chalk it up to tiredness.
20 runs is still inexcusable, but it'd hardly an indication of what the Bucks do on the weekend, when those 4 don't pitch, or in a regional.
Now Illinois losing hurts. They weren't on the cusp of the NCAA as is and this won't help.
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