Shox v. ORU

[WSUwatcher]

Yes!

Shane hinted in the pre-game that if thing work out just right that they might approach the mid-week games diffenrently this year.

I certainly hope so. A decent record in midweek games would probably work wonders for the RPI and NCAA resume, inasmuch as in baseball good wins, of which the Valley offers very few, help much more than "bad" losses hurt. (Nearly all teams lose some silly games every year: Texas went down -- at home, of course -- to the mighty A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders tonight, but come Selection Sunday no one will care).

Get the good wins in midweek against good teams, count on your fourth guy to be better than most MVC #3 starters (and your position players to take care of their part of the bargain), and let the chips fall where they may. It used to work just fine.

[CharlieHog]

http://www.collegesplits.com/dailies/20110223daily.html

[Shocker85]

Re: Yes!

I certainly hope so. A decent record in midweek games would probably work wonders for the RPI and NCAA resume, inasmuch as in baseball good wins, of which the Valley offers very few, help much more than "bad" losses hurt. (Nearly all teams lose some silly games every year: Texas went down -- at home, of course -- to the mighty A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders tonight, but come Selection Sunday no one will care).

Get the good wins in midweek against good teams, count on your fourth guy to be better than most MVC #3 starters (and your position players to take care of their part of the bargain), and let the chips fall where they may. It used to work just fine.

I agree 110% with your points here - I've been beating this drum for years. Bad wins aren't nearly as bad in baseball as other sports. Good teams sometimes lose to bad ones and it doesn't wreck your season like football and basketball.

I also think it goes beyond that ... in addition to the potential RPI boost, the Big 3 starters can benefit from starting against the best teams on the schedule. The experience of battling a tough line-up in most starts rather than the Evansvilles and SIUs of the world gets the top starters seasoned for the line-ups they will see in the post-season. They get in-game experience of focusing on every batter, every pitch and working out of difficult situations. If consistent bullpen production can be developed, winning the mid-week and scraping out ugly wins in-conference with the second tier starters is very do-able.

When was the last time the Shox were a SOLID at-large team instead of somewhere near the bubble? Wins against top-flight competition are crucial. Play the best vs. the best, IMO.

--'85.