Everybody who follows college baseball knows about the team in our state that is still battling to make it into the postseason. There have been some tough losses, even a few non-conference losses, but at this point in the season there is plenty that can still go right.
Their coach will tell you that everything his team wants is still right in front in them.
If you believe those who prognosticate such things, they are right in the middle of the NCAA Tournament discussion. Every game from here on in is important if they want to keep playing after the conference tournament is done.
Of course, that team is … Louisiana Tech?
While you weren’t looking, the Bulldogs are now being penciled in – perhaps lightly with a #1 Faber-Castell – as a potential at-large team.
That is, of course, if the Bulldogs don’t win the Conference USA tournament, which is another path in. If you need to find the ‘Dogs, look at the top of the league standings, where Tech leads with a 11-4 record.
Looming out there is a huge series against second-place Western Kentucky next week. To stay alone in first, Tech will need to win all three at New Mexico State this weekend. If the Bulldogs win two out of three, they’ll share the lead with WKU, which is playing out of conference this week.
But the biggest question is whether Conference USA will be a multiple-bid league. Three years ago, the league got four into the postseason, with Tech hosting a regional. But as is the case about every 20 minutes, conference re-alignment has altered the landscape.
In 2021, C-USA was the sixth-ranked conference; this year, it currently sits at No. 7, which is not that big of a difference.
Let’s do a deeper dive into this and if this gets too deep into the analytical weeds, feel free to abort the mission. Tech’s RPI is currently No. 42 but its Projected RPI is No. 25 (ahead of schools such as Florida, TCU and, yes, two other schools that have “Louisiana” in their names).
That’s one of the biggest projected jumps by any school in the country, so somebody’s computer believes in the Bulldogs.
All well and good for those who love to crunch numbers. Tech coach Lane Burroughs is most definitely not one of those people.
“I’m being honest with you; I never look at that,” Burroughs says. “All you can do is the play the games in front of you. If the season ended today, I think there would be no doubt we deserve to being the tournament. But there’s a lot of baseball to be played.”
Tech got off to a great start (winning its first 12 games) but recently as six weeks ago, Tech’s RPI was in triple digits. You want to know what showed up to turn it around?
Food.
Two weeks ago, the Bulldogs were playing at Dallas Baptist, a Top 25 team that is sure to be a postseason participant, and won the first game by getting to DBU pitcher Ryan Johnson, a Top 50 MLB Draft prospect. But the Saturday game was washed out, forcing a doubleheader on Sunday. Tech lost the first game of the double dip and Burroughs said the team looked a little lethargic in the second game.
“The people who were supposed to bring our food (for between games) got lost,” Burroughs says. “We were already playing the (second) game when they arrived and our guys were literally shoving sandwiches and potato chips down their throats when they came to the dugout. Maybe that worked, because we got a burst of energy.”
Tech scored three in the third inning and three in the fifth and went on to win 6-1. Beating Dallas Baptist two out of three certainly got some folks’ attention.
“We’ve done it all with this group,” Burroughs says. “We chewed them out, we’ve gotten out of their way, but we are an older, more mature group.”
The Bulldogs were an NCAA Tournament team in ’21 and ’22, but things went wrong all season long a year ago, both on and off the field.
The difference? Easy. “The key to all of it is that our starting pitching has gotten better each week,” Burroughs said. “And with the guys we’ve got at the back end of the ball game (relievers Ethan Bates and Sam Broderson), you just don’t get that too often in college baseball.”
At 34-13, Burroughs is content to simply let the season play out and see what happens.
“You can get the pulse of your team and you can feel that they are having fun and they know they’ve got this,” he says. “I say this all the time – I just make out the lineup and get out of the way.”
And make sure the delivery driver doesn’t get lost.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com