Okay, for those out there who can't make it to the tournament this weekend over in Lewisville:
There will be no online broadcast of the ETBU games other than one provided by the ASC in the conference championship game. But you can follow the action live through conference live stats, with a link provided on the Tiger Softball web site and also at the ASC site, and I will also be tweeting game updates and information on the ETBU Athletics Twitter page. Just go to twitter.com and follow ETBU_Tigers.
If you miss any of the live game action always check back to the web site and also here on the blog, I will post updates and comments as much as I possibly can postgame throughout the playoffs.
Go Tigers!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Looking Ahead...
You never ever want to get caught trying to predict what will happen in the future, especially when it comes to selecting NCAA Tournament participants when it comes time to issue bids. That will happen either late Sunday night or early Monday, with the start of the 2010 NCAA Division Softball Championship next weekend.
There is no guarantee for ETBU to make a second straight NCAA appearance. The only guarantee would be if the Tigers win the American Southwest Conference tournament this weekend and grab the conference's automatic bid. But there is also the chance of course that ETBU will receive an at-large bid, like they did last season.
These are the kinds of situations that give players, coaches and fans fits because there are just relatively few spots to fill. What we do know is that the Tigers have spent a great deal of the season ranked No. 2 in the nation, which is good. ETBU is recognized nationally for its traditionally strong softball program, which is also good. And the Tigers this week are ranked No. 4 in the NCAA West Region rankings, which goes a long way in determining which teams are invited to regionals next week. That is also good, seeing as most regionals will field anywhere from 6-8 teams -- meaning if you're fourth, even with my crazy math, you've got a good shot at being selected.
ETBU has a 21-9 record this season against "in-region" opponents. That "in-region" thing is a little vague because it includes records against ASC rivals such as Louisiana College and Mississippi College -- who are listed by the NCAA as being the East Region. ETBU and Texas-Tyler are listed in the West Region, but their games against LC and MC count as in-region.
ETBU went 4-4 against Texas-Tyler and Louisiana College, with UTT ranked No. 1 in the West and LC ranked No. 1 in the East Region. Against teams that are regionally ranked from around the country, ETBU is 7-7 on the year. That's also a pretty good sign for the Tigers.
The bottom line is that the Tigers could make things a lot easier for themselves by winning the program's first ASC title since 2004 this weekend. That is the only sure way to get invited to an NCAA First-Round Tournament next week.
Here are the complete West Region rankings for this week:
There is no guarantee for ETBU to make a second straight NCAA appearance. The only guarantee would be if the Tigers win the American Southwest Conference tournament this weekend and grab the conference's automatic bid. But there is also the chance of course that ETBU will receive an at-large bid, like they did last season.
These are the kinds of situations that give players, coaches and fans fits because there are just relatively few spots to fill. What we do know is that the Tigers have spent a great deal of the season ranked No. 2 in the nation, which is good. ETBU is recognized nationally for its traditionally strong softball program, which is also good. And the Tigers this week are ranked No. 4 in the NCAA West Region rankings, which goes a long way in determining which teams are invited to regionals next week. That is also good, seeing as most regionals will field anywhere from 6-8 teams -- meaning if you're fourth, even with my crazy math, you've got a good shot at being selected.
ETBU has a 21-9 record this season against "in-region" opponents. That "in-region" thing is a little vague because it includes records against ASC rivals such as Louisiana College and Mississippi College -- who are listed by the NCAA as being the East Region. ETBU and Texas-Tyler are listed in the West Region, but their games against LC and MC count as in-region.
ETBU went 4-4 against Texas-Tyler and Louisiana College, with UTT ranked No. 1 in the West and LC ranked No. 1 in the East Region. Against teams that are regionally ranked from around the country, ETBU is 7-7 on the year. That's also a pretty good sign for the Tigers.
The bottom line is that the Tigers could make things a lot easier for themselves by winning the program's first ASC title since 2004 this weekend. That is the only sure way to get invited to an NCAA First-Round Tournament next week.
Here are the complete West Region rankings for this week:
- 1. Texas-Tyler (35-5 overall, 31-5 in-region)
- 2. Claremont Mudd-Scripps (32-6, 28-4 in-region)
- 3. Linfield (35-5 overall, 33-5 in-region)
- 4. East Texas Baptist (29-9 overall, 21-9 in-region)
- 5. Redlands (30-10 overall, 27-6 in-region)
- 6. Southwestern (26-10 overall, 25-10 in-region)
- 7. Willamette (27-11 overall, 21-8 in-region)
- 8. Pacific Lutheran (22-14 overall, 22-14 in-region)
It must be remembered that most likely, Louisiana College will be sent with either UT Tyler or ETBU, or both, to a first-round site. Last season all three ASC teams competed in the ETBU-hosted regional at Taylor Field. So in that scenario, if all three receive postseason bids, you'd have to guess the NCAA would send all three somewhere together again.
The dicey part is if there is an upset of, say, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament this weekend. The Athenas, who also were at the ETBU regional last season, host that tournament. Redlands, ranked just behind ETBU in the region, is the No. 2 seed.
Linfield has already clinched an NCAA berth by winning the regular season Northwest Conference championship. The NWC, which also includes Pacific Lutheran and Willamette in the regional rankings, has no conference tournament, so if PLU and Willamette get in it will be via NCAA invites.
And Southwestern won the Southern Collegeiate Athletic Conference title this season in just the second year of the program. The SCAC has no conference tournament, either, so Southwestern is in the NCAA Tournament with an automatic bid.
Okay, what does all this mean? Let's assume ETBU, UT Tyler and Louisiana College get bids, along with the automatics -- Linfield and Southwestern -- already mentioned. A big guess here is that if UT Tyler or Louisiana College is selected to host, you could see a regional of UT Tyler, ETBU, Louisiana College, Southwestern, Linfield, C-M-S and Redlands.
Another kink to consider possibly is if either UMHB, Concordia or Hardin-Simmons wins the ASC Tournament and grabs the ASC automatic. That would also presumably kick one of the above mentioned at-larges out of the regional, perhaps. Or, the NCAA could break up the entire bunch and send the Texas schools to the West Coast somewhere and send LC or to the Midwest, which it's done before.
Bottom line is nothing is settled or even knowable until after this weekend. There are still too many chips to fall. But it is fun to talk about.
Coverage for Softball Tournament
As of today we are still trying to determine whether or not there will be a broadcast available of the Tiger Softball games at this weekend's ASC Tournament. The new site of the tournament, Railroad Park in Lewisville, is by all accounts a great place to watch a softball game but does not have phone lines in the press box so we are working on technical aspects of wireless broadcasting.
However all games will include live stats as well as ETBU's games being followed via our Twitter page, which I've discovered is a great way to keep everyone up to date with action in the game. If there is no broadcast I will attempt to give more in-depth analysis of the games on Twitter, but we'll see what happens.
Just wanted to let everyone know and we'll give you more information later. Go Tigers!
However all games will include live stats as well as ETBU's games being followed via our Twitter page, which I've discovered is a great way to keep everyone up to date with action in the game. If there is no broadcast I will attempt to give more in-depth analysis of the games on Twitter, but we'll see what happens.
Just wanted to let everyone know and we'll give you more information later. Go Tigers!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Weekend Warriors
The 2009-2010 regular season for East Texas Baptist University's Athletics teams ended Sunday -- with softball still playing in the ASC playoffs this week, but other than that all regular season action for this school year is in the books.
The final weekend of the sports year here at ETBU came with some high drama as well as some outstanding, record-breaking type performances. Here is a short rundown of what transpired this last weekend for the Tigers:
The final weekend of the sports year here at ETBU came with some high drama as well as some outstanding, record-breaking type performances. Here is a short rundown of what transpired this last weekend for the Tigers:
- Baseball's Luke Leftwich had a monster series against Ozarks, bashing four home runs and driving in 11 as the Tigers finished the year by taking two of three games from an Eagles team that entered the series still fighting for a playoff spot. I'm no math major but that's almost 4 RBI a game for Luke, who finished his senior year with 13 bombs and tied for the team lead with a .431 batting average. The 13 homers ties the most by a Tiger in a single season since ETBU joined the American Southwest Conference back in 1998-99, matching Josiah Jones' mark during the Tigers' last playoff season in 2005.
- Senior Kyle Pope (see previous blog post) ended his brilliant ETBU career with 191 hits in three years -- finishing just nine short of the all-time hits record set by Trey Luster. Kyle matched his previous season high for hits with 66 and had 112 hits over the last two years. He also had at least one hit in 37 out of the 39 games played this season, which is an amazing statistic considering the amount of quality pitching in this conference.
- Softball, of course, kept alive its proud streak of 11 straight years of making the American Southwest Conference tournament, a tournament ETBU has never missed in its years of eligibility. For those who might not understand and appreciate tradition, that is a powerful streak for both the current Tigers and former ones, kind of a common bond throughout the years that they all share. Yes, it was a big deal.
- Lost in all the drama and excitement of fighting their way into the playoffs on the season's final day, perhaps, was the performance of ETBU's two pitchers in Sunday's action against top-ranked Louisiana College. I've watched Alicia Wright and Ayrika Henderson pitch the last two years but I don't know if I've seen as impressive a 1-2 punch performance as those two pulled off Sunday. Alicia threw a no-hitter last year as a freshman and had a couple of gutsy playoff performances, but I don't know if I've ever seen her throw as well as she did against LC Sunday. The Wildcats' only two hits of the game came on bunt singles, and nothing was hit especially hard at all. Just a great performance all around, but LC escaped with a 1-0 win by taking advantage of the bunts.
- Henderson got the ball in a must-win situation for ETBU and did what All-American aces do. It's been kind of a pitch to contact type thing for Ay this year, based on her lower strikeout totals, and she's still one of the top pitchers in this league. No one else could have had the ball in that situation, and she turned in a gem -- two-hitter, with one of those hits being a little bloop shot over her head that landed and spun away from Stacy Havner at shortstop. The second hit was a solid single to right, but it came after ETBU had exploded for a 6-0 lead in the fifth inning.
- Heard this from an LC follower in the ballpark Sunday: "No one outside of Marshall, Texas is going to be sad to see Adrienne Meier graduate," which was a full-hearted compliment of the Tigers' senior leftfielder. Consider this: against some of the top pitchers in this league in her last two home doubleheaders (UT Tyler and LC), Addy has nine hits in four games, a batting average of .600. That's certainly worthy of a two-time All-Region selection who most certainly will be in line for a third honor in that regard.
- And finally, freshman Beck Young's game-clinching three-run homer in the fifth inning Sunday gave her 42 RBI on the year. That's the most RBI by a Tiger freshman since Christy Shipley -- arguably one of the best players to ever wear a Tiger uniform as well as compete in the ASC -- had 50 on the record-setting 41-win team of 2004. Beck also made a nice diving stab defensively at second base. In a league that has been lit up this year by great freshman performances, Beck is right up there among that group.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Baseball's Pope achieves another milestone
Tiger Baseball senior Kyle Pope will end his ETBU career on the field this weekend in Clarksville, Ark., when ETBU plays its finale series against University of the Ozarks. It will mark the end of one of the most successful playing careers in the history of the program, and perhaps one of the most underrated. 
Pope has been a model of consistency for the baseball program since walking onto campus three years ago as a transfer. He will leave as the program's all-time leader in doubles and will finish just a handful or so hits away from being the all-time leader in that category. And again, he played just three years here.
But Pope is also walking away with at least a share of a statistic that just sort of popped up this week around the ASC. There is currently no listed record for longest hitting streak in the ASC but the conference SIDs, through some e-mail correspondence this week, listed all the top hitting streaks in the conference from each school. As it turns out, Pope's 29-game hit streak to open this season is at least tied for a conference record for longest hitting streak.
Kyle has been so consistent and so dependable at the plate this streak just kind of snuck up on us. The fact is that Kyle had at least one hit in every one of the Tigers' first 29 games this season, a streak that I didn't realize until beginning the research for this SID-conference project. The streak ended in game one of a series against the University of Houston-Victoria, and going into this weekend Pope has hit in 34 of ETBU's 36 games this season.
Not bad for a guy who also kicked four field goals in a game once for the ETBU football team, which also is a school record. Thanks Kyle, for all the good stuff as a Tiger!
Softball Playoff Scenarios This Weekend
If East Texas Baptist is to make an 11th straight appearance in the American Southwest Conference Softball Championship Tournament next week, it will go down as the Tigers' toughest qualifying challenge to date.
Entering the final day of the regular season on Saturday, the Tigers (28-8, 15-7) find themselves needing help elsewhere around the ASC East Division to make the postseason. A killer four-game losing streak entering Saturday's season finale at home to No. 1-ranked Louisiana College has put ETBU in a tie with Mississippi College (27-9, 13-7) for the third and final playoff spot, and the Lady Choctaws own a head-to-head tiebreaker advantage over ETBU.
That means Friday's games between Mississippi College and LeTourneau in Longview, along with Saturday's MC at UT Tyler contests, have special meaning in the conference race as it goes down to the wire.
The Tigers, the preseason favorite to win the East after winning the division last season, have been ranked in the top four in the nation since the beginning of the season. But it's been a killer ASC East schedule this year, where the top three teams -- LC, ETBU and UT Tyler -- have all been ranked 1-2-3 in the country the last month, with MC having been ranked as high as ninth this season.
Mississippi College, however, is the only team in that bunch not to stump its toe in the conference schedule. The Choctaws are 0-6 against UT Tyler and Louisiana College entering Saturday, but MC went 3-1 against ETBU.
The Tigers have what has proven to be a crucial loss at LeTourneau, while LC was upset by UT Dallas earlier this month. The only losses in conference play by both UT Tyler and MC have come against either LC or ETBU.
The Patriots, who got a big sweep of Louisiana College Thursday and now control their own destiny for the division championship, lost three of its four games to ETBU but went 3-1 against LC and swept a doubleheader against MC earlier this season. LC swept MC but went 1-3 against Tyler, and the Lady Wildcats swept ETBU last weekend in Pineville, La. The records of the four teams against each other entering Saturday: ETBU is 4-6, UT Tyler is 6-4, LC is 7-3 and MC is 3-6.
If Mississippi College loses three of its last four games, the Tigers are in the playoffs no matter what happens at Taylor Field Saturday. If the Choctaws sweep LeTourneau but get swept at UT Tyler, ETBU must win at least one game Saturday. If MC sweeps LeTourneau Friday and splits with Tyler, ETBU must sweep Louisiana College. If the Choctaws go 4-0 on the weekend, ETBU is out of the playoffs.
In any event, the Tigers will honor their four seniors -- Porsha Harrison, Stacy Havner, Ayrika Henderson and Adrienne Meier -- on Senior Day Saturday at ETBU.
Entering the final day of the regular season on Saturday, the Tigers (28-8, 15-7) find themselves needing help elsewhere around the ASC East Division to make the postseason. A killer four-game losing streak entering Saturday's season finale at home to No. 1-ranked Louisiana College has put ETBU in a tie with Mississippi College (27-9, 13-7) for the third and final playoff spot, and the Lady Choctaws own a head-to-head tiebreaker advantage over ETBU.
That means Friday's games between Mississippi College and LeTourneau in Longview, along with Saturday's MC at UT Tyler contests, have special meaning in the conference race as it goes down to the wire.
The Tigers, the preseason favorite to win the East after winning the division last season, have been ranked in the top four in the nation since the beginning of the season. But it's been a killer ASC East schedule this year, where the top three teams -- LC, ETBU and UT Tyler -- have all been ranked 1-2-3 in the country the last month, with MC having been ranked as high as ninth this season.
Mississippi College, however, is the only team in that bunch not to stump its toe in the conference schedule. The Choctaws are 0-6 against UT Tyler and Louisiana College entering Saturday, but MC went 3-1 against ETBU.
The Tigers have what has proven to be a crucial loss at LeTourneau, while LC was upset by UT Dallas earlier this month. The only losses in conference play by both UT Tyler and MC have come against either LC or ETBU.
The Patriots, who got a big sweep of Louisiana College Thursday and now control their own destiny for the division championship, lost three of its four games to ETBU but went 3-1 against LC and swept a doubleheader against MC earlier this season. LC swept MC but went 1-3 against Tyler, and the Lady Wildcats swept ETBU last weekend in Pineville, La. The records of the four teams against each other entering Saturday: ETBU is 4-6, UT Tyler is 6-4, LC is 7-3 and MC is 3-6.
If Mississippi College loses three of its last four games, the Tigers are in the playoffs no matter what happens at Taylor Field Saturday. If the Choctaws sweep LeTourneau but get swept at UT Tyler, ETBU must win at least one game Saturday. If MC sweeps LeTourneau Friday and splits with Tyler, ETBU must sweep Louisiana College. If the Choctaws go 4-0 on the weekend, ETBU is out of the playoffs.
In any event, the Tigers will honor their four seniors -- Porsha Harrison, Stacy Havner, Ayrika Henderson and Adrienne Meier -- on Senior Day Saturday at ETBU.
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