NCAA Berth The Prize At San Marcos
5/21/2012 7:08:00 AM | Baseball
Having played series against every team in the league, the Bearkats know that they can take care of business and not leave any doubt about maybe getting into the NCAA tournament. Instead, if the Kats can put together four strong days of baseball together later this week at Bobcat Baseball Ballpark in San Marcos, then they can earn the program its fourth NCAA regional appearance in the past six years.
"Each weekend we haven't focused on the NCAAs at all. We've prepared for each opponent in turn," Sam Houston head coach David Pierce said. "We didn't feel like we had the luxury of starting to think about a tournament other than trying to keep pitch counts low. Now we're ready to go."
For the last two weekends of the season, the Kats had their eye on winning a regular-season championship and after doing that in an 8-3 victory in the series finale over Southeastern Louisiana on May 13 and looked to build some momentum for the Southland tournament.
In the final series of the regular season, the Kats split a pair of lopsided games with Central Arkansas before taking the series finale 7-4 on Saturday.
Winners of seven of their last 12 conference games, the Bearkats are now healthier and are close to returning back to its lineup that helped the Kats win 13 games in a row (the program's longest winning streak at the NCAA Division I level).
Sam Houston can heal a few more wounds as it still has a few more days to rest up and before getting the tournament under way on Wednesday against No. 8 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
"It was really big to get John Hale back," Pierce said of his senior catcher who played for the first time since late April last week. "I think Shea Pierce did a very serviceable job and Jessie Plumlee did a serviceable job, but we're better with Jessie at second base and John behind the plate."
While the Kats and their coach are happy to have Hale back in the lineup, they'd also like to have sophomore Anthony Azar, who is still nursing a shoulder injury, as well. When Azar was injured in the first game of the Kats' series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on April 27, he was batting .383 with 33 RBIs.
"As far as health goes, we're looking forward to hopefully having Azar back. We're still unsure of where he stands right now," Pierce said. "He's still leading us in RBIs after missing 13 games. That's how important he is. We need him back in the lineup, especially on a postseason run, but we've done a good job of guys stepping in. That's been the beauty of this team."
In order to have a chance at winning a Southland tournament title, the Kats will have to navigate their way through a four-team bracket of Corpus Christi, No. 4 seed UT Arlington and fifth-seeded McNeese State in order to get to the championship game. On the other side of the bracket are No. 2 seed Southeastern Louisiana, third-seeded Texas State, which hosts the tournament, No. 6 seed Central Arkansas and seventh-seeded Stephen F. Austin.
Fresh off a 14-hit performance in the regular-season finale, the Kats know they have to have a premium offensive performance as they will most likely have to face Islanders starting pitcher Daniel Minor (9-3 in 14 starts with four complete games and a 2.29 earned run average) in the tournament opener for Sam Houston.
"We open up, in my opinion, with one of the top two arms in the league and I'm assuming that he's going to throw. He's considered one of the top two starters outside of our Caleb Smith," Pierce said.
In the tournament setting, pitching, specifically starting pitching, can either provide teams with an inside track to the title game or an early exit from the tournament.
The Kats ended up coasting to a regular-season title in large part due to the depth and effectiveness of its rotation. With Smith, senior Justin Jackson, senior Michael Oros and sophomore Cody Dickson, Sam Houston can give itself an edge over the other teams on its side of the bracket with strong and lengthy pitching performances in the first two games.
Playing four to five games in a four-day span, depth on the front and back ends of a staff will be key. As long as the Kats don't have to go into their bullpen early, they'll be in top shape on the pitching side of things, especially if they can get the offense to back them up.
Sam Houston will have a live audio stream of each of the Bearkats' games in the tournament available on www.gobearkats.com .
The schedule of the double-elimination event has four games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Two "if-necessary" games would be played Saturday before the championship game, which will be played at 5 p.m. and be available exclusively on ESPN3.
The championship broadcast will be called by Chris Mycoskie, the Southland's director of television and electronic media, and Greg Swindell, a 17-year MLB veteran. Every game of the tournament, which the exception of the title game, will be streamed live and for free on SLC NOW, which is available on the conference's website, Southland.org. Live stats will also be available at the same web address.
An all-tournament reserved pass is available for $50 for adults. Youth and general admission all-tournament passes are $45. Individual day tickets are available for $15 for adults and $12 for youth. Students at Southland institutions may get in free by showing a valid student ID card.For more information, go to www.gobearkats.com/tickets .
Complete 2012 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament pairings:
Wednesday, May 23
Game 1: No. 5 McNeese State vs. No. 4 UT Arlington, 9 a.m.
Game 2: No. 8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. No. 1 Sam Houston State, Noon
Game 3: No. 6 Stephen F. Austin vs. No. 3 Texas State, 4 p.m.
Game 4: No. 7 Central Arkansas vs. No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana, 7 p.m.
Thursday, May 24
Game 5: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 9 a.m.
Game 6: Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 12 noon
Game 7: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 4 p.m.
Game 8: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 7 p.m.
Friday, May 25
Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 7, 9 a.m.
Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 8, 12 noon
Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9, 4 p.m.
Game 12: Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 10, 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 26
Game 13: (If winner of Game 9 also wins Game 11)
Loser Game 11 vs. Winner Game 11, 9 a.m.
Game 14: (If winner of Game 10 also wins Game 12)
Loser Game 12 vs. Winner Game 12, 1 p.m.
If both bracket winners are undefeated, the championship game will be played Saturday at 1 p.m.
If either Game 13 or 14 is necessary, championship game will start at 5 p.m.
Times are approximate. There will be a minimum of 45 minutes between games on Wednesday and 30 minutes the remainder of the weekend with no game starting prior to its scheduled time.
