Kats Ready for NCAA Regional
5/28/2013 6:53:00 AM | Baseball
NCAA Baton Rouge Regional Tournament Central
Link to complete information about regional action
Though they had been through the same scenario before, a year ago in fact, and a bit more confident, the Kats were still just as anxious to find out if they'd have more baseball to play or not.
It didn't take as long to find out as it did in last year's selection show, but Sam Houston State earned an at-large bid for the 2013 NCAA Baseball Championship tournament for a second consecutive season.
Instead of cleaning out their lockers, the Kats will be packing up their gear and loading up the bus for this weekend's regional, which is at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.
Joining the Bearkats in Baton Rouge are regional host and No. 4 national seed LSU, Louisiana-Lafayette and Jackson State.
Sam Houston State will face Louisiana-Lafayette in its regional opener on Friday at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN3.com.
“It was exciting, hearing our name up there again,” Sam Houston State junior pitcher Cody Dickson said Monday afternoon. “I think all of us had confidence about us making a regional. It was exciting, but we have another week to go out and take care of business.”
Following a short stint in the Southland Conference tournament in Sugar Land last week, the Bearkats knew that they were at the mercy of the selection committee again.
Due in large part to winning the Southland's regular-season championship outright as well as a solid strength of schedule and in good position in the RPI standings, the Bearkats earned their at-large spot back to the NCAA Tournament.
“I think it is consistency. That's what we want to create to give ourselves the best opportunity to win every day,” Bearkats coach David Pierce said. “When you look at the body of work and you look at the entire season, it's based on a consistent season. So fortunately we did enough and the committee felt like we merited this at-large. We feel like we did as well.
“I do feel like there's weight put into the conference champions, along with all the different criteria that goes along with it. Our RPI was solid. We were the conference champions. We played a remarkable schedule. I think it's a culmination of all of those.”
For many of the Bearkats, this wasn't their first rodeo with the waiting game and sitting on pins and needles while watching the selection show. From going through the same situation and in the same room, the Kats were more confident knowing what it took to make the field as an at-large team.
That doesn't mean that they didn't keep a watchful eye on a handful of online college baseball publications like Baseball America or Perfect Game to see how writers in different parts of the country saw the Bearkats.
“Coach (Pierce) probably doesn't want us to say it, but we keep up with that,” Kats junior left fielder Luke Plucheck said. “Most of those guys know what they're talking about. They have the inside scoop. Late last night and early this morning, I saw two projections that had us at LSU. Honestly, they had all four teams in the LSU Regional.
“One projection was Kansas State and one was even all the way up in Eugene, Oregon. I felt like if we were going somewhere, it was going to be LSU because it was close to home. Wherever we were going, I didn't care. I would've packed a bag and been on a plane or on the bus as long as we got to play.”
Not all of the Bearkats were as calm and confident, though. More nerves were on edge for players like sophomore shortstop Carter Burgess, who played a significant role as a starter in all 57 games for the Kats this season after sitting out the 2012 season due to transferring from Rice.
“Everyone else said they were not as nervous, but I was pretty nervous,” Burgess said. “I felt like we deserved to be in. The committee selected us, so that's all that really mattered.
“Last year, I transferred so I wasn't really a part of that. I was ready to come in here and do what I could. This is just one of our goals. We reached it, but we want to continue to play.”
Pierce can give his players a good idea of what to expect since he experienced regional and super regional environments in Baton Rouge as an assistant with Rice during the 2005 and 2008 seasons. In 2005, the Owls went 3-0 in the Baton Rouge Regional with a pair of victories over the Tigers before falling to No. 1 national seed Tulane in the New Orleans Super Regional. In 2008, Rice fell in two games to LSU in the super regionals.
“It's going to be crazy, I'll tell you that,” Pierce said. “LSU fans are just very exciting. They love baseball and they love good baseball. There'll even be times when they're pulling for us. They're going to try and feed us well, too.
“It's a great environment. If they asked me a place where I'd like to take our team for our program and for our kids to experience a regional, LSU's definitely one of the tops in the country.”
The Baton Rouge Regional as well the rest of the 15 regionals will get under way on Friday and continue through the weekend.
“Hopefully, we travel well,” Bearkats senior first baseman Jessie Plumlee said. “We know that also with Lafayette there, there'll be plenty of people from Louisiana there. Hopefully being somewhat close to LSU, we'll have some fans there.”
Regional tickets not purchased by season ticket holders by 5 p.m. Tuesday will go on sale to the general public at 8 a.m. Thursday. A limited number of bleacher seats and standing-room only booklets will also go on sale Thursday. There will be a limit of four tickets per account.
Individual-session tickets, if available, will go on sale at 8 a.m. Friday.
The Alex Box Stadium Ticket Office is open this week from 8 a.m. till 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.LSUtix.net or call 225.578.2184.
NCAA BATON ROUGE REGIONAL SCHEDULE (All times Central)
Friday, May 31
Game 1: No. 1 LSU vs. No. 4 Jackson State – 2 p.m.
Game 2: No. 2 Louisiana-Lafayette vs. No. 3 Sam Houston State – 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 1
Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser – 2 p.m.
Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner – 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 2
Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser – 2 p.m.
Game 6: Regional Championship Game: Game 5 winner vs. Game 4 winner – 7 p.m.
Monday, June 3 (if necessary)
Game 7: Second Regional Championship Game: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser – 7 p.m.
