The week in review, 5/20

What a disaster. A whole season's worth of good work by the Bat Cats has probably gone down the drain because of three days in the biggest shithole town in the world.

The Cats traveled to Waco needing only a win or a KU loss to be assured a spot in the Big 12 tournament. Win the series, and we would still likely be in the running for the NCAA tournament. By even managing one win in Waco, we could have kept our chances alive.

But that's not what happened.

After three days and 31 runs by Baylor (9-8, 13-7, 9-3), the Cats come back to Manhattan assured their second Big 12 tournament appearance...but little else. Getting swept at the hands of Baylor means the Cats take the eight seed and a first-round date with the Texas Longhorns in OKC. Wonderful. Especially condidering UT swept Texas A&M this weekend and looks to be on a roll heading into the tournament. Here's the final breakdown, assuming a Nebraska win over KU tonight...

1. Texas 21-6 (Swept A&M)
2. Missouri 19-8 (Swept Oklahoma State)
3. Oklahoma State 16-11 (Swept by Missouri)
4. Nebraska 14-13 (Beat KU 2-1 if they win tonight, if they lose, A&M is the four seed)
5. Texas A&M 13-13 (Swept by UT)
6. Baylor 12-15 (Swept K-State)
7. Oklahoma 11-16 (Beat Texas Tech 2-1)
8. K-State 10-16 (Swept by Baylor)
9. KU 10-16 or 9-17 (Playing Nebraska this evening)
10. Texas Tech 8-18 (Lost to OU, 1-2)

I hate to dwell on it, but this weekend was the single-biggest choke-job I've seen in a while. All season, we managed to hang with better teams, managing one win per series at least, winning several series, and playing tough, scrappy ball every night out. This weekend, outside of Friday night, this was not the same team. Maybe the realization that the team was on the brink of making K-State baseball history got to them. I sure hope so, because we were playing Baylor, not Rice or some other national seed. Coach Hill and the players better regroup quickly or next weekend in OKC will be the last action of the year.

The latest RPI, updated today, has us at #32. A losing record and an eight seed in the Big 12 tournament does absolutely nothing to help us. We needed to make it impossible for the committee to keep us out, and getting swept by a lower ranked RPI opponent was exactly the wrong thing to do. K-State is hardly a household name in college baseball, and becoming even more anonymous by getting swept by a mediocre league foe on the last weekend of the season does not help our image at all.

On the other hand, we do get a shot at Texas, which would be a big RPI and profile boost should we manage a win. And because we are guaranteed three games at the tourney, we should get other shots at resume boosting wins. The official brackets will be out tonight after the NU-KU game is over, I'll try to have a post up tomorrow looking them over.

Have a great week. I start my internship tomorrow, so wish me luck.