MWC baseball March 31

MWC baseball has a few less teams than football and basketball. For example, Boise St, Wyoming, Utah St, & Colorado St have club baseball.which are  not fully university-sponsored and do not compete in NCAA CWS. Hawaii plays hoops and baseball in the Big West conference.
Conference standings

New Mexico 7-2  : Chris Devito is batting .404 in 99 at bats

Fresno State 6-3 : Brody Russell 3HR, 26 RBI, .390 AVG

Air Force 4-1" Griffin Jax has a  5-1 record with 41 strikeouts.

Nevada 4-4:  TJ Friedl has five stolen bases.

UNLV 3-6  : Payton Squier is batting .366

San Diego State 2-5 : Tyler Addison has four stolen bases.

San Jose State 3-8 : Shane Timmons is batting .370

April 22, 2016

Three weeks later and the standings  are the same. UNM and Fresno have won more than they lost, but  the Lobos swept the Bulldogs two weeks ago.. Devito has improved his AVG to .419 with 11HR, 49RBI. Luis Gonzalez has 10HR 38RBI .368 AVG.

May 1 , 2016

Nevada has moved to within a game in the loss column of Fresno for second place
New Mexico16-5 Fresno St  16-7 Nevada 12-8. 
Nevada has a three game series  against UNM May 13-15 , and will need  it's three players, Friedl, Bridgman, and Mastrobuoni, with 9 stolen bases each to get  more active. Friedl is batting .404

May 9, 2016

NM Lobos and FresnoBulldogs still 1-2 in the MWC. NM and AFA have the leaders in offense.
Bradley Haslem  AFA               .423 avg
Carl Stajduhar New Mexico       14HR
Chris Devito New Mexico          54 RBI
Adam Groesback    AFA                     16 SB

May 13, 2016

Nevada has won 13 straight and starts a three game series at UNM tomorrow. Fresno is at UNLV.
Fresno State 19-8 0.
New Mexico 17-7 

Nevada 16-8 

May 23

Fresno St and UNM get a RD1 bye. Winner of 6 seed SD ST/ 7 SJ ST play-in game faces  the hot #3 seed Nevada. That winner faces #2 UNM. #1 Fresno gets the winner of #4 AFA/#5 UNLV

May 27

SD St  beat SJ St in the play-in game then  eliminated UNLV. Today: they face #3 Nevada then the winner of that game faces #1 Fresno. Tonight AFA plays UNM

May 29

Chris DeVito, one of the top hitters in the MWC, doubled and drilled one of four UNM homers in a 14-4 rout of Nevada in the MWC final yesterday . #2 seed New Mexico  gets the automatic bid. Nevada bounced  #1 seed  Fresno and upstart San Diego St from the MWCT on friday before losing yesterday.

CUSA baseball March 26

Three teams tied at 4-1:
USM  : Jake Sandlin batting .386 leads a potent lineup
FAU’s offense has a .305 batting avg and is led by senior Billy Endris and junior CJ Chatham.
Rice 's centerfielder, Ryan Chandler, gets on base often and is stellar in the field and went 3-4  in a win  overODU (3-2)  in game 1 of their current series.
Louisiana Tech and Charlotte are also (3-2)

Marshall (2-3) has a solid lineup led by Sam Hunter &Tommy Lane
Rest of the CUSA:
FIU   2 3
UAB 2 3
WKU 1 3
MTSU 1 3
UTSA 1 4

April 28

USM remains atop the CUSA.

Louisiana Tech, UAB, and WKU are on hot but time is running out as they sit in the middle of the pack. May 3 Rice and USM sit atop the CUSA with 15-6 record. FAU (14-7) and Marshall (13-8) follow them. CUSA Batting leaders: Tommy Lane (Marshall)  11 HR. Tim Lynch (USM)   47 RBI. Danny Hudzina WKU .434 AVG. Corey Bird (Marshall) 23 SB May 13 Southern Miss 18-6  Rice 18-6  Florida Atlantic 17-7   Marshall 16-8 0.667   Louisiana Tech 15-9  Hudzina (WKU) .408 avg. Lane -(Marshall) 13 HR, Shearer (Charlotte) and Lynch USM tied with 49 RBI Byrd( Marshall)  24 SB Salinas (Rice) and Cockrell (USM) tied with 7 wins May 16 #herd feasted on WKU and moved into 3rd. USM still ahead of Rice in a battle for  first. May 22 #Herd took two of three  from ODU to move up to a #2 seed. Rice fell to a #4 seed. Here's opening day schedule for the double elimnation 2016 CUSAT. Game 1 (5) Louisiana Tech vs. (4) Rice 9:00a Game 2 (8) Charlotte vs. (1) Florida Atlantic 12:30p Game 3 (6) Old Dominion vs. (3) Southern Miss 4:00p Game 4 (7) FIU vs. (2) Marshall 7:30p Conference  stat leaders  Danny Hudzina WKU .409 AVG. Tommy Lane (Marshall)  13 HR. Logan Sherer (Charlotte) 52 RBI Corey Bird (Marshall) 32 SB Four pitchers with sevin wins Chase Boster Marshall,Jon Duplantier  Rice, Cord Cockrell Southern Miss, Ricardo Salinas Rice Cameron Ragsdale (FAU) topped the league with 13 saves. May 27 Bracket One:  – Rice, 2-0 – FAU, 1-1 faces LaTech, 1-1 in an elimination game today. – Charlotte, 0-2 (eliminated) Bracket Two: – SoMiss, 2-0: Sandlin's grandslam was the key blow in their win over Marshall 1-1 who now needs to beat  FIU, 1-1 today – ODU, 0-2 (eliminated) May 29 Marshall left too many guys on base again and lost to USM who faces Rice in the final. Rice outslugged (barely) a tough LaTech team.

Sunbelt Conference as of March 25

South Alabama  7-0 : Drew LeBounty 1HR 17 rbi .360avg has lead the Jags' charge so far
Texas State  6-1: Ortega and Studdard lead the best hitting team .311 avg in the conference
Georgia Southern  5-2 : Hughes, Eichhorn, & Cohen anchor the staff with the best ERA  2.85
UL Lafayette  4-3: Joe Robbins is batting .350 with 6 HR
Georgia State  2-2: Jarrett, Woullard, and Roach lead a potent offense
Troy  3-4: Grant Bennett 3-0 1.27 ERA anchors a decent staff.
Little Rock  3-4 0: Scott,Ryan is batting .512 with 7 HR and 30 RBI
UT Arlington  2-4 : Jacob Moreland has 1.07 ERA
Arkansas State  2-5
UL Monroe  1-3 0.
Appalachian State  0-7

May 3

S.Bama has four game lead over second place over ULL. Batting leaders:

Ryan Scott (ArK-LR) .448 AVG, 50 RBI
Tanner Hill (TX ST)    13HR 
Cole Billingley (USA)  25SB

May 13

S. Bama (19-5) hosts second place ULL (16-8)  in a three game series starting tomorrow
Stat leaders:
Ryan Scott (ArK-LR) .452 AVG, 55 RBI
Tanner Hill (TX ST)    14HR 
Cole Billingley (USA)  29SB

Three pitchers, Bennett(Troy), Hill(USA), and Simmons(UTA) tied with 8 wins 

May 14

Jaguars 3 ULL 2 in the series opener thanks to Swaggerty's walk off single in the 9th.

May 16

FB buddy alerted me to ULL winning the next two. Yesterday ULL jumped out to a four-run lead in the top of the first inning on just one hit. Ull now trails USA by 2 games in  the battle for first.

May  21

This weekend is critical as only the top eight teams  will participate in the 2016 Sunbelt double elimination tournament @Tx St  (Marcos) . The winner gets an automatic bid to the CWS
South Alabama 21-8 0.724
Louisiana-Lafayette 20-9 0.690
Arkansas-Little Rock 17-12 0.586
Troy 16-13 0.552
Texas State 15-14 0.517
UT Arlington 15-14 0.517
Georgia Southern 15-14 0.517
_____________________________

8) Arkansas State 12-17 0.414
9) Louisiana-Monroe 10-19 0.345

May 26

UT Arlington advanced into the winners' bracket to  with Wednesday afternoon's 4-2 victory over No. 2 seed South Alabama. #ULL  beat Ark St to go into the winners bracket.

Losers' bracket

No. 2 South Alabama

No. 3 Little Rock

GAME 6

No. 4 Troy

No. 8 Arkansas State

Winners bracket 

GAME 7

No. 6 Georgia Southern

No. 7 UT Arlington

GAME 8

No. 1 UL Lafayette

No. 5 Texas State

May 29

Hot Rajin Cajuns face upstart Ga Southern in the SunBelt Final. Yesterday ULL scored 17 runs in a win over Ark St. Georgia Southern freshman Brian Eichorn (5-2) and two relievers shutout the USA Jags .  

O5 in t25 Baseball

AAC- #19 East Carolina including wins over UNC & UVA of the ACC & Maryland of the B10.
#25 Houston- Good wins against Baylor & Alabama
CUSA: #24 FAU-opened the season beating Mississippi St. Rice  will find their way in to the top 25. Possiblly ODU, too. Keep your eyes on Stephen Kerr of FAU.

O5 on Day1 then day 2

Hagins hit some key shots and Arkansas LR (SunBelt)  defense  played well in the their comback win over Purdue.

Fresno (MWC) looked in trouble from the start agakinst Utah .Marvelle Harris (24 PTS, 4 REB, 6 AST)  had his usual but  the Utes were just too much for the Bulldogs.

UConn(AAC) roared back from an 11 point halftime deficit behind Rodney Purvis to defeat Colorado. Huskies also shot 96% from the free throw line.

Perkins and Bearden led the Buffalo Bulls(MAC) charge back but it wasn't  enough to beat Miami Fla

Day 2:
Props to MTSU (CUSA) who beat Sparty. I didn't have the guts to pull the trigger for them in the brackets. Upshaw and Putts were stellar in the  Blue Raiders victory. Now go get Cuse.
AAC Heartbeaks:DeCosey's 26 points  wasn't enough as Temple  lost to Iowa in the final seconds and Octavius Ellis dunk for Cincy  was waved off at the buzzer in their loss to St Joseph.

Other 5 roundups/letdowns

SunBelt: (1)Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans have had plenty of rest and  start their battle for the SunBelt Dance ticket against (4)ULL. They beat ULL twice this season and will focus on stopping the long distance Cajun shoooter, Shawn Long.  (2) ULM/(3)UTA is the other semi-final . UTA is one of the most  perplexing squads . Drew Charles treys saved them last night but Kevin Hervey has been their anchor. Roberson and Deng are the ULM anchors.

MWC- I'm going with (2) Bulldogs behind Marvelle Harris to beat top seed SD St n the final. Both teams are dancing.

MAC- Buffalo is another perplexing team and they 've had a nice run, but Isaiah Johnson and Akron will secure the MAC ticket.

CUSA: It's March and ODU is chasing a dance ticket- same old story. Trey Freeman scored 42 yesterday in the win over WKU, but MTSU, a winner over Herd yesterday, will slow him down and get the CUSA ticket.

AAC= crazy tournament. Tulane was about to fire their head coach before they upset Houston to face Memphis on one side of the bracket. Temple, who should be in  the Dance, faces  another March bloomer UConn today. I wouldn't hazard a guess as to what other AAC squads go Dancing.

For new readers Other 5= AAC, CUSA,MAC, MWC,  and SunBelt

March13 review
SunBelt- Ark LR/ULM for the ticket today/ ULL scored 25 but that was enough again st Little Rock.
MWC- Fresno punched its ticket and I still think SD St gets an at large.
MAC-  Massinburg was solid in Buffalo's win. I can't see Akron getting and at large.
CUSA:MTSU held Freeman under 20 points and got the W.
AAC: UConn /Memphis in the final- the bubble grows.

March 17: Tulsa (AAC) made a run but Michigan held them off in the play -in game. Tulsa (20-12) got 23 points from Shaquille Harrison, There were five ties and 12 lead changes in the  second half. 

July 13, 2016
Dropping  an off-season note: SMU must've had enough of Larry Brown when he pushed for a contract extension. Tim Jankovich, who  has been in head coach in waiting at SMU since 2012 and had a 104-64  record as HC at Illinois St, takes over. SMU was 9-0 under Jankovich  during Brown's suspension last season. Jankovich promises more treys and hopesto take advantage of SMU being the only 1A hoops team in the Dallas area.
Brown (2012-16)guided the Mustangs to their first dance ticket since 1993 in 2015, but that feels lile steep price. 

AACT-Houston has lift off

SMU is ineligible and Houston has moved into the two seed. I see only three AAC  Dance tickets
#1Temple should be dancing regardless of how they do in the conference tournamnet, They'll open with winner of the USF/ECU game.
Here comes the fun: Houston needs a deep run. They open with the #7 UCF/#10 Tulane winner. Gray Jr. Dotson , and Pollard are the core of the HU squad
#3 Tulsa plays  # 6 Memphis. Tulsa has to get by Memphis who's  beat them last week
I could be wrong but  the loser of this game #4 Cincy/#5 UConn may be NIT bound.. this should be a hell of a game.

MWCT - how about Fresno

#1 seed San Diego St should get a Dance ticket regardless of how they do in the MWCT and they should get by the winner #8 Wyoming/#9 Utah St easily. Only one other Dance ticket is likely available for the MWC.
#2  Fresno St  led by Marvelle Harris is a very hot team,   and I see them getting  by the winner of #7 UNLV/#10 Air Force and eventually facing SD St in the final.
#3  Boise St 's lost to SJSU which cost them the 2 seed and their only chance at a Dance ticket is winning the tourney. They face the winner of #6 Colorado St/#11 San Jose St
#4 New Mexico plays #5 Nevada. The Lobos beat Nevada  yesterday behind solid play from Cullen/Neal, but it's  anyone's guess who wins the turn around  re-match Thursday. Maybe Criswell scores 40 and Nevada wins.

March10
UNLV needed three OTs to get by AFA. Fresno should take  handle the Rebs.
Boise St will have a tough one against Colorado St who  stomped SJSU
Aztecs should handle Utah St easily.
March 11
Fresno rolls on . SD ST outlasts USU.

CUSA Tee is on

The top four CUSA teams get a double bye .
#1 UAB has proven they can win close ones and is the only CUSA squad that deserve a look for an at large if they fail to win the the CUSAT.UAB's two excellent shot blockers ,Mehinti & Lee, protect the  rim well
#2 MTSU should handle the winner of  #7 Charlotte/#10 Rice. Hats off to Charlotte for improved play during the season. Reggie Upshaw has spurred MTSU in the last few weeks.
#3 Marshall faces the winner of #6 UTEP/#11FIU.  The #herd will be rooting for FIU because UTEP is playing like a late season Cinderella.The Herd D is shaky as they barely survived a weak USM squad  yesterday. MU 108 USM 106
#4 Louisina Tech plays the winner of #5ODU/#9North Texas. . La Tech's loss to WKU yesterday cost them the 2 seed.and they look pprimed for an upset loss.

MAC T seeding

MAC is the first Other 5 conference  tournament tip off on March 7 and its top four get into action on March 10.

Game 5:  No. 8 Eastern Michigan vs. No. 9 Toledo  Winner vs. No. 1 Akron, 12 Noon

Game 6: No. 5 Kent State vs. No. 12 Bowling Green  Winner vs. No. 4 Central Michigan

Game 7: No. 7 Northern Illinois vs. No. 10 Western Michigan  Winner vs. No. 2 Ohio

Game 8: No. 6 Ball State vs. No. 11 Miami  Winner vs. No. 3 Buffalo

Ball St loss to NIU last night cost them a first round bye.. Akron has been playing well and is the only MAC team that deserves and at large if they fail to win the MAC T. The power resides in the East and Ohio led by Antonio Campbell or Buffalo led by the Bearden/Hamilton due appear to be the likely candidates to knock off #1 Akron.

My Cellar Cinderella  pick is Miami of Ohio who played better in February  and perhaps  Gavin Block and the Red Hawks will take advantage of the reeling  Ball St squad. March is madness time.

For new readers: Other5 , a football creation, is  AAC, CUSA, MAC, MWC, & Sunbelt

MWC- SD St  crushed fading New Mexico .

SunBelt- Arkansas Little Rock led by Roger Woods defeated Ark St and remains in high gear going into the conference tourney. Texas Arlington beat Tx St and has some Cinderella  capability.

MAC: Akron won the East title with a win over Ohio.  Buffalo lost to Miami (Ohio) -huh.Central Michigan beat  Ball St  while W.Michigan beat Toledo which tightened up the West. with one conference game remaining.

WEST	CONF	OVERALL
Ball State	10-7	19-11
Central Michigan	10-7	17-13

MAC tourney March 7

Big night in the MAC as teams jockey for MACT positions starting March 7.
Antonio Campbell leads Ohio into Akron as they battle for first in the East. I'm watching the Toledo/W.Mich game out the corner of one eye.
Ball St hosts CMU in a big battle in the West. The steady trio of House, Calhoun, & Weber  have kept the Cards atop the West deck but  faces a solid CMU squad led by Fowler & Rayson.

EAST	CONF	OVERALL
Akron	11-5	22-7
Ohio	10-6	19-9
Kent State	9-7	18-11
Buffalo	9-7	16-13

WEST	CONF	OVERALL
Ball State	10-6	19-10
Central Michigan	9-7	16-13
Northern Illinois	8-8	19-10
Toledo	8-8	17-12