1. We are on one hell of a two season run in SEC play:
-We have won 14 of 16 SEC series; 7 of 8 at home and 7 of 8 on the road.
-The 14 series wins came against 12 different SEC teams, with A&M being the only team we have not won a series against in the past 2 seasons.
-Including the 2016 Governors Cup win, we are 35-14 against SEC teams in the regular season.
-Excluding the two series losses which were both sweeps(vs A&M 2016 and @ Arkansas 2017) we are 35-8 against SEC foes, 18-3 at DNF and 16-5 away.
-We have gone 10-2 in one run SEC games
2. In the past calander year (4/22/16 to 4/22/17):
-We have gone 27-7 against SEC teams, excluding the Arkansas sweep this year, 27-4.
-We have gone 14-1 at Dudy Noble Field against SEC teams.
3. One month ago today we were coming off a 4 game losing streak (swept @ Arkansas and loss to USM in Pearl) with a 12-10 record and an 0-3 start in the conference. The team could've folded with valid excuses, but instead they went 16-4 and 13-2 in the SEC. I don't know how we did it, but it's been an incredible month.
4. Blaylock should focus exclusively on pitching for the rest of the season. Getting just 2-3 solid innings from him per week would be huge.
5. Without naming names, there were 2-3 guys that took the mound for us Friday that have no business stepping on an SEC rubber. We can't keep trotting those guys out there in tight ball games. Giving up hits is one thing, that's baseball. However, throwing twice as many balls as strikes is absolutely unacceptable.
6. Mangum and Rooker went 6-29 on the weekend, and Pilkington gave up 4 ER in less than 6 complete innings, yet we pulled off the sweep. 13-5 puts us in the drivers seat for the SEC, and sets us up for the first back to back 20 SEC win seasons in MSU baseball history. We get a much needed long weekend of rest with Saturday and Sunday off. We should be nice and rested for the Governor's cup Tuesday. A loss won't kill us, but a win is needed if we want to talk national seed.
7. Kentucky(11-6) and LSU(10-7) have one more game to play against each other this weekend, Auburn(11-5) and Arkansas(11-5) have one more game to play, Texas A&M(9-7) and Tennessee(4-12) have two more games to play, and Florida(9-8) and South Carolina(9-8) have one more games to play against each other this weekend, Let's say Kentucky takes the rubber match at home, Auburn and Arkansas split, A&M and UT split, and Florida takes the rubber match at home, the SEC race would look like this:
MSU(13-5)
Auburn(12-6)
Arkansas(12-6)
Kentucky(12-6)
LSU(10-8)
Texas A&M(10-8)
Florida(10-8)
If Auburn can just take one more against Arkansas, we will be in a position where we control our own destiny.
8. We have 12 SEC games left
-3 vs Auburn
-3 @ Texas A&M
-3 @ Georgia
-3 vs LSU
I think 6-6 gets us a host, 7-5 gets us a share of the SEC, and 8-4 gives us our second outright SEC title and national seed in a row. The formula is simple, win the last 4 series, win the SEC and get a national seed. We need to go 3-3 in the Auburn and A&M series, 4-2 might put us in an uncatchable position at 17-7 with a series against a very bad Georgia team at their place and a series against a very beatable LSU team at home remaining on the schedule. If we can leave the Georgia series with another sweep, we would only have to find 4 wins from the A&M, LSU and Auburn series to lock up the SEC.
9. As talented and deep as the 2016 team was, the 2017 team has a pretty decent chance to finish with an equal or better SEC record. Considering the circumstances, Cann will almost certainly win COY in his first season as a head man. With his recruiting ability, and a state of the art DNF renovation/reconstruction on the way, we may be witnessing the beginning of one of if not the best runs in MSU sports history.
10. One month ago the question was will we make a regional, now the question is will we win the SEC and get a national seed. Crazy shit.