I am absolutely fine with getting on out of the SECT but was just thinking....

[maroonmania]

this morning about all the factors that worked together that caused things to work out the way they did in Hoover.

1. We have very little SEC pitching depth for a prolonged tournament like the one in Hoover that has 12 teams. We were expecting to get serious contributions this year from guys like Brandon Woodruff, Paul Young, Will Cox, John Marc Shelley, Dakota Hudson and Austin Sexton. 3 of those guys are out with injuries, and its obvious the other 3 our staff doesn't trust in meaningful games. So really ANY prolonged tournament that we go into the loser's bracket is going to cause us serious problems.

2. We REALLY needed the bye on Tuesday and THREE different games last Saturday had to go a certain way for us not to get it and they did. That hurt us badly. Our odds of winning the tourney went down in a big way when we had to play the extra day.

3. We played the Tuesday game and almost got a complete game from Laster BUT Detz dropped a sure double play ball in the 9th which forced our hand to pitch Holder for what turned out to be 1.2 innings which turned out to be huge factor. Had Detz made the play there is about a 95% chance Laster completes the game and Holder stays fresh.

4. Move to Thursday where we are 6 outs from beating KY with a one run lead and the possibility of getting ourselves to the semifinals and a day off. Due to having already pitched Holder (I guess) we start out the 8th with Gentry instead of Holder. Gentry is an OK pitcher but not a guy that can be trusted to close out a close important game against a good SEC opponent. If Holder had not already pitched and with an off day staring us in the face I can't believe Thompson and Cohen wouldn't have brought Holder in immediately to pitch the 8th and 9th to try and nail down the game. By waiting until KY had 2 men in scoring position with no outs before bringing Holder in we put ourselves at a big disadvantage in trying to finish the game out with a win.

5. Once we played out 12 innings and went into the loser's bracket we were cooked. We knew and it was obvious the team knew it.

Time to focus on the regional but its obvious a number of factors worked together to take away much of any chance to win the SECT. Even had we made it to Saturday with a day off, I don't think we had enough quality fresh pitching left to have won the thing without jeopardizing our chances in the regional.

[yjnkdawg]

I think the SEC really wants two of the first four seeds to go to the championship game, the way the tournament brackets are structured.

[nsvltndog]

I think the SEC really wants two of the first four seeds to go to the championship game, the way the tournament brackets are structured.

Well that same logic implies the NCAA wants the four #1 seeds to be in the Final 4, the 8 national seeds in baseball to be in Omaha, etc. These tournaments are set up to reward the teams that had the best regular seasons. If you want to truly boil it down to what the SEC wants, I'd say it is to make as much money as they can off the tournament and to get as many teams as possible into post season regionals. Given the money factor is based on fans in seats, I'd say they would want MSU, LSU, UM, Bama, and Auburn to last as long as they can every single tourney.

[maroonmania]

Well that same logic implies the NCAA wants the four #1 seeds to be in the Final 4, the 8 national seeds in baseball to be in Omaha, etc. These tournaments are set up to reward the teams that had the best regular seasons. If you want to truly boil it down to what the SEC wants, I'd say it is to make as much money as they can off the tournament and to get as many teams as possible into post season regionals. Given the money factor is based on fans in seats, I'd say they would want MSU, LSU, UM, Bama, and Auburn to last as long as they can every single tourney.

Well with the NCAA basketball tournament and the NCAA baseball regionals even though there is a seeding process everyone has to accomplish the same thing from the starting point. With the play in day that is not true in the SEC baseball tournament. But we had every opportunity to make one of the top 4 seeds this year for the first time under Cohen and choked it away. That's on us.