Since y'all love to jump my *** about my prediction on the basketball thread, go ahead and give me your thoughts on how this team finishes. Do they make a regional? Do they win the program's seventh world series? In case any of you haven't kept up, this team just lost 4 games in a row at home against Cal. Texas was ahead 7-0 with six outs to go in game 4.
We will not make a regional......I expect below .500..... We will finish about like we did last year in the conference...A note ....The conference is WEAK this year compared to last year....( We only made the regional field last year because the top teams didn't care about the Big 12 tourney and we were able to win it and get the automatic bid. ) Augie will get another year claiming the "young team" excuse; and the fact our new AD doesn't want the "He fired a legend" ( who is over the hill ) as part of his job distinction.
Careful @car54, you may hurt some of the posters' feelings on this board by saying you think Texas is not almighty and may finish poorly after watching them play very poorly
I opined that Augie should have "resigned" last year, but I think all of the churn going on in the athletic department was a deterrent. I don't believe that will be the case this year.
Today's loss was one of the most discouraging I've seen in a long, long time. It looks like a team that finds a way to lose. In the earlier games, they had poor outfield play and weak hitting. Today the outfield play was fine, they scored 7 runs, had great starting pitching, and then...complete meltdown from the bullpen, along with the dropped 3rd out at first base in the 9th. I don't know how they bounce back from something like that, but I hope they will. With a trip to UCLA coming up, and then to College Station--ugh! it doesn't look good. But it's still too early in the season to write them off. Lots of baseball left to be played. I just hope it won't be as ugly as it was this weekend.
Hopefully this team will light a fire and get going, but in reality, 20 wins is about the best I can expect.
People can be negative if they choose and there are things to be very concerned about. You should be fair though, a great performance by the pitching staff won that conference tounament, just like it got Texas to the CWS in 2014. Hollingsworth became a cult hero in the Rice Regional. A&M will remember Case McCoy and Chad Hollingsworth for a long time. The pitching staff gave up two runs, in two wins in the Super Regional against Houston, including a shutout. In that World Series, the pitching gave up eight runs in five games, including two shutouts. The last game lost in the bottom of the tenth. A little topped roller to short, that a fast runner just beat out, with two outs, to score the winning run. This against the evential champion, after beating them the day before 4-0. This forced another game with Vandy, the winner going to the championship series. Oklahoma State was one of two top teams, in the conference last year. They were #15 in the nation. They later hosted a regional, after the conference tourney. They won their bracket by going undefeated. In the championship game they lead 2-1 in the eighth inning. Then OSU committed three errors in the eighth, that resulted in five unearned Texas runs. Texas wins the game 6-3 and the conference championship. If the pitching staff gets healthy, it could do something like it did in these two seasons. Nobody expected Texas to win the conference tournament last year or get to the CWS in 2014.
NB I would be with you if there was any sign of consistent hitting against top level pitching. This isn't a "this year: thing - it has been going on for 4 or 5 seasons. I am beginning to think that it either has something to do with the pitching the hitters see in practice or Texas cannot recruit (or teach) people who know how to manage the hitting process.
