74Titan Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 Summit League Tournament observation: Payton Kinney was for Omaha what ORU has regularly enjoyed over the years: Ron Meredith, Mike Moore, .......Chi Chi, and Miquel, to name a few. Each and all a cut above those around him. Besides mixing speeds and pitches Payton had another (to me) advantage: he's 24 1/2 years old-major league age. While age alone doesn't produce maturity, it appears to have benefited Payton. Expect Payton to go high in the MLB draft next month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 Omaha was named the #4 Seed in the UCLA Regional today, arguably making them the least-respected team in the field, as the Bruins are the overall #1 Seed in this year’s bracket: Very curious to see how Kinney fairs against UCLA in that first-round match-up; wouldn’t surprise me at all if he had a solid outing. In other news, Oklahoma State earned the right to "host" by winning the Big XII tournament, but they will have to do so at the Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City (as ORU fans can attest from the last regional played there, Allie P. field is unplayable due to all the rain in Stillwater the past couple of weeks), and are in line to face Big XII regular season champ Texas Tech in Lubbock in the Super Regionals. The storybook year continues for former ORU play-by-play man Geoff Haxton should that happen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted May 27, 2019 Author Share Posted May 27, 2019 UCLA is VERY good....that wont be pretty at all.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 1 hour ago, theeagleman5 said: UCLA is VERY good....that wont be pretty at all.... If Kinney can keep all that speed off the bases, he might be able to keep it close. But if not, the Bruins may run the Mavs to death. Lot of pressure on the Omaha battery to keep that from happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted May 27, 2019 Author Share Posted May 27, 2019 Liberty is a 3 seed...Dallas Baptist a 2 seed...and ORU cant make the tournament from the Summit League?...thats pathetic.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 I don’t think you are giving the Summit League enough credit this year. I watched some solid baseball this weekend in the tournament. ORU actually played pretty well in every game; they just lost 2-out-3 to a solid bunch from Omaha. Let me put it another way: I’ve seen ORU teams win the Summit League title in years past that did not play as well in the tournament as this year’s squad, but on those past occasions there wasn’t anyone good enough in the bracket to take advantage. Omaha is; and did. Props to them... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleManiac Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 7 hours ago, Old Titan said: Let me put it another way: I’ve seen ORU teams win the Summit League title in years past that did not play as well in the tournament as this year’s squad, but on those past occasions there wasn’t anyone good enough in the bracket to take advantage. Omaha is; and did. Props to them... A fair assessment. Omaha is not your typical Summit League team. I’d probably even throw SDSU in there with them as well. But I think eagleman’s point stands. This season aside, when was the last time we made real noise in the tournament? Is the expectation a 4 seed and a quick two and out? If we make it at all? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU82 Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 I agree with both Eagleman's and EagleManiac's statements above. DBU has a current RPI ranking them 25th out of 299 teams. Liberty comes in at 40th. The best Summit team is SDSU which comes in at 180th, followed by ORU at 195th, Omaha at 198th, WIU at 254th, NDSU at 259th and PFW at 297th out of 299 teams. You can argue the RPI all you want, bottom line is that in anyone's book, the Summit overall is a bottom feeder league in D-I baseball. BTW, thank the Good Lord we are not in the Southland because if we were we would be one of the worst teams in that Conference. Finally, I think we should expect more then a 4th seed in the NCAA Tourney followed by a quick two and out, and not getting or winning a weak Summit is totally unacceptable especially when our current HC is finishing what, his 7th year? And he did not inherit a program that was in the tank. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 As OR used to say....Amen and Amen...Golden Eagle baseball is not what it was a decade ago when we were a threat to win a regional and did in 2006 at Arkansas....heck...a few years ago we were one win over DBU from the sweet 16... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleManiac Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 Maybe our desire to be a program that can consistently be a threat in a regional is unrealistic? I must admit I’m pretty naive in terms of college baseball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 Sorry but ORU not easily winning the Summit League is a disgrace...we have the facilities and probably the budget....is recruiting that tough?? No consistent hitting this season...especially in the tournament....no way ORU shouldnt win at least 22-24 Summit Regular season games and we were 17-12 in regular season 20-14 counting the tourney...PATHETIC!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted May 29, 2019 Share Posted May 29, 2019 "It's complicated..." Because of ORU's geography and the Summit League's RPI, the Golden Eagles are almost always a 4-seed in regional play, paired against a nationally-ranked Big XII or SEC power on that team's home field. This almost always leads to a first-round loss, and then it's a battle of attrition to advance. Remember, the last time ORU did manage to advance out of regional play to a super regional, they upset the host (Arkansas) in the first round and never had to face them again (defeated OSU twice in the following two games). When it comes to post-season bracketing, I think Liberty benefits from geography, while DBU benefits from the RPI of the Missouri Valley. ORU does not have those advantages; they're stuck in a weak league, surrounded by baseball giants that always seem to host. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted May 30, 2019 Author Share Posted May 30, 2019 ...and ORU finished 3RD in that "weak league"...I think most alums expect more.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUInsider Posted May 30, 2019 Share Posted May 30, 2019 I would guess that most of you would be shocked at how small of a budget ORU has for baseball. They do a great job fundraising for what they need. While I am not denying they had a down year, why the outrage? It is about the first down year in the last decade give or take! If basketball did the same, you would be over the moon! To get to the next level there are many things that need to change for the school especially the dorms, I believe baseball lost there 'exemptions' to live off campus this year which will no doubt be a significant setback to the program. It is small things like that which show how much the school care about ORU sports. To compete against the next level would mean significant upgrades in many areas. IMO Coach Folmar and his staff do a great job in generally overachieving every year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted May 30, 2019 Author Share Posted May 30, 2019 Thanks for that info, Insider....these are things that TheEagleman has no idea about so I guess my criticism is not fully warranted....I guess I thought ORU took baseball more seriously from a financial standpoint...sounds like we don't which is sad..........but I still think ORU should be tops in the Summit....every year.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU82 Posted May 30, 2019 Share Posted May 30, 2019 A quick search found the following regarding baseball budgets in the Summit. As for total annual expenses for each program in baseball, it goes like this: UNO - $545,666; PFW - $579,025; SDSU - $589,019; WIU - $609,074; NDSU - $898,371; and ORU - $1,249,212. These are 2016 figures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleManiac Posted May 30, 2019 Share Posted May 30, 2019 5 minutes ago, ORU82 said: A quick search found the following regarding baseball budgets in the Summit. As for total annual expenses for each program in baseball, it goes like this: UNO - $545,666; PFW - $579,025; SDSU - $589,019; WIU - $609,074; NDSU - $898,371; and ORU - $1,249,212. These are 2016 figures. How much of that is scholarship tuition that is in there? 11.7 scholarships at $32,000 (or whatever our tuition is now) is about $375,000. We still would be well over what anyone else is spending. I think Insider makes some good point, but it's pretty generous to say we're "overachieving". I don't think an expectation to snag a 3-seed every now and then is inappropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU82 Posted May 30, 2019 Share Posted May 30, 2019 I agree EagleManiac, and I also do not think it is a stretch to expect to at least finish better than 3rd place in the regular season in the Summit. Clearly we are spending the highest for all the teams in the Summit, and in most cases it is at least double that of what our competition spends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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