May 29: Not Shocked- Arizona Baseball Admin.

[vcboy2000]

I skipped the front half of the article because it is already long enough. Here is the part I enjoyed the most:

Off we go to Wichita, Kansas, for the regional round of the college baseball playoffs. As predicted the Confederacy got their 11 regionals, and the West only got three. Wichita State is the host school but our Friday opponent will be Oral Roberts University. ORU posted the exact same 40-15 regular season record that we did, they won the Mid-Continent Conference, and they enter postseason play having won 16 consecutive games and 25 of their last 26. But the only thing that matters to us right now is how good their #1 starter is and, unfortunately, he?s really good.

The ace Golden Eagle distributor is a senior right-hander by the name of Chance Chapman. He sports an 8-1 record and a miniscule 1.23 earned run average, but unlike Preston Guilmet who has been our #1 guy from day #1, Chapman started the season as a reliever and spot starter in midweek games.

In Chapman?s first start he threw seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts against Kansas from the Big-12. That apparently wasn?t good enough so he was sent back to the bullpen for a couple more appearances. His second start produced four shutout innings, but that just got him three more relief appearances. So all he did in his third start was last 8 2/3 inning, giving up two earned runs and striking out ? are you ready for this? ? 17 batters?against an Arkansas Razorback team that is #7 in the nation this week. In other words, he doesn?t stink.

It still took another five appearances before Chapman was finally given ORU?s #1 starter spot (talk about some high standards), but over his last four outings he went a total of 32 innings allowing only five earned runs. The highlight came on May 11 against Centenary when Chase threw a complete game with 19 strikeouts on ? I?m serious, are you ready? ? 150 pitches. 150! I don?t know what a Centenary is, but most guys couldn?t throw 150 pitches against the Henry?s Lube Pit Tigers of the Tulsa Little League.

The Wichita State Shockers are the Missouri Valley champions with 49 wins, which ties them for second most in the nation. As far as common opponents, WSU went 4-0 at Hawaii-Hilo and we went 1-0. They swept Hawaii and we took two of three. They went 2-0 against Northern Colorado and we went 3-0. They lost two of three to Cal State Fullerton, just like us.

In the five college baseball polls Wichita State?s average ranking is 15 and ours is 13. Their RPI is 20 and ours is 21. Add it all together and it looks like a very even match-up on paper. Outside of hosting ourselves, we could not have asked for a better draw. Now we just have to win games.

If you want to fully immerse yourself in the glory of the NCAA baseball tournament, root against Texas in their regional so we have a shot of hosting if we advance to the next round. UC-Irvine is the 2-seed in the Longhorns? region, which would set up an interesting West Coast showdown, should both 1-seeds go down.

This is the time of year when your blood pressure rises and your pitching staff gets stretched to the limits. If you win three straight games you cruise into the second weekend of play. But if you drop one of your first two contests you have to play a total of five games if you want to advance, including a double header on Sunday. We do have five guys who have started six games or more this year so we could potentially see them all. Here?s the team?s record in games started by each pitcher:

Guilmet 14-2

Mills 9-4

Coulon 6-3

Colla 4-2

Perry 4-3

Needless to say, winning Friday's game against Oral Roberts is of the utmost importance. Having the Brad Mills of old return to shake up the Shockers in game two would be a good plan as well. It's never easy to win on the road, but it sure beats get left out altogether like last year.

It's time to shock the world! Well, southern Kansas anyway.