Hmm, well that sucked didn't it? I was certain we could beat Troy and Belmont- and I was wrong. So now we sit here with baseball over, and for all intents and purposes the slow summer season is here. Now, I'm aware that the Pokes were knocked out of the NCAA's almost two weeks ago, but I wanted to take some time, take a step back, and reflect on the season that was after a few days had passed. If you're ready, click the jump and we'll see what the hell happened and what to look forward to next year.

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All are in action today, all are available to follow in some way.

Golf Championships at Karsten Creek
Oklahoma State vs Augusta State
1st Tee Time: 10:45
Updates: at NCAA.com

Baseball Regional, Loser Bracket
Oklahoma State vs Belmont
2:00
Video: At a Vanderbilt site
Updates: CBS tracker tool thingy

Softball, College World Series in OKC
Oklahoma State vs California
11:00
Video: ESPN, ESPN3
Updates: CBS tracker thingy

"We’re excited being in the tournament, and we just need to go out and play. Everybody is 0-0… Nashville is a place where the ballpark plays pretty fair. We’ve got to pitch and play defense, and that’s what we did all year long until the latter half. We need to get back to that."
-Frank Anderson

I know it was more of a slip of the tongue for Frank than a factual statement, but it really does sum up the season perfectly.  It was a good season, but half of it was terrible. And as we all know... 1/2 +1/2 = 1 1/2 (1 good season & half a bad season).  It's just math.

And if you really want to get into details, half of that bad half there was terrible weather, we were fighting with our parents, and the bullpen was on their period...  so really, we played one good half of a season, a quarter of a bad season, and a quarter of a season there was bad luck. And that all equals great play for an entire season, except half of it.

On to Nashville. I hope that Troy doesn't find a way to suit up Bear Woods.

Go Regionals!

Here is today's schedule:

You can view live stats here.

OR... feel free to head down to The Brick and update us that are stuck at work on the games.  I hear there are seats available.

Just a short recap for ya. OSU went down 2-0 early in the game and couldn't get a hit through four innings. Frank Anderson then put his boot up his players' asses and what resulted was a pretty one-sided victory.

The Pokes scored four runs in the 6th inning to go up 4-2 and then added another two runs off of a homerun blast from Mark Ginther late in the game.

Baylor tried to make a run in the top of the 9th when they loaded the bases with one out but the Pokes shut them down without any damage done to the final score.

Oklahoma State will now face the winner of the Mizzou/Texas game tomorrow at 4pm.

Hero of the game: OSU pitcher, Hunter Herrera. The guy had ice in his veins. He was called on in the 3rd to replace a struggling Mike Strong on the mound. He held the Bears scoreless through his 5.2 innings pitched and had four strikeouts (two of which ended at-bats for Baylor).

Village Idiot of the game: Whoever it was that decided to make this the 9am game. Hey idiot, do you want to boost attendance and revenue? How about making the time slot a little better for one of the two local teams? There was a lot of green in the stands--unfortunately, it was the color of the empty chairbacks...not Baylor fans.

Well, losing 6 of the last 8, a home series loss to Baylor, a road loss at Missouri State have taken all hope of hosting a regional out of the question.  On the good news side, the average loss was only by 2 runs, there are only 3 regular season games left, the Cowboys can't drop any lower than 5th in the Big 12, and are pretty much guaranteed a regional spot. At this point, the Cowboys are really only fighting for a better regional pairing.

Coming up this weekend is a good chance to gain some confidence heading into the tournament by pulling out a couple of wins in Lubbock... or, it is a chance for the Pokes to continue their losing ways.  Wins wont come easy as the Raiders are pretty much squarely on the bubble, and will be looking to make a splash in the eyes of the selection committee.

Sooooo, I kinda dropped the ball here. I failed to go over the TCU series, and totally forgot about Ohio State being midweek (my bad, I know, but I will make it up to you), so this is going to be all 3 in 1 package. There has been a lot of Cowboy baseball since last Friday, having played 5 games so far with 3 this weekend. Last weekend saw the Cowboys take the first game against TCU in dominate fashion, then proceeded to drop the next two. Friday saw Poke pitcher Mike Strong continue his great season, going 6.2 innings and only allowing 1 run and 4 hits. The Cowboys managed 6 runs off 13 hits, four of those by Hunter Bailey, and took the contest 6-2. Saturday did not go nearly as well, as Brad Propst allowed 6 runs on 8 hits, and fell to 7-3 on the year. He did have a season high 6 strikeouts, but could not overcome great TCU hitting, which opened the game with 4 straight hits, and the Cowboys fell 3-10, and snapped a 3 game Allie P. winning streak. Sunday's contest came down to the last at bat in extra innings. After giving up the go ahead run with two outs in the top of the 10th innings, the Cowboys had both the tying and winning runs on base, but failed to convert, and fell 7-8. This marked the first time all season the Cowboys had lost a 3 game series at home. On the other side of the jump we'll get into some analysis of the TCU series, recap and analyze the Ohio State tilt, and preview the Baylor Bears.

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It is getting to be that time of year... 7 games remain on the Cowboy's schedule before the Big 12 Tournament (which is currently praying for the Thunder to be eliminated before May 25th.  If KD and the crew are still alive at the end of May, attendance at the Big 12 tourney might be in the triple digits.  This town's Thunder-boner commands all the vital sport-supporting blood that would otherwise be directed at the Big 12 tourney.... wow, that was, and still is, a long parenthetical break within a sentence... I left off, and after the closing parenthesis will continue after "7 games remain on the Cowboy's schedule before the Big 12 Tournament"...aaannnddd go*) and they are still jockeying for inclusion, and best possible position in college baseball's postseason. Let's take a look at where the Cowboy's stand, and what their outlook is for the post-season.

*2011 worst writing candidate

First, let's take a look at the Cowboy's resume:

As it stands right now, almost everything on that resume easily falls into the "getting an at-large bid" category.  The only rough spot being the road record (which is awfulness), but the rest of the resume more than makes up for that blemish.  Even if the Cowboys limp in at 2-5 or something, they are safely in the field. But... could they potentially host a regional?

Ehhh... probably not. Another marquee series win (a la Texas) over OU, A&M, or TCU might have put the Cowboys on better footing for hosting, but unfortunately that didn't happen, and the Cowboys remaining opponents, while decent, would not qualify as marquee wins. However, 16 teams host regionals, and after the top 11 or so the teams are pretty interchangeable.  It is not inconceivable that the Pokes rankings could jump from the mid-to-low 20's into the mid teens and put them in the discussion to host.  Hell, RPI #20-#32 are only separated by 0.01 of a rating point. With the Cowboys remaining games being against Baylor (RPI #41), Tech (#42), and Missouri St (#72), the chance to move their RPI into the teens is there for the taking, not to mention the padding of the "vs RPI top 50" record.  And if the Cowboys can move into the discussion over the next two weeks, the Big 12 Tournament offers the opportunity to solidify a hosting bid.

There is no doubt (I'm just a girl) that it is going to take an impressive finish... something along the lines of 6-1, a nice showing in the tourney, and some losses by the likes of OU, Arkansas, Clemson, Rice, Stetson, and others to move the Pokes even into consideration for hosting duties, but we can rest assured that barring a monumental collapse, the at-large bid is coming, and that we will have something to root for in June.