O State Ballers Will Prove Their Mettle Today

Yes LSU hit the ball when OSU made mistakes.   But the umpire definitely took the bat out of the Beavers hands on a number of occasions.  There is no way anyone could hit the called strikes at the other batters box.  OSU has worked counts all season.. it is part of their game.   No way the Beavers could make adjustments to that strike zone.  There isn't any way to get a bat on it without throwing it at the ball. 

It would be pretty naive to think the Beavers got the same strike zone.  Fehmel came a lot closer than Gilbert on pitches and didn't get the call.    Fehmel also threw some pitches right over the plate and paid the price.  

LSU came out on top.  I believe if the umpire didn't miss the call in the first game the Beavers wouldn't have had to worry about the second one.  After the whatever you want to call it, Lange got a huge momentum boost by pitching his way out of the bases loaded and giving up only a run.  I believe the Beavers would have taken the lead and the ball game would have been different.  Lange pitched his way out of it and got stronger from it.   The second game the Beavers had no chance with the strike zone.  That and not using  Rasmussen to start.  LSU was itching to get that chance to hit off of Fehmel.  I didn't like the idea of Fehmel pitching in an elimination game and trying to hold back Rasmussen.   

In the end the Beavers lost and LSU won.  Good Luck in the finals and I hope you win.  

1.    Being in the much better funded SEC.
2.    Having a conference tournament. (With Pat Casey's requests to hold one falling on deaf ears.)
3.    Having 14 schools that support baseball.
4.    Having 14 schools that have instant replay.  (Our jokes about UCLA failing to support baseball and even having video equipment at Jackie Robinson became a lot less funny to me on Friday.)
5.    The NCAA takes RPI seriously.
6.    Having a stadium that can hold 12,727 paying fans.
7.    Having 12,727 paying fans.
8.    Having seemingly at least 12,727 paying fans that would travel to Omaha.
9.    Having a history of success that stretches back more than 15 years.
10.  Not playing baseball in the largest temperate rainforest in the world.
11.  Not having to play the first eight games out-of-state as a result of #10.
12.  Being able to schedule quality midweek games because of proximity and because of #6 and #10.

All-in-all, LSU should destroy Oregon State every single year.  The fact that Oregon State outscored one of the two best teams in the country at a neutral site without the Beavers' ace and starting left fielder is, at least, a moral victory.  Most of the team comes back next year.  Hopefully, Oregon State uses the last two games as motivation.  

The conference tournament increases the number of games played, which increases revenue.  (I cannot swear that it would offset costs, but, if the Pac-12 can ink a deal to show it on a network, I cannot see how it would not.)  The conference tournament boosts RPI by increasing the number of games against quality competition, as well as the improving opponents' opponents and the like.  A conference tournament also gives the teams practice playing in a Regional-type setting, giving better teams a chance to experiment with pitchers and batters against other likely regional (or regionalesque) teams.  Because of how RPI works, the pooling of high-quality RPI teams amplifies the bonus (for lack of a better word) of playing high quality teams.  It would also help level the playing field of all of the other conferences sprinting out with far better RPIs early in the year (because they are cramming more games into a tighter window).  Additionally, it would eliminate Oregon State's predicament of this year, tanking the conference's RPI by playing Abilene Christian in a four-game set.  Further, it would increase the number of wins.  Teams like Utah would have borderline tournament resumes, but they do not have enough wins.  If Utah won two games in a conference tournament, they would have had a shot at a tournament bid.  As it was, they were hovering near 0%.  Finally, it would eliminate the Utah situation last year that doomed Oregon State.  Utah would have only received an automatic berth by winning the conference tournament.  If they won the conference tournament, they would have been at least 29-28, which is a respectable record.  The Utes winning the Pac-12 with a losing record made it all-to-easy to exclude the fourth-best Pac-12 team from the tournament.

Just for reference, the Pac-12 finished fifth in RPI behind the Big 12, SEC, ACC, and..............American Athletic Conference.  Houston actually stole a host spot (from Arizona?) by winning the American Athletic Conference Tournament.  Conference USA is sixth in RPI.  The Big Ten is seventh.  The Big West, the other major conference without at tournament is eighth.  The Big West has no business being behind Conference USA or the Big Ten, but they are.  No conference tournament, after all.  If the Pac-12 could start putting some pressure on the other big three--the Big 12, SEC, and ACC--the SEC would not be able to get away its cutesy play-in game nonesense that they pull at the beginning of their tournament, which would cut into the number of teams that they could hope to get into the Tournament.  It would also make the ACC rethink having a 12-team tournament.

The Big 12 is the #1 RPI conference, so let's take their conference tournament and use it as the Pac-12's:

#1 Oregon State (RPI: 1) v. #8 Oregon (RPI: 85).  Next game would be against #4 Arizona (RPI: 23) or #5 Utah (RPI: 67).  If Arizona went on a tear, they could have hosted.  Instead, they traveled to Lubbock.  If Utah got hot, they could have made themselves more of a bubble team.  Oregon also could have won three or four and made themselves a bubble team.

On the other side of the bracket, #2 Stanford (RPI: 8) would have played #7 Washington (RPI: 79) and #3 UCLA (RPI: 52) would have played #6 California (RPI: 62).  Washington was likely two quality wins away from being a bubble team.  California would have had to catch fire and win the Tournament.

From 2007-2016, the ACC took the top eight teams and had them play in two round robin pools with the champions playing.

#1 Oregon State would have played Oregon, then Utah, and finished with Arizona.  #2 Stanford would have played Washington, California, and then UCLA.  Champions play.

If we went with the old ACC format, our pitching would have been no more taxed than playing Abilene Christian in a four-game set, and we would not have had to play Abilene Christian.  The only way Oregon State's staff is more taxed, is if the Pac-12 employed an 8+ team double-elimination tournament.  And then, the staff only would have been more taxed, if Oregon State lost one of the first two games.

But think about 2016.  Right when the team is gelling, the season ends.  And that Tournament field was a lot less talented than the field in 2017.  In 2016, if the Pac-12 had an ACC-style Tournament, Oregon State would have played, Arizona State, Oregon, and then Utah.  With Washington, Arizona, Stanford, and USC on the other side.

But there still is a bye weekend during the "league" season because of 11 baseball participants.