Stress level rose last Friday afternoon before the GCU game. NCAA had done it for the second year in a row. Just based on the NCAA RPI numbers (I know it's not the end-all but run with me here) we had the most difficult first round game of a nationally seeded teams. Using the NCAA RPI as of 5/7/24 (before the conference championships, # is seed, RPI in parenthesis) the selection show had:
#1 Texas (1) vs Siena (233)
#2 Oklahoma (2) vs Cleveland State (245)
#3 Tennessee (7) vs Dayton (134)
#4 Florida (11) vs Florida Gulf Coast (67)
#5 Oklahoma St. (10) vs Northern Colorado (164)
#6 UCLA (12) vs Grand Canyon (63) Note: On the selection show GCU did not seem thrilled about their selection
#7 Missouri (6) vs Omaha (72)
#8 Stanford (5) vs Saint Mary's (131)
#9 LSU (3) vs Jackson State (227)
#10 Duke (4) vs Morgan State (205)
#11 Georgia (8) vs UNC Wilmington (126)
#12 Arkansas (14) vs Southeast Missouri St (102)
#13 Louisiana (9) vs Princeton (120)
#14 Alabama (15) vs USC Upstate (123)
#15 Florida St. (13) vs Chattanooga (75)
#16 Texas A&M (16) vs Albany (118)
2nd year in a row we opened with GCU and we lost to them last year in the regionals. Every other seeded team faced a worse RPI opponent. Next was Florida vs FGCU (they won), then Missouri vs Omaha (Omaha won...only nationally seeded team to lose in 1st round).
Last year the same was true...our first round opponent had the best RPI...and we were the #2 seed!
#1 Oklahoma vs Hofstra (141)
#2 UCLA vs Grand Canyon (63)
#3 Florida St vs Marist (158)
#4 Tennessee vs Northern Ky. (214)
#5 Alabama vs LIU (168)
#6 Oklahoma St vs UMBC (140)
#7 Washington vs Northern Colo. (207)
#8 Duke vs George Mason (131)
#9 Stanford vs Long Beach St. (73)
#10 LSU vs Prairie View (170)
#11 Arkansas vs Harvard (134)
#12 Northwestern vs Eastern Ill. (198)
#13 Texas vs Seton Hall (94)
#14 Georgia vs N.C. Central (262)
#15 Utah vs Southern Ill. (84)
#16 Clemson vs UNC Greensboro (86)
In fact, in both years our regional had the lowest total RPI. In spite of this, the NCAA probably expected us to advance to the supers regardless of competition.
In 2023 we did not score enough (Palacios missed the tournament...but Grant had a great one, 2 HR, all 3 of our RBI) and we lost to Grand Canyon (63) 3-2 and Liberty (28) 2-1. We missed San Diego St.(33).
So there was some stress coming in to this years tourney. Same GCU (63) and a worse SDSU (41) with Virginia Tech (21) added (better than Liberty).
Then we WO run-rule GCU in 5 9-0 and you wonder how did we lose to them last year?
Then the back and forth WO game against Virginia Tech and you know we'll see them tomorrow.
Then it's GCU, not VT and a 5 inning run-rule finale and you wonder how he** did we lose to them last year?
Random thoughts
We tied Florida for fewest defensive innings at 17 (us-5WO,7WO,5, Fla 7,5WO,5). They had fewer offensive innings (us-5.2,6.0,5.0, Fla 6.0,4.2,5.0)
Woolery had her 1st career triple (almost a walk-off HR) against VT.
Woolery scored from 1B (no pinch runner?) on a 2B from Pola in the 3rd in the finale against GCU. A first?
Keep waiting for Curo to start raking.
Stress level is rising...UGA up next.