In Reply to: John Savage's team never lived up to the expectation. posted by Michael.Walter.Cronin on June 01, 2026 at 01:28:15
First of all, the Big-10 is a very weak baseball conference. The Big West is probably stronger and the WCC as good. There is a huge amount of baseball talent in California. St.Mary's was the third best hitting team in the nation, not a typical #4 seed. Of all the original B10 schools, only Nebraska was any good. We were the #1 overall based on our record, but if one was paying attention, we didn't quite dominate the conference. We struggled to win games the latter part of the season but just had a knack for pulling out games late.
We were missing our best pitcher out with an injury, Slugger Gasparino missed the first game due to a suspension and something rarely mentioned was Brennan, possibly our best clutch hitter out with an injury early in the first game.
This is baseball. One swing of the bat or one dominant pitcher can make a difference.
It's not just us. Since the NCAA began announcing a designated No. 1 overall seed for the Division I baseball tournament in 1999, only two teams have successfully gone on to win the national championship. This isn't like football or basketball where the #1 team usually wins.