[krh44]

2-0 now

[krh44]

5-0 in 2nd

[aredd33]

Yesterday morning I was really dissapointed that I was going to miss the first games of the season but now I'm glad I haven't seen this junk.

[krh44]

Making a comeback 5-3 now in 5th

[krh44]

Says 5-2 now, there was a run in 5th due to a balk that must have been overturned.

[krh44]

7-2 Final Not a good start to season

[Del Flame]

Just got home from the basketball game to hear about the 7-2 loss and now 15-1 in the 4th inning.

[krh44]

This is pathetic

[BJWilliams]

Its only the first weekend of the season but I dont know what to make of the team...I mean we jump out to a 4-0 lead...get outscored 6-0 the rest of the way and now today we are getting lit up like a Christmas tree...I mean I know we lost a few pieces but the guys who were on the team last year cant have just forgotten how to hit or pitch or field in 2 days...

[SuperJon]

At least the pressure of going to regionals is off now. Let's hope to salvage one tomorrow.

[Del Flame]

At least the pressure of going to regionals is off now. Let's hope to salvage one tomorrow.

Yep. We need to play (and win) quite a few more games before we proclaim ourselves a regional team. We can't get much worse starting pitching than we got today; we will improve for sure. I'm still confident.

[BJWilliams]

I am too...Mark hasnt pitched in a year so hopefully this was him working the rust out

[SuperJon]

We will improve, and I'm fairly confident we can still finish second in the league, but we could only afford, at most, eight non-conferences losses to make a case for an at-large bid. We've already lost three of those.

[Del Flame]

We will improve, and I'm fairly confident we can still finish second in the league, but we could only afford, at most, eight non-conferences losses to make a case for an at-large bid. We've already lost three of those.

Do you really think it is only 8? Last year, we lost 11 (and we didn't make it). I guess I'm asking is it really 8 (in your opinion) or is 8 a "lock" - if there is such a thing?

[SuperJon]

We won the most games of any team to ever be left out of the regionals last year. The committee basically said it doesn't matter if you get to 40 wins if you don't beat anyone in those 40 wins.
Here's what we need to look at if we think we're getting an at-large:

Mercer: One of the predicted favorites in the ASun, won 38 games last year. We needed four wins but 3-1 would've been acceptable. Now we have to have one and hope they win the ASun again.

UNF: We have to have all four. No questions asked.

Virginia Tech: We really, really need a split. If they end up being in the bottom half of the ACC then we need to sweet.

Binghamton: This has to be a sweep. Absolutely has to be.

W&M: Ideally we sweep them but we always crap a game away to them. Unless they're terrible we can get away with a split there.

ECU tourney: We have to be a 2-1. We have an opportunity against Rutgers to get a win against a top 4ish Big East team. Monmouth is a must have. ECU is a loss we can take. The Rutgers win would be big in the at-large because it proves the 2nd place BS team is better than the 3rd, 4th, 5th Big East team. A win against ECU would be absolutely huge.

Maryland: They're terrible. We need both.

VCU: Have to at least split. Can afford to lose one. Losing two would be a killer.

JMU: They're picked to win the CAA. We have to get at least 1 of 2. This would be another quality win opportunity on a schedule where there aren't many.

Liberty Tourney: LeMoyne and New Orleans, 4 games. Need them all. UNO is an independent going down to D-2 after this year. We have to win. LeMoyne is from up north so I'd have to think we need to win.

To have a "lock-status" we need to go somewhere around 23-6 in the non-conference. I know that seems gaudy, but it’s a bad non-conference schedule. There are very few opportunities for "good" wins and multiple opportunities for "bad" losses. I'd think at 21-8 we'd still be in the hunt, but that puts a lot of pressure on conference results. We'd need to get 20 wins in the conference schedule and then at least three in the conference tournament (getting to Saturday) after that. That'd put us at around 44-17.

It's still possible, but it's gonna be pretty hard.

[Del Flame]

(I didn't copy your post just to save space.)
That is great analysis. Ouch, I didn't realize just how important this weekend was. I was thinking 2-4 would have been okay. I see your rationale for the other non-conference games, especially because of the comparisons that will definitely be made between the BSC and everyone else. One last question: What does a win (even 1) against Coastal do the magic "8" losses? Does it raise it all or keep it the same?

[SuperJon]

If we can beat Coastal in the conference season (assuming we don't drop games that we shouldn't like last year at Asheville and Winthrop) then it'd definitely make up for dropping a non-conference game and would be by-far our biggest win of the year. It could possibly make up for two losses in the non-conference.

[Del Flame]

If we can beat Coastal in the conference season (assuming we don't drop games that we shouldn't like last year at Asheville and Winthrop) then it'd definitely make up for dropping a non-conference game and would be by-far our biggest win of the year. It could possibly make up for two losses in the non-conference.

Thanks for the insight. I appreciate it. Last year was my first baseball season here (I loved it!), but I didn't really get all of the dynamics. In other words, I thought (as a homer) that we should have made the regional. I know our record against Top 25s was "0-fer", but we played Coastal 4 times! Yeah, I remember the series loss at Winthrop at the end of the season. That was a killer.

Mercifully, the game just ended. Silver lining was we did have 13 hits.

Gotta have tomorrow's game!

[jcmanson]

Nothing to see here. Just like every other sport on the mountain...

[aredd33]

If we lose again tomorrow it could really be devasting to the team. I think that it could really throw us into a funk that would be really hard to get out of. (We might not have to lose tomorrow for that to happen...it might be to late.)

[aredd33]

Its nice to see the new bats aren't affecting Mercer...30 runs in the first 3 games. Or JMU for that matter a staggering 72 runs in the first 3 games.

[jenkins]

i dont think this team is as good as last year. We don't have the depth of the lineup that we had the last couple seasons. Redal, Jiminez, and Nate's bats were a huge asset. There's a lot of question marks on this team right now. They better find the answers fast or the season is going to be over before it starts

[krh44]

disappointing start to say the least. Sounded like they had high expectations for this year. Even if we turn things around I don't see us in much better position than 3 or 4 years ago.

[SuperJon]

Even if we turn things around I don't see us in much better position than 3 or 4 years ago.

Unfortunately this is shaping up to be true.

[bigsmooth]

not a great start so far, but this is a good mercer team. i do like seeing that some of the transfers coming in are contributing right away. i wonder if we throw linza tomm?