Non-Conference Baseball Match-ups Intriguing
FacebookBy Mark Knudson, The Mtn. Insider
February 16, 2011
Much like their basketball counterparts, the Mountain West baseball teams face some important and intriguing non-conference match-ups, which can greatly influence their postseason opportunities when the season opens this weekend.
No one knows this better than New Mexico’s Ray Birmingham, whose team opened last season by taking two of three games in Austin against national power Texas. Those wins figured prominently into the Lobos gaining an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament three months later.
This year, the Lobos are again tackling a rigorous non-conference slate, opening the season with a four-game set at Arizona State. Before Conference play begins, the Lobos will also visit Oklahoma State and have road trips to Arizona and Oklahoma mixed in during the conference season.
Whoa.
Not that it will be an easy road for the other Conference teams.
Starting this weekend, the Air Force baseball team will literally crisscross the country over the first month of the season. They’ll meet Nebraska and Washington in San Marcos, Texas. They’ll face Navy in Kingston, South Carolina. They’ll travel to the greater Phoenix area to face Kansas and UC Riverside and then jet to Winter Haven, Florida for a four-day tournament.
Good thing those guys like to fly.
Their home opener isn’t until March 16, when Creighton visits the Academy.
The Utah Utes do plenty of bouncing around as well, opening the season at Cal in Berkeley before traveling to Arkansas and Texas A&M. The Utes home season doesn’t start until March 17.
The BYU Cougars also do some serious traveling, opening the season in Natchitoches, Louisiana against Northwestern State before heading to Lubbock, Texas to face Texas Tech and Northern Illinois. Then they make the trek to the great Northwest to face Washington, Portland and Oregon before starting Conference play.
Then there are the MWC teams that get to enjoy some home cooking early in the season due to their warmer climates. UNLV and new coach Tim Chambers will open at home when they host Maine. Their road battles will include trips to Texas Tech and Arizona plus future conference foe Nevada.
San Diego State doesn’t leave Southern California until late March. In the meantime, they host Oklahoma, UCLA, San Diego U and Arkansas, among others. Mixed into the schedule are the usual local battles with Cal State Fullerton, Northridge, Long Beach State and UC Irvine, each one a baseball power.
To the favorite go the spoils. TCU will also not have to do nearly as much traveling as the more northern climate teams. The Horned Frogs will host Kansas the opening weekend and will also host Cal State Fullerton before traveling to Lubbock to meet Texas Tech. Once Conference play starts, the Frogs mid-week games include match ups with Oklahoma, Baylor and Houston. There’s a home series against Oklahoma State tossed in as well.
A mid-March trip to Las Vegas is the first time the Horned Frogs have to leave the state of Texas.
Winning the Conference tournament is the only way to lock up an automatic NCAA bid, of course. With no real shot at an at-large bid, Utah got in that way two seasons ago. But for a Conference that wants to become a year in, year out multiple bid league, these early non-conference games go a long way toward creating and RPI that gives a team a legit chance at the post season.
ALL TIMES MOUNTAIN
