As I pointed out in my last post the Cajuns baseball team find themselves in a precarious position. With an RPI of 73 (as of 4/10) they probably have to win the Sun Belt Conference tournament to qualify for the NCAA tourney.
While the remaining Sun Belt foes RPI is worse than Louisiana’s, the Cajuns do have some interesting midweek games, including a pair of 5-game weeks. A week from today they travel to New Orleans to play Tulane (132), but the next night host Southeastern (42). With only one solid midweek starter in Jack Burk, the conundrum the Cajuns face, is who does he pitch against? A struggling Green Wave team or the better Lions team?
The more I thought of it, the solution became clear and easy. Move Gunner Leger up a day to take those critical midweek starts against Southeastern and then the following week against McNeese. The Cajuns need to win those midweek games against teams with good RPI’s so the baseball season doesn’t come down to the post-season tournament.
It won’t be that drastic of a move for Leger to move to Wednesday next week since he is already slated to pitch Thursday against Arkansas State this week. My hope is Evan Guillory et al can manage against a pair of teams, Little Rock (248) and UT Arlington (126), that don’t necessarily give the Cajuns the stiffest of all challenges.
It appears to me it’s a win win. You’re giving the team the best chance to win those tougher games, but no serious harm done if you lose both the midweek and Friday games. You either dramatically improve your RPI and perhaps secure an at large birth or the RPI gets worse and you’re in the same position, needing to win the SBC Tourney.
Time for the Cajuns to do a little out of the box thinking. It may just get them dancing in the NCAA’s.