When I saw our regional placement during the selection show yesterday, my first thought was, "We can win that." I haven't seen anything to change my mind. I have looked at the records and stats for the teams in our regional and still believe that we can win it.
Coastal Carolina and East Carolina are good teams. Their records speak for themselves. However, they did not play in the meat grinder that is the SEC. Playing in the Big South Conference, Coastal Carolina only played 11 games against tournament teams. Their record in those games is 6-5 with wins over North Carolina, Michigan, NC State, Virginia, Elon and Georgia Tech. They lost games to Michigan, UNC Wilmington (2) and Georgia Tech (2). East Carolina, playing in C-USA was 11-15 against the field with wins over South Carolina, Michigan, Elon (2), Houston, Southern Miss, UNC Wilmington (2) and Rice. They lost to South Carolina (2) Elon, Houston (2),Southern Miss, NC State, Rice (3), Tulane (3) and Houston (2). Columbia by contrast was 0-3 against Bucknell, the only tournament team that they played. We, on the other hand played 30 games against tournament teams with 12 of those games being at their places and another 6 at neutral sites. We were 15-15 in those 30 games.
Statistically, Bama, Coastal and East Carolina are similar. We had a team batting average of .309 compared to .324 for Coastal and .315 for East Carolina. We hit 78 homeruns while Coastal hit 88 and East Carolina 79. In the runs scored department, we scored 444 while Coastal scored 469 and East Carolina scored 459. We lag behind in the stolen base department having been successful 52 times in 71 tries. Coastal was 97 out of 132 and East Carolina was 95 of 120. Columbia trailed in batting average (.288), home runs (24) and runs scored (282). However, they were a better base stealing team having swiped 94 out of 118 tries.
Teams hit a little better against us (.285) than Coastal (.261) and East Carolina (.250). We gave up 56 home runs compared to 54 by Coastal and 48 by East Carolina. We also gave up more runs (372) than did Coastal (272) or East Carolina (281). We didn't do nearly as well throwing out base runners as did the other teams. We were only 19 out of 96 (20%) while Coastal was 16 out of 39 (41%) and East Carolina was 29 out of 102 (28%). Columbia trailed in most of these categories as well. Teams hit .329 against them and they gave up 56 home runs and 353 runs. They threw out 15 out of 44 base stealers (34%). Coastal and East Carolina both had better team ERAs than we had coming in at 3.99 and 3.96 respectively compared to our 5.05. Columbia had a significantly higher ERA at 6.27.
What does all of this mean? As has been said before, "There are three kinds of lies -- lies, d**n lies and statistics." Coastal and East Carolina have slightly better stats than we have, but they did not play in the SEC where you face the best of the best each week. I think our difficult schedule better prepares us for a regional. Playing road games in the SEC also prepares for hostile environments. I really like our chances this weekend.
Coastal Carolina and East Carolina are good teams. Their records speak for themselves. However, they did not play in the meat grinder that is the SEC. Playing in the Big South Conference, Coastal Carolina only played 11 games against tournament teams. Their record in those games is 6-5 with wins over North Carolina, Michigan, NC State, Virginia, Elon and Georgia Tech. They lost games to Michigan, UNC Wilmington (2) and Georgia Tech (2). East Carolina, playing in C-USA was 11-15 against the field with wins over South Carolina, Michigan, Elon (2), Houston, Southern Miss, UNC Wilmington (2) and Rice. They lost to South Carolina (2) Elon, Houston (2),Southern Miss, NC State, Rice (3), Tulane (3) and Houston (2). Columbia by contrast was 0-3 against Bucknell, the only tournament team that they played. We, on the other hand played 30 games against tournament teams with 12 of those games being at their places and another 6 at neutral sites. We were 15-15 in those 30 games.
Statistically, Bama, Coastal and East Carolina are similar. We had a team batting average of .309 compared to .324 for Coastal and .315 for East Carolina. We hit 78 homeruns while Coastal hit 88 and East Carolina 79. In the runs scored department, we scored 444 while Coastal scored 469 and East Carolina scored 459. We lag behind in the stolen base department having been successful 52 times in 71 tries. Coastal was 97 out of 132 and East Carolina was 95 of 120. Columbia trailed in batting average (.288), home runs (24) and runs scored (282). However, they were a better base stealing team having swiped 94 out of 118 tries.
Teams hit a little better against us (.285) than Coastal (.261) and East Carolina (.250). We gave up 56 home runs compared to 54 by Coastal and 48 by East Carolina. We also gave up more runs (372) than did Coastal (272) or East Carolina (281). We didn't do nearly as well throwing out base runners as did the other teams. We were only 19 out of 96 (20%) while Coastal was 16 out of 39 (41%) and East Carolina was 29 out of 102 (28%). Columbia trailed in most of these categories as well. Teams hit .329 against them and they gave up 56 home runs and 353 runs. They threw out 15 out of 44 base stealers (34%). Coastal and East Carolina both had better team ERAs than we had coming in at 3.99 and 3.96 respectively compared to our 5.05. Columbia had a significantly higher ERA at 6.27.
What does all of this mean? As has been said before, "There are three kinds of lies -- lies, d**n lies and statistics." Coastal and East Carolina have slightly better stats than we have, but they did not play in the SEC where you face the best of the best each week. I think our difficult schedule better prepares us for a regional. Playing road games in the SEC also prepares for hostile environments. I really like our chances this weekend.
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