Last season was clearly an aberration for Louisiana Tech … Lane Burroughs historically always has the Bulldogs ready to roll. But despite having a solid overall personnel set, Tech finished last season with a losing record. Well, that season is clearly looking like a total aberration at this point, as La. Tech is off to an impressive 11-0 start after cruising through the Battle at the Ballpark this past weekend. Up next is Southern Miss. Luke Nichols has done a terrific job in the weekend rotation with 15 strikeouts and just two walks in 16 innings of work, while Ethan Bates has been terrific both on the mound and at the plate. At the plate, he sits second on the team with a .349 average to go with six doubles, two homers and 14 RBIs. That weekend series against the Golden Eagles will tell us a lot about both teams.

— Most of the Sun Belt is looking very strong … We talked at length during the offseason about how much we thought realignment would benefit a league like the Sun Belt. Well, you’re starting to see the league reaping those benefits so far this spring. We had the Sun Belt as a three-bid league coming into the season, but I think I’d be surprised with the league not at least getting four bids. Coastal Carolina, Southern Miss and Texas State look like safe bets right now, while Troy should be just fine despite a series loss to Northwestern State this past weekend. That isn’t even considering a team like James Madison, which is 8-3 and gave Arkansas all it could handle a couple of weeks ago. Furthermore, Old Dominion is off to a sizzling hot start, Louisiana should figure things out and South Alabama is amid a big turnaround. Conference play will be an absolute war, and I love it.

Congrtas to Frank for this honor

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They will resume tomorrow. Saturday was cut short due to weather and today wasn't looking great so for precaution, it was moved.

Greg
1:22
Fun C-USA throwback this weekend in Ruston, who ya got?

Kendall Rogers
1:22
Man, that's going to be an awesome series, isn't it? Louisiana Tech is rolling right now with a balanced approach, as if USM, granted it's more so because the pitching has been brilliant. I kind of feel like USM's offense will step up this weekend, but give me the home team who has the clear-cut, better offense for now. That's going to be an incredible series, however.


EagsBy10
1:35 How many “mid-major” matchups of the week does USM have to win to get ranked?

Joe Healy
1:35 The honest answer has less to do with USM and more to do with the fact that teams aren't into conference play yet and aren't being pushed in the way they will once that gets going in earnest. Once teams start dropping more games, if USM keeps winning, it will be ranked, and I suspect that's precisely what will happen.


Oxford Bald Eagle
1:38 Just a tough week for Southern Miss to crack the top 25. So many teams in the top 25 played great. Also, is it the year of the mid-major? Power arms, guys with hit tools, defense...we have a lot of mid-majors, DBU heading the class, that look like SEC teams...

Joe Healy
1:38 Agreed. See my answer to EagsBy10 above. We just haven't had a lot of teams to drop out yet. This does look like a strong year for mid-majors. The SBC could easily be a 3-4 bid league, DBU and La Tech out of CUSA look strong, I really like Creighton's team, and if you consider the Big West a mid-major, UCSB and UC Irvine have been very good as well. I'm sure I'm missing a few, but you catch my drift.

Archer Smith
1:50 thoughts on texas state after this weekend in houston?
Kendall Rogers

1:50 Archer -- if the Bobcats can find the right mix on the mound, I think they'll be incredibly dangerous in the Sun Belt. They definitely looked better than fellow Sun Belt team Louisiana over the weekend. The Cajuns just looks really light offensively to me. Texas State's lineup is dangerous and has so many different pieces -- Farber is a hitting/on-base machine, Mora has that big-time threat and Augie Ramirez/Aaron Lugo have a penchant for the big hit.

Bob
1:52 Hey guys. What are your thoughts on the SunBelt as a whole, and Coastal in particular? Their freshman arms have been fantastic.

Kendall Rogers
1:52 Feeling awesome about the Sun Belt right now, which is where I kind of expected to be at this point in the season. Troy had a setback this past weekend but still feel pretty good about it. But how about South Alabama, App State, James Madison, USM and Old Dominion? ODU is coming off a big series win over Charlotte and JMU gave top five Arkansas all it could handle a few weeks ago. I could see this league being a four or five bid league at the end of the day.

After getting blasted by Samford last weekend in a tournament in Alabama, Southern Miss has won twice vs Samford this weekend in the tournament at Mississippi State.

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3rd game, 3rd lineup

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Monistere at 3rd, that could be interesting

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Although he didn’t pick Southern Miss in this 3 game series. 6 D1 Baseball staff picked Southern Miss and 5 Indiana State

If we can get a couple of others, veterans, to do the same, we can be good this year.

EAGLES!!!

Southern Miss wins the Friday night game.

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As you know, last year's basketball predictions were only off by one game. In November, I predicted we would be 12-13 this year for the remaining season. We actually went 14-12. (I somehow omitted one game.) Even so, I was only off one game in the loss column and two off in the win column. That is only four misses in two years.

Since both USM baseball and basketball are playing tonight, we will do a play-by-play thread for baseball and an update thread for basketball. Not much on the line for basketball as a win and they are the #5 seed and a loss makes them the #6. Baseball is playing a tournament team who has a legit first round pick ace on the mound who has a cannon. This series will really show where USM baseball is at and will have ramifications on postseason bids.

1. Mazza showed ace stuff on the mound. Didn't get rattled after early HR and was phenomenal to make pitches that induced double plays, which leads to...

2. Defense was solid turning 4 double plays and helping keep runs off the board. Sivley was his usual self out of the pen. For whatever reason, he really flourishes out of the pen.

3. Veterans continue to struggle. Wilks and Paetow were a combined 1-6 and that 1 hit was a fly ball out that tuned into am inside-the-park HR for Wilks because of fog otherwise, it is an out. They have to be better. Having to rely on newcomers should not be a must at this point of the season.

Well, I missed the game tonight. So any thoughts and articles are appreciated.

*

I like the creativity here!!!
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