SoCalBobcat78
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RE: WAC Baseball - Good, Bad & Areas for Growth
(01-14-2021 02:31 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote: I noticed in this morning's presser the GCU president mentioned that since the new WAC footprint is in warm-weather states the conference has aspirations to further improve in baseball.
This should be a two bid conference in baseball in 2022. They are five good baseball programs in the WAC. NMSU, CBU, UTRGV shared the regular season title in 2019. GCU and Sac State played in the WAC Tournament Championship game in 2019, with Sac State winning. The loss of Cal State Bakersfield will hurt, but adding SHSU was a very good pickup.
The loss of Chicago State and Northern Colorado will help the conference. NMSU is in a great location with California and Arizona to the west and Texas to the east. There is a lot of baseball talent in these areas. They are right in the middle of it. Lamar should be better in baseball. They were great in the 70' and 80's. Seattle and UVU need to step it up. They have shown that they can be better. In 2016, Seattle won the WAC regular season title but lost to UVU in the WAC Championship game.
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01-28-2021 01:29 PM |
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Lopes87
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RE: WAC Baseball - Good, Bad & Areas for Growth
CS Bakersfield isn't as big of a loss as you claim. 298-339-1 is their history as a baseball school.
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01-28-2021 03:09 PM |
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SoCalBobcat78
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RE: WAC Baseball - Good, Bad & Areas for Growth
(01-28-2021 03:09 PM)Lopes87 Wrote: CS Bakersfield isn't as big of a loss as you claim. 298-339-1 is their history as a baseball school.
Yes and no. In 2013, they shared regular season title with UTA. They lost in the tournament, but ended up with five players selected in the 2013 MLB draft. In 2015, they won the WAC Championship, but lost twice to UCLA at Jackie Robinson Stadium in LA in the NCAA tournament. They did beat Ole Miss, 2-1. They lost in the WAC championship game in 2017 to Sac State.
After their longtime coach retired at the end of the 2015 season, they were not the same team. Still, there is a lot of baseball talent in California and the potential to get better was there. They had three players selected in the 2019 MLB draft.
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01-28-2021 04:48 PM |
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Lopes87
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RE: WAC Baseball - Good, Bad & Areas for Growth
I hear you but like you said they have been trending the wrong way and being in CA they shouldn't struggle and with the schools investment into baseball it's been mind boggling. Big West is a very good baseball league and so I would imagine Bake will continue to flap in the wind.
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01-28-2021 05:10 PM |
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