The Aggie baseball team dropped a pair of games on Saturday afternoon to Hawai'i. The Aggies lost game one of the doubleheader by a score of 17-10 and lost game two by a score of 15-14. The game two loss was especially disappointing considering the Aggies had a 12-6 lead heading into the seventh inning and had just posted an eight run inning to take the lead. In game one the Aggies fell behind 9-1 after three innings but made a furious rally to pull to within two runs at 11-9 in the sixth, however they couldn't keep the Warriors off the board and Hawai'i would tack on six more runs to seal game one. The Aggies ended up with a split of the weekend series and despite the two losses today, still remain in 4th place in the conference as San Jose State lost both games of their doubleheader with Fresno State and Sacramento State split a pair with Nevada. Both San Jose State and Sacramento State finish up their series with Fresno State and Nevada tomorrow. Should both of those teams lose, it would further solidify the Aggies' hold on the 4th spot due in large part to the Aggies' series wins over both teams (3-1 over San Jose State and 4-0 over Sacramento State). The Aggies have one final series remaining against Louisiana Tech this coming weekend and can seal a 4-seed in the upcoming conference tournament with a series win. A 4-seed would likely result in a first round matchup with Hawai'i.
The WAC Softball Championship Tournament concluded on Saturday and two Aggies were named to the All-Tournament Team. Freshman third baseman Ashley Maroda and senior utility player Stephanie Hererra were the two Aggies who were honored. Shockingly the #10 Fresno State Bulldogs were shut out of the All-Tournament Team (namely their outstanding pitcher Morgan Melloh who was the WAC Pitcher and Freshman of the Year).
Coach Rodolph has mentioned many times in our weekly interviews, including in this past week's interview, that the WAC is a much improved league across the board. You don't have to look any further than this year's championship tournament for proof. La. Tech finished the regular season 7-10 overall and earned the 4-seed. The Lady Techsters brought home the title taking down all three top seeds (1-seed Nevada twice, 2-seed Fresno State and 3-seed Hawai'i) en-route to the title. The WAC will get at least two teams into the tournament and more than likely three and there's very slight possibility of four. Louisiana Tech will get the automatic bid, #10 Fresno State is a shoe-in for an at-large bid, and Nevada likely did enough in the regular season (regular season conference champions) and by virtue of reaching the conference final should receive very strong consideration for an at-large as well. The wildcard will be Hawai'i, which went to the NCAA tournament last season and finished 38-19 (10-7) this season. They played a strong non-conference schedule but may not have enough quality wins to get an at-large berth. Needless to say, Coach Rodolph's assertions that the league is much stronger this season were vaidated by the results of the regular season as well as the tournament.
The Agges should receive strong consideration next season for a preseason #1 ranking in the league. Of the the top four teams in the WAC this season, NMSU handed three of them losses (Nevada, Hawai'i and Louisiana Tech) and came close to beating Fresno State, Hawai'i and Nevada in three other games. All three of those were one run losses and two of them were in extra innings (10 against Nevada and 9 against Fresno State). The Aggies have five players returning who were freshmen this season and each of them played a ton of time for the Aggies. Also returning for the Aggies are the pitching duo of Kim Watson and Samantha Dillard. Both Watson and Dillard pitched masterfully during the conference tournament. The Aggies should content for a conference title as well as an appearance in the NCAA tournament next season.
On to today's links...