Saturday's regular season and home finale ended with a disappointing 5-3 loss to No. 4-ranked Southeastern Oklahoma State University at Sullivan Field for in the Incarnate Word Cardinals, but before the first pitch even happened, UIW knew its fate heading into the Lone Star Conference Championships.
The Cardinals finished the season 33-14 overall and 24-9 in the Lone Star Conference while out at West Texas A&M, the buffaloes defeated Tarleton State on Friday night, ensuring that TSU and UIW would not tie for the top spot in the LSC and, because of a tie-breaker that Tarleton has on the Cardinals, keep UIW from finishing in second place.
Since Tarleton lost, UIW losing wasn't all that important as far as seeding for the LSC championships next week as the Cardinals were assured of the top spot… which, according to head coach Danny Heep, wasn't all that important anyway.
“No one has any secrets now,” Heep said after the game. “I really don't think there is any difference between all six teams that have made it into the tournament.”
(Note: West Texas is in the sixth spot with a game left to play against Tarleton State and were tied with Texas A&M-Kingsville with a 17-15 record. WT must win and Kingsville must lose to prevent a tie in sixth and the Hoggies from knowing West Texas out of the final spot, since TAMUK has the tiebreaker over WT.)
In the regular season, UIW was a combined 10-8 versus teams in the hunt for a tournament seed – with three of those wins coming against Texas A&M-Kingsville (2-1 vs. Southeastern Oklahoma; 1-2 vs. Tarleton; 2-1 vs. Cameron University; 1-2 vs. Southwestern Oklahoma; 1-2 vs. West Texas A&M; and 3-0 vs. TAMU-Kingsville). Take out the Hoggies, and Incarnate Word is 7-8 against the playoff field – so Heep's opinion that claiming first place and the top seed “isn't all that important” is a very legitimate observation.
But, it also means that every team in the LSC Championships has a legitimate shot to claim the Lone Star Conference Championship and earn the automatic bid into the 2011 NCAA Division II South Central Region Championships. So, Heep and the Cardinals will need to take their best game to Abilene (Abilene Christian is hosting the tournament this season) in order to be guaranteed of a place in the regional tournament.
Saturday's game, however, featured a much tighter contest than the 22-2 and 18-0 games that the Cardinals treated their fans to in Friday's doubleheader.
The lone Cardinal to get more than one hit was Matt Roohan, who finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
Starting pitcher Marc Gomez left the game after four innings with a 3-1 lead and the Savage Storm (who finish the season as the No. 2 team/seed going into the Championships next week) were able to get some offense generated against Ethan Lutz, who took the loss for Incarnate Word.
It was only the fourth loss at home for UIW the whole season – one vs. St. Mary's, one in a non-conference game against Angelo State and two losses to West Texas A&M – and the No. 6-ranked Cardinals will watch to see what their south Central Division ranking will do after beating (solidly) the No. 4 team in the region 2-out-of-3 games.
When game times and matchups are released by the Lone Star Conference for the 2011 Championships, cardinalathletics.com will update schedules as soon as possible. Meanwhile, UIW fans can also click the “Championship Central” ad on the Cardinal baseball page or the home page of cardinalathletics.com.
