Sure, we’d have liked to have won the series at A&M. But with Vandy sweeping, we were never going to tie - let alone, win outright - the SEC regular season title. And with MSU losing today, we ended up with the next best result we could have gotten - SEC West champions (tied, but we win the tie-breaker) and #2 overall seed in the SEC Tournament. Had we swept A&M, we would not have had a better result from an SEC standpoint.
So, this series is in our rear-view mirror, and it’s off to the SEC Tournament and then hosting for 2 straight weekends, if we can get out of the first weekend alive.
Again, if we play like that in Hoover, no biggie. The only schools who really need to perform in Hoover are Misery and Florida, who are borderline with 13 SEC wins, and SoCar, which has no shot unless they run the table.
The week after that, we need the A game, or at least a good solid B+.
As for the “as long as we don’t play like that again”, I do think it’s worth noting that we don’t particularly match up well with A&M, with all of their left-handed pitching power. That is to say, while they are a “Top 20” team to college baseball, in general, they are probably a top 5 team against us.
Especially, at home.
Most especially, when they really, really needed to win the series (to maybe get to host a regional).
My point - while I don’t like the way we played in the last 2 games, I’m not overly concerned about it. The Aggies ARE good, and not a good match-up for us this year. But odds are we won’t face them when it really matters, so it’s on to those we will be playing on the way to Omaha.
Remember the play in Omaha where Kjerstad shoved the Texass first baseman off the bag? Perry was the first base ump that afternoon. Would have been entirely consistent for him not only to call HK out but kick him out of the game.
