SIAP...but did anyone else notice

Baseball Insider Board
#1

Have not had time to read the board this weekend, so this may have already been discussed…but did anyone else notice just how eerily similar this Texas Softball Super was to last year’s NC State fiasco by the Baseball team?

In both cases, the Razorbacks sailed through the regular season to the SEC Title, and then won the SEC Tournament with ease (for the first time, in both cases). Following that, they hosted a Regional in which they went undefeated. Then, they hosted a Super against a foe that advanced from a Regional in which they were the #2 seed.

The Razorbacks were huge favorites, and showed out in Game #1 (Men won 21-2; Ladies 7-1). And then…almost inexplicably…their respective offenses evaporated in narrow losses to drop the series. And the games played out somewhat similarly, as well. In the losses, the Razorbacks’ pitching was very good, with the exception of one fatal inning in each game in which they gave up crooked numbers.

Still, the men allowed 9 combined runs (in the 2 losses), and the women just 6. With the offense they had displayed all season, one would have expected victories in all 4 games. Yet, several times, they (both squads) left runners in scoring position stranded. They just never seemed to get the one big hit they needed with runners in scoring position. This was particularly true for the ladies Saturday, when they had 9 LOB int he 7 inning game.

Remarkably similar crash-and-burns.

EDIT - CORRECTION: Baseball did lose a game in the Regional last season, to Nebraska.

#2

I didn’t post anything anywhere after the games because I was pretty down and didn’t want to say anything negative.

But in a more general sense, I thought the same thing and it all turned out like I feared. Another chance at the big one, A national title. And another horseshoes and hand grenades moment. So close, but no cigar.

I told my wife after we won the first game that that would be it. We would lose the last two games to Texas (of all people) and the season would be over. My wife insisted I was wrong and that we would win the second game and go the WS. I told her we probably wouldn’t score another run.

I hate being right but I am just so used to being built up and then watching it all slip away.

#3

That’s just the way things go sometimes. That’s just life. It’s not always about what you get dealt, it’s all about how you deal with it.

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#4

I had pointed that out at the end of the softball game thread

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#5

Aloha Wiz,
Once again your astute analysis is spot on.
UA…Campus of Champions

#6

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