This is a question for everyone. When should you play if you are the top seed in the regional for your first game? I say you should play the afternoon game on Friday. Do not play the night game. I looked through all of the regional times and only at Stanford is the top seed playing in the afternoon. It’s up to the host school to decide that order on the first day. In every other case the host team is playing the Friday night game. It’s going to make more money, something the host school probably wants to do to make its bid pan out financially. But playing the first game on Friday gives you more rest time for the turn around to play Saturday. It may be a key component for rest in the bullpen when you get to Sunday. I think most coaches would like to play Friday afternoon, but most athletic directors want that money from the bigger gate on Friday night.
Good question Clay. Back in the day I played for SFA and we were fortunate to have a couple of really good teams. While sitting around and waiting we kept telling ourselves we are good, we can do this . but we were tight and blew the first game. We did come back and take it all but we made it tougher than it needed to be.
Has Coach Van Horn commented on why we’re playing the night game instead of the afternoon game? I believe we played the afternoon game the last time we hosted a regional in 2010. It seems like DVH said at the time that playing in the afternoon was the way to go.
I do think the convenience of fans being able to see the team play is a factor. How much so, I don’t know.
Clay, I just looked at the regional times, and I see Texas Tech, LSU, Kentucky, and Southern Miss all playing the afternoon game in their regionals.
My concern with the late game is the weather, although Friday now looks like games can be finished.
A nightmare scenario for AR would be to only be able to get in 4 or 5 innings on Friday night and the score be close. We would essentially burn Stephan and perhaps more when the game resumed just to get through game 1.
Playing the early game greatly increases the chances of getting Game 1 completed on Friday.
Stanford is playing the late game today, Clay. BYU-Fullerton have the 1 p.m. Pacific slot, then SU and Sacramento State at 6 p.m.
<LINK_TEXT text=“http://www.gostanford.com/news/2017/5/2 … onals.aspx”>http://www.gostanford.com/news/2017/5/29/ncaa-baseball-regionals.aspx</LINK_TEXT>
A #1 Seed in a place like Tempe, AZ … I’m playing the late game when it cools down to 90.
If heat is not a factor … I like the early game; rain and/or extra innings can make for a long night.
I remember the 2011 regional out there. Arkansas beat UNC-Charlotte in an elimination game Sunday afternoon, then had to turn around and play again that night. Everyone was zapped.
The first playing times I saw listed have been changed. I did look up the times on the NCAA list (on their website) that was published two days ago. Only Stanford was listed as an afternoon start, but they changed it. In fact, several games are changed. Most are playing Friday night, a few on Friday afternoon.
The question still remains, what would you do? Do you want a competitive advantage for your team? Or do you want to make sure revenue is at the highest level?
I think the case may be that this week, the Walmart shareholders are in town and that was going to interfere with the early game. I saw on the news that parking for that game would be an issue. But, I have a thought and a question for you. What is our record in night games versus daylight games? Also, with the prevailing south winds that generally die down after the sun goes down, night games should help our left handed power hitters.
I believe that Irunalot is exactly right. On the news tonight they made note that lot 56 would be unavailable until after the Walmartians leave on Friday afternoon. I suspect that crowds will be smaller for game 1 and then the parking will no longer be an issue.
Of course, those who have parking passes will be able to use them as long as there is room in the lot.