Baseball Season Roller Coaster, Step by Step

Feb 6, 2014; Sochi, RUSSIA; Mountains outside of Sochi are seen through a roller coaster prior to the start of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

It’s been an interesting year for our baseball team. To call it a roller coaster of a season would be cliche, but is there any other way to describe it? As fans, we tend to react in the moment, and there has been plenty of reaction to the baseball team’s successes and failures.  Let’s take a look at the season and how we have reacted as fans.

Preseason: Start the season as a consensus top 10 team, with one poll having us as high as Number 2.
Fans’ Reaction: Omaha or bust! Hail State!

Opening Night: Lose 3-2 to Western Carolina.
Fans’ Reaction: What is wrong with us? Why can’t we hit?!

Rest of Opening Weekend: Beat Western Carolina 6-1 and 7-2.
Fans’ Reaction: Opening Night was just a bump in the road. We’ll be fine.

Memphis and 4 game series with Holy Cross: Lose to Memphis and Split with Holy Cross.
Fans’ Reaction: We are terrible! How can this team be this bad?! We might not make a regional!

Next 7 games: Crush Mt. St. Mary’s twice, sweep all four games in the Diamond Classic, and beat South Alabama.
Fans’ Reaction: We overreacted! The team will be fine, just had to work out a few kinks.

Hi Corbett Classic: Lose 3 out of 4 games.
Fans’ Reaction: We stink again! What has happened to the national contender we were supposed to be?!

Start of conference play: Start the conference slate 6-3 and win two non-conference games mixed in. The most impressive part was winning 2 of 3 over top ranked Vanderbilt.
Fans’ Reaction: We can win the SEC! LSU is struggling! Let’s bury them next weekend!

LSU and Ole Miss: Get swept by LSU, and lose 2 of 3 to Ole Miss on Super Bulldog Weekend, the lone win coming on a miraculous extra inning comeback.
Fans’ Reaction: We can’t beat a good team! We can’t hit or pitch! No one does anything in the clutch! How bad can we be?!

Missouri and Governor’s Cup: Win all four games.
Fans’ Reaction: Sure Missouri wasn’t very good, but we looked good in that sweep! Evened up our season with Ole Miss and got a good win! We can still host!

Texas A&M and Jacksonville State: Lose two of three to Texas A&M and get beat by Jacksonville State thanks to HBPs, passed balls and wild pitches.
Fans’ Reaction: This team stinks! We can’t beat good teams or bad teams! Forget hosting, we just need to worry about making the tournament!

Auburn series: Sweep the series and only allow one run all three games.
Fans’ Reaction: We did what we are supposed to and beat up on a mediocre team! Maybe if we win out, and play well in the SEC tournament, we can still host!

It’s been a crazy season, and it isn’t wrong to call it disappointing based on the preseason expectations. Despite all the ups and downs, the team sits alone at second place in the SEC West, trailing Ole Miss by a game (even though we would need to surpass them to win the West since they own the tiebreaker over us). What do I expect to happen these last two series of the regular season? No clue.

There have been times when we look great and times when we look like we have never played the game. 4-2 or 3-3 or probably the most likely, but who knows? You’d think we would win at least 2 at home, but despite having one of the best home field advantages in all of college baseball, we are only 6-6 in conference play at home and 8-4 on the road in conference play, with 3 of those losses coming to one team. Weird season, to say the least, and who knows how it ends.