Marshall University Athletics
BOGACZYK: Herd Baseball Fever Infectious This Spring
4/18/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
By JACK BOGACZYK
HERDZONE.COM COLUMNIST
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- The enthusiasm for Marshall's baseball performance this season is understandable. After all, the Herd nine hasn't had a winning season in 22 years, since Coach Howard McCann's 1994 club went 23-20.
When the 2016 season began, the Herd players' oft-stated goal was to reach the eight-team Conference USA Tournament. C-USA coaches picked Marshall to finish 12th - that's last place. The goal was a respectable one. Marshall hasn't appeared in a C-USA bracket since 2010.
And while the performance of Coach Jeff Waggoner's club in the first half of the season has been more than solid and a surprise to some, a competitiveness within C-USA - one of the nation's top four college baseball leagues - has brought a bit more fervor to the spring.
Waggoner has even spoken about the hope his Herd could perhaps somehow squeeze a bid to the 64-team NCAA Tournament that opens with 16 regionals. Marshall wouldn't be picky about where it is sent.
No Marshall team has reached the "Diamond Dance" since Coach Jack Cook's 1978 team went to the regional final at Miami (Fla.), with the Southern Conference champion Herd beating Florida State and Clemson before losing a pair to the host Hurricanes ââ'¬Â¦ one game shy of the College World Series.
So, what's it going to take to get where the Herd hasn't been since Waggoner was a preschooler? Well, first things first. Marshall has to finish the deal.
The Herd not only has to reach the C-USA Tournament; it likely has to finish in the top five in the league regular-season standings to even get an NCAA selection committee sniff. A tournament title would bring one of 31 automatic bids, but Marshall is more likely to land one of the 33 at-large spots.
Marshall (18-15, 8-7 C-USA) has its best 33-game start to a season since a 19-14 mark in 2001, after freshman left-hander Joshua Shapiro turned in seven innings of shutout ball - in his first weekend start - as the Herd salvaged Sunday's finale of a three-game series with 16th-ranked Florida Atlantic in Beckley.
The Herd awoke Monday morning with a solid Ratings Percentage Index rank of 101 and a strength of schedule rating of 78, with Waggoner's club set to meet Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at the YMCA Kennedy Center diamond.
The Herd is tied for fourth place in C-USA with Louisiana Tech - trailing Southern Miss, Rice and FAU - and is halfway through its C-USA schedule. There are series remaining at Charlotte, Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky, and three-game home sets versus UAB and Old Dominion at Appalachian Power Park.
Non-league dates remain with EKU, at West Virginia and Ohio, and against Wake Forest at Beckley's Epling Stadium.
Waggoner's club needs to win those four non-conference dates, and probably has to finish at least 18-12 or 17-13 in the league and no lower than fourth place - and get to the top 60 in the RPI to be an NCAA bubble-sitter.
There's recent history to suggest that playing in that ballpark - no pun intended - could have "Waggs" & Co. on pins and needles on Selection Monday, May 30.
OK, about that history ââ'¬Â¦
In last season's NCAA regionals, 30 of the 33 at large selections were in the RPI top 40. Yes, it's tough to get to the Diamond Dance. The sub-40 RPI teams that reached the field were Tulane (No. 43), Clemson (56) and Oregon (62). All three played in top-four RPI conferences ââ'¬Â¦ as the Herd is now.
On Selection Monday 2015, here's how those three looked:
*Tulane was 34-23 with an AAC regular season of 13-11 (third-place tie), then went 1-2 in the league tournament. The AAC got three at-large bids into the NCAA field. The Green Wave's selection-day No. 43 RPI was against an SOS of 41.
*Clemson was 32-27, with an ACC mark of 16-13. The Tigers went 1-2 in the ACC tourney ââ'¬Â¦ and it was generally regarded that the Tigers earned their bid with a three-game road sweep of Florida State - a No. 1 NCAA regional seed - in the final regular-season weekend. On Selection Monday, Clemson had an RPI of 56 and SOS of 18.
*Oregon went 38-23 in the regular season and was the last team to make the NCAA field. The Pac-12 does not play a baseball tournament, but the Ducks impressed by winning their final five Pac-12 weekend series. Oregon was the sixth of six Pac-12 teams in the NCAA bracket and had an SOS of 92.
Only two teams inside the RPI top 40 failed to make the NCAA field, and both were from the ACC - No. 28 North Carolina and No. 37 Georgia Tech. Both had losing conference records.
Three C-USA teams made the 2015 NCAA regional field - FIU as tournament champ and FAU and Rice with at-large bids. Southern Miss felt it had a chance, but the Golden Eagles' decent-enough RPI of 53 was doomed by a strength of schedule at No. 129.
Does the 2016 Herd have a shot? Sure, even though Marshall doesn't play Rice (No. 22 RPI) this season - the Owls are the one C-USA team the Herd misses. Marshall still has C-USA sets with other top 100 RPI teams - Old Dominion (48), WKU (80) and Middle Tennessee (99).
Among the non-league foes, Wake has an RPI of 49 and West Virginia is at 107. Marshall cannot afford to fall to EKU or Ohio -- both in the RPI 200s - or go two-and-out in the C-USA Tournament in Hattiesburg, Miss., from May 25-29.
Right now, Marshall would be considered an NCAA longshot, and prospects aren't helped by the recent loss of weekend starter and senior JD Hammer, with a strained oblique. Shapiro filled in nicely Sunday, and hopes are that Hammer can return within a couple of weeks.
But the fact Waggs and pressbox wags are even having the conversation about Herd baseball success is saying something.
When there hasn't been a winning season in more than two decades, why not dream big?
After all, the only bigger news for the program than a C-USA Tournament spot or NCAA regional trip would be an announcement of plans for a Huntington/Herd ballpark by Mayor Steve Williams, right?
