We've completed two full weekends of softball play and its time to evaluate some of what we saw. Time for the first power ranking of the season.
Rankings are definitely in flux. The overall rankings when referring to the quality wins is using last years RPI
1. Sacramento State (5-4) Quality Win: #63 MTSU Upcoming: Face three quality opponents this weekend in Michigan, Fresno State and UCSB.
2. Idaho State (10-1) Quality Win: #135 University of San Diego Upcoming: Face a murders row of top 100 opponents this weekend in Arizona State, Grand Canyon, Ohio State and Texas State.
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3. Montana (3-7) Quality Win: #119 Louisiana Monroe Upcoming: A weekend to get some things right, with CSU Bakersfield and St.Mary's this weekend. Both teams were sub 200 teams last year.
4. Weber State (3-7) Quality Win: #131 Cal Baptist: Upcoming: Utah State, Eastern Kentucky, Utah Tech. A tournament in St. George that is full of teams that are Big Sky Conference Caliber or maybe a tick above.
5. Northern Colorado (2-7) Quality Win: #141 Sam Houston State Upcoming: UCSB, St Johns and Michigan. Same tournament as Sacramento State.
6. Portland State (1-9): Quality Win: #184 Utah State. Upcoming: DH v Pacific who was a low 200's team last year.
-- Based upon observation, I think Portland State is a bit a unlucky to be 1-9 and has played a pretty decent schedule full of teams that are conference comparatives. Idaho State's record might be a bit inflated, but they are beating up on the teams on their schedule which isn't something anyone else is doing. Every one else is a hodge podge of good wins and uneven performances. Sacramento State's record, and performance against better programs gives them the nod so far. The rest? Flip a coin between 3 and 6.
-- I think we'll know more about ISU this weekend because their schedule goes from soft to absurdly hard in the span of a weekend. Sacramento State and Northern Colorado are at the same tournament, similar to Montana/Sac State last weekend, where Sacramento has a real good shot at establishing themselves as the top team in the BSC. Weber State and Montana find themselves in tournaments that are chalk full of teams that are in the same level of most Big Sky Teams. Both teams have similar issues, gotten most better pitching from last year but the offense has been a mix of good and not-so-good. Portland State gets their first home games of the year before they head off to Hawaii the following week against Pacific.
-- Statistics that stand out:
1. Hitting: Sacramento State hitting 376 as a team and slugging .506. On the opposite end, Montana's offensive struggles from a year ago continue. After an encouraging start against ULM/Southern, Montana has gone ice cold and is hitting a league low .213 with a league leading 49 K's. Walks are up from a year ago, and they are second in teh conference in doubles, but again those balls when in play are finding defenders.
2. Homeruns: Idaho State predictably leads the league w/ home runs with 8 and SS is second with 5. Lewa Day has 4 for Sac State, and the Yee/Brown combo picked up where they left off last year and along with Gracie Smith they have combined for 7 of ISU's 8 HR's.
3. Pitching: Idaho States pitching has been other worldly good so far with a 1.26 era with 3 SHO's and 5CG from 3 different pitchers. The rest of the conference is between 3 and 6 (which is what you'd expect this time of year). Taylor Fitzergald from ISU is 3-0 with a .58 era. Most teams have had really good ace pitching and a bit more questionable two 's and threes. Sacramento State and Idaho State clearly have gotten better pitching early out of the depth of their staff. For Montana if you throw out the disaster that was the 13 run inning against Nebraska had shown significant improvement in the pitching category, they'd be closer to the 4.00 ERA line which is almost 3 runs a game better than at most points last year. Similarly WSU has seen a marked improvement in the circle dropping their ERA by a similar margin from last year. Both teams who were non-competitive at many points last year, are getting a bit more consistentcy there.
4. Defensively: Sacramento State plays a lot of clean baseball. They've only committed three errors in 243 chances so far. Montana, PSU and UNC have been the sloppiest, and its cost them wins. They are averaging about 2 a game, and with all three teams putting a heavy premium on pitching to contact, it hurts.
Rankings are definitely in flux. The overall rankings when referring to the quality wins is using last years RPI
1. Sacramento State (5-4) Quality Win: #63 MTSU Upcoming: Face three quality opponents this weekend in Michigan, Fresno State and UCSB.
2. Idaho State (10-1) Quality Win: #135 University of San Diego Upcoming: Face a murders row of top 100 opponents this weekend in Arizona State, Grand Canyon, Ohio State and Texas State.
.
.
3. Montana (3-7) Quality Win: #119 Louisiana Monroe Upcoming: A weekend to get some things right, with CSU Bakersfield and St.Mary's this weekend. Both teams were sub 200 teams last year.
4. Weber State (3-7) Quality Win: #131 Cal Baptist: Upcoming: Utah State, Eastern Kentucky, Utah Tech. A tournament in St. George that is full of teams that are Big Sky Conference Caliber or maybe a tick above.
5. Northern Colorado (2-7) Quality Win: #141 Sam Houston State Upcoming: UCSB, St Johns and Michigan. Same tournament as Sacramento State.
6. Portland State (1-9): Quality Win: #184 Utah State. Upcoming: DH v Pacific who was a low 200's team last year.
-- Based upon observation, I think Portland State is a bit a unlucky to be 1-9 and has played a pretty decent schedule full of teams that are conference comparatives. Idaho State's record might be a bit inflated, but they are beating up on the teams on their schedule which isn't something anyone else is doing. Every one else is a hodge podge of good wins and uneven performances. Sacramento State's record, and performance against better programs gives them the nod so far. The rest? Flip a coin between 3 and 6.
-- I think we'll know more about ISU this weekend because their schedule goes from soft to absurdly hard in the span of a weekend. Sacramento State and Northern Colorado are at the same tournament, similar to Montana/Sac State last weekend, where Sacramento has a real good shot at establishing themselves as the top team in the BSC. Weber State and Montana find themselves in tournaments that are chalk full of teams that are in the same level of most Big Sky Teams. Both teams have similar issues, gotten most better pitching from last year but the offense has been a mix of good and not-so-good. Portland State gets their first home games of the year before they head off to Hawaii the following week against Pacific.
-- Statistics that stand out:
1. Hitting: Sacramento State hitting 376 as a team and slugging .506. On the opposite end, Montana's offensive struggles from a year ago continue. After an encouraging start against ULM/Southern, Montana has gone ice cold and is hitting a league low .213 with a league leading 49 K's. Walks are up from a year ago, and they are second in teh conference in doubles, but again those balls when in play are finding defenders.
2. Homeruns: Idaho State predictably leads the league w/ home runs with 8 and SS is second with 5. Lewa Day has 4 for Sac State, and the Yee/Brown combo picked up where they left off last year and along with Gracie Smith they have combined for 7 of ISU's 8 HR's.
3. Pitching: Idaho States pitching has been other worldly good so far with a 1.26 era with 3 SHO's and 5CG from 3 different pitchers. The rest of the conference is between 3 and 6 (which is what you'd expect this time of year). Taylor Fitzergald from ISU is 3-0 with a .58 era. Most teams have had really good ace pitching and a bit more questionable two 's and threes. Sacramento State and Idaho State clearly have gotten better pitching early out of the depth of their staff. For Montana if you throw out the disaster that was the 13 run inning against Nebraska had shown significant improvement in the pitching category, they'd be closer to the 4.00 ERA line which is almost 3 runs a game better than at most points last year. Similarly WSU has seen a marked improvement in the circle dropping their ERA by a similar margin from last year. Both teams who were non-competitive at many points last year, are getting a bit more consistentcy there.
4. Defensively: Sacramento State plays a lot of clean baseball. They've only committed three errors in 243 chances so far. Montana, PSU and UNC have been the sloppiest, and its cost them wins. They are averaging about 2 a game, and with all three teams putting a heavy premium on pitching to contact, it hurts.