Life in the Valley

Teams Begin the Homestretch in the ’24 Conference Race

Former New York Giants head coach Bill Parcells was famous for saying, “You are what your record says you are.” That was a message for a 16-game NFL season (now 17). But it’s true in college baseball and in any other sport. Once you reach a certain point in the season, we know what you are.

We’re well beyond saying that a team is off to a “hot start, “even in thinking about conference play. Missouri Valley teams are more than halfway through their conference schedules and have just 4 weekend series left, beginning with games today in Chicago, Nashville, Murray, Carbondale, and Evansville.

Indiana State isn’t off to just another great start – they’re a very good to potentially a great team. We know Missouri State and Evansville can hit, though they may go about it in different ways (homers vs. doubles, respectively). We know UIC’s Zane Zielinski is a serious threat to win the conference batting title. We know Missouri State’s Zack Stewart and Caden Bogenpohl can’t stop hitting long balls, and may end up 1-2 on the Valley homer leaderboard. We know Indiana State’s pitching staff isn’t just good, it’s fantastic on its own, and when you compare their 4.09 team ERA to that of the 2nd-best team in the Valley in that category – Southern Illinois – which is at 5.41, then you see what Indiana State is, which is amazing.

We know Valparaiso will score in the late innings and never go down without a fight. We know Murray State has enough offensive weaponry to win any game. We know when we open a Belmont box score that the stat lines for Mason Landers and Sam Slaughter are probably going to jump out at us.

And speaking of numbers, we know the homer and stolen base races are still very tight. We know Brennyn Cutts (Indiana State) and Brandt Thompson (Missouri State) are probably fighting for the ERA title. Though Luke Hayden (Indiana State) is waiting in the wings.

And we know this season has flown by, as they all seem to. Regionals are less than a month away. Barring a conference tournament ouster, it looks like Indiana State will be the lone Valley team in the NCAA Tournament. The league probably deserves better, but such are the times were live in when 18-20 spots are going to go to SEC/ACC teams right off the bat.

But we also know … it’s FRIDAY! So enough of my jibber-jabber. Here’s the Friday stat pack!