It is the middle of May, time for graduations and the end of the school year for most. That also means a break for collegiate sports. There is still some unfinished business, however, that could bring trophies back to Fowler Avenue.
Looking Back
The Bulls’ baseball team has barely hung onto their #25 ranking after having one of their worst weeks of the season. They began last weekend alone in first place of the American Athletic Conference. Then, they lost both games of a double-header to unranked UConn. Looking back, the staff for USF will probably question their decision to accept the double-header in the first place, which was only scheduled due to expected bad weather on Sunday. USF clearly had a bad day on the diamond, losing a series in a season where they’ve won almost all of them. One bad day bumped them out of the first place position and could possibly drop them from the national rankings. Perhaps it would have been better for them to have a cancelled game instead of another loss.
They bounced back to win the final game of the series, 2-0. The game three shutout was due in part to a strong performance from starting pitcher, Peter Strzelecki. Strzelecki, who has been dealing with the recent loss of his father, was named American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week.
The lost series at UConn created a logjam at the top of the conference, where UConn, USF, Houston, and UCF are all close to winning the conference.
The Bulls further damaged their national credibility by losing to Jacksonville on Tuesday.
Looking Forward
USF will have an opportunity to regain the conference lead with their season ending series at UCF beginning today. The Bulls have a 3-0 series win against the Knights and a 2-1 advantage over Houston. Those three teams are currently tied to win the conference. Technically, if that is the way the season ended, USF would win the regular season title.
Life has changed in the world of USF sports since the fall of the old Big East Conference. The most important loss has to be the way the rebuilt American Athletic Conference was left out of the auto-bid party when the BCS was abandoned and replaced with the so-called playoff. The conference has weathered the loss of some of its better programs to those auto-bid conferences and the humiliation of current members trying to find their own golden ticket out. Conference commissioner, Mike Aresco, is making the argument that there should be six conferences with automatic bids to the playoff system. Its an argument worth making since this is the group of programs who are routinely targeted when the top five conferences are looking to expand. If the members are good enough to consider as expansion targets, then the entire conference should be considered for inclusion. And, it has been clearly demonstrated since the rebuilding that there is a long drop between the AAC and any of the other so-called Group of Five conferences.
USF’s men’s golf team has made their fifth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, finishing 10th at the Baton Rouge Regional. The Bulls earned their spot in that tournament by winning the American Athletic Conference title.