How Texas' midweek matchups factor into its NCAA Tournament resume

The Texas Longhorns are 37-12 and 16-10 in the SEC in Jim Schlossnagle’s second season leading the storied program with one three-game series against Missouri left before the postseason begins. The Longhorns, currently ranked No. 6 by both Baseball America and D1Baseball, are in the running for a top-eight seed that would have the Horns playing at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in both the regional and super regional rounds.

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The Longhorns are currently No. 4 in RPI behind UCLA, Georgia Tech, and Auburn. This time of year, RPI becomes more and more important. Some teams even elect to cancel previously-scheduled late-season games against lesser opponents in order to maintain their RPI. Beating lower-ranked teams can still ding a team’s RPI while not even playing the game produces no consequences.

Texas doesn’t have a midweek in its final regular season week, meaning it has completed its allotment of Tuesday games. How did the Horns fare in those contests and what does it mean for their NCAA Tournament resume?

While the NCAA baseball selection committee doesn’t use the quadrant system associated the NET rankings used by the men’s and women’s committees, other entities have their own quadrant systems. WarrenNolan, which constantly updates RPI, has organized Texas games against every opponent into its own system.

Here’s how the Longhorns’ midweek games fit into that framework.

Quadrant 1 (1-0)

• at Texas State – 3/10 – W 15-4

Quadrant 2 (2-1)

• at Houston – 3/24 – L 9-7
• Texas State – 3/31 – W 10-8
• UTSA – 5/5 – W 11-8

Quadrant 3 (1-1)

• UTRGV – 2/24 – W 14-0
• Tarleton State – 3/17 – L 6-1

Quadrant 4 (5-0)

• Lamar – 2/17 – W 14-4
• Houston Christian – 3/3 – W 16-3
• Incarnate Word – 4/7 – W 16-4
• Texas A&M – Corpus Christi – 4/14 – W 14-7
• Sam Houston State – 4/28 – W 15-14

Texas only traveled for two midweeks, winning one at Texas State and losing another at Houston. Texas also avoided disaster in late April against Sam Houston State thanks to Carson Tinney’s walk-off heroics.

Overall, Texas took care of business in Tuesday games this year. Schlossnagle may lament an inability to rotate in as many arms or bats as he would have liked, but that’s a complaint amongst all coaches on a yearly basis.

Importantly, none of Texas’ weekend starters like Dylan Volantis, Luke Harrison, or Ruger Riojas were needed at any point during the midweek this season. The midweek may have not developed as many pitchers as preferred for Max Weiner, but arms like Sam Cozart, Haiden Leffew, Ethan Walker, Brett Crossland, Max Grubbs, Brody Walls, and Thomas Burns did well in their opportunities throughout the campaign.

Though the loss to Tarleton State was a gut-punch at the time, the Texans could lock up the WAC regular season title this weekend and are a projected three-seed in the Atlanta regional according to D1Baseball’s most recent field of 64. Houston is not projected to make even the Big 12 tournament field. That may be the only bad loss on the Longhorns’ ledger.

Calling midweek games “meaningless” has never been an accurate label. The work players get in those games matters for development, both in the course of the season and for the upcoming weekend’s games.

They also play a part in creating a NCAA Tournament resume. Texas’ midweek resume is a quality one and the Longhorns’ success on Tuesdays is part of the reason why they’re contending for a top-8 seed.