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Mountain West Baseball Week 3 Action
Get ready for some Mountain West baseball
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Weekend Mountain West Games of March 17
The race for the title is starting to separate itself into a group of four leaders and then the three trailers. UNLV, SDSU, Fresno State, and Nevada are all at the top or near it. We’ll see if the weekend games make any changes.
Fresno State (2-4) at San Jose State (0-5)
The question here is how good is the Fresno State pitching? I’m thinking pretty good. Good enough to not shut down the Spartans hitters, but good enough to let its hitters put them ahead against a poor SJSU pitching staff. Weather may play a part in this also. Rain is hitting central and Northern California.
UNLV (3-0) at Air Force (1-2)
I’ve been saying that the Rebels are hitting on all cylinders. That is a surprise to me and many others if you look at what happened to them last season. In other words, last place in the Mountain West. Air Force is still struggling. It’s pitching is bad, there’s no way to get around that. Then again, the games of the weekend looked like the pitching might actually be turning a corner. Weather this weekend could be nice but I’ve heard maybe rain here too.
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SDSU (10-5) at Cal Poly (7-10)
We all know how well the Aztecs so I won’t deal with them. The Mustangs are a Jekyll and Hyde story. They’ve lost to San Jose State in a single game but have also beaten a very good Arkansas team in a single game. So, go figure. The 7-10 record stands on its own.
UC Riverside (8-8) at Nevada (8-6)
The Highlanders have a decent record but the wins don’t resonate with me. They took 2 of 3 from Utah (a poor PAC 12 team), and 2 against Valparaiso so I don’t know what those say. An opening 8-1 victory over Washington State and a win against Washington are both good victories. I guess that says they should be handled carefully. Nevada? Watch Jake Jackson, that’s what I say.
New Mexico (6-9-1) at a Houston tournament (Columbia and Houston)
OK, we know New Mexico hasn’t really started whacking the ball like they can and the pitching is middle of the pack in the MWC. By the way, I wish the conference would keep the baseball stats more up to date. I checked today (the 13th) and the stats were as of Feb 27. That’s way behind. Anyway. Let’s check the opposition in Houston. Columbia is 3-10 but I’m cutting them a break. It’s a snow belt team. Have you seen the weather there lately?
They have not played a home game this season which is not surprising for snow belt teams. That’s a tough life. Houston is 8-7 and 2 of those were against Fullerton State which says a lot. Fullerton is always tough. New Mexico can’t take Columbia too lightly and Houston will challenge.