College baseball: Falcons can't afford another loss

If there was every a year to have a Heartland Conference baseball tournament, UTPB head coach Brian Reinke said, this would have been a good one.

The top three teams - first-place St. Mary's, second-place Incarnate Word and the third-place Falcons - have at least a shot this weekend to finish atop the conference and receive the automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament.

First of all, UTPB (36-17 overall, 32-14 conference) needs to sweep Newman University (26-24, 22-22) in a three-game season finale beginning with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. today at Roden Field.

That needs to be combined with St. Mary's (35-15, 31-12) losing two of three against sixth-place Texas A&M International (20-33, 18-28) for the Falcons to finish first.

If St. Mary's loses one game and Incarnate Word (34-16, 30-13) sweeps fourth-place St. Edwards (33-20, 30-16), Incarnate Word finishes first.

Reinke would like to see a conference tournament, and so would most of the conference coaches, he said. That spurred them to propose a schedule change for next year, including a tournament. The proposal is a budget item on the conference athletic directors' conference call next week

"It's a little bit of shame that we don't have a conference tournament this year because it would be really good," Reinke said. "We got three teams that are pretty much identical. And St Edward's has been hurt most of the year, but they're still really good."

UTPB athletic director Steve Aicinena said each program will have to evaluate whether it can take on the additional expenses of a tournament, though the effect may be lessened if the NCAA rules to reduce the number of games allowed, which it might do soon, he said.

"If that were the case, a conference tourney would not increase much to the budget," Aicinena said. "So I wouldn't have much of a complaint.

"On other hand, if conference teams are playing games against each other - three at home and three away - why do you have a conference tournament?"

Aicinena said he would not expect such a change to be implemented until 2011 because next season Incarnate Word leaves to the Lone Star Conference and Lincoln University is headed to the NAIA's Heart of America Athletic Conference.

Meanwhile, the Heartland Conference will add the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

The Heartland Conference has tournaments in volleyball, softball and men's and women's basketball.

The other two conferences in the South Central Region, the Lone Star Conference and Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association, have baseball tournaments.

"It is the consensus with the other baseball coaches and I'm 100 percent behind it," Reinke said. "It's something that needs to happen."

The Falcons also need to win the series this weekend so it can at least have a chance for the postseason.

They are coming off a series loss against Incarnate Word, in which the Cardinals took three of four games and defeated the Falcons in two extra-inning games. UTPB entered the series in first and is now hanging on.

"We're disappointed, but we still have a job to do," Reinke said. "You never know. St. Mary's could fall flat on their face this weekend, and we want to make sure that if they do that we're in a position to win this thing."

The Falcons will start senior right-hander Kyle Frets (6-0, 3.64 ERA) in the opener, junior left-hander Mario Urena (10-4, 3.63 ERA) in game two and senior right-hander Flynn Stachowski (6-4, 6.25 ERA) in the finale. Frets and Urena are two of four Falcons pitchers with ERAs in the top 15 in the conference, along with starter Matt Ortiz (3-2, 3.61 ERA) and reliever Jordan Strode (3-1, 2.53). Reinke said Ortiz might be better utilized out of the bullpen this weekend.

While UTPB's team ERA is 4.86, fourth in the conference, the Falcons hitters have been terrific most of the year. UTPB's team batting average (.330) is second in the conference.

Whereas going into the season Reinke believed the Falcons would be able to swing the bat, he did not expect as much success on the base paths. Yet UTPB is second in the conference with 84, and sophomore center fielder Chandler Goode is fourth individually with 20 swipes in 24 attempts.

Not bad for a guy who says he's possibly the slowest outfielder on the team.

"I've always been a leadoff style hitter, just trying to get on first and take second when I can," said Goode, who's batting .368. "Coach gives me the green light and I get more chances than most. He's confident in me."