The Lady Techsters are Red Hot

Last weekend, the Lady Techsters softball team took games 2 and 3 on their way to a critical series victory over the #2 team in Conference USA, the School-in-Birmingham-that-shall-not-be-named.

The victory gave the Techsters a four game lead atop the CUSA standings. In fact, if my math is correct, the Techsters have all but clinched the regular season title (a few teams could technically pass them but it would be pretty difficult).

Now admittedly, I’m not a huge baseball or softball follower, but I love it when Tech teams are atop the standings. So this got me thinking: How did the Techsters get to this point? Is this team similar to last year’s team that got to the NCAA Regionals? And if there’s one thing I can do, it’s look at basic stats and pretend like I know what I’m talking about.

So without further ado, here’s what I found:

Interesting fact #1

The 2018 Lady Techsters are statistically…. average.

Here’s a list of stats and the Techsters current ranking of 291 Division I teams:

• #71 RPI
• 2.85 Earned Runs Average (83rd)
• .274 Batting Average (128th)
• .390 Slugging Percentage (148th)
• 4.58 Runs per game (102nd)
• .625 W/L % (72nd)

These stats suggest that the Techsters are a very average team overall. The good news is that last year’s stats are fairly similar. To illustrate this, I made a table that compares last year’s regular season stats to this year’s stats so far:

The stats are similar enough, but overall, the Techsters offense and defense seem to have taken steps back this season. In every category except wins and losses, the Techsters have slightly regressed, falling at least 30 spots in the national rankings.

Interesting fact #2

My analysis of stats above doesn’t do a great job of telling the story of this season. Here’s a quick overview:

The Techsters started out the season by dropping their first four games and amassing a 3-7 record in their first ten. I’m no stats whiz, but that’s uhh, not very good.

In the month of March, they improved enough to find themselves the owners of a .500 record. Then, after being swept by North Texas, something changed.

Since March 30th, the Techsters have been straight FIRE. They won 12 straight, and have only lost one game (Game 1 to the School-from-Birmingham-that-shall-not-be-named) in their last 15 attempts. In that stretch, the Techsters have outscored their opponents 101 to 34 (!!!!!!).

Again, I’m not a Smart Softball Specialist™, but that’s pretty damn impressive.

Interesting fact #3

It only goes up from here. The Techsters have 6 games remaining in the regular season. Here they are, along with their current RPI:

• 1 game against NSU (131st)
• 2 games against Utah St. (202nd)
• 3 games against UTEP (199th)

If April is any indication, the Techsters should keep their momentum going well into the CUSA tournament, and hopefully end up with their second consecutive NCAA berth.

Recap

The Lady Techsters may look average on paper, but in the month of April they’ve been absolutely DEMOLISHING opponents. With similar stats to last season, the Techsters should be good enough to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament, especially with the run they’re on.

Additionally, Morgan Turkoly, Techsters outfielder and straight up baller, currently has an on-base streak of thirty-four (34!!!!!) games. Oh, and pitcher Jenny Chapman has a pet raccoon named Ralfie, which is honestly enough to make us cheer for the Techsters even if we weren’t diehard Tech fans.