BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — In the latest release of the Collegiate Baseball Top 30 poll, Western Kentucky University is ranked 23rd, the first national ranking for the Hilltoppers since 2001. WKU finished their record-setting season at 42-20 and came within two innings of advancing to the program's first-ever NCAA Super Regional.

LSU is the nation's top-ranked team this week followed by Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, Texas, and Florida State rounding out the top five. Ole Miss, the team that ended the Hilltoppers postseason run, is eighth in the poll.

In notching the program's first 40-win season in 21 years, and fifth overall, WKU posted a 21-8 mark in league play to earn a share of the 2009 Sun Belt Conference Regular Season Championship, a first in the program's 26-year affiliation with the conference.

Despite coming up just short of repeating as Sun Belt Tournament Champions, the Hilltoppers received the program's first at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, earning a three-seed in the Oxford Regional. In five games in the NCAA Tournament, WKU went 3-2, equaling in three days what the program had accomplished in terms of number of postseason wins in the previous 89 years of Hilltopper baseball. WKU knocked off second-seeded Missouri twice as well as rallied for a remarkable 10-9 win over eighth-ranked Ole Miss to force a winner-take-all NCAA Regional Championship game on Monday night.

In a performance for the ages, the Rebels' Drew Pomeranz and WKU's Matt Ridings battled each other pitch-for-pitch, taking a 1-1 game into the eighth inning before Ole Miss came out on top 4-1 in front of a crowd of 8,255 at Oxford-University Stadium.

Individually, Sun Belt All-Conference First-Teamer Wade Gaynor hit three home runs and drove in eight RBI in five NCAA Tournament games while sophomore catcher Matt Rice, a CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American, smacked 11 hits to give him 101 on the season, breaking the 24-year-old single season school record. Lastly, senior slugger Chad Cregar, playing in his hometown, hit one of the longest home runs in Oxford-Stadium University history in the tournament opener against Missouri.

1. LSU (49-16)
2. Arizona State (47-12)
3. Cal State Fullerton (45-14)
4. Texas (44-13-1)
5. Florida State (45-16)
6. North Carolina (45-16)
7. Rice (43-16)
8. Mississippi (43-18)
9. Florida (42-20)
10. Virginia (46-12-1)
11. UC Irvine (45-15)
12. Louisville (47-16)
13. Clemson (44-20)
14. East Carolina (46-18)
15. TCU (39-16)
16. Arkansas (37-22)
17. Southern Miss (38-24)
18. Georgia Tech (38-19-1)
19. Oklahoma (43-20)
20. Miami (Fla.) (38-22)
21. South Carolina (40-23)
22. Kansas State (43-18-1)
23. WKU (42-20)
24. Oregon State (37-19)
25. Ohio State (42-19)
26. Minnesota (40-19)
27. Oklahoma State (34-24)
28. Alabama (37-21)
29. Vanderbilt (37-27)
30. Coastal Carolina (47-16)

Good thing....Congrats on having such a good season!

It is amazing how much more respect you get as a team when you do well in a regional tournament. The Ole Miss fans were really impressed on what a good team WKU was but now some of the Virginia fans are dogging the Rebs about how they lost to WKU.
You should see some of the quotes on the Virginia board. "I could hold WKU to 6 hits", "They played in a weak conference", "Look at their schedule". etc. Hopefully someone will get to Omaha again maybe next season? If MTSU had beaten Vandy the second time and then lost to UofL they would've been in the top 30 instead of Vandy. Still it was a good year for SBC baseball so lets hope everyone beats some BCS teams next season we might get lucky since we are in such a "weak" conference.

one question for 'theboro' (the borracho).

where's middle in the rankings?

with hilltopper love,
the team that just tripled your win total in the postseason.

(06-04-2009 02:03 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  one question for 'theboro' (the borracho).

where's middle in the rankings?

with hilltopper love,
the team that just tripled your win total in the postseason.

Well there's no telling what we might have done in your regional or what you may have done in ours. I do know a few things for certain though.

1) Your 3 wins got you just as far as our 1 did.

2) WKU final record 42-20, MT final record 44-18

3) We won the head to head, we won the conference tournament.

With Blue Raider love,
the team that did everything better than you this year, except win two games that still got you no further than we got.

(06-04-2009 03:11 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-04-2009 02:03 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  one question for 'theboro' (the borracho).

where's middle in the rankings?

with hilltopper love,
the team that just tripled your win total in the postseason.

Well there's no telling what we might have done in your regional or what you may have done in ours. I do know a few things for certain though.

1) Your 3 wins got you just as far as our 1 did.

2) WKU final record 42-20, MT final record 44-18

3) We won the head to head, we won the conference tournament.

With Blue Raider love,
the team that did everything better than you this year, except win two games that still got you no further than we got.

Don't mean to split hairs, but I will. WKU made it to the final 32 (Regional Championship Game) whereas the MUTS finished in the top 48 of the tourney (by being third in the regional). What you said is like saying that getting to the second round of the NCAA Basketball Tourney is no better than losing in the first round.

Nevertheless, the Sun Belt was well represented this year and two quality programs made the Sun Belt proud.

(06-04-2009 03:11 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-04-2009 02:03 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  one question for 'theboro' (the borracho).

where's middle in the rankings?

with hilltopper love,
the team that just tripled your win total in the postseason.

Well there's no telling what we might have done in your regional or what you may have done in ours. I do know a few things for certain though.

1) Your 3 wins got you just as far as our 1 did.

2) WKU final record 42-20, MT final record 44-18

3) We won the head to head, we won the conference tournament.

With Blue Raider love,
the team that did everything better than you this year, except win two games that still got you no further than we got.

except.....that could be the muts mantra....in all things related to wku.....we did good except....you guys did better....and got more media...and are our big brother!!!!

and this was directed at the president of the mtsu chapter 'the borracho'. not you....not my good friend kajunraidah. none of the good folks at mtsu. directly at the candy@$$ named 'the borracho' who loves to come on here and talk smack but then disappears when he should be mannin' up. here is what i hear from him........<crickets>

with hilltopper love,

big brother.

p.s. keep tryin'......shoot for the stars....want to be us.....it's all good.

Congrats Beed.
WKU laid a fat egg the last week of the regular season and the conference tourney.
We tanked in the regionals.

I'll be proud that we were ranked going into the regionals, won more games than WKU and swept you head-to-head.

But thanks for thinking of MT first thing instead of celebrating your team's success.

Can't wait to see the dozens and dozens of fans you bring to Murfreesboro for the football game.

(06-04-2009 06:10 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  

(06-04-2009 03:11 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-04-2009 02:03 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  one question for 'theboro' (the borracho).

where's middle in the rankings?

with hilltopper love,
the team that just tripled your win total in the postseason.

Well there's no telling what we might have done in your regional or what you may have done in ours. I do know a few things for certain though.

1) Your 3 wins got you just as far as our 1 did.

2) WKU final record 42-20, MT final record 44-18

3) We won the head to head, we won the conference tournament.

With Blue Raider love,
the team that did everything better than you this year, except win two games that still got you no further than we got.

except.....that could be the muts mantra....in all things related to wku.....we did good except....you guys did better....and got more media...and are our big brother!!!!

and this was directed at the president of the mtsu chapter 'the borracho'. not you....not my good friend kajunraidah. none of the good folks at mtsu. directly at the candy@$$ named 'the borracho' who loves to come on here and talk smack but then disappears when he should be mannin' up. here is what i hear from him........<crickets>

with hilltopper love,

big brother.

p.s. keep tryin'......shoot for the stars....want to be us.....it's all good.

Give me a break. Yeah I may have said except... but seriously...

More wins? Check.
Head to head? Check.
Conference tournament? Check.

So you won three games in the NCAA and we won one, we're both sitting at home during super regionals.

Give me our season over yours 10 times out of 10.

(06-04-2009 09:24 PM)theboro Wrote:  Congrats Beed.
WKU laid a fat egg the last week of the regular season and the conference tourney.
We tanked in the regionals.

I'll be proud that we were ranked going into the regionals, won more games than WKU and swept you head-to-head.

But thanks for thinking of MT first thing instead of celebrating your team's success.

Can't wait to see the dozens and dozens of fans you bring to Murfreesboro for the football game.

How many times can the fans of MTSU do the same exact thing with WKU? Come on now - really?

(06-05-2009 01:20 AM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-04-2009 06:10 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  

(06-04-2009 03:11 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-04-2009 02:03 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  one question for 'theboro' (the borracho).

where's middle in the rankings?

with hilltopper love,
the team that just tripled your win total in the postseason.

Well there's no telling what we might have done in your regional or what you may have done in ours. I do know a few things for certain though.

1) Your 3 wins got you just as far as our 1 did.

2) WKU final record 42-20, MT final record 44-18

3) We won the head to head, we won the conference tournament.

With Blue Raider love,
the team that did everything better than you this year, except win two games that still got you no further than we got.

except.....that could be the muts mantra....in all things related to wku.....we did good except....you guys did better....and got more media...and are our big brother!!!!

and this was directed at the president of the mtsu chapter 'the borracho'. not you....not my good friend kajunraidah. none of the good folks at mtsu. directly at the candy@$$ named 'the borracho' who loves to come on here and talk smack but then disappears when he should be mannin' up. here is what i hear from him........<crickets>

with hilltopper love,

big brother.

p.s. keep tryin'......shoot for the stars....want to be us.....it's all good.

Give me a break. Yeah I may have said except... but seriously...

More wins? Check.
Head to head? Check.
Conference tournament? Check.

So you won three games in the NCAA and we won one, we're both sitting at home during super regionals.

Give me our season over yours 10 times out of 10.

All you clowns can shut up. C-USA still has 3 teams going strong. Enjoy your early vacation.

(06-05-2009 01:20 PM)cb4029 Wrote:  All you clowns can shut up. C-USA still has 3 teams going strong. Enjoy your early vacation.

Your Blazer's vacation started a week and a half earlier, how's the water?

(06-05-2009 01:43 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-05-2009 01:20 PM)cb4029 Wrote:  All you clowns can shut up. C-USA still has 3 teams going strong. Enjoy your early vacation.

Your Blazer's vacation started a week and a half earlier, how's the water?

If you played in our conference, you'd be right there with us.

(06-05-2009 01:49 PM)cb4029 Wrote:  If you played in our conference, you'd be right there with us.

That may be true, C-USA is really strong at the top, but we won 44 games in the #7 RPI conference, C-USA is the #5 RPI conference. I think we'd have a shot and I know we'd fare better than you did. If you played in the Belt you'd still be sitting at home.

(06-04-2009 09:24 PM)theboro Wrote:  Congrats Beed.
WKU laid a fat egg the last week of the regular season and the conference tourney.
We tanked in the regionals.

I'll be proud that we were ranked going into the regionals, won more games than WKU and swept you head-to-head.

But thanks for thinking of MT first thing instead of celebrating your team's success.

Can't wait to see the dozens and dozens of fans you bring to Murfreesboro for the football game.

wrong theborracho.....i replied to this thread on thursday....we lost to ole miss on monday night. i was thrilled that we manhandled mizzou in two games. i truly didn't expect to beat ole miss.....especially when we got down big.

i had not even thought of you guys until i was checking out this site and saw the heading about wku. i then remembered your crowing and responded in kind.

as for mtfratboy......if a regular season win against us means more than ncaa success then you absolutely prove my point that we're big brother.

i personally pulled for the muts because i don't like vandy's arrogance and living in this state have to put up with louieville's arrogance. that said.....i couldn't resist calling out my dear amigo...theborracho.

(06-05-2009 02:00 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  as for mtfratboy......if a regular season win against us means more than ncaa success then you absolutely prove my point that we're big brother.

NCAA success? Really? You guys exited during regionals, just like we did. Try to make this into the basketball tournament if you want, but this tournament doesn't work like March Madness. Sure absolutely, if you want to be 100% technically accurate you made it a round further than us, but the fact of the matter is you finished 2nd in your regional and we finished 3rd in ours and only 1st place moves on. In the eyes of any one other than WKU fans, MT and WKU made it equally far and were equally successful.

We'll both fly Sun Belt regular season championship flags and NCAA regional flags at our ballparks and neither one of us we'll be flying NCAA super regional flags. Middle Tennessee, however, will fly a Sun Belt tournament champion flag.

Bottom line you guys came up one win shy of having more NCAA success than we did. The two wins that you got that we didn't are just fluff.

(06-05-2009 02:12 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-05-2009 02:00 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  as for mtfratboy......if a regular season win against us means more than ncaa success then you absolutely prove my point that we're big brother.

NCAA success? Really? You guys exited during regionals, just like we did. Try to make this into the basketball tournament if you want, but this tournament doesn't work like March Madness. Sure absolutely, if you want to be 100% technically accurate you made it a round further than us, but the fact of the matter is you finished 2nd in your regional and we finished 3rd in ours and only 1st place moves on. In the eyes of any one other than WKU fans, MT and WKU made it equally far and were equally successful.

We'll both fly Sun Belt regular season championship flags and NCAA regional flags at our ballparks and neither one of us we'll be flying NCAA super regional flags. Middle Tennessee, however, will fly a Sun Belt tournament champion flag.

Bottom line you guys came up one win shy of having more NCAA success than we did. The two wins that you got that we didn't are just fluff.

mtfratboy.....i truly unnastand what a tn. edumacation entails. (a state where the folks squall whenever an income tax is mentioned in re education funding)

but even a tn. edumacation should teach you that 3 > 1.

that's simple maff son. i didn't even throw any naughts in there to make it complicated.

i can totally unnastand how you wouldn't have the faintest idear about postseason success since you follow a school that has NONE!

my original bone to pick was wiff theborracho....not you son. go on back to the frat and play tummy-sticks with one of your boys. i'm tiring of this conversation.

3 > 1.

i win!!!

(06-05-2009 03:49 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  mtfratboy.....i truly unnastand what a tn. edumacation entails. (a state where the folks squall whenever an income tax is mentioned in re education funding)

but even a tn. edumacation should teach you that 3 > 1.

that's simple maff son. i didn't even throw any naughts in there to make it complicated.

i can totally unnastand how you wouldn't have the faintest idear about postseason success since you follow a school that has NONE!

my original bone to pick was wiff theborracho....not you son. go on back to the frat and play tummy-sticks with one of your boys. i'm tiring of this conversation.

3 > 1.

i win!!!

I'll ask you kindly not to call me son or boy, as you are not my father and I'm not a boy, what's more your homophobic jokes show some real class.

I understand that you won 3 games and we won 1, what you can't seem to grasp is that your 3 wins did absolutely nothing, nil or naught for Western that our 1 win didn't do for us. You don't get more clout for being the last to LOSE in your region than we do for being the next to last to LOSE in our regional, we both LOST. This isn't the same thing as making the sweet 16 vs. making the Elite 8. You may have made another "round" but it's not viewed that way in college baseball. In College baseball there are only three rounds, regionals, super regionals and the finals and we were put out in the same round. That is why your two wins are FLUFF and nothing more.

As far as your jokes about my education go I can't ever help but laugh at people in Kentucky making fun of the education in Tennessee or people in Alabama making fun of Mississippi, or Tennessee people making fun of Georgia or Georgia people making fun of Kentucky etc... We're all in the south and as far as national perception goes, we're all idiots and you casting stones across state lines at the education system of another state that really is not all that different than your own just makes you look foolish. In the south, we're so quick to get defensive when someone from the north insults our intelligence and then the next day turn around and call someone a moron because they're from another southern state other than your own. People are not smart or dumb based on where they are born or where they live or where they go to college and based on statistics that show that less than a third of the country has a bachelor's degree or better I'll kindly ask you not to degrade the degree I'm currently working hard towards earning because you don't know a damn thing about me, where I came from, or where I'm going.

(06-05-2009 04:36 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-05-2009 03:49 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  mtfratboy.....i truly unnastand what a tn. edumacation entails. (a state where the folks squall whenever an income tax is mentioned in re education funding)

but even a tn. edumacation should teach you that 3 > 1.

that's simple maff son. i didn't even throw any naughts in there to make it complicated.

i can totally unnastand how you wouldn't have the faintest idear about postseason success since you follow a school that has NONE!

my original bone to pick was wiff theborracho....not you son. go on back to the frat and play tummy-sticks with one of your boys. i'm tiring of this conversation.

3 > 1.

i win!!!

I'll ask you kindly not to call me son or boy, as you are not my father and I'm not a boy, what's more your homophobic jokes show some real class.

I understand that you won 3 games and we won 1, what you can't seem to grasp is that your 3 wins did absolutely nothing, nil or naught for Western that our 1 win didn't do for us. You don't get more clout for being the last to LOSE in your region than we do for being the next to last to LOSE in our regional, we both LOST. This isn't the same thing as making the sweet 16 vs. making the Elite 8. You may have made another "round" but it's not viewed that way in college baseball. In College baseball there are only three rounds, regionals, super regionals and the finals and we were put out in the same round. That is why your two wins are FLUFF and nothing more.

As far as your jokes about my education go I can't ever help but laugh at people in Kentucky making fun of the education in Tennessee or people in Alabama making fun of Mississippi, or Tennessee people making fun of Georgia or Georgia people making fun of Kentucky etc... We're all in the south and as far as national perception goes, we're all idiots and you casting stones across state lines at the education system of another state that really is not all that different than your own just makes you look foolish. In the south, we're so quick to get defensive when someone from the north insults our intelligence and then the next day turn around and call someone a moron because they're from another southern state other than your own. People are not smart or dumb based on where they are born or where they live or where they go to college and based on statistics that show that less than a third of the country has a bachelor's degree or better I'll kindly ask you not to degrade the degree I'm currently working hard towards earning because you don't know a damn thing about me, where I came from, or where I'm going.

son....you need to take a chill pill. and i can call you son if i want to. i'm a southerner and i can call young boys son....you're obviously in college so you're a boy to me.

sorry to strike such a chord on the fratboy reference....you gotta know that rep precedes you. i know you probably hate the way the townies in the boro talk about fratboys and it put you on the defensive.

as far as southern caricatures bein' dumb.....i was in the marine corps with many northerners that looked down upon us 'dumb' southerners but since i was in a m.o.s. that i had to score as high or higher than they did on the asvab i just laughed at their ignorance.

i'll kindly axe you not to respond to me when i'm going after your poster boy 'theborracho'.

here's your next assignment......stop someone on the street and axe them; "who do you think is more successful....a team that went 3-2 in the ncaa baseball tourney or a team that went 1-2?"

now you can break it down to regionals and sub-regionals and whatever you want to break it down to amongst baseball gurus....but talk to the man on the street and see who gets more cred.

what more do you want....i pulled for you guys....you let me down. i'm gonna have fun with that at the expense of 'theborracho'. at least he is intelligente enough to come on here....take his licks and disappear. i give him props for that. you on the other hand think i'm one of your fratboy haters and want to argue with you all night long that you're not buying friends but setting up a social network to ensure financial security for you and your impending future.

fun playin' with you but.....

3 > 1

(06-06-2009 08:37 AM)dahbeed Wrote:  son....you need to take a chill pill. and i can call you son if i want to. i'm a southerner and i can call young boys son....you're obviously in college so you're a boy to me.

sorry to strike such a chord on the fratboy reference....you gotta know that rep precedes you. i know you probably hate the way the townies in the boro talk about fratboys and it put you on the defensive.

as far as southern caricatures bein' dumb.....i was in the marine corps with many northerners that looked down upon us 'dumb' southerners but since i was in a m.o.s. that i had to score as high or higher than they did on the asvab i just laughed at their ignorance.

i'll kindly axe you not to respond to me when i'm going after your poster boy 'theborracho'.

here's your next assignment......stop someone on the street and axe them; "who do you think is more successful....a team that went 3-2 in the ncaa baseball tourney or a team that went 1-2?"

now you can break it down to regionals and sub-regionals and whatever you want to break it down to amongst baseball gurus....but talk to the man on the street and see who gets more cred.

what more do you want....i pulled for you guys....you let me down. i'm gonna have fun with that at the expense of 'theborracho'. at least he is intelligente enough to come on here....take his licks and disappear. i give him props for that. you on the other hand think i'm one of your fratboy haters and want to argue with you all night long that you're not buying friends but setting up a social network to ensure financial security for you and your impending future.

fun playin' with you but.....

3 > 1

Clearly you don't know thing one about southern hospitality. I ask you not to call me son, not to call me boy and you continue to do both. You continually make assumptions about me, you assume I'm some dumb 20 year old "frat boy". I'm 25 years old and yes I'm a member of a fraternity, but I'm not some dumb frat boy. I started posting under this handle on another message board like 5 years ago when I was still very much a young dumb frat boy. I'm sure you did similar dumb things that I did as a young dumb frat boy when you were a young dumb leatherneck. Granted you were serving our country while I was playing beer pong till 5am which I am grateful for, but I've known plenty of marines who did the same kind of dumb stuff I did in the fraternity. My fraternity helped shape me into the man I am today and I really don't appreciate your disparaging remarks.

Ask the man on the street who did better in a NCAA regional team A) 3-2 or team B) 1-2 and the man on the street will reply "people follow college baseball?"

You tried translating to basketball, let's translate to football. MT goes 8-4 wins the conference and beats WKU, goes to the New Orleans Bowl. WKU goes 7-5 finishes and goes to the Motor City Bowl. MT jumps out to an early lead, in the New Orleans Bowl but loses the lead in the third quarter and loses the game. WKU jumps out to an early lead only to lose in the final minutes of the 4th quarter. We both had a good season, ours was better and we beat you, we both made the post season, you may have shown a little better but you don't get more clout for almost winning a bowl game just like you don't get more clout for almost winning a regional.

In reality there are two types of teams in a NCAA regional, the team that moves on and the teams that don't. We both belong to the latter. We just happen to have a conference tournament championship in our back pocket and you don't. I would trade the conference tournament championship for a Super Regional birth, but not one win shy of a Super Regional birth like your Toppers. We were the better team this year, we had the better record, the head to head and the conference tournament championship and your two fluff wins don't change any of that.

You were right about one thing, it has been fun playin' with you
, but...

Better record, head to head, conference tourny champ > 2 fluff wins