WWL: Lumberjacks dominate Bearkats, win fourth-straight series

One week ago, as Stephen F. Austin swept Northwestern State in Nacogdoches, there were still legitimate questions as to whether or not the Lumberjacks were a bona fide Southland Conference contender. A weak schedule early in league play made the nine-straight wins in the SLC seem a bit like fool's gold.

In fact, I wrote this at the time:

Are the three-straight sweeps a byproduct of the fact that Abilene Christian, Incarnate Word, and Northwestern State happen to be the 11th, 12th, and 13th place teams in the league? Or are they 11th, 12th, and 13th in part because SFA swept them...?

There was no such scheduling break on Easter weekend. Stephen F. Austin drew Sam Houston State, the league leaders, preseason favorites, and winners of 18-straight league games dating back to last season. On Thursday, behind a gem from pitching ace Heath Donica, the Bearkats made it 19-straight.

Then, well, things changed.

Here's what we learned on a beautiful holiday weekend of college baseball in Nacogdoches, Texas:

Baseball is a mental sport. When a team believes they're good, watch out -

Stephen F. Austin was not supposed to win a series against Sam Houston State this past weekend. From an objective standpoint, even a single victory in the series probably would've been a positive step for a Lumberjacks team tabbed 7th and 8th in the preseason.

But no. Johnny Cardenas had this team expecting to beat the Bearkats.

The Lumberjacks showed flashes in the non-conference season, but there were definitely some rough stretches. Since the 0-3 start in the SLC, though, SFA has been peaking at the right time, both dishing out blowouts and stealing close battles. While fans look on in surprise, there's a mature confidence about the team that gives an illusion that they've been here, as a contender, before; even though we know none of these current players ever have.

This is an unforgiving sport they play and it will be interesting to see how this group handles adversity in the latter parts of the season (assuming this hot streak ever ends). But so far, as the Lumberjacks keep rolling, these players are winning the battle between the ears, too.

If you think you're pretty good, in baseball, sometimes that means you are.

KatFans.com will forever restore your faith in the quality of SFA fans -

Sam Houston State, potentially still the best team in the Southland Conference, won 19-straight games and came a single game shy of an all-time SLC record for consecutive league wins to open a new season.

And apparently, a contingency of Sam Houston State fans want second-year head coach Matt Deggs fired now. Actual quotes from the KatFans forum:

"My nephew is one of our front line freshman. He's going to transfer and go the juco route to the draft. He's not alone!"

"The weakness of the SHSU pitching staff has raised its ugly head. The loss of Gossage this year will be a BIG issue for the Kats for the rest of this season. Friday night pitcher is outstanding, but the Saturday and Sunday pitchers are BIG issues that I am not sure Deggs can correct.Looks like the rest of the season will be very difficult."

"This. It's time to show Deggs the door."

I mean...what?

A third year head coach putting together arguably the best regular season in recent memory for the Bearkats - and one slip up, against a red hot team on the road, is apparently worthy of his canning.

Clearly, losing to SFA is unacceptable in Kat-land. We've seen similar temper tantrums directed at Bearkats' basketball head coach Jason Hooten, former football offensive coordinator Phil Longo (who never even lost to SFA), and more or less anyone on the payroll in Huntsville if a single outcome doesn't go as planned.

Let's be clear, though: SFA fans aren't entirely above the fray. The uneducated and blind hate directed at quarterback Zach Conque was pretty low at times over the past couple years. But if ever I feel down about the class and quality of the fans in Nacogdoches, a quick visit to KatFans can quickly free my soul.

For all our issues, referendum votes, apathy, all of it, SFA fans will always be ten times better than their counterparts 90 miles southwest.

Visiting their unofficial fan forum after a loss in any sport is the living proof.

SFA's bullpen has been good all year, but they're getting better and better -

Will Vest and Tyler Starks have been SFA's not-so-secret weapons all season in late relief innings. The Lumberjacks' bullpen is more than a two person show, though.

Since an all-around rough weekend in Lake Charles to open the conference season, this group has been a virtual lock in any close game. Over the past two weekends, the 'pen has combined to pitch 17 innings between Northwestern State and Sam Houston State. The Bearkats, who led the SLC in most offensive statistics entering the weekend, were dominated the same way the Demons and their dead-last offense were.

Allowing just two earned runs over both series combined (1.06 ERA), the relief pitching was certainly good enough for a sweep of both teams (even if ultimately SFA stranding the tying run 90 feet away in the 9th on Thursday cost the 'Jacks in a close 3-2 loss).

There have obviously been a handful of players used in non-conference situations that haven't fared quite as well in losses to Louisiana Tech and Little Rock, but in the big situations against big teams in the league, Cardenas' relievers have been just short of automatic.

Paired with a starting rotation of Trevor Kiminski, Patrick Ledet, and Tony Grabowske, a group clearly playing their best baseball over the last month, it has been hard to score anything on the Lumberjacks of late.

Can SFA's offense continue it's upward trajectory?  -

If you've followed the Lumberjacks over the past years, you'd never imagine that we'd be talking about scoring as potentially the weakness of the team. That sounds ridiculous after run-ruling the second best pitching team in the Southland Conference in the series finale this last weekend, but you could argue that hitting is probably the most inconsistent phase on this generally consistent team.

SFA had some trouble with Northwestern State's pitching a week ago, despite the sweep, and certainly with Sam Houston State's until the final innings of the Saturday contest. It is far less about actual production (let's be honest, it's been pretty good for the most part) than it is about possible untapped potential.

Certain major producers in SFA's unstoppable offense a year ago didn't open the 2017 season in the same form they concluded 2016. A lot of this has to do with strength of schedule in the non-conference season. But not all of it.

Most, like Tyler Kendrick, have seen their numbers climb consistently through league play. Still, even SFA's lead-off man hasn't yet managed to find his 2016 numbers for the season (batting average from .338 in 2016 to .297 in 2017, on-base percentage from .416 to .386).

Even with some low-scoring games since SFA's explosion against Incarnate Word a few weeks back, it seems to be headed in the right direction. In the past month, since March 19th, SFA's team batting average has climbed from .236 to a respectable .283 (fourth in the league).

But in the spirit of nitpicking, since this team seems to be so well-rounded as of late, those are trends that need to not stand still, but continue northbound for this team to achieve what it's capable of.

The Lumberjacks will battle Lamar and Southeastern Louisiana a bit later this season where the Cardinals and Lions boast impressive pitching staffs. Those six games will present a nice challenge for SFA heading into the conference tournament and will be an opportunity to evaluate how far the bats have come. In the meantime, a series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi this weekend should only help keep the offensive trends moving the right direction.

We'll find out soon if the road woes are officially in the past -

Again, we can't make too much of non-conference stats. Still, for the season, SFA has managed to win just four games away from Jaycees Field. Three of those games came against Incarnate Word in a sweep a few weeks back and the fourth against Houston Baptist in what was officially a non-conference match.

As much as the 'Jacks have enjoyed this three-of-four-series-at-home stretch, they'll now see the opposite for the next month. After a non-conference game at Baylor on Tuesday, SFA will travel to Corpus Christi for a three game series this next weekend. From there, it's back home for Southeastern Louisiana before back-to-back road series with Nicholls and Lamar.

SFA has enjoyed a nice stretch of really, really good baseball. A lot of it has come from the comfort of home and in front of friendly fans. Pay special attention to what happens in this next month as the Lumberjacks play with road fire once again.

It starts in Waco on Tuesday (where Sam Houston State beat Baylor a week ago, by the way) and a bit further south for three against the Islanders of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Let's hope another week brings a few more reasons to be proud of this overachieving baseball team.