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Show T-birds face "take or break" Situation The Southern Utah State 1 College baseball team can start a second season for itself this week, or the Thunderbirds can finish its only season. It all depends on how well the 'Birds do in the Thursday-through-Saturday Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament at Pueblo, Colorado. University of Southern Colorado will host the eight-team eight-team tournament. "We can start a brand new season for ourselves, it we can manage a first or second place finish," Stan Jack, Thunderbird coach, explains. ex-plains. "If we finish below second place, we will certainly cer-tainly be out of contention for any post-season competition." com-petition." SUSC will take a 5-23 record into Pueblo; that is not good enough to win a berth to the NAIA District Seven playoffs. However, theRMAC champion and the RMAC second place team- , as determined in the tourn-mant-will be entered in the district tourney. If SUSC should get a district berth, the Thunderbirds will probably host the district tournament. The four-team district meet will include, in addition to the top two RMAC teams, the top independent in the district (Grand Canyon College) and an at large team determined by season record (probably Denver University). "Our job is very obvious," Jack explains. "Either we do well in the conference tournament, or we're through for the season." Opinion around the RMAC is that there are four strong teams in the league and four "other" teams. Labeled among the strong teams are Mesa (which has defeated SUSC six times in eight games), University of Southern Colorado, Regis College, and New Mexico Highlands University. The "other" teams are SUSC, Colorado Mines, Western State, and Western New Mexico. "A lot of how well we do depends on the draw for bracketing," Jack says. "If we get a good draw, we could do very well. We have a team which is much better than our overall record would indicate. We hit well; our fielding is improving; im-proving; and if we get some pitching, we can be very tough." Jack will use Gam Jorgensen (1-6), Todd Mortensen (1-6), and Don Gubler (3-2) as his first three pitchers, in what order he still hasn't decided. All three are righthanders. . ,,, , "It will take a minimum of four games and a maximum of six games in three days to win it," Jack says. "That means that much of our success will depend on how well our pitching holds up." A complicating factor for SUSC is the physical condition of outfielder Tony Pappas, ; the team's leading hitter. Pappas missed last week's series with Northern Arizona University because of a severe bone bruise below the knee on his right leg. He may or may not be well enough to play this week. Last week, SUSC won twice and lost three times. The Birds fell to Northern Arizona twice (14-6 and 6-5) and beat the Lumberjacks once (9-8) in games at Cedar City. Early in the week, SUSC and University of Utah split a pair of 2-1 decisions at Salt Lake City. |