UH misses out on bid due to late-season skid

As the final few schools were announced Monday during the NCAA baseball tournament selection show, slim hope turned to disappointment for the University of Houston.

For just the second time in the last six years, UH was not selected among the 64-team postseason field. The Cougars stumbled down the stretch, losing five of the last six games, including a quick exit from the American Athletic Conference tournament.

Just how close were the Cougars to making the postseason? They were listed as the first team out of the field, according to the NCAA selection committee.

“I thought we controlled our own destiny until the very end,” UH coach Todd Whitting said. “We just picked a bad week to have a bad week.”

UH joined Missouri, Texas State and Central Florida, another member of the AAC, to be left out of the postseason.

“First four out doesn’t win any awards,” Whitting said. “It just emphasizes we were really close. I think we were literally one win away the last week from being safely in the tournament. We controlled our own destiny until the end. When you depend on others

for your fate, it can get a little dicey, and that’s what happened to us. We had to put it in the hands of the committee to get us in and it just didn’t work out.”

UH (32-24) had a No. 42 RPI and eight top-50 wins, two metrics used by the NCAA selection committee in determining the bracket, and had a better RPI than three of the final teams to make the field: Duke (44), Florida State (50) and TCU (59).

“It’s miserable,” Whitting said of the Cougars watching Monday’s 30-minute show in the Carl Lewis Auditorium and not hearing their name called. “To think you have a chance to get in and you see some that got in and you didn’t, that’s really disappointing.

“It’s tough to make the NCAA Tournament. There are 31 automatic bids, and by the time the Power Five schools take what they get, really the rest of the country is fighting over about six bids.”

Ray Tanner, chair of the Division I selection committee, said the Cougars’ 1-5 finish to the season and only three AAC series wins were factors in the decision. UH lost both games in the AAC tournament, including the opener to Connecticut in the ninth inning.

“Houston is a team we had a lot of conversation about,” Tanner said on a conference call with reporters. “They’ve been a good team perennially. It was difficult leaving them out of the field.”

The AAC received only three bids: East Carolina, the No. 10 national seed, UConn and Cincinnati. The outcome of Sunday’s AAC tournament final did not help the Cougars’ cause, with Cincinnati destroying UConn 22-5 to lock up its first NCAA bid since 1974 and steal a bubble spot.

“It’s disappointing,” Whitting said. “I thought we had a really good shot to get

an at-large selection. On a bigger scale, the American Athletic is the fifth-rated conference and only got three bids. I don’t agree with that and I don’t understand that.”

Tanner said TCU (32-26) was included in the field based on going 4-4 in Big 12 series, 12 top-50 wins and reaching the conference tournament semifinals. The Horned Frogs went 4-6 down the stretch.

“I thought we deserved it and you have teams getting at-large bids in the 50s,” said Whitting, not referring to TCU (or any other team) by name. “The committee made their decision. Somebody has to sit at home, and it’s going to be us this year.”

UH had made the postseason four of the last five years under Whitting, twice hosting a regional and advancing to the super regional round in 2014.

“I feel bad for the kids in that room, the people that support this program, the coaching staff that’s worked so hard to get us where we are,” Whitting said. “It’s not the end of the world.

I’m excited about our club coming back next year.”

With a lot of youth this season, the 2020 squad will return several starters but also undergo some changes with the graduation of five seniors, including the school’s career home run leader Joe Davis. The Cougars could also be hit hard by the Major League Baseball draft, with third baseman Jared Triolo, the team’s leading hitter at .332; saves leader Fred Villarreal; righthander Devon Roedahl, the AAC Newcomer Pitcher of the Year; reliever Sean Bretz and two-way player Lael Lockhart Jr. among those who could leave early.

This marks the first time since 1994 that the city’s two top Division I baseball programs, UH and Rice, will miss the NCAA Tournament in the same year. The Owls’ 23-year run ended in 2017.