The UT people were providing breakfast tacos in the media tent this morning at 9:30. I left the house in time, but on the hilly, winding, two-lane country road that connects me with Austin, I got stuck behind four of the 40,000 bikers that have converged on the area for the Republic of Texas Biker Rally this weekend. And they were going 15 mph under the speed limit. And that added ten minutes to my drive. And I didn’t get to the media tent until 9:45. And all the breakfast tacos are gone. And I’m in a foul mood now. So foul that I don’t even care that I just started five consecutive sentences with a conjunction. Mrs. Burledge, my high school English teacher, is rolling in her grave right now. Free breakfast tacos, GONE, GONE, GONE!!! Oh, the humanity…

Well, if there’s anything that can cheer me up, it’s good baseball, and we’ll hopefully have that today. UT-Arlington and North Carolina State play an elimination game at 11 am, and Texas and Stanford will duke it out at 3 pm.

Eryk McConnell (7-6, 4.20 ERA) will start on the mound for NC State. The Wolfpack offense has averaged an incredible 8.8 runs per game this season, so they don’t have many bad days. Their bad days, however, have seemed to come when McConnell starts – in his six losses, he has been backed by only 17 runs, an average of 2.8 per game.

The Wolfpack bats shouldn’t have too much trouble today against UTA’s rag-tag pitching staff. The Mavs’ team ERA is 5.64, and the lowest ERA on the entire staff is Austin Bridges’ 4.62. UTA has passed on staff workhorse Dillon Gee, and will give a surprise start to Chris Taylor. Taylor (4-5, 4.81 ERA) was awesome in his last start, eliminating conference champ McNeese State 5-1 with a complete game, ten strikeout performance. The Mavs will probably have to score a lot to win this one, but their offense was very quiet yesterday, getting their only run on a homer. Leading hitter Adam Moore (who has been fantastic this season) really struggled, going 0-for-4 with three K’s. UTA got routed in the first game of the Southland Conference Tournament, but rebounded with four consecutive wins to take the title, so they've been in this position before.

At 11 am, the scoreboard already shows the temperature at 87 degrees, the humidity is high, and the flags are limp. It’s going to be hot and nasty today.