The midway point of the college baseball season is here.
With conference races heating up, it’s time to hand out some awards for great plays, feats and some of the more bizarre and shocking moments:
History-makers award: Texas Tech coach Larry Hays got his 1,500th victory when the Red Raiders beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 10-5 on April 2, becoming the fourth coach to reach that milestone.
Texas coach Augie Garrido, who has 1,651 career victories, won his 500th game at UT on Tuesday against Texas State 5-3. Garrido is the second coach to win 500 or more games at two Division I schools (929 at Cal State Fullerton), joining Jim Morris (Georgia Tech and Miami, Fla.).
Where’s Waldo? award: Texas slugger Kyle Russell, who led the nation with 28 home runs in 2007, has three so far and is hitting .233.
Best streak: Texas Wesleyan (28-8) has a school-record 17 consecutive victories, eclipsing the previous mark of 15 set in 1980.
Best recruiting tool: TCU took two of three from Mississippi, then No. 2 in the nation, on March 8-9.
Ironman Award: UT-Arlington began its season with 10 games in 10 days.
Best defensive play: I n TCU’s Mountain West Conference opener with New Mexico, TCU second baseman Ben Carruthers ran toward right field and fully extended himself to make a diving catch.
Shock treatment award: A tie. Dallas Baptist defeated Rice 7-6 in 12 innings on March 5, and UT-Arlington took two from Alabama on Feb. 28 and March 2.
All-for-nothing award: Tennessee redshirt freshman Bryan Morgado struck out 10, but the Vols had just two hits in a 2-0 loss to Oklahoma at the Houston College Classic in Houston on March 2.
Extremist award: Right after taking two of three from Missouri on March 28-30, Texas Tech turned around and was swept by Nebraska in Lincoln last weekend.

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If there is one thing I hate about conference championship week, it is the halftime shows that come with it.
Some people love them. Listening to talking heads from different networks adamantly argue about which bubble teams will be announced as part of the NCAA tournament field during today’s Selection Show, and which squads will be headed to the less-prestigious NIT, or even the dreaded CBI, is what they live for.
Not while every major-conference team that is on ”the bubble” is so mediocre, anyway.
Seriously, is there one halfway-decent bubble team from a big conference out there this year?
”Virginia Tech, because it played No. 1 North Carolina to a close loss, is definitely deserving of a spot in the field.”
Ugh. Where’s the mute button.
Funny how none of these highly paid experts mentions that Arizona finished the season with a losing conference record, Kentucky struggled through a string of embarrassing nonconference losses not much different than Idaho State and Virginia Tech hasn’t beaten a ranked team all season.
None of these teams deserves to go to the NCAA tournament. But all three could find their names on bracket lines today. If they don’t, a coach somewhere in America will follow Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim’s lead and complain that the Big Dance is too small.

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