That might be frustrating, but it's not totally unexpected. The roster was gutted by all those players who deserted the team during the hazing investigation. You just know that least one of them was involved in it and feigned innocence and outrage to cover up their role. The report showed copies of texts between players conspiring to lie at their interviews.

So far I've seen that team has struggled mightily to hit. That's not surprising. They missed out on a lot of practice in the fall, and the lack of non-conference games left them under-prepared for the Big West games. Still they managed to put scares into UCI and UCSB.

The team does have some very good pitchers, but they don't have enough of them. Nate Freeman and Bryan Green compete well against any team. Daniel Carrion went from being a little-used pitcher to being their best reliever. There is a big drop-off though to the quality of work turned in by the rest of the bullpen. They lost Tuesday's game because of the bullpen. After Carrion started with three good innings, the bullpen imploded. Carrion probably could've handled another inning or two but Nicholson has had to be very careful not to over-work his pitchers-he doesn't have as many as the Aggies would usually have.

Some good puzzle pieces here. Hope they don't split too.