HI NOTES: Man of Steele, Strength of Schedule, Tigers & Bears Oh My

Big ups to @k_steele29 on being named #SEC Player of the Week! Hit .545 and slugged 1.000 while pitching season-high 7.1 IP w/ 9Ks.
— Mizzou Baseball (@MUTigerBaseball) April 8, 2013

The only way to sum up what @k_steele29 did for @mutigerbaseball this weekend: video game numbers.
— Brandon (@bmweiss18) April 7, 2013

♦ SEC Baseball Players Of The Week (SEC Digital Network)

Player of the Week: Keaton Steele, Missouri

• Had a huge week at the plate, batting .500 with three doubles and a homer while driving in three runs and scoring three more...Extended his hitting streak to eight straight games with hits in each contest at Georgia, hitting .545 vs. UGA and slugging 1.000 (11 total bases) on the weekend with an OBP of .571...Drove in the winning runs with his first Division I homer on Friday.

• In the Sunday finale, took over on the mound with Mizzou trailing 4-0 and allowed just one earned run over the final 7.1 innings, striking out nine in that span while allowing just four hits (and four total base runners).

• Retired the final 15 batters he faced in that game as he was perfect over the final five innings, allowing the Tigers to come back from down 5-0 to win the game, 8-5.

• Earned the win in the relief outing as he went a career-best 7.1 innings while the nine Ks in the outing were also a career-best.

♦ Conference Realignment (College Baseball Today)

Another indication that your conference has too many freakin’ teams in it: Vanderbilt and LSU won’t even play each other in the regular season. And if they DO face each other in Hoover for the SEC tournament, chances are their post-season fate will already be sealed and though it will be a great matchup it will essentially be ballast for the show...

STATS

♦ According to BoydsWorld.com, Mizzou's Strength of Schedule is ranked 27th among Division 1 schools.

MISSOURI STATE

Nice job out there @breckinw! #ESPNU #WCalum
— Tyler Burgess (@TBurgess29) April 7, 2013

♦ Be sure to check out Sam Nasci's Mizzou Matchup preview of the Missouri State Bears

♦ Baseball Bears not focused on MVC woes (Springfield News-Leader)

As for MSU, [Kendall]Rogers said the Bears have the look of “a very good team which has played very well this season,” as evidenced by MSU’s No. 25 ranking in this week’s Perfect Game top 25.

Rogers said MSU should be a bit concerned by a strength of schedule that ranked only No. 192 this week, according to Warrennolan.com.

The Bears have not played a game against a top-50 RPI opponent and the league has only four wins — three by Indiana State — over current top-50 teams. MSU is 7-3 against teams rated 51-100...