University of the Incarnate Word junior Chris Pacheco leads the team in batting average and stolen bases. The Cardinals are fighting to make the post-season regional tournament with just three weeks of the regular season to play. Photo by John Albright

With just three weeks left in the season, Danny Heep, head coach of the University of the Incarnate Word baseball team, has little time left to make his case heard for an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II regional tournament. Finishing strong against the top three teams in the Heartland Conference should speak volumes for him.

The Cardinals, with a 29-9 conference record, sit on top of the Heartland Conference standings. With them, not too far behind, are their next three opponents: University of Texas-Permian Basin, St. Edward’s University and cross-town rival St. Mary’s University. It’s easy to see that over the next three weeks not only will the conference championship be decided, but the fate of the Cardinals as well.

Because the Heartland Conference does not get an automatic bid to the NCAA regional baseball tournament, each of the top four teams are desperately fighting and clawing for wins to bolster their record and their claim to one of the six at-large bids.

This weekend, the Cardinals travel across town to St. Mary’s to play a pivotal four-game series against the Rattlers. The Rattlers-Cardinals rivalry has always made for some thrilling and entertaining baseball, but with both teams needing wins, the series becomes even more special.

After finishing up with St. Mary’s, UIW will host fourth-place UT-Permian Basin May 2 and 3. The Cardinals will finish up their 2008 conference schedule with four games against top ranked St. Edward’s May 9 and 10. That final series, scheduled to be played at UIW’s Sullivan Field, may shape up as a fight to see who receives an at-large invitation to the regional tournament.

Heep knows how important these final three series will be. “At this point I think the only chance we have to make regionals is to take three of four from St. Mary’s, two of three from Odessa (UT-Permian Basin), and three of four from St. Edward’s.”

The way he has his team playing lately, that might be a possibility. Earlier in the year UIW dropped two games in a three-game series to St. Mary’s and then dropped two games to St. Edward’s. But recently the Cardinals have been red hot, posting a 9-1 conference record in the month of April and outscoring their opponents 127-37.

Heep, now in his 11th year at UIW, has led the Cardinals to the regional tournament two times in the last four years and won the Heartland conference championship in 2006.