I think most followers of Mountain West baseball were aware that the Falcons had a chance to come away from the conference tournament as champions. They had the best pitcher in the tournament, Paul Skenes, who would most likely be able to come away with a win in the opening game against the No 1 seed. They had an offense that led the league in homeruns and could score runs by the bucket, highlighted by the Tony Gwynn Player of the Year, Sam Kulasingam.
However, they also had a pitching staff that had a staff ERA of 6.