Yesterday went pretty much as expected.  BW boat raced Wilm.  No surprise there.  Ott swept Cap in a couple games that were tied late.  Cap just doesn't have the pitching depth to hang on.  Muskingum and JCU split.  Nice bounce back from the Streaks after the Fish put up 15 runs in game 1.  Mount outscored Berg 23-1.  Berg has problems.  They lack a big bat or a dominant arm.  It's going to be tough for them to score much against any decent staff.  And Matusak was chased after 3 giving up 9 runs.

My feel as of now:

Tier 1: ONU, BW
Tier 2: Mount, JCU
Tier 3: Muskingum, Marietta
Tier 4: Otterbein
Tier 5: Berg, Cap, Wilm

Looking at Marietta's schedule that cancelation is an advantage on a couple levels.  One, they avoid likely being 0-4 after yesterday.  Two, it aligns their #1-2 SP into better matchups the rest of the way.  Now they will likely have their #3-4 against BW and Wilm neither of which is a bad thing IMO.

I'll post more tomorrow but guys this is gonna be a crazy year.  I don't know if there's a single dominant arm in the conference.  And unless BW morphs there isn't a dominant team in sight. 

Couple good games and a couple blowouts in the openers today.  Ott survived 4 errors to beat Cap 6-4.  Cap had 3 errors of their own.

Muskingum and JCU had to have the most entertaining opener.  Back and forth with each team landing big blows with crooked numbers.  Fish win 15-10 thanks to their huge 7 run 7th answering JCU's 5 run 6th.

In the less interesting ones BW pummeled Wilm 18-2 and Berg didn't even threaten to score in a 10-0 loss to Mount.

Perhaps without the constraints of athletic scholarship costs they add baseball and other sports.

Don't look now but the Scots are on a little roll.  Back to 10-10 with some solid play recently.  With the state of the NCAC I'm obviously not saying they're on Denison or even Witt's level, but beyond that?  It's not unrealistic.

Highlight win of today was BW beating D2 Tiffin 9-2.  ONU surprisingly lost to sub .500 Albion.  Mount beat Adrian on the road 6-3.  Not quite as impressive this year with Adrian being down for their standards, but still a solid road win.

As a HS travel coach in Columbus I can assure you the bullpen is still a mess.  And by summer time so is the mound/infield if I'm being honest.  And yes, the visitor dugout is small too.  That's why when you go watch an OAC game half the pitching staff is sitting in the bleachers with the kid with the radar gun. 

I noticed the top 25 voting also.  I just wrote it off to record voting.  You see the record and it's an OAC team and you give them one of your last spots on the ballot.  No big deal for a team in ORV.

Not good news about the SP for Muskingum though.  Hopefully a weekend of rest will heal him up.  The way it looks so far I don't think Muskingum is alone this season in not being able to afford injuries to even one key arm.

JCU scoring 32 runs was not because Fishbaugh is hitter-friendly.  I was making that comment before in terms of why Otterbein always has guys with some gaudy homer run numbers because they get to play half their games there.

Interesting article on Candle and Toledo players getting drafted in the Blade.

Quote from: BobcatQB on March 23, 2025, 08:58:09 AMCoach Stech always recruits arms. Two big wins for ONU.  How about BW 7-7?  Gotta get hot at some point.

I watched a couple ONU games earlier and was pretty impressed.  I keep telling myself BW will lock in, but they're 7-7 and, let's be honest, it's not like they've played Etta's schedule.  Their best win is probably Adrian who is under .500 at the moment.  And their losses are all too solid teams, but the best team that's beat BW OOC is CWRU.  I still think they have the talent to figure it out, but I'm less confident today than yesterday.  They've got Bluffton, Allegheny, then DH at Wilm so they should be able to build some momentum here.

Quote from: BobcatQB on March 23, 2025, 08:58:09 AMMuskingum with 2 big errors in the 7th which led to 4 unearned runs and drop game one 5-4.  Chappie gets his 4th win.  He kept hitters off balance all game but Muskies gave it away.

I saw Chappie was 4-1 now.  Looking at the stats he at least keeps them in games.  That being said, as you said if not for miscues in the field that's a sweep.  Not ideal to drop one you think you should win early on, but better now than a month from now.

Quote from: BobcatQB on March 23, 2025, 08:58:09 AMJC certainly improved but OTT not as good as last year.

Agreed on both counts.  Anyone that has followed the OAC for a while knows Ott tends to live and die with the bats.  When they're good it's nearly always driven largely by raking and taking advantage of playing in the launching pad that is Fishbaugh.  But when they're really good they also have 2-3 really good arms.  I just don't know that the bats are there and it seems like the arms definitely might not be.  JCU I just never have a good feel for year to year.  They're kind of like ONU for me.  They can always be good, but I just don't know because it isn't like Ott where I know most of the kids they bring in each year.  I rarely know the players from ONU or JCU mainly due to geography.

Quote from: BobcatQB on March 23, 2025, 08:58:09 AMSame with Marietta.  Pitching is decent but so many young players. Loss of most of their production from last year will lead to lower scoring games. They should improve though.

Decent is a good descriptor.  When Etta is Etta they always have some dudes.  They'd have multiple arms and bats that are All-Region/AA caliber guys.  Unfortunately those guys are at Ball State.  They're going to take their lumps at times this year, but those young guys getting ABs will be good.  I would be more concerned with the pitching.  They have some solid guys, but no one dominant and with a young lineup they could really use a dominant, veteran SP to count on every weekend.  I didn't see anyone that flashed.

Power rankings after weekend 1:

1) ONU
(Gap)
2) JCU
(Gap)
3) Mount?  I'm as surprised as you.
4) BW (as mentioned I'm high on ONU and you can convince me still above Mount)
5) Etta/Musky/Ott all interchangeable right now.

No offense but still just not buying Berg/Cap/Wilm.  Bad pitching doesn't play.

Mount sweeps Etta at Pioneer Park 7-2, 9-2.  Bad news for Pio fans Mount isn't great and you have major problems offensively right now.  Wharf even said it this DH combined w the poor showing at W&J earlier this week is concerning.

Result of the day is ONU with a  statement sweep at BW.  Their pitching was outstanding all day.  Next most impressive will be JCU if they finish off the sweep in Westerville.  16-8 win in the opener was certainly an eye opener.

Quick picks for today:

Cap at Berg: Split.  I was waffling on a Berg sweep here, but I don't trust their pitching beyond Matusak and Cap has been hitting the ball pretty well so far.

Wilm at Musky:  Fish sweep.  I don't trust Wilm's pitching in general and definitely not on the road against this lineup.

JCU at Ott:  Split.  In all honesty with this one any result would not surprise me.

ONU at BW:  Split.  I'm high on the Bears right now.  We'll see if that faith is misplaced.

Mount at Etta:  Split.  This is another one that no result would shock me although I'd freely admit a Mount sweep would be the most surprising of the options.

That seems right.  They're getting a little dated at this point maybe, but what Cap did with the Capital Center and Bernlohr Stadium is about as well as they can utilize space for athletics with nice facilities.  It'd be nice if Bexley HS had a baseball field that Cap could dump money into and share, but Bexley also plays at Clowson unfortunately.