The loss of Coach Lechnir is a shame. A great coach with a little too much of the old style approach. Kids today are going to run and hide as soon as anyone raises their voice at them. I will say that as a St. Scholastica alum, Coach Baggs held him in the highest regard and as he was building the Saints program through the mid and late 90's, Oshkosh was the model he wanted to follow. As for the the non-renewal of the contract, I will bet that he was given the option to resign, but knowing what I know about him I will bet he said no. His style isn't for everyone, but never question what the man stands for when it comes to his teams, and the players that made it through those 4 years with him will all tell you what he means to them reaches far beyond a baseball coach. I believe by making Oshkosh get rid of him he is going to take a lot of alumni support with him. I do not see anyone with Lechnir ties getting this job, the school wants to break that connection and if I were an alum and they came to me I would not even entertain the idea with the way my former coach was handled. Just my thoughts, Coach Lechnir is one of the best and will be sadly missed.

Quote from: BigPoppa on May 17, 2012, 01:13:02 PM

Quote from: Bronko7 on May 17, 2012, 12:39:23 PM
Each individual sport doesn't get to pick they're conference unfortunately so playing 21 games in the UMAC does CSS no favors, hence they're #6 seed. And yes CSS has not advanced to the World Series, but I will argue that the Midwest Regional is consistently one of the toughest in the country year in and year out. Has a CCIW that got moved to the Midwest ever made it through? I do know that the two times a CCIW has had to play CSS in a regional (Carthage 09 & North Park 12) they've lost. Not bad with their geographic crutch.

Why are you so angry? No one is saying that CSS is not a great team... If you want to play the "CCIW vs UMAC" card, the CCIW has 10 World Series appearance (Carthage-7, IWU-2, and North Central-1) and one National Title (IWU in 2010... and that hurts me to say that)... and the UMAC, none.

Anger comes in the fact that people believe that CSS get a free pass into the tournament by playing in a bad conference.  As was stated before the auto bid has only been there for the past two seassons. Prior to that it was the Pool B route when you were essentially you were playing for one spot since Chapman was a guarantee to take the other. As a program CSS has to schedule and play any good team that will take them on the schedule to offset the poor UMAC and get game experience against quality opponents. The one benefit the UMAC provides is the ability to get plenty of guys work and game time. The CCIW top to bottom is FAR superior, will not argue that one bit and believe me St. Scholastica has tried to get into the MIAC on a couple different occasions to no avail. But being in the regional every season since 05 and in the Regional final in 09 & 11 it gets old defending the qualify of the program and how they go about getting it done.

Each individual sport doesn't get to pick they're conference unfortunately so playing 21 games in the UMAC does CSS no favors, hence they're #6 seed. And yes CSS has not advanced to the World Series, but I will argue that the Midwest Regional is consistently one of the toughest in the country year in and year out. Has a CCIW that got moved to the Midwest ever made it through? I do know that the two times a CCIW has had to play CSS in a regional (Carthage 09 & North Park 12) they've lost. Not bad with their geographic crutch.

Not sure reading is a strong point on here, but I don't believe I stated anything about them going 21-0 I get the CCIW. The comment was based on a prior post questioning how tested St. Scholastica was. Yes the conference is bad, not a secret. The teams they've played outside the UMAC include: St. Thomas, Keystone, Lacrosse, Whitewater, Messiah, Wash U. All these teams are in a regional. Think they had some decent games to test them.

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For a team to go 21-0 in their conference like Scholastica did, you sure have to wonder about the quality of opponents they face.  I'm certain they have some good players, but wonder how battle tested they will be (especially in an 8-team regional).[/quote]
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They looked pretty battle tested today coming back against the mighty CCIW squad. Especially giving NP a nice early lead with poor D.

Any word on the Roberts kid's arm? Listening to the CSS broadcast it sounded like he was hurt pretty badly.

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We covered why the record vs St. Thomas really carries little weight come playoff time. You didn't look that hard in your research on the coach you hold in high regard, and by research you mean his bio, you're right sounds like he was quite a star. Yes he went to ASU, he was 6-3 lifetime there with a 6.51 ERA, but it was ASU so I give him that. He is very proud that he backed up Jake Plummer on their football team though. Sorry, had to say it, seen him speak a few times and he happens to sprinkle that in every time.

That is maybe the funniest thing I've ever read on the boards, having seen him speak myself. I heard the Plummer reference. Between him talking about, Plummer, Pat Murphy and his wife's hotness (his words, not mine, never seen her) there was very little substance in his clinic talk.

Quote from: Dagger on April 25, 2011, 12:30:45 PM
I have no prejudices against CSS, and admittedly know little about their current team, but knowing their past performances I have a very difficult time accepting them as a legitimate 1-4 seed despite their season record.  Until they can win a game or two in a regional I would have to make them 5-6 seed.  I'm sorry but you can't ignore their competition throughout the year.

The dome going down hurt the schedule a lot ( St.Thomas & St. Olaf ) as well as weather in Rockford (Rockford & Augsburg) and even with trying to make games up later in the season (St. Olaf & Carleton). The weather has caused a mess for a lot of teams this year, but has really taken its toll on the CSS schedule, which will in turn reflect in the S.O.S.
So justly you are correct that they will be seeded low based on the numbers, but to say they have not won games in regionals is ridiculous. I think someone mentioned this before, but I do know that UWSP lost 2 straight years with Zimmerman on the mound to CSS. Also they beat, Carthage & St. Thomas in 2008 on the way to the regional title game before losing to Whitewater. Last season was a bit of a buzz saw that there weren't a lot of teams that would have faired any better (Open with WW and game 2 UWSP) I think both of those teams faired pretty well in that regional. Am I wrong?

Quote from: OshDude on April 18, 2011, 01:35:08 AM
Not a complaint, an excuse or anything else, but I wonder if there's another team in the country with fewer true home games than Oshkosh's eight. And those home games are on four dates over the course of two weekends? That's a lot of studying in buses and hotels.

While I'm here, thanks for yesterday, Stout Blue Devils. Please do that again today.

Welcome to St. Scholastica's spring every season! There is currently only 9 games left scheduled for lovely Duluth, and they have yet to practice outside yet!

Can't see CSS losing to any other UMAC team other than Pres. and I don't see Pres having enough pitching to get 2 of 3 from CSS. I could also see Bethany dropping another conference game. They will need to start Hallahan and Siefken in the games with St. Thomas and St. Olaf and from the looks of their stats they only have faith in 4 pitchers on that squad. Both teams could be regional type teams with better defensive play, I just like the 5-6-7 of CSS better than that of Bethany.

It's very surprising that the mercy rule was not put into play, I know a lot of the places that host these college teams in the spring write in a provision that states that all 9 inning games will have the mercy rule enforced to keep play moving on these fields as to keep the schedules in order.

For what I believe is a UST guy to come down this badly on the Tommies is a little brutal in my own opinion. UST graduated a ton of talent that has contributed for multiple years and you don't just replace those guys with freshman and expect to stay the course. Olean will have this team ready by the end of the year and I expect them to still make a regional.
Its easy to jump on the bandwagon of teams after a good florida trip, but again seasons aren't made on a one week trip. Its a test of the depth in a teams pitching since a great deal of the time teams are throwing their 4 & 5 midweek vs some pretty good teams.
Based on stats and having seen a few of these teams, here's my thoughts:

St. Scholastica  B+  (pitching good, offense good, defense is a ?)
Bethany Lutheran  B  (Dominant 1 very good 2, offense is average)
St. Thomas   C+   (young pitching ok, defense really hurting them right now)
St. Olaf   A-   (Pitching has been terrific, youth shows up at some point though)
St. Johns  B   (Dominant #1, good offense, not a lot of depth on the mound)
Whitewater  A- (Not a lot of holes in this squad, with a lot of returners)
Stevens Point  B+  (Still my pick to win the WIAC, slow start. Too many good players)
Oshkosh  A-  (a lot like Olaf, very good and deep on the mound, offense firing well)

Again, ITS EARLY

1999 UW-Stevens Point pitcher Jesse Ray, gave up his redshirt for an inning in the Regional. Didn't go well!

I must have been listening to a different game, because I'm pretty sure I heard them praising the umpires calls. Having been to Wade Stadium before there is no better seat to judge the zone (corner to corner) than the roof of the grandstand directly above the plate! Height on the pitch is tough but they were pretty clear that the corners were being missed but not by much. Not quite following the logic of using Dorris in that game. Shows very little faith in the rest of that staff to use your #2 to close. Bethany needs 2 of 3 and that move will not help. It sounded like the Hallahan kid was great, but in a 9 inning game you can't expect him to go complete. I think they had said on the air that they estimated him at around 140 pitches with gas left in the tank. Right move to get him out for health reasons. Be interested to see how the pitching match-ups shake out tomorrow, though I'm pretty sure Dorris will get a start.

Pretty good assessment Biggo34, but I think the pitching needs time. They'll rely on the offense to get them though a lot games after the first 3-4.
And yes, when the Gopher game ended yesterday and they turned off the other banks it was like they shut the lights out completely.  For as much as they charge to be in there you'd think they could leave those on.