BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[BigPoppa]

All of the bellyaching about the ASC getting shafted and UTT gets Crushed by a "mediocre" Pool pick. So much for us experts-I'm listening to Big Poppa from now on. D-Nut, how bad did this mess up everyone's Madness picks. Will it be a California sweep today?

Well... some of us took Chapman to finish quite deep in the west region I have a former player or two on the Chapman roster so I have access to information that others do not. Still, it is only one game and the ASC should NOT be judged based on one game.

[TexasBB]

An embarrasing loss. UTT put their best pitcher on the hill who has not had a bad outing all year and he picks today to lay an egg. To save face they must win the next game. They are a much better team than they showed today. I quite frankly do not know what happend but they did the same thing in the ASC tournamnet. As you may recall they were run rulled by MC in the second game then came back and beat them twice in the finals coming from 3 runs down in the bottom of the 9th in the last game. They still have most of the staff available as Vilade did not use Ziegler, Wolfe, Booher etc. They cannot go two and out. Another concern is no bats. They only had 4 hits so bad pitching today combined with no hitting produced a 16-2 loss. They got to wake up.

[royhobbs]

Big Poppa, you're right, I'll give 'em three UTT's in big trouble.

[Dawgsdad]

Wow! I've been on a taxis trip collecting our youngest son from ASU and am currently driving back to Texas (mobile broadband is a wonderful thing)... I'm currently the passenger and just checked the scores from yesterday and was shocked to see the UTT/Chapman results!  Hendrix showed better that our ASC rep.

Sure hope UTT gets it back on track and quickly or we're not going to hear the end of it after all the bellyaching we've been doing over the selections and potenecy of the ASC, which I still believe is accurate. A one, two  and BBQ isn't going to be helpful...

[TexasBB]

UTT wins and gets to play tomorrow with a 5-3 comeback against Hendrix. UTT was trailing 3-0 going into the 8th but exploded for 5 runs on 9 hits in the top of the 8th. Tommy Rozzel got the win in relief of Blake Booher working 2 2/3ds  scoreless innings. UTT saved their ace closer Ziegler who has yet to make an appearance. I expect Wolfe to start game 3. Another late inning rally to save themselves - this is becoming uncomfortably too common. But the bats may have finally woke up which is a good sign.

[Dawgsdad]

UTT wins and gets to play tomorrow with a 5-3 comeback against Hendrix. UTT was trailing 3-0 going into the 8th but exploded for 5 runs on 9 hits in the top of the 8th. Tommy Rozzel got the win in relief of Blake Booher working 2 2/3ds  scoreless innings. UTT saved their ace closer Ziegler who has yet to make an appearance. I expect Wolfe to start game 3. Another late inning rally to save themselves - this is becoming uncomfortably too common. But the bats may have finally woke up which is a good sign.

You said it TexasBB, UTT will certainly need to be on tomorrow as it looks like they will face PP as GF is hammering the number1 seed at the moment in the eight... I guess the question now is who, after today will remain unscathed Cal Lu or Chapman?

[Ralph Turner]

UTT wins and gets to play tomorrow with a 5-3 comeback against Hendrix. UTT was trailing 3-0 going into the 8th but exploded for 5 runs on 9 hits in the top of the 8th. Tommy Rozzel got the win in relief of Blake Booher working 2 2/3ds  scoreless innings. UTT saved their ace closer Ziegler who has yet to make an appearance. I expect Wolfe to start game 3. Another late inning rally to save themselves - this is becoming uncomfortably too common. But the bats may have finally woke up which is a good sign.

You said it TexasBB, UTT will certainly need to be on tomorrow as it looks like they will face PP as GF is hammering the number1 seed at the moment in the eight... I guess the question now is who, after today will remain unscathed Cal Lu or Chapman?

UTT plays the Cal LU Chapman loser.

[Dawgsdad]

UTT wins and gets to play tomorrow with a 5-3 comeback against Hendrix. UTT was trailing 3-0 going into the 8th but exploded for 5 runs on 9 hits in the top of the 8th. Tommy Rozzel got the win in relief of Blake Booher working 2 2/3ds  scoreless innings. UTT saved their ace closer Ziegler who has yet to make an appearance. I expect Wolfe to start game 3. Another late inning rally to save themselves - this is becoming uncomfortably too common. But the bats may have finally woke up which is a good sign.

You said it TexasBB, UTT will certainly need to be on tomorrow as it looks like they will face PP as GF is hammering the number1 seed at the moment in the eight... I guess the question now is who, after today will remain unscathed Cal Lu or Chapman?

UTT plays the Cal LU Chapman loser.

Actually Ralph, it's listed that UTT will play George Fox (Game 5) at 3:30 PDT. I thought it was going to be loser vs loser, that's why I mentioned PP, but I was wrong - it is apparently the winner of game 5 vs the winner of game 4.

[Ralph Turner]

http://www.linfield.edu/sports/ncaaregionals.php

Yeah, it looks like it was changed and that makes more sense.

Thanks for staying on this!  +1!

[TexasBB]

According to statistics (for what they are worth) the pitching match up tomorrow should favor UTT. The Patriots will likely start Lex Wolfe who has a 3.53 ERA in 58.1 innings with 8 starts on the season and 5-1 record. They also have a rested Beau Zigler in the pen who has yet to pitch in the regional. He should be good for 2 plus innings if necessary.

George Fox will likely start Shane Dalglesh who is 7-1 with 12 starts this year but has a high 6.57 ERA. Their next option is Travis Schoeder who is 5.2 but has only started 3 games with a 5.91 ERA neither of these pitchers has a complete game this year. The closer Chad Jones was used today and had to work 2.2 innings but only faced 9 batters giving up 1 hit and 1 walk but 2 runs. He is probably available for only 1 inning tomorrow.

The George Fox team has a much higher batting average .370 vs .343 for UTT. So they have the edge in that department although they don't have a power hitting team as only 1 player has 10 home runs on the season. UTT has more power and it is spread out.  Should be interesting. I think if Wolfe is on can turn the ball over to Ziegler plus the bats pick up where they leff off today they will win tomorrow. Unfortunetely that is a lot of iffs and the reverse can happen as George Fox just beat the #1 seed and the #1 team in the country.

[Ralph Turner]

Here are the statistics for the GFU 2004 National Championship Team.

[royhobbs]

As proven Thursday, you can throw the stats out the window. UTT will be in a good old fashioned shootout. Better hope the bats are heating up, I'm taking the overs. Fox wins 10-6.

[HALLEBASEBALL]

This is second year in a row that the ASC (a conference of 15 teams) has only one representative in the playoffs. I beleive that the ASC is one of the toughest conferences in DIV III but their structure has worked against them. They have had at least two teams that have won 30 games or more in both 2008 and 2009 that did not get a pool C bid. Last year they had 3 teams sitting at home Ozarks, CTX and UTT with UTT ranked in the top 20 nationally. This year it was TLU and MC both of them division or co-division champions winning 30 games or more.

In womens softball I note the ASC is more respeceted on a national level as it had 3 teams this year in the NCAA regional (UTT, LC, ETBU).

I feel bad for the seniors that have played on the teams left behind. I am sure their teams could beat a lot of the teams from other regions that got Pool C bids and finished with less than 30 wins. 

Once again I think all of us need to lobby for the NCAA to expand to 64 teams so that this does not continue to happen. In a well balanced conference like the ASC it is difficult to have a standout as the teams continue to beat each other up. To the casual observer the lack of an obvious leader leads to a feeling that the entire conference is just average and thus they will fail to recognize the ASC as an above average conference that has multiple good teams. It is much easier to get a bid from a conference where there is only two good teams and rest very average than to get a bid from a confence with 6-8 good teams that punish each other.

Been listening to this for 10 years Texas Baseball play 9 innings play real competion not Bible Schools or Schools like Cal Tech OR Oxy come to Cali And play some 9 inning games. Split your conferance up for the oppertuny to have more teams getting a chance to beat Chapman or GFU to get that chance for a National Championship.

[Blackcat00]

Well Halles the thing thats different here in Texas is the paridy in baseball and the quility of the athletes in Texas allows the bible beater schools and the ones your refering to compete or even manhandle  your little so called bible schools in Cali. That smack is weak man, I Know you can do better than that, did you even play ball. Prob not. And with that spelling im not even sure you went to any college or a bible college my friend.

[royhobbs]

Black cat, you're right, some pretty weak smack from Halles. That said, UTT's got to back up all the ASC crying that's been going on. They were lucky to beat the weakest team in the Regional yesterday, and have already thrown the B and B boys. Could be in line for some early exit Salt Lick BBQ if they don't swing the bats better.