BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[dp643]

UMHB is tied 3-3 in the top of the 5th against Texas Wesleyan. Volz has a HR for The Cru.

Concordia is up 1-0 in the top of the 3rd. Tom Williams left off where he did last year with a HR his first AB of the season.

[dp643]

forgot to mention Concordia is playing UT Dallas, Drew Waggoner is on the bump for the Comets.

[DIIIBASEBALLFAN]

Chapman 8 McMurry 1  top of 6th

[dp643]

UMHB losing 8-4 going into the bottom of the 5th.

Jared Smith for UTD hit a 3 run homer to give them the lead 3-2 going into the top of the 5th.

[dp643]

UMHB Loses 9-6.

Concordia and UTD are tied in the 8th 5-5

[Blackcat00]

Tom Williams 1st at bat hit a homer. not bad. Great game so far.

[Dawgsdad]

Any updates on the CTX UTD game?

[baseballroxmysox]

McMurry drops season opener to second-ranked Chapman, 9-1

Box Scorehttp://athletics.mcm.edu/Pdfs/baseball/2009/2/6/2-6-09.htm

ABILENE – Second-ranked Chapman University (Calif.) tallied 16 hits en route to knocking off McMurry, 9-1, Friday afternoon in McMurry's season opener at Walt Driggers Field.

The win pushes Chapman to 2-2 on the year while the loss drops McMurry to 0-1.  The teams will finish their three-game set on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.

Chapman ace Wayde Kitchens threw a gem for the Panthers as he pitched eight innings and only surrendered three hits and one unearned run.  Kitchens also struck out 10 batters and only walked three. 

Chapman scored four runs for Kitchens in the top of the third to get things rolling.  The Panthers added two more runs in the fourth, two in the sixth and one insurance run in the ninth to finish out the scoring. 

McMurry's lone run came in the bottom of the fifth when senior shortstop Nathan Love laid down a sacrifice bunt and reached base by virtue of an error by Chapman second baseman Tyler Hadzinsky, which subsequently allowed McMurry sophomore rightfielder Jake Mullin to score from second base.  But Kitchens rebounded from that unearned run and kept the McMurry bats relatively at bay the rest of the way. 

Senior Cody Curry took the loss as he went three innings and gave up four earned runs on six hits.  Curry also struck out three batters and walked four.

Senior designated hitter Weston Franco, sophomore catcher Blake Nichols, senior second baseman Tre Lips, and junior catcher Jeff Jackson each respectively got a hit for McMurry.  Lips' double was the only extra-base hit for McMurry.

John Semel went 4 for 5 for Chapman with two runs scored and two RBI, including a solo home run over the left field fence in the top of the ninth.

Chapman is now 7-3 all time against McMurry.

[indian4life]

Game 1 - Chapman      12    Yacko pitched 3 inning
                McMurry     0

Not to get nit picky but i do want to point out the first game last year was a slugfest and i believe it was 14-15 Chapman...And well it seems as if the first game for the Indians did not go as well as they had hoped...The starting pitching has to be better tomorrow if they want to compete with Chapman. Everyone in the country knows that they will hit the ball and with that hitters ballpark out in Abilene the games can get out of hand in a hurry.  I am not sure how Cahpman looks after Kitchens but i have heard that he looked very good tonight.  Well good luck to both the teams tomorrow it should be a fun one.

[baseballroxmysox]

Hey ralph I use to have an other ID but forgot the password so i made a new one up!!!! Haha you going to be going to any MCM baseball games this season...i might be going to see the Saturday series against Chapman.

I am planning on going to the Chapman series.

Ralph - what was your take of the game today?  I hear the wind was blowing 20 mph. How did Curry (West Division Pitcher of the Year )and Kitchens (All-Independent Pitcher of the Year) look? 

[Ralph Turner]

Hey ralph I use to have an other ID but forgot the password so i made a new one up!!!! Haha you going to be going to any MCM baseball games this season...i might be going to see the Saturday series against Chapman.

I am planning on going to the Chapman series.

Ralph - what was your take of the game today?  I hear the wind was blowing 20 mph. How did Curry (West Division Pitcher of the Year )and Kitchens (All-Independent Pitcher of the Year) look? 

I "snuck" peeks at the Livestats at work.   

From which direction was the wind blowing?

McMurry usually can handle the wind regardless of the direction from which it blows.  (I will take input from more knowledgeable fans and former players, but wind blowing straight out to center is neutral, kinda like Wrigley Field.)

By the boxscore...

Curry got hit the second time around in the batting order, after #9 batter Robbins got a double to lead off in the 3rd.

Semchenko did not fare much better in 2.2 innings.

Cory Davis went a nice 3.1 innings to finish the game.

Kitchens just shut McMurry down. It was his second outing of the season, so he may be ahead in that area.  Chapman has a bunch of 2009 seniors whom I saw in Abilene in 2007.

http://athletics.mcm.edu/Sports/baseball/2007/archive_bsb_stats.asp

The second and third starters may be more instructive.  We (McM) don't have a Nick Schafer to pitch in game #2 tomorrow.

[baseballroxmysox]

I must say I REALLY LOVE the livestats ability.  It would be nice if all the schools had it. 

Not sure about the wind - just what I heard. 

[hsusid]

The wind was howling in Abilene today. It was a launching pad at Hunter Field across town. It was 25 consistently with gusts to 38 MPH out of the South (more of a mid to late March day). At Hunter Field that makes right center and right a air tunnel out at McMurry that is pushing the ball down to right and pushing it across to left.

South winds are more of an advantage at HSU on days like this. There were nine HRs at HSU in our game with University of the SW (formerly CSW). It was not a good day for HSU pitching in a 23-10 loss, but the top five guys in the HSU order went deep. Three were no doubters and two were for sure wind-aided.

Pitching was an issue today, but it was not a pitcher's day at the yard and only one guy expected to throw on the weekends threw today.

[indian4life]

The second and third starters may be more instructive.  We (McM) don't have a Nick Schafer to pitch in game #2 tomorrow.

This is true Ralph but we do have a Dakota Smith who last season ended the year with one amazing game against Chapman and beat several good teams throughout the year...In the second game with Kyle Martin on the mound, it will be interesting.  For Martin I believe this is his first start at McM and as showed amazing stuff out of the pen (even though his stats may not show it).  All I can say is watch out cause I think the Indians will shed some light tomorrow on what to look forward to for the rest of the year.

[Just_Some_Guy]

[10 second pause]

Strike

[10 second pause]

Ball high

[12 second pause]

Fouled back. Strike Two.


This is what I'm listening to while trying to listen to the TLU vs. Austin College broadcast.

Look, I get it. I understand that it is often hard to field a staff of people around an SID at a small school, but there has to someone knowledgeable enough about the game of baseball (this guy seems to know it decent enough) that would be passionate enough about his school's team to make an attempt at giving a damn about the broadcast.

Could teams use someone from the JV roster? Someone that doesn't dress out?

It's not hard to do a little bit of research and tell me what a guy did last year, what year he is, etc. when he's at the plate so I'm not just hearing a really, really dry play by play.

Tell me that someone has a penchant for striking out, but that he goes yard once every 12 at-bats. Tell me he's looking to redeem himself for making a crucial error in the 2nd that led to 2 unearned runs. Was he on that pitch or does he look like a fool flailing around up there?

It's quite possible I'm asking way too much considering the resources of most of these D3 teams, but I'm not convinced it can't be done.

Please weigh in.

JSG