BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[Ralph Turner]

McMurry added video earlier in the season.

Anyone else doing video?

I know that McMurry, HSU, TLU, SRSU and occasionally HPU do audio in the West and UTD, UT and Miss College have done audio of baseball in the East.

Whom am I missing?  CTX?  UMHB?  ETBU?

[TexasBB]

UTD wins the double header at HSU winning the second game 19-11. In this series no team scored less than 11 runs in any of the 3 games. The wind at HSU causes the ball to fly and all of these games were slug fests. Pitchers had to check their egos.

So the east ends up with 3 teams as UTT and UTD come back today with big double header wins after falling behind 0-1 yesterday. I am not sure how the matchups will end up. MC is the east top seed and TLU was top in the West. UTT was second seed in the East and UTD was 3rd in the East. I assume that MC plays UTD and TLU plays UTT in the first round.

Should be interesting. I have not seen TLU this year so I don't know much about them. They will be facing Holland which has been UTT best pitcher this year with Ziegler as the closer. When Holland has lost it is because of a pitchers duel like in the game against McM. He lost because of a lack of run support not because a bad outing. I expect him to pitch well against TLU whether they can score runs to support him will be the issue.  

[tloc14]

Great comeback for UTT to take 2 games today.  I honestly did not think they had it in them after what happened yesterday and the previous weekend vs MC. 

But, I have to give the team credit.  They reached down and gutted it out when it mattered most.  McM looks like it might have taken game 2 off, but game 3 was very good from both sides.  Good series, lets see if UTT can carry this momentum into the 2nd round.

[CUAfan]

Predictions for the first round, using pythagorean winning percentages (in parentheses) as a guide.

Texas Lutheran (.769) over Ozarks (.374) in two
Texas-Tyler (.769) over McMurry (.713) in three
Texas-Dallas (.751) over Hardin-Simmons (.563) in two
Mississippi College (.626) over Mary-Hardin-Baylor (.639) in three

Reality:

Texas Lutheran over Ozarks in two
Texas-Tyler over McMurry in three
Texas-Dallas over Hardin-Simmons in three
Mississippi College over Mary Hardin-Baylor in two

Got all four winners and two of four lengths. Not too bad for 15 minutes of number crunching. Predictions for the next pair of games:

Texas-Tyler over Texas Lutheran (I'm favoring UTT's pitching in what is otherwise a dead heat)
Texas-Dallas over Mississippi College

Aw, heck, let's go all the way.

Texas Lutheran over Mississippi College (MC eliminated)
Texas-Tyler over Texas-Dallas
Texas Lutheran over Texas-Dallas (UTD eliminated)
Texas-Tyler over Texas Lutheran (TLU eliminated, UTT goes dancing)

[Ralph Turner]

Great comeback for UTT to take 2 games today.  I honestly did not think they had it in them after what happened yesterday and the previous weekend vs MC. 

But, I have to give the team credit.  They reached down and gutted it out when it mattered most.  McM looks like it might have taken game 2 off, but game 3 was very good from both sides.  Good series, lets see if UTT can carry this momentum into the 2nd round.

I thought that the key to Game 2 was in the  McMurry 3rd.  UTT was leading 2-0.  Morris led off with a single out of the #7 hole.  D. Salzgaber hit a line shot down the first base line that Joe Towns snagged, walked 3 steps and tagged the base for a DP.  McMurry came back for 2 more hits. If that line drive goes down the line for extra bases, then McMurry is back into the game.  

Lemire's 2-run HR in the 5th drives Curry from the mound, UTT up 6-nothing, and Booher is in control.

They were getting to Booher in the 3rd inning.  He had his stuff for the rest of the 4-hit shut out.  

[BaseballFreak]

I love the talk all year has been the West is great and the East is weak.  Didn't pan out that way.

UTT's pitching really stepped up this weekend.  4 earned runs in 3 games.  Super job!

Where does Concordia look for their next coach?

[Ralph Turner]

Welcome aboard, baseball freak!

As for pitching in the HSU-UTD game, the only thing that comes to mind at HSU when the wind is blowing out is "father pitch".   


http://www.hsuathletics.com/sports/m-basebl/2008-09/news/UTD_DH

[CUAfan]

Where does Concordia look for their next coach?

I dunno. Maybe they give the job to Coach Meyer.

[dp643]

I have totally missed this, but UT Dallas has won 14 of their last 15 games, and why hasnt anyone been talking about Jared Smith? The guy is putting up Derek David type numbers from last year, and could surpass them with a good weekend next weekend. I was shocked no one is talking about him.

[TexasBB]

UTD has a powerful middle of the lineup. The issue for them this year has been a lack of pitching. They do not have a real go to guy and have been winning with offense.  I believe they have to play MC in the first game and MC has had good pitching and are playing at home. So that makes it tough on the Comets.

[Blackcat00]

Meyer resigned before the season started. I think that highly doubtful

[golden_dome]

I have totally missed this, but UT Dallas has won 14 of their last 15 games, and why hasnt anyone been talking about Jared Smith? The guy is putting up Derek David type numbers from last year, and could surpass them with a good weekend next weekend. I was shocked no one is talking about him.

That is a good point. The MC/UTD game will matchup the ASC's two hottest teams and two of the leading candidates for ASC East Division Player of the Year, both left fielders. But for that matter, all four teams have been relatively hot and have dominant players.

MC has won 14 of 16 and Bo Bell has been great. (.437 ba, 12 hr, 67 rbi, .543 obp, 1.365 ops)

UTD has won 14 of 15 and Jared Smith has been on fire. (.387, 23 hr, 71 rbi, .505 obp, 1.374 ops) You also have to mention UTD's Cody Ross who is batting .435 with 21 doubles, 15 HR and 64 RBI.

TLU has won 13 of 15 and Jeremy Macklin has had a great season. (.463, 11 hr, 65 rbi, 1.319 ops). Macklin has also dominated on the mound. (6-1, 1.17 era)

Bell went 4-7 with a HR and 6 RBI in the two game sweep of UMHB. Smith was 8-14 with 4 HR and 9 RBI in the three games against HSU. Macklin didn' have a great series at the plate against Ozarks, but he did have a 4-hit shutout with 12 K's.

UT-Tyler doesn't have any one position player who jumps off the page, but they have a more balanced offense.

It should be a great tournament.

[atlas385]

Rumor has it that they already have a coach in waiting, will probably announced by end of week. Possibly a former MLB player...

[dp643]

I think it will be interesting to see who TLU starts in game one against UT Tyler. I think they would be nuts to not throw Macklin with how good he has been down the stretch. I think Tyler and Lutheran are the only two teams with enough pitching to win the tournament out of the LOSERS bracket. But I could be wrong, I thought we would see at least 3 teams from the west in the final four as well.

Good luck to the remaining teams.

PS, Mississippi College were good hosts this past weekend.

[tloc14]

I saw that Hendrix won the SCAC title this last weekend.  Millsaps will likely get an atlarge bid.  I am not sure what region they would get the atlarge from though.  I guess they could end up in the south or west, but that just means there are less atlarges out there to grab.  I still think UTT needs to win the tourney or atleast reach the championship game to get in.  Everyone else needs to win it in order to advance.