BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[hatbaseball]

McMurry finds itself in a rebuilding year after the loss of their power hitters (i.e. Tre Lips 12 HR, Stephen Derrick 9 HR, Weston Franco 7 HR) as well as some productive starters (i.e. Nathan Saltzgaber .359 avg, Nathan Love .359 avg, and Gerad Morris .358 svg). In Head Coach Byington's second year, many questions marks are still there, and McM is more than halfway through the season (9-13, 22 games).

On Tuesday verse Trinity (#25) everyone showed up to hit and it produced enough to slip by with a win. Defense seems to pull the team down every game with costly errors and poor two strike pitching that both seem to domino into little mistakes that produce big innings (3+ runs).

At this point in the season there seems to be a consistent 7 starters in the field (Dibiasi, Bell, Mullin, Jackson, Thompson, Falcone, and Saltzgaber (DH)). The other two positions (2B and 3B) seem to be in a rotation. My question to everyone is; is it normal to find this kind of rotation at this point in the year? Wouldn't you want to find that guy at those positions and see what he can do in a 5+ consistent game span?

Agreed that the rotations at 2B and 3B have been a problem for McM all season.  Baker was actually doing a very good job at 2B, hitting well and playing good defense, but then was shifted to 3B where he struggled.  Perhaps putting him back at 2B full-time would clear up one of the problem positions.  As for 3B, it's a dilema.  My suggestion would be to try one of the 1st baseman (Thompson or Saltzgaber).  I know Saltzgaber struggled at 3B early last season but he did no worse defensively than what they've gotten so far this season and he will hit.  The other players so far this season have struggled defensively and at the plate.  Thompson is good enough defensively to handle either position and his hitting is starting to come around.  That would also free up the DH spot for one of the younger outfielders (perhaps Walding) that has hit okay be struggled in the field.

As for the pitching, I think solidifying the defense will go a long way to improving the pitching as well.  McM has struggled with giving up a LOT of runs after errors that have made major impacts on games.

[BigTex]

I agree with what both of yall have said. Baker has done a good job at second and should've stayed there, but as far as third I dont think they know what to do. Nobody has just stood out or is consistent over there. Be interesting to see how the Head Coach will deal with this dilemma. If McM wants to make it to the postseason they are going to have to cut out the errors and quit giving games away.

[swbaseball3]

Great teams, at every level, are built on pitching and defense.  McM makes way too may errors.  That's something usually fixed in the off season and not mid year.  It will be interesting to see if they can make it out of that funk.

Looking around the conference, you see the leaders are also tops in defense...TLU (.968), UTT (.966) and MC (.964).  It probably comes as no surprise that those teams are a combined 52-16.

I did notice another thing about McM relative to the three aforementioned teams, they have walked almost as many as they have K'ed.  Not s good sign.

[CrashDavisD3]

2010 ASC Baseball Standings

http://www.ascsports.org/standings.aspx?standings=67

[dp643]

Why is McMurry listed at 2-3?

[CrashDavisD3]

http://www.ascsports.org/schedule.aspx?schedule=2274

[Ralph Turner]

http://www.ascsports.org/schedule.aspx?schedule=2274

The league office does not have the second loss to UMHB listed.  Just an oversight.

[swbaseball3]

Orosey No-Hitter through 4, 6 K's.  0-0.  TLU/UMHB

[dp643]

TLU Wins 3-2. Looked like some sloppy base running may have cost UMHB additional chances to get to Orosey (who looked outstanding in live stats). Chance Ryan got out of a few jams to keep the score close. UMHB has to sweep tomorrow to stay on par with TLU.

[Just_Some_Guy]

McMurry up 7 - 3 over Scheiner  in the 6th
Hardin Simmons up 13-4 over Concordia in the 6th - Whiteley gave up 13 ER, including 8 in the first...
UTD Dallas up 4-3 over UT Tyler in the bottom of the 8th...Spinn just walked the bases loaded for Jones who's already homered though.

*Edit - Jones reaches on a 2 out error by the SS to the tie the game at 4-4

*Edit 2 - Tyler scores 4 more in the 8th to win 8-4...

JSG

[Ralph Turner]

HPU 5, at SRSU 2 tonight.  DH tomorrow

McM 7 Schreiner 3 Final

TLU 3 UMHB 2. 6-hit complete game for Orosey

[swbaseball3]

Baseball is a funny game.  TLU gets 11 hits, leaves 12 runners on base and scores 3 runs.  UMHB gets 4 Texas Leaguers and they darn near won the game.  Orosey made one real  mistake to White in the 9th for the HR but other than that, it was all Orosey.

BTW, hats off to Andrew Femath for an unbelieveable play to end the game.  He turned a shot up the middle into a diving grab, a feed to Green for a game ending DP.  It was as good a play as you'll see.

[swbaseball3]

TLU Wins 3-2. Looked like some sloppy base running may have cost UMHB additional chances to get to Orosey (who looked outstanding in live stats). Chance Ryan got out of a few jams to keep the score close. UMHB has to sweep tomorrow to stay on par with TLU.

There was a nice pick at 2nd but I'm not sure I'd call it sloppy base running.  It was a good pick that didn't help the UMHB cause.  But then again, maybe one could call any pick sloppy baserunning.  I'll have to give that some thought!

[dp643]

No you are right. I got clarification on one of the two to say it was just one of those things. Frederick read the ball in the dirt and the catcher picked it. Nothing you can do there. Thats one thing I hate about live stats. All you can see is "picked off".

I also heard that the last play of the game was incredible. Ball was smoked and a big league play was made. Sounds like TLU played some real good defense yesterday and Orosey was virtually unhittable.

Look forward to a couple of good games today too.

[swbaseball3]

It was a great play.  TLU is up 2-1 in the 5th right now with the bases loaded.  The CRU is hanging on a thread.