BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[TexasBB]

ASC and pool C bid. 

It would appear that the only way that the ASC gets a pool C bid is if UTT is not the conference tournament winner.  All the other teams have at least 14 losses and I don't think that will do it.
I am certainly not an expert but that is how I am reading the tea leaves.  If UTT looses I think that is the only way the ASC gets two representatives this year. Any one else with some thoughts?

[Ralph Turner]

I agree.  I honestly don't think that we are Pool C calibre below UT-Tyler.  I think that the West and the East Division champions are worthy of a Pool A bid.  I think that the Top teams in the ASC are in the Top 75 (Top Quintile) to D-III and that works out to maybe "0.5 starting pitchers" and a "great reliever" between the top 6-7 runners-up in the ASC and the "non-UT-Tyler"Pool C bids around the country.

I think that Trinity, Southwestern, Rhodes, Millsaps and DePauw are in the same boat...Top Quintile. 

[Ralph Turner]

CTX leads 6-5 in the top of the 9th. 

One out, runner on first for CTX.  Ziegler on the mound for UT-Tyler.

Williams pops to 2b. 2 outs.
Wernecke, 2 run HR to right center, Mercer scores, too.  CTX 8-5.

CTX -- Aubry on for Ontiveros, bottom of the 9th.

UTT -- Hood, solo HR to left center, CTX 8-6
UTT -- A Damewood, solo homer to right center, CTX 8-7.


CTX wins 8-7.

[Ralph Turner]

Bottom of the 5th with McMurry coming to bat, McM 7-2.

MC's Jonathan Russell on the mound.  Clint Johnston for McMurry.

Bottom of the 7th, McM 7-2.  Both starters are still on the mound.

McM 10 MC 2.  McM's Whitten gets his 1st HR of the season, a 3-run shot down the left field line.

Top of the 9th, MissColl brings the top of the order.

Final score.  McMurry 10, Mississippi College 2.


Miss College catches UT-Tyler in the first game tomorrow at noon.

CTX and McMurry in the second game at 3:30 pm.

[Blackcat00]

Were is Fungoman man on this one? Sounds like Concordia ripped Booher and new one.

[TexasBB]

Vilade cannot win the Conference championship - is this another repeat? When James Vilade was the head coach of UD he took that team to the confence playoffs 3 times (from my recollection) after dominating the east only to fall short each time. It looks like history is repeating itself. Although this is far from over his two best pitchers did not perform well today and now the weak bullpen is exposed. He still has Holland to go tomorrow but he burned Ziegler today so he is likely not available tomorrow.  The good news for UTT is that MC's best pitcher was also spent. If and that is not a big if - UTT can get by MC tomorrow they only have Cambell left that has any real mound time. Vilade just has not used more than 4 pitchers most of the season so the rest are really untested. He appearas to have have lost confidence in Munchrath but he doens't really have anyone else to start if he gets to a game 4.  Wolfe looks like the guy he will go to next in relief of Holland if he needs to.  The strategy of using only 3 starters now shows weakness. In my opinion he thew Booher to many pitches last week. Booher went nearly 130 and was not sharp today. The long toll of over 70 + innings of work is showing up. Holland is in a similar situation only Cambell is well rested but Campbell has not pitched in 2 weeks. UTT better hope their bats are working because I think the pitching staff will be hit again tomorrow.

[Ralph Turner]

CTX 6 UTT 3, top of the 5th with UTT batting.

CTX's Morrison vs UTT Campbell.

CTX 6-3, bottom of the 5th.

UTT leaves the bases loaded in the 6th.
Campbell gets CTX 3 up and 3 down in the bottom of the 6th.

CTX 6-3.

CTX's Ontiveros is on in relief and gets the final two outs of the 7th inning.

CTX 6-3.

CTX's Wernecke (clean-up batter) leads off the bottom of the 7th with a double.
UTT-  L. Wolfe relieves Campbell.
CTX -- Thielepape up for CTX; he bunts Wernecke to 3b, and Cmerek hits SAC FLY to RF scoring Wernecke!  Szkotak out 4-3. (Great inning, doing the fundamentals in the heart of the lineup!)  CTX leads 7-3.

Bottom of the 8th, CTX leading 7-3.

Bases loaded, two outs,
UT-T Munchrath relieving L. Wolfe.  Wernecke (clean-up batter) up.
Wernecke out 6-3.  0 runs, 2 hits, 3 LOB

UTT top of the 9th...
0 runs, 1 hit 2 LOB.

Final CTX 7, UTT 3

CTX to the finals tomorrow at 1 pm versus McMurry, UTT to Pool C!

[Ralph Turner]

Interesting, the balance that we have in the ASC!   

[strosfan1]

ASC is the most balanced conference in d3 except for maybe the one in socal.  Does UT-Tyler get an at leage?

[Ralph Turner]

ASC is the most balanced conference in d3 except for maybe the one in socal.  Does UT-Tyler get an at leage?

I think that UT-Tyler has a Pool C bid. 

The ASC is incredibly balanced.  McMurry is playing for the title tomorrow, yet lost to LaCollege, SRSU (twice) and Mark Cox for UT-Dallas in the last 3 weeks.

Most observers think that the New Jersey AC is the best and most balanced (at top) conference in the country.  The WIAC, and the Little East have quality teams, too.

[The U For Life]

Yeah Ralph we did lose to those teams.  Add in a loss to ETBU this year and a loss to Trinity(should have won), and southwestern.  We should have won a lot of games we didnt, for whatever reason.  There is one thing about this team though, through all the injuries and all the struggles we have found a way to put ourself in postion to win it.  We have battled through a lot this year.  It seems like one injury after the other and to key guys.(Brent Voorhees, Steven Yurchich, Weston Franco, Evan Reece who no one knows about but is a player, Thomas Beckham missed over half the season, and lost 4 pitchers all who could have helped us.  Yeah yeah i know this is part of the game, but never the less we have found a way.  I will tell you what those 2 weeks you referred to Ralph we were playing some bad ball.  In the words of Driggers himself, "You guys stink, i mean stinking suck right now,"  Which was totally true, we did and our record over that time shows it.  This whole time though we have said though that if we can just find a way to turn it on at the right time, then it will be hard for someone to beat us(we havent clicked in all cylinders yet this season, but seems like we might be at the right time.  Dont know what will happen tomorrow because Concordia is a great time and are very hot right now.  Just going to put our chips on the table and see where they fall.  Want to wish good luck to Concordia because they are a great team and a classy one.  Of all the teams in our conference and especially at this tournament this weekend they have shown nothing but class, and so if we arent going to win it then i would want them too.   

[Ralph Turner]

Well stated U!   

I am just being quiet and humbly understated. 

I am working this weekend and could not get out for the series, so I was listening to the streaming audio with my mom on my laptop via dial-up at her place.  (Mom and Dad kept score for the Fort Worth summer recreational leagues and the old Fort Worth Press, way before I was born.)  Boy that was fun!

I had to leave the computer, and she called my cell phone to tell me of Derrick's 3-run HR.

Field of Dreams stuff.  Always tell your parents that you love them.  There will come a day when you will miss them.   

Good luck tomorrow.  I have business travel, so I will try to catch scores on the run.

[TexasBB]

Why UTT lost.  The obvious answer is that two of their big three did not pitch well and Ziegler was not effective in relief in the first loss to CTX. However, they lost the second game primarily due to an inability to make clutch hits.  Both teams had the same amount of hits 12. UTT also had an additional 4 runners due to walks, a hit batter and an error. CTX had 3 addtional baserunners due to 1 error and 2 walks for a total of 16.   CTX scored 7 runs out of those 16 or 43.75% of its baserunners scored.  UTT on the aother hand scored 3 runs out of 17 baserunners or 17.65% of its baserunners scored. The UTT failure to score was against two pitchers that had very high ERAs( the starter came in with an ERA above 6.5 and the reliever had an ERA above 9).   Generally a team is doing well if it can score half of its baserunners or average 50%. CTX was below that amount but close. UTT on the other hand needed almost 6 baserunners per run scored. You are not going to win with that. So they choked with runners on base. The 7th inning was telling they had what looked like a rally going but left the bases loaded as Baker popped up harmlessly to 2b to end the iniing.  A leadoff double in the 8th lead to nothing as they left runners on the corners stranded. And so it went the entire game.  When someone needed to step up and get a 2 out hit - NOBODY came through. 

I don't know who will win today but if CTX looses they should still be considered, I hope, for an at large bid. They broke the 30 win barier yesterday. UTT had a great season but fell short. If they are lucky enough to get an at large bid they have got to get over the "yips" at the plate or they will have a short stay in the playoffs.

[mcm505]

Indians 2008 ASC Champions, 4-1 over CTX.

Great game by both teams.

[UTTpatriots]

what are the chances of UT-Tyler getting in?  It would seem that Concordia at #4 would jump ahead of Tyler at #3 after the weekend games that were played
any thoughts?