BB: NCAC: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

Well, the timely hitting and manufacturing of runs continues to elude the Scots to start their game with Otterbein.  Wooster had 1st & 3rd with one out in both the 1st and hit into an inning ending double play and then again in the 2nd inning with no outs and hit a soft line drive out to the short stop and then had a pop up on a  bunt attempt with the runner at first running for yet another inning ending double play!

Now it's in the top of the 3rd and once again Wooster is threatening with runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out.  And low and behold, basehit scoring a run!!!

[countyroad]

^^^  I was just going to post the same thing.  They cannot miss oppertunities like that. They've hit into 2 line drive double plays though too.

[ScotsFan]

Thankfully for Wooster, Matt Barnes is pitching well.  Wooster has left 7 runners stranded through 4 innings of play!  As they said on the play-by-play, if Wooster continues to leave runners on, that will eventually come back to haunt them later in the game.

It's still 1-0  Wooster in the top of the 5th and the leadoff man is on once again!  Can the Scots get a rally??

[ScotsFan]

And the answer is an empahtic NO! 

For some reason Pettorini called a delayed steal or John Quinby decided to go himself, but it sounded as if he was out by a mile.  And wouldn't you know that Sheldon Stiener follows it up with a base hit?!  So because of the blown delayed steal call, instead of Wooster having 1st and 2nd and nobody out, it was just a runner on 1st with one out.  And Pat Christensen proceeded to hit into yet another inning ending double play?!

I don't know how much more of this lack of fundamentals on the basepaths I can take?!

[countyroad]

Baserunning was a huge issue with them last year.  It may work on lower level teams, but rarely at this level.

[mideastfan]

Well said.  You can even get away with it during the regular season, but not when it counts in the Regionals. 

For all you Wooster fans, look on the positive side of things.....they aren't playing all that well, but still leading.  If they can pull this one out and staighten up the fundamentals, they could be dangerous.  The only question is, will it be too late?!?!?

[countyroad]

What's scary is Wooster does not get the last at bat.

[old scot]

Fundamentals aren't learned during or between games. They come from repition and situational prep during the pre-season. I played for both Morgan & Pettorini. Morgan was a teacher of the game, covered more situational baseball than you can imagine. Great teacher of the game. I think this is one of Pettorini's weakness. He relys on big innings to over come lack of fundamental prep.

[countyroad]

Wooster eaked out this win.  Whew.    Wooster will play Marietta @ 9:00 tonight?

[countyroad]

What are tonights likely pitching match ups?

[pufin]

No one has responded to Pat's comment on the last page.

One might think that there could be a false sense of confidence based on the current state of the NCAC. But, the Scots were 11-0 before they played their first conference game, and are 20-2 against all teams not in the NCAC.

[mideastfan]

Ohio Wesleyan holds on to defeat Hope 6-5 and advance to tomorrow's 12:00pm game against Marietta, regardless of tonight's MAR/WOO outcome.

Marietta plays Wooster at 7pm tonight. If they win, Wooster will be eliminated and Marietta will play OWU in the championship game, with OWU needing to win two games.
If Wooster wins tonight, Marietta will play OWU at noon tomorrow, with the winner playing Wooster in the Championship at 3:30pm.

Still a lot of baseball to be played in this Regional!!

[ScotsFan]

No one has responded to Pat's comment on the last page.

One might think that there could be a false sense of confidence based on the current state of the NCAC. But, the Scots were 11-0 before they played their first conference game, and are 20-2 against all teams not in the NCAC.

I think that Wooster's coaches and players know all too well how weak the NCAC is and I would highly doubt that they would gain a false sense of confidence based on their performances against the Oberlins and Hirams of the world.  I just think it comes down to a lack of focusing on the fundamentals.  Old scot pretty much summed it up with his comments.  Just look at the bunt attempts by Boesiger today.  Twice he tried to bunt the runner to 2nd and twice he popped it up for an out.  At this stage of the game, you can't rely on the big inning, because it rarely comes.  So if you can't advance runners by bunting or getting sac flies to score runs, you're going to have trouble scoring runs which is exactly what Wooster is dealing with at the moment.

What are tonights likely pitching match ups?

I was trying to figure this out as well.  Does Wooster go with Samson tonight?  They said on the radio that Pettorini mentioned that everyone was available for game 1, so I'm assuming that Samson would at least be available.  According to the live play by play it's Matt Barnes getting the start.  Is that a typo of some sort?

Wooster eaked out this win.  Whew.    Wooster will play Marietta @ 9:00 tonight?

Whew is right.  Miller sounded like he was in control for his 2 innings of work.  He never let Ott get a threat with the exception of having the tying run on 2nd with 2 outs in the 9th. 

BTW, the game with Marietta should be just getting underway.  It was scheduled for a 7:00 start as opposed to a 9:00 start.

[ScotsFan]

BTW, Nate Eschbaugh is the starter for Marietta.

[mideastfan]

Wooster is indeed starting Barnes against Marietta.  Can't say I understand the reasoning behind this since he already threw 7 innings today, but who knows, maybe his arm is already warm and ready.  I'm sure it'll be a pitching by committee game. 

Marietta gets a double play in the first; one of many this season for the Etta Express.