BB: NCAC: North Coast Athletic Conference

[BASH6-4-3]

For those interested in how Wabash's week went.

split 2 one-run games last weekend at Wittenberg 8-7 & 1-2, I believe.
dropped an ugly game with DePauw 16-7(9 inn.).
Got waxed by Purdue 11-0(9 inn.).
Took two 15-1 & 4-3 from Robert Morris - Springfield yesterday.  Were rained out 2 against Witt on Sunday & two more this Sunday against St. Xavier.  This has been the pattern all year with rain, make up games (Purdue & DePauw) then more rain.  Will try our hand next with Butler on Tuesday, then Earlham over the weekend.  Our season could be defined with a 5-0 week or be pretty much over with anything less than 3 wins.

[DenisonFan]

Denison finishes four-game sweep of Wittenberg

http://www.denison.edu/athletics/mens/baseball/0809/ba_wittenberg09b.html


The last one was a wild one, with Aidan Lucas hitting a grand slam. That not only won the game, but he also got the save, tying the Denison single-season record.


OWU took three of four this weekend from Earlham.

http://www.earlham.edu/athletics/content/sports/men/baseball/2008-09/press_releases/pr040509.html

I believe this makes the West standings something like this:

Denison      6-0
OWU      5-3
Wabash      3-3
Wittenberg   4-6
Earlham      2-8

[old scot]

Congratulations to Wooster head coach Tim Pettorini on reaching the 900 career win plateau over the weekend.
The Scots swept4 games from Hiram giving Coach P a career record of  901-326-6 for a winning percentage of.734 thru 28 years.
Great job coach! Hopefully you'll still be at Wooster to teach the thousand mark.

[ScotsFan]

Congratulations to Wooster head coach Tim Pettorini on reaching the 900 career win plateau over the weekend.
The Scots swept4 games from Hiram giving Coach P a career record of  901-326-6 for a winning percentage of.734 thru 28 years.
Great job coach! Hopefully you'll still be at Wooster to teach the thousand mark.

It's really not that far out of reach when you factor how much Wooster has been winning over the past few years.  Just taking their last 3 seasons into account, Wooster has won 116 games!    So, it's not inconcievable to say that Pettorini could reach the 1,000 win plateau in the next 3 years!

In other NCAC East action, Kenyon kept pace with Wooster sweeping Oberlin over the weekend to up their conference record to 8-0.  They also swept Hiram.  Wooster and Kenyon meet this weekend in Gambier in what should determine the top seed coming out of the East!

[old scot]

Pettorini has never had an overall losing season at Wooster and has only 1 losing season in conference play. That is pretty impressive.

P.S. How long will it take Wooster's SID to post the 2009 Media Guide? The season is more than half over!

[ScotsFan]

More regarding coach Pettorini reaching his milestone, I'm wondering why there is no recognition of this on the front page of d3baseball.com?  Their cover story is of the coach for La Verne reaching 200 wins?  Call me crazy, but reaching 900 wins seems to be a little more impressive than reaching 200 wins.  Not to take anything away from coach Winterburn at La Verne for his accomplishment, but a little love for Pettorini and his accomplishment would be nice as well...  Especially when you consider only 8 coaches in DIII baseball history have reached the 900 win milestone and Pettorini is now one of only 5 active coaches to surpass 900 wins!  8)

[d3ballplayerfan]

Congrats to Coach P indeed, what an accomplishment!  It would be even more noteworthy if his team had to play the entire conference each year.  The biggest problem with the NCAC is the schedule.  Last year, the second place team in the East was on the same level as the last-place team in the West.  It would be better for Wooster, in preparing for the post-season, if they were challenged during the season by OWU, Denison, Wabash, Witt, and Earlham.  They just hang out on cruise control and win all their conference games without much of a challenge from anyone in their division.  When they have played teams from the West, they haven't done so well lately.  Again, congrats to Coach P for winning 900, but the NCAC should do the right thing and have all their teams play one another.

[old scot]

Scots Fan,
     You were a lttle early on your "no love from D-3 baseball" . Coach P is front page news.

[old scot]

D3ballplayerfan,
       I could not agree with you more. All NCAC schools should play each other and then decide the top 4 to compete for the automatic bid, such as the OAC. I think they do it in basketball, why not baseball?

[DenisonFan]

It's an amazing accomplishment to be so successful for so long at one school. Congratulations to Coach P.

And out of the Ripley's file, here's a coach who has won 1,800!

http://tinyurl.com/dfmh5y

I wouldn't bet against Coach P. getting there.

[ScotsFan]

Congrats to Coach P indeed, what an accomplishment!  It would be even more noteworthy if his team had to play the entire conference each year.  The biggest problem with the NCAC is the schedule.  Last year, the second place team in the East was on the same level as the last-place team in the West.  It would be better for Wooster, in preparing for the post-season, if they were challenged during the season by OWU, Denison, Wabash, Witt, and Earlham.  They just hang out on cruise control and win all their conference games without much of a challenge from anyone in their division.  When they have played teams from the West, they haven't done so well lately.  Again, congrats to Coach P for winning 900, but the NCAC should do the right thing and have all their teams play one another.

I too wish the NCAC would do the right thing and abandon the East and West divisions in baseball!  I totally feel that Wooster suffers come post-season play because they really aren't all that tested in conference play at all!  Not having to play any West division opponents until the NCAC tournament causes Wooster to miss out on a lot of playoff type situations that they just don't face against the Hirams and Oberlins and now even Alleghenys of the world. 

But, in Wooster's defense, the East hasn't always been as weak as it has the past few years.  Don't forget, Allegheny was a regional power not too long ago and OWU was basically the only strong team out of the West.  I just don't get why baseball has to be the only sport where they have to divide the NCAC up into separate divisions?  And it wouldn't be all that difficult to make the change.  Nix the four game series and just follow the OAC's lead!!!  Maybe we could start a petition... 

[OshDude]

It's an amazing accomplishment to be so successful for so long at one school. Congratulations to Coach P.

And out of the Ripley's file, here's a coach who has won 1,800!

http://tinyurl.com/dfmh5y

I wouldn't bet against Coach P. getting there.

Gordie is the godfather around the Central and Midwest regions. His son coaches at Ripon, where Gordie also tallied a few wins.

[ScotsFan]

It's an amazing accomplishment to be so successful for so long at one school. Congratulations to Coach P.

And out of the Ripley's file, here's a coach who has won 1,800!

http://tinyurl.com/dfmh5y

I wouldn't bet against Coach P. getting there.

My gosh!  He's been a head coach for 57 years?!  Just to put this in a little perspective, JoePa (who seems to have been  at Penn State since the turn of the century) has been head coach at PSU for the last 43 years...

[RSSmith]

It's an amazing accomplishment to be so successful for so long at one school. Congratulations to Coach P.

And out of the Ripley's file, here's a coach who has won 1,800!

http://tinyurl.com/dfmh5y

I wouldn't bet against Coach P. getting there.

That's over 30 wins per year for 57 years!!    WOW!!!!

[RSSmith]

It's an amazing accomplishment to be so successful for so long at one school. Congratulations to Coach P.

And out of the Ripley's file, here's a coach who has won 1,800!

http://tinyurl.com/dfmh5y

I wouldn't bet against Coach P. getting there.

That's over 30 wins per year for 57 years!!    WOW!!!!

Oh, I see.  They're NAIA and play over 50 games per season.  Duh.  Still a lot of winning.