BB: NCAC: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

Except this.  Talk about restoring order in a mayhem-filled game.  Freshman pitcher Mark Miller worked the 8th and 9th and set down 6 in a row.  He struck out 3 and managed to even resurrect the defense during his tenure as no errors were made.  Miller has now worked 16 innings and allowed only 2 hits this season.  20 K's.  ERA of zero.

I thought the same thing when I saw the box score and then I saw Coach Pettorini's quote in the Daily Record about Miller's outing:

"We're going to wing it pretty well," Pettorini said. "What we've tried to focus on is the idea of playing defense and pitching well and we didn't do either of those things well tonight. Mark Miller did a nice job finishing it out tonight, but not even he was close to what he was in Florida."

No hits, 3 strikeouts and 3 groundouts to the 1st baseman and that wasn't close to what he was in Florida?  I guess he should have not let the B-W hitters even make contact.  Especially given Wooster's defensive struggles yesterday?!    

[Spence]

The game against Kenyon was kind of interesting...6 hit batters in one inning? This is your top two teams in the NCAC East...ridiculous.

[woosterbooster]

The top of the 7th was bizarre.  Up until that point, Kenyon's starting pitcher, Shelley, actually had not pitched a bad ballgame.  His team trailed only 5-3.  Then all heck broke loose. 

Shelley had a nice off-speed breaking ball, but suddenly in the rain he just kept leaving it inside.  Way inside.  I think all 5 of the Wooster guys that he hit took it in the back.  The Kenyon coach finally had mercy on him and took him out but the next guy, Kerr, hit another Wooster batter to break the DIII record.  Pretty amazing.

Wooster, though, came back from their defensive debacle at BW to play error-free baseball.  They hit the ball well, and with any luck would have had more then the 5 runs that they scored through the first 6 innings.

Wooster's Pat Christianson provided the moment of the day when he broke out of the dugout to take the field after a Scot had been retired.  Quickly he realized that was only the second out, but not before a few alert eyes behind the fence had caught him make his move. 

[Spence]

So if it was raining bad enough that he couldn't hold onto the ball, why wasn't the game stopped?

I'm guessing no Wooster players were trying too hard to get out of the way of the ball.

[imderekpoe]

I'm guessing no Wooster players were trying too hard to get out of the way of the ball.

I'm not sure that I've ever seen a Scot player try real hard to get out of the way of a ball!

[Spence]

Me either. Was it a Wooster player that got called out on strikes in a regional one year on a pitch that hit him? Sounds familiar, but might have been someone else (Danner Partridge maybe, or one of Allegheny's old ball magnets).

[woosterbooster]

I'm just back from Kenyon where Wooster almost surely took a doubleheader from the Lords.  First game was something like 12-5.  Wooster broke open the second game early and led about 11-2 in the fourth when I left.  They were swinging the bats very well today.

The unofficial word is that the fourth game against Kenyon will be scrapped.  Wednesday's game against Marietta has been moved to Sunday, April 15th at 3 PM following a noon contest vs Wabash.

[ScotsFan]

Why was the Marietta game moved?

The NCAC has a rule that doesn't allow teams to play on more than 2 dates between Monday and Friday.  This rule came up last season and I found an article in the Wooster paper that explained what happened last season:

The threat of inclement weather caused the two teams to originally reschedule the game for today, but an NCAC rule regarding the number of game dates between a Monday and Friday in any given week forced the game to be wiped off the schedule.

The league rule states that no team shall play on more than two dates between Monday and Friday. Wooster played and defeated Otterbein 13-9 on Tuesday and has the first of two NCAC doubleheaders against Hiram set for Friday.

Noticing the scheduling error and fearing any possible league sanctions, Scots athletic director Keith Beckett urged coach Tim Pettorini to cancel the game.

Seeing as how the Kenyon doubleheader was rescheduled for today and Wooster has another doubleheader scheduled for Friday with Oberlin, the Marietta game had to be moved due to the NCAC rule. 

Wasn't the Marietta game a casualty of this rule last season?  I'm beginning to wonder if these two teams just aren't meant to play each other in the regular season??

[ScotsFan]

I'm just back from Kenyon where Wooster almost surely took a doubleheader from the Lords.  First game was something like 12-5.  Wooster broke open the second game early and led about 11-2 in the fourth when I left.  They were swinging the bats very well today.

Wooster most certainly did sweep Kenyon today.  The final of the nightcap was 17-5.  Wooster is now 19-0 on the season.

One noteworthy stat from the 1st game today is that freshman Mark Miller allowed his 1st earned run of the season in 19 innings pitched in the 7th inning!  His ERA baloons to 0.47 after today!

[Spence]

Then why don't they move the damn Oberlin series to Sat/Sun or send the freaking JV or something. Why the heck is that series starting on a Friday anyway? Would they rather play Sat/Sun and have the kids in class on Friday? All this because of Friday doubleheader with Oberlin that makes no sense anyway? Jeez.

To have a rule like the 2 dates during a week rule and then schedule a conference series on a Friday is...well I can't explain what it is. It's the NCAC is all I can say.

Now Wooster has a MAJOR advantage in this matchup because they don't have a divisional series that weekend. Marietta is playing at Ohio Northern the day before which itself is like a 4+ hour trip from home, then has a Tuesday doubleheader in the conference as well. So it's going to be Wooster's #1 against Marietta's like #5 if that. Real fair.

With all due respect for mideastfan and you know I do, the major reasons Schaly never wanted to play Wooster had less to do with not wanting to play on the road than other reasons, IMO. IIRC, we played at Ohio Wesleyan a time or two.

[woosterbooster]

The wind was blowing out, very hard, during the first game at Kenyon.  Mark Miller gave up a homerun that, without that stiff breeze, probably doesn't get out.  It was a hard hit ball, but most likely would have been a double in the gap.

Sunday is Easter.  That's why the Oberlin series is on Friday and Saturday.  To my memory, the Scots have avoided playing on Easter for years.

I've come to the realization that I enjoyed it more when Schaly and Marietta would not schedule Wooster during the regular season and hope that once again that will come to pass.

[Spence]

The wind was blowing out, very hard, during the first game at Kenyon.  Mark Miller gave up a homerun that, without that stiff breeze, probably doesn't get out.  It was a hard hit ball, but most likely would have been a double in the gap.

Sunday is Easter.  That's why the Oberlin series is on Friday and Saturday.  To my memory, the Scots have avoided playing on Easter for years.

I've come to the realization that I enjoyed it more when Schaly and Marietta would not schedule Wooster during the regular season and hope that once again that will come to pass.

Then this should be the weekend they don't play a divisional opponent, rather than playing a random weekend series against Wabash for no apparent reason.

I was never in favor of Marietta playing Wooster in the regular season, especially not at Wooster. There's a reason the NCAA won't let them host a regional.

[ScotsFan]

Then this should be the weekend they don't play a divisional opponent, rather than playing a random weekend series against Wabash for no apparent reason.

It's called filling your schedule??   What, are they just supposed to leave that weekend open??

I was never in favor of Marietta playing Wooster in the regular season, especially not at Wooster. There's a reason the NCAA won't let them host a regional.

First of all, I'm sure that there are far worse facilities than those of Wooster's Art Murrray Field.  At the same time, Wooster baseball (and atletics as a whole)  is very deserving of getting some new facilities.  I believe there is a plan in the works to begin work on a new athletic training facilitiy and I would assume that would include builing a new baseball facility as well.  The target date I have heard to begin is around 2010. 

I guess it shows how badly kids want to play for winning programs regardless of facilities as Coach Pettorini still brings in outstanding class after outstanding class despite not having top notch facilities.  The same can be said about Coach Moore and the basketball program, although, Timken may not be 1st class, it still is one of the largest capacity DIII gyms in the country, so that doesn't hurt by any means.

[Gimme]

 I think that is true of alot of programs.  Kids want to play for winning programs over nice facilities.  Look at other schools around the mideast.  There are some very good teams with facilities that are not that great and then there are some bad teams with amazing facilities.  Kids want to compete and win...there is no point in puting in all that work to be a student-athlete and go out on a great field and look like crap.  It's more fun to win on a crappy field than it is to lose on a great field.

[woosterbooster]

I don't see any problems with Wooster's baseball field at all, not that I think that was even the subject here.

The coaching staff and players do a good job of keeping it in shape.  It has decent drainage and an automatic sprinkling system.  One of the best scoreboards (inning by inning) in DIII.  The fences, after being moved back a bit a couple of years ago, are at the DIII norm.  The wind does often blow out, but it blows out for both teams.  There aren't a lot of bleachers, but they are sufficient except for regionals and when Wooster has hosted one other bleachers have been moved in.  There is plenty of excellent standing room, especially down the left-field line.  I've never been in the press box, but although old it looks reasonably spacious.  I would doubt that Wooster has lost many potential recruits to other DIII schools due to its facilities.