BB: NCAC: North Coast Athletic Conference

[mideastfan]

Miller sounds like a gamer. 

Personally, I'd take 9 Trevor Urban's any day, that guy knew how to play the game.  He was part of some great Wooster teams in the late 90's that battled Marietta, Ohio Wesleyan and Alleghney each year in some of the best regionals at Pioneer Park and Canton.

[Spence]

Big win for Otterbein and the OAC.

Ratliff has an ERA of 5.87 after that game, btw. He's at best their #3. Trapuzzano's at worst Wooster's #2.

Looks from the box and pbp that both teams could have scored several more runs. Otterbein had more hits and extra base hits, Wooster more walks and hit by pitch.

Overall a pretty close game, which I think should have been expected considering the matchups.

I would like to have seen the Ohio Dominican-Marietta game made up before Wooster; the Marietta program has a lot more connection to ODU and Coach Page and ODU is probably the better ballclub at 32-8 and ranked 13th in NAIA. Plus it's a home game.

[old scot]

WB, times have certainly changed. I came from the Bob Morgan era. No room for self expression in his book. Pants were to be cuffed just below the knees, sturrup socks? pulled no higher than mid-shin, hair trimmed off the ears and collar, and no facial hair. He was a my way or highway kind of guy.

[woosterbooster]

We all used to wear the stirrup socks over sani-socks.  The stirrups were cut in half at the bottom and a piece of elastic was sewn in giving them more length.  They were then pulled up really high, almost Frank Robinson style, so it was basically a dark stripe on each side of your leg.  I thought that looked much better than how it's done now, with the pants coming down all the way to the shoes.  We could bunt, too.

[old scot]

Spence, their #3 beating our #2? I wish you would get off angle. How about two good teams competing hard to win regardless of pitching stats. You failed to mention the 5 plus  relief innings by Otterbein's Horn.  He gave up one hit, great job. If the schedule pans out, I think the last week of Wooster's regular season will tell how far they could go in the tourney.

[Spence]

Why would I get off angle? It's worth mentioning that Otterbein left its top two pitchers on the shelf and got a win over what in the opinion of the ABCA is the top team in the country and the Mideast Region at their house. We saw what Remenowsky did last year to a better hitting lineup than this year's Wooster. And I'm not so sure Trapuzzano's not better than Samson; he doesn't strike out as many but he doesn't give away baserunners.

No I didn't fail to mention it Horn's relief appearance. I never intended to mention it. It wasn't part of what I was talking about. I was talking about starting pitchers.

Maybe Horn has improved. I wouldn't know; we didn't see. Otterbein threw their best against us and neither game was close enough to require a closer. But we had 8 hits in 6 innings against him last year. Y'all got 1 hit in 5 1/3 (cue Bob Uecker) and your only good chance to score on him was created by him (walk, WP, WP). He did only give up one run, but one could surmise that was a bit of good fortune, as was Otterbein's record against all last year. In the last game, the luck caught up with Horn and Ott.

As for the rest of the season, I'm sure it'll be nice to throw Samson and Trapuzzano against not even midweek guys. Marietta'll be down to #5 and #6 at the best (haven't heard if Baumler is available yet; if he's not I don't even know who would throw the 2nd game against Wooster, since we've only had 6 guys start), lower if they have to use relievers in the conference games, which are all vitally important. If Marietta goes 4-0, Otterbein needs to go 4-0 to host the conference tournament which would include sweeping at John Carroll. It would be nice to not have to go to Westerville for the fourth time in two years.

[Nonbiased Observer]

Spence,

I don't know that a 12-inning game gives us anny indication of which team is better. To me, it seems like a 12-iinning game might indicate the teams were even.

And Wooster left 11 in scoring position in that game, from what I read.

[old scot]

If I'm Wooster's coach I don't pitch Samson or Trap against Etta or Otterbein. Why give them a look at what they might face at the regionals. Last year Woo played Otterbein twice during the season without facing their ace. Then in the regionals he shut them down.

[Spence]

Spence,

I don't know that a 12-inning game gives us anny indication of which team is better. To me, it seems like a 12-iinning game might indicate the teams were even.

And Wooster left 11 in scoring position in that game, from what I read.

May be true, they left 15 total I know. They didn't leave much in the last several innings because there wasn't much to leave.

If someone wanted to argue that Otterbein's mid-week pitching and Wooster's top pitching constitutes even teams, I probably wouldn't disagree.

And I doubt it matters too much that Wooster has seen Remenowsky before if they meet again. He's really good. If he were left-handed he might be in High-A or AA ball.

It seems evident that Wooster is chasing every win they can this season, and I can't really say I blame them. The #1 seed is big in a 7 team format, even though it didn't help them last year, and one could also say that if Wooster sweeps Marietta, then that might help kill Marietta's chances of a Pool C bid (not saying it should, just that it might). So those are reasons to throw your best.

Of course, you could lose to Denison and John Carroll throwing your down the line stuff, then get beat with your best and be SOL. But that's a chance worth taking, I imagine.

[Nonbiased Observer]

I don't know Spence. You seem to have a misplaced problem with Wooster. They can only play who is on their schedule. It's not that team's fault the NCAC stinks.

[Spence]

I would counter by saying they can only be judged on what they do against who they play. I don't see how a team that's played only 5-7 games against anything resembling competition can be ranked #1 in the nation or #1 in the region when teams like Otterbein are in it. But chances are they'll still be tops in the region even though Otterbein beat them at Wooster despite being at a pitching disadvantage.

I'm not blaming anyone for anything. I'm calling it like I see it. The last two non-conference games they haven't exactly set the world on fire against good OAC teams throwing their off pitching. The offense has scored 13 runs in their last 4 non-divisional games. They've got 43 home runs in 35 games, but take a guess how many they have against the better Mideast region teams they've played? (OWU, Transy, Baldwin-Wallace, Heidelberg, Otterbein) Was 0 your guess? They hit more than half their homers (28) in 13 games against the NCAC East and Case Western.

They've got decent top-end pitching. Trapuzzano has done what he does against everyone for two years. To me he's their most proven commodity against high-end competition. Samson blew away Anderson and Ohio Wesleyan early in the year and their weaker opponents and of course Kent State, which FWIW only scored 3 the day before against Malone. I'm thinking going into a big series against Miami they weren't real focused on a pair of non D-I midweek games. Just my guess.

We don't know about much else pitching-wise. They've got nice numbers, but Barnes got torn up against Stevens Point, and DeGrand labored against Rowan (in a game Barnes did throw well in as a reliever). For those two, there's not really much else to look at against the type of competition they'll see in the postseason or would see in the OAC. Otterbein hit Miller and only struck out once and he walked two against Heidelberg before getting a double play. Miller's thrown well in a few other games against decent to good opponents (Baldwin-Wallace, albeit it was just about dark late in that game, UWSP) He seems to be used strictly as a relief guy, but might be their third best pitcher.

I guess time will tell how misplaced I am. Turn back the clock a year and see what i was saying and all the static I got. And, most importantly, the result.

[Nonbiased Observer]

Like I said, if they're not good, beat them when it counts.

But, they don't seem to be all that awful.

You just seem to have misplaced angst against either the Wooster team or the system.

[Spence]

Shrug last year we never got the chance, which is fine. I wouldn't care if we never played them.

Call it whatever you want. I'm just tired of seeing certain teams, and Wooster is one but not the only one, consistently overranked in the regular season while living up to it far fewer times. The problem with the "beat them when it counts" mantra is that they've still gained ground they didn't earn with their ranking, prestige, seeding, whatnot.

On the flipside of that, I'm equally tired of seeing teams that take some losses in solid leagues and against challenging non conference schedules not given credit for it.

[ScotsFan]

And I'm equally tired of hearing you fill the NCAC board with your constant whining!!!

[Spence]

Other people apparently aren't, since they keep replying to me and furthering discussion.