BB: WIAC: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[BoBo]

Whitewater belted 7 home runs in their 27-12 rout of Salem State on Sunday. Ben Kuhlmann, Jeff Donovan, and Fred Gromalak each hit 2, while Jordan Stine added one. Gromalak celebrated his first collegiate start behind the plate by going 5-for-6 with three runs scored, 5 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. Several pitchers threw, but the win went to Kyle Lee. They are off until Wed. when they take on Bowdoin in Clermont, Florida.

[pickleshiner]

Why can't Point schedule Salem State?  Anyways could today be any worse?  The Badgers get smoked by Cornell and than I have live stats up for the Pointer game and find out it's rained out.  This really hurts Point seeing who they have to go against tomorrow and losing the DH with Otterbein.  I'm wondering if Williams will go tomorrow or wait until Tuesday or Wednesday.  Whitewater is looking great with the sticks but I wonder how they would fare against Schuld, Perez, or even Williams/Koback.

[voice]

It is great to see UW-Whitewater off to a great start this spring.  As Bobo previously indicated the Hawks seven home run explosion is just the latest multi-home run game this spring for Whitewater.

Since I don't have a real job, I will be blogging Warhawk and WIAC baseball this spring.  I plan on blogging live from most of the Warhawk games once they head North next week.

The Voice's Eye On Warhawk Baseball Blog Web address is:  http://voiceseyeonbaseball.blogspot.com/
Pass the word.

Go Hawks!

[BoBo]

That's great voice...look forward to your reports!!

[Dagger]

I'm not taking anything away from uww's start and the accomplishments that individuals have made thus far, but they have played one real team so far...SUNY Cortland...and they got absolutely smoked by them.  I'm certainly not writing them off, I think they are a legit contender with their line up and they will definitely be battling it out with point to take home the regular season crown...but I think a lot of their explosive numbers will come back down to earth once they start playing quality teams again.  7 HR's in a game is great and all, but i"m guessing there were 30mph winds blowing straight out, so let's not get too excited.  Again, I have taken full advantage of the wind before and you still have to hit it hard for it go out so I'm not trying to bash the hawks here, but I'm going to need a little more time and some slightly better competition before I get too excited about them!  I can say that I've been impressed with both donovan and stine coming back from a year off and not missing a beat, that's hard to do!

[badgerwarhawk]

I don't disagree with your main point and I don't doubt your not intending to write them off or bash them but for the sake of accuracy I just want to clarify the weather conditions.  The weather channel has the wind at 3 mph when the first pitch was thrown at 8am.  It increased to 6 mph by 9:30  and reached a high of 15 mph around 10:30 before dropping and holding at 12 mph for the rest of the morning.  I don't know the orientation of the field but the wind was out of the southeast. 

[Dagger]

haha...it's tough to argue hard scientific data!  I just had a visual of some of the spring games I witnessed down there, where you could literally hit it in the air and it would soar out of the park...that's what came to mind when I saw that they hit 7 jacks in one game, that's pretty amazing stuff when you think about it! 

On another note, point took a good split with the number 4 team in the country in Trinity College. Dont really know much about either of the games, but coming away with a split is a win (literally) for the pointers.  it's nice to see they are able to compete with the "best teams" in the country.  We'll see how the remainder of the trip plays out for them.

[BoBo]

haha...it's tough to argue hard scientific data!  I just had a visual of some of the spring games I witnessed down there, where you could literally hit it in the air and it would soar out of the park...that's what came to mind when I saw that they hit 7 jacks in one game, that's pretty amazing stuff when you think about it!  

On another note, point took a good split with the number 4 team in the country in Trinity College. Dont really know much about either of the games, but coming away with a split is a win (literally) for the pointers.  it's nice to see they are able to compete with the "best teams" in the country.  We'll see how the remainder of the trip plays out for them.

I guess it's all in good fun to question what role mother nature had in producing those 7 HR's - Salem State had 1 HR, BTW. On the otherhand, I wonder how many of Whitewater's 22 other hits in the game were wind-aided, as well? However, considering the conclusion you've reached in the bolded comments above after only the Pointers 2 DH splits to open the season, I guess it's acceptable for Warhawk fans to feel encouraged over their beginning 8 games, too!!

For what it's worth, the Trinity scores were UW-SP 3-1, Trinity 11-2.

[Dagger]

I absolutely think that WW fans should be extremely encouraged, but at the same time I'm just saying that they have really only played one solid team, and that team spanked 'em.  Playing a light schedule in spring can be a great thing, in terms of getting momentum and confidence going within the club.  I never said that the only reason they had success was because of the wind, I simply said I'm guessing there were heavy winds blowing straight out.  I also said you still have to be good to use the wind to your advantage, which would explain WW hitting 7 while the other team only hit 1.  There's no doubt that WW has a stacked line up this year and that they will continue to pound out some big numbers, I just don't think that level of success will be sustained over the long haul once they start playing better competition.  I've played spring break games against teams where getting 22 hits in a game was nothing.  Having been on both sides of the scheduling (really easy spring vs. extremely tough spring) I am simply saying that I personally feel it is more advantageous for a team to play the best possible competition to start the year, and that you can't look too far into any numbers until conference games start.  One team may come in with juiced numbers (as a result of an easy schedule) only to be mediocre, while another can come in with an average record and average numbers (really tought competition), and dominate.  You just never know until you start WIAC play.  In all honesty I'm glad that WW is doing well, I always enjoy any WIAC team traveling and kicking the crap out of people, it's good for our conference to instill that fear into these other teams!  ...of course I don't enjoy them kicking the crap out of my team...

[badgerwarhawk]

Scambling to fill the void left when Otterbien canceled the doublehitter scheduled with them the WARHAWKS were able to pick up a game with Washington and Jefferson and came out with a 12-8 win.  W&J held a 6-4 lead after four innings but the WARHAWKS scored single runs in the fifth and sixth and tied the game.  W&J regained the lead with a single run in the in the seventh however the WARHAWKS plated three runs in each of the final two innings to seal the deal.  Andrew Bauer (2-1) got the win in relief.  Jeff Donovan was 3x4 with 4 rbi and 1 rs.  Matt Beyer hit his second home run of the season and had 3 rbi in a  3X4 day at the plate.  Ben Kuhlmann had 3 rbi and was 2X5.  Jordan Stine (2), Rob Coe (2) and Fred Gomalak (2) also had multiple hits. 

W&J is among the others receiving votes in the D3baseball.com Top 25.   

[BoBo]

Interesting that Point has W & J today and Bowdoin coming up tomorrow at 1:30 after they take on WW at 9:30. So, I guess if WW has few solid teams on the spring schedule, then so does Point.  Kind of contradicts your competing with the best teams in the country theory, Dagger.

[OshDude]

Interesting that Point has W & J today and Bowdoin coming up tomorrow at 1:30 after they take on WW at 9:30. So, I guess if WW has few solid teams on the spring schedule, then so does Point.  Kind of contradicts your competing with the best teams in the country theory, Dagger.

Before UWW added W&J to the schedule, the Warhawks played one team getting votes (Cortland). UWSP has played teams getting votes exclusively (SOC, Trinity, and now W&J). I think Dagger's theory was valid, especially at the time he posted. Even with the nice W&J add for UWW, I find it hard to believe anyone thinks UWW's schedule has been tougher than UWSP's.

[badgerwarhawk]

On another note, point took a good split with the number 4 team in the country in Trinity College. Dont really know much about either of the games, but coming away with a split is a win (literally) for the pointers.  it's nice to see they are able to compete with the "best teams" in the country.  We'll see how the remainder of the trip plays out for them.

According to the schedule on the WIAC website Point actually played two different Trinity teams.  They beat Trinity (Tx) 3-1 in the first game and then lost to Trinity (CT) 11-2 in the second game.  Trinity (CT) was the Trinity that participated in the 2009 D3 World Series and is presently ranked 5th in the D3baseball.com's Top 25.  Trinity (Tx) with an 18-5 record is currently ranked 25th in the same poll.   They finished 24-21 last year.

I'm just clarifying the schedule and not debating the virtues of Point's schedule vs WHITEWATER'S.  Actually I agree with Dagger, we'll see what happens when the teams start conference play.

[pickleshiner]

The Pointers did play Trinity(CT) both times yesterday and won 3-1 with Delorit on the mound.  I didn't see the final of game 1 today but know Point was ahead 6-1 in the 5th and they are down 5-0 with Van Beck on the hill in game 2.  W&J'S 1B has 2 homers in game 2 so far.  Williams pitched game 1.

[badgerwarhawk]

The conference website must be mistaken.  It indicated different Trinity(s).