BB: WIAC: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[cubs]

Standings Through May 6th
*Stevens Point  18-4
*Whitewater     17-5
Oshkosh         11-9
La Crosse        11-11
Superior          7-13
Stout              6-16
Platteville        6-18

*-Clinched WIAC Tournament berth

-Whitewater and Stevens Point each play as if the Regular Season WIAC Championship and the home-field advantage in the WIAC Tournament that comes along with it was on the line.  They were both dominant in picking up a pair of victories over La Crosse and Stout respectively.  Whitewater knocked off La Crosse 10-4 and 11-6 with Tincher and Donovan picking up victories.  Brooks Braga stold the show offensively in Game #2, (albeit in a losing cause) as he was 3x4 with a pair of HR's and 5 RBI's.  Stevens Point beats Stout 10-1 and 12-3.  Williams and Delorit pick up the victories on the mound.

-Point clinches a tie for the WIAC Regular Season Championship and will host the WIAC Tournament with a split tomorrow due to winning the tie-breaker.  (They beat Oshkosh 3 out of 4, while Whitewater split.)

-The DH between Oshkosh and Superior was PPD to Sunday, and both Saturday and Sunday's DH's will be played in Oshkosh.  I guess this makes up for the four home games Oshkosh lost earlier in the season when they were played in Platteville.  If Oshkosh wins bith games against Superior tomorrow, they clinch the #3 seed for the WIAC Tournament.

[badgerwarhawk]

WARHAWKS...10   LaCrosse...4

Tincher (8-2): 9 innings, 11 hits, 4 runs (earned), 0 walks, 6 strikeouts

Andrew Eichstaedt 3x4, 2 doubles; Brent Young 3x3, double, 2 RBI; Jeff Donovan 3x4, 2 doubles, home run, 3 RBI.
Jared Fon (1), Logan Peot (1), Matt Beyer (1), Dylan Friend (1) RBI


WARHAWKS...11   LaCrosse...6

Donovan (9-0): 6.1 innings, 10 hits, 4 runs (earned), 3 walks, 6 strikeouts
Justin Mortensen: 2.2 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs (earned), 1 walk, 2 strikeouts

Dan Putnam, 3x4, 1 RBI
Jared Fon, 2x3, Double, 3 RBI

Eichstaedt (2), Donovan (4), Friend (1) RBI

Donovan (grand slam) and Friend had home runs. 

[John Gleich]

Stevens Point wins game 1 against Stout to claim at least a share of the WIAC regular season title and the #1 seed in the WIAC tournament.

Tied 2-2 after 5, both teams went scoreless until a 2 out walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 9th by Gerber.

[cubs]

Nick Bursick- Superior

He didn't even make it out for the 3rd inning today, and that's against an Oshkosh team that has struggled with the bats all season.  He gave up 6 runs in two innings, including a HR, which was just UWO's third of the season.

[cubs]

Standings Through May 7th
*Stevens Point  20-4
*Whitewater     18-6
*Oshkosh         13-9
La Crosse        12-12
Superior          7-15
Stout              6-18
Platteville        6-18

*-Clinched WIAC Tournament berth

-Point runs their winning streak to 11 games in their DH sweep of Stout.  They get a walk-off win in the opener, with an RBI single from Seam Gerber, and then jump out to an early 8-0 lead in the nightcap and hold on for a 9-6 victory.

-Whitewater splits a pair of games with La Crosse, dropping the opener 3-1, and then getting a thrilling 1-0 13-inning victory in the nightcap.  La Crosse's Garrett Scray threw 11 scoreless innings before giving way to the bullpen.

-Oshkosh shuffles up the line-up, and puts up double-digit runs for just the second and third time all season in WIAC play in a 10-4 and 14-7 DH sweep of Superior.  Westphal gets the CG victory to improve his record to 6-0 on the season in the opener, and then the Titans come out on top in a slug-fest in the nightcap.  The Titans jumped out to an 8-0 lead, only to see Superior score seven runs in the bottom of the 5th off of starter Matt Wells to close the gap to 8-7.  Oshkosh is able to tack on two runs in the 7th and four more in the 9th, while Troy Mrkvicka comes on in relief to throw four shut-out innings, giving up just one hit and striking out three and the Titans hold on for the 14-7 victory.  Every Titan starter had at least one hit in Game #2, including Jake Dostalek, who made his return to the starting line-up for the first time since April 21st at Stout.

[OshDude]

Got a bit chippy today in Oshkosh. Eddy Morgan was tossed in Game 2 after about five close calls went against Superior. And I saw Morgan's side most, if not all, of the time. The base ump didn't catch on that Morgan was basically pulling a Coach Dale and begging to get tossed. He didn't empty the bat rack, chuck a base or kick dirt, but it was obvious what was happening. Took about four minutes before the ump got the hint, and he tossed him only after Morgan went back to his dugout. "That's all you got?!" Morgan asked the ump from 200 feet away. And the slow stroll to the bus was on.

Kind of an entertaining day. Rather glad to see more baseball in Oshkosh this year. Stinks that Oshkosh had to travel to Superior to find an unplayable field, but home games are home games.

[cubs]

Oshkosh clinched the #3 seed yesterday, and their play today showed as much, as they dropped Game #1 of a DH today to Superior 1-0.  Grabig threw arguably his best game of the season, but the combination of Dan Lindsey and Mike Swanson held Oshkosh to just four hits as the Titans never had a runner reach 3rd base with less than two out.

Game #2 sees some of the Titans regulars on the bench and a couple of guys getting their first starts of the season.

[badgerwarhawk]

Superior takes game two 5-3.

[cubs]

Final 2011 WIAC Standings
*Stevens Point  20-4
*Whitewater     18-6
*Oshkosh         13-11
La Crosse        12-12
Superior          9-15
Stout              6-18
Platteville        6-18

*-Clinched WIAC Tournament berth

WIAC Tournament Match-ups

Friday's Games
Game #1-Oshksosh vs Whitewater 10:00 am

Game #2-Winner Game #1 vs Stevens Point  1:00 pm

Game #3-Loser Game #1 vs Winner Game #2  4:00 pm

-It will be interesting to see who gets the start for Oshkosh on Friday.  Do they go with the most consistent starter and the guy who shut them down a week ago in Westphal or do they go with Schreiber who got the weekend off?  The wild card would be Rubens.  Is he going to pitch after throwing just one inning in the last month?  One thing I've learned over the years is as soon as you think you have the rotation figured out, the order is changed.

-Now if you are Whitewater, do you throw Tincher in Game #1, or do you throw Donovan and keep Tincher for a match-up with Point?

-In talking with people this weekend, the consensus was that if you play in Game #1, throw your #2, so that if you win Game #1 you have your #1 for Game #2 against the #1 seeds #1.  Even if you lose, you have your #1 going against the other teams #2 or #3 in Game #3.  I'm not sure I agree with it, but I can see their train of thought.

[ShineTime]

This year's WIAC tournament will be interesting in the fact that usually Point doesn't win the WIAC regular season title and has to win the WIAC tourney to get that automatic spot in regionals.  I personally believe Whitewater will throw Tincher game #1.  Point and Whitewater both know that they are in regionals regardless of how they do this weekend and I don't know that even if Whitewater wins the tourney that they'll be the #1 seed for regionals.  I also believe that Point and Whitewater will be 1 and 2 seeds at regionals regardless of how they do this weekend.  I'm sure Whitewater would rather be a 1 seed going in but seeing they have home field advantage I'm sure it's not a top priority for them.  Either way whomever wins game #1 is going to have a very hard time with Point as Williams has been on fire the past few weeks.  Oshkosh has to throw Westphal game 1 no ifs, ands or buts about it.  He's been the best pitcher in the WIAC all season long.

[Just Bill]

UW-Stevens Point announced their five Director of Athletics finalists today and baseball coach Pat Bloom is among them.

http://athletics.uwsp.edu/news/2011/5/9/GEN_0509114947.aspx

[d32kidsplayen]

so, if Bloom was to get the AD job I have to assume that would end his coaching career at UWSP, correct?

[Just Bill]

so, if Bloom was to get the AD job I have to assume that would end his coaching career at UWSP, correct?

Most likely. The previous AD had no coaching responsibilities and no other WIAC AD coaches.

[MIACLUV]

May be a good reason for him NOT to get the job. If he does get it, he has to interview the person to take over his program. That could be a tough decision since he's going to have a lot of good candidates that'll want that job.

[Just Bill]

May be a good reason for him NOT to get the job. If he does get it, he has to interview the person to take over his program. That could be a tough decision since he's going to have a lot of good candidates that'll want that job.

That's a problem any AD would love to have. It's the job searches with no viable candidates that are the tough ones. I don't think that will be an issue in Bloom being considered.