BB: WIAC: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Greek Tragedy]

from the WIAC site:

The matchup between the Blugolds and Warhawks represented the third time in WIAC history two schools have met for the national championship - in any sport.  The previous national title meetings were in men's ice hockey with UW-Stevens Point beating UW-River Falls in 1993 and the UW-River Falls upending UW-Superior in 1994.

[batboy]

Just want to say congrats to Doug Coe for being named to the D3baseball.com 2nd team All-America Team.  Kind of shocked that he is the only player from the WIAC to get any all-american honors.  I thought for sure Jeremy Rubens from Oshkosh deserved HM to say the least, he had some unbelievable numbers, maybe if he would have pitched at all in regionals he would've.  Unless he had a sore arm, he should've started against St. Thomas.

[badgerwarhawk]

Congrats to Coe and good luck to him.   Though I have to admit I'm glad to see him graduate. 

We all wondered why Rubens wasn't used.  If he was available it just seemed odd not to use him in game two.   If he wasn't you have to wonder what impact the way he was used in the regular season may have played in it.   I don't profess to know and I'm not second guessing anyone but I admit to being curious. 

[bighitter]

now that the season is over for the rest of the wiac teams, i'm supposed to cheer for the warhawks at the world series and hope that they represent the conference well. after the way my wife and i were treated at whitewater this year,  that  will be difficult to do. a comment from this old coach to all wiac fans, go to the games to cheer for your team. don't go there to harass and insult the other teams players. these are college players not professionals and their family is there to watch them. the ww players showed some class in the wiac tourney when they returned to the field to shake hands after a loss when their coach refused to. coach vodenlich, there is something called "good sportsmanship", you might have heard of it. i hope that in the future the ww athletic director will attend more games and observe the conduct of his coach and some of the fans. maybe then there will no longer be a need for the peace officers at all ww home games. wiac baseball is the best and the warhawks have a great team of fine young men. i wish them good luck in the world series.

[Z71Warhawk]

I was at the Linfield V UW-W and the group of guys I was around tipped their hats to the Linfield team.... They played great and congrats to them.

[badgerwarhawk]

What are you talking about Bighitter, I personally witnessed Coach Vodenlich shake Coach Bloom's hand following the WIAC tournament loss.  It happened right in front of me.   Get your facts straight before you go around calling someone's sportsmanship to task.  I can tell you some story about fans from other programs if you think something is unique to WW.

[batboy]

there were only two players that were waiting to shake stevens points hands after the WIAC tourney championship game.  coach vodenlich was not going to shake hands, but the boos and embarassment got to him and he finally gave in and pointed his players out to the home plate area to shook points hands.  WW has been known for doing this crap, it happened in the WIAC tourney in 2005 against SP also.  Their coach has a chip on his shoulder and thinks he is too good to shake hands after some games.  He shouldn't have to be booed and practically forced to do it, it should be automatic.  Because of this behavior by him, I know for a fact that some recruits have chose not to go there.

[szlongball]

Congrats to Whitewater for the outstanding job of representing the WIAC in the World Series. As I said before they were the right team to represent the WIAC this year. Zalnis had an amazing series and the rest of the Warhawks gave everthing they had, enjoy your summer and will look forward to seeing you next spring.

[badgerwarhawk]

Yes it's true.  It did take us roughly 30 seconds or so to assemble following the Point loss and Point fans did boo us for not lining up quickly enough for them.   But if you think it was embarassment you're giving yourselves far too much credit.    I have seen Voldenlich shake hands after games countless number of times and the assertion by bighitter that he failed to do so following the game is absolutely untrue.

One thing I know for a fact is that with two 40(+) win seasons, four conference championships, two national third place finishes and a national championship in the five years Voldenlich has been the head coach at WW  he is doing pretty well with the recruits he does get. 

Thanks sz, we did our best but losing on day one and having to come back through the loser's bracket got the better of us.   Enjoy your summer.

[bighitter]

Always happy to see a WIAC team do well each year and this year it was WW's turn to represent the conference in the world series and they did a great job. Congrats to the WW players on a great season. Some already solid teams returning next year with many fine recruits that I have heard about early. So, looks like another great year coming for the conference and I'm looking forward to it.

[hh131]

Speaking of recruits.....does anyone know of any WIAC recruits?  It's always fun watching future WIAC players during the current WIAA tourney.

[formman]

Being from MN I can tell you that there are a number of parents and players that are starting to hear about the WIAC.

With the increased costs of MIAC schools the UW system seems to be a really good deal. I know that this year almost half of the starters for La Crosse were MN kids. I have not checked out Stout.

Superior gets Mpls Washburn H.S. best player next year.
UWW has one of the better players in the past few years from Mpls Southwest.

[ShineTime]

I think it's pretty much a given that Oshkosh and Whitewater will battle for the WIAC title and both teams will have good chances at winning the world series.  I would have to give the edge to Oshkosh next year but I think a key for them will be making Rubens a starter.  Point should still be top 4 but I don't think they will be a contender for the title or be a factor come regionals.  Can someone give a prediction for each teams lineup come next Spring or talk about any possible transfers/recruits each school may be getting?  I think Superior is actually going to finish top 4 next year based on what they have returning.

I will take a stab at Points lineup but am probably way off the mark.
1.  Eric Fritz  SS
2.  Brad Archambeau  1B
3.  Sam Spurney  RF
4.  Jared Surman LF
5.  Cody Koback  CF
6.  Aaron Heiden 3B
7.  Garrett Bloom DH
8.  Consadine  C
9.  Matt Johnson/ Seth McClullen 2B

Pitching staff should be 1. Nix 2. Delorit 3. Hemstead(If Healthy) 4. Williams.  Zielke should be a pretty dominant closer again.  Hoeschele, Kouba, and Lorenz will all hopefully improve.  If anyone has heard of any transfers or big time recruits to Point can you please post?  I am just guessing Koback is going to Point but am not 100% sure.  I think Point will have a lot of holes next year unless they have an outstanding recruiting class.  They will definitely need some new guys that can rake.

[OshDude]

I disagree on Rubens. I think Oshkosh used him very effectively this season. You can either run a guy out there once a week or use him in spots nearly every game. I'll take the latter. Plus, besides regionals Rubens always got the big starts as well. I'll take that scenario every time. In fact, I'm surprised more teams do not use their top Ps like Lechnir does. It's been successful the last two years with Gerl and Rubens, who expanded on Gerl's role to include the biggest starts.

With so many returners, I have no idea what the UWO lineup will be. There will be a lot of competition, that's for sure. UWO adds another Jirschele, and I'm sure a few other nice recruits, and returns a healthy Mickey Fadness. That hitting depth will be a welcome change after UWO struggled with the bats at the end of the year.

Next year I hope the WIAC moves to a slow-pitch softball lineup with 10 batters. Have not been able to say that at UWO in a while.

[szlongball]

Oshdude
   Got to disagree about the use of Ruebens like he was used this year. For whatever reason he was unavailable for the regional tournament. I think having him available would have made a difference for Oshkosh. Neither Gerl nor Ruebens were a factor in helping Oshkosh get to the promised land. I would rather have 4 solid pitchers and a relief specialist as opposed to a guy that gets run out to pitch all the time. It looks good for making all conference, etc. But you want to win at the end of the season when it counts. Doesn't do a lot of good if he is great throughout the regular season and is unable to pitch when you really need him at tournament time. So I will say that using him like Lechnir did was a big mistake. He is very talented and I would hate to see something go wrong and end a possible great career at Oshkosh. Whitewater had the right idea and they finished 3rd in the nation. Point had the potential but not the drive that it needed. That's just my thought on the subject though.