BB: NWC: Northwest Conference

swede · March 02, 2009, 08:56:53 PM

Quote from: BearcatPress on March 01, 2009, 04:00:14 AM
Quote from: swede on February 28, 2009, 09:15:55 PM
PLU hammered the 'cats all day winning both games. In my humble opinion Linfield needs to at least split tomorrow to have any kind of chance at the NWC crown. PLU put on perhaps the most dominating display of hitting I've seen in many years. Including the non league loss to the Lutes the 'cats are now 0-3 against
them having given up 48 runs (16 per game) OUCH!!!

For a team that was built on pitching and defense last year . . . I'm stunned. Is PLU that good, Linfield that bad, or were the Wildcats just having an off-day while the Lutes were firing on all cylinders? I guess we find out tomorrow.

Bearcats did what they were supposed to do today, sweeping a doubleheader with Lewis & Clark. Impressive performances by a couple of sophomore pitchers. Hopefully they can sweep the series tomorrow: a 6-1 start would be fantastic for this team.

PLU is a very good ball team and congrats to the Bearcats who I think will surprise some people.

Good job #11 I saw a lute trying to find his bat.

Bearcat Press · March 03, 2009, 02:44:09 AM

Well nuts. Willamette completed the doubleheader today, winning game one 15-6 and dropping game two 2-1. I'm really kind of mystified by that last score, especially since L&C doesn't have great pitching and the Bearcats are a really good hitting ballclub. But while I think a sweep is what we deserved, I'll take a 3-1 start to conference play.

WU steps out of conference again for a three game series at Menlo this weekend. Anyone know anything about the Oaks?

wildcat11 · March 03, 2009, 01:39:02 PM

NWC standings after one week of NWC play

(NWC, Overall)
George Fox 4-0, 7-3
Willamette 3-1, 5-2
Puget Sound 2-1, 4-3
Linfield 2-2, 5-3
PLU 2-2, 6-5
Whitworth 1-2, 3-5
L&C 1-3, 1-7
Whitman 0-0, 1-5
Pacific 0-4, 3-6

The weekend: Pacific @ PLU, L&C @ GFU, Linfield @ Whitworth (played in Colfax, Wa due to snow), UPS @ Whitman, Willamette @ Menlo (non-conference)

Swede,

Thanks for the update on Vaughan...'Cats are really going to miss his arm.

BP,

Menlo dropped a couple to Pacific and were handled by Chapman (most teams are). They are only 1-7 (beat East Bay) so I think Willamette should be able to take care of business.

Bearcat Press · March 06, 2009, 03:24:28 AM

Interesting - it appears that Menlo's pitching coach is Willamette grad Jimmy Meuel, class of 2008. He was probably our best (read: only) long relief pitcher last year. I wonder if he had a hand in setting up the series.

Willamette sophomore Ryan Hood-Taylor was named NWC pitcher of the week last week. Not bad to start out your career with a 2-0 record and a 2.25 ERA.

I'm not optimistic, but I hope L&C can take a game off of George Fox this weekend. That would set up a pretty big showdown in Salem next weekend.

wildcat11 · March 06, 2009, 12:29:54 PM

'Cats and Rats are snowed out this weekend. They will make it up towards the end of the year.

wildcat11 · March 09, 2009, 07:32:59 PM

'Cats just wrapped up a 4 game sweep with Whitworth at Linfield today. The series was originally moved to Colfax, Wa, then suspended due to weather, and ultimately moved to Linfield where Whitworth was the "home" team.

Fox sweeps up the Pios, Lutes continue to hit the tar out of the ball and sweep Pacific (I think they score more than their football team), Oaks shock Willamette and take all three non-conference games, and Whitman vs UPS gets postponed.

Here's how they sit after week 2 of NWC play:

NWC, Overall
George Fox 8-0, 11-3
Linfield 6-2, 9-3
Pacific Lutheran 6-2, 10-5
Willamette 3-1, 5-5
Puget Sound 2-1, 4-3
Whitworth 1-6, 3-9
Lewis & Clark 1-7, 1-11
Whitman 0-0, 1-5
Pacific (Ore.) 0-8, 3-10

cat_fan_08 · March 13, 2009, 12:04:16 AM

Cat's have been moved to Walla Walla to take on Whitman this weekend because of impending rain in the valley.

Bearcat Press · March 13, 2009, 12:12:42 AM

Bearcats and Bruins have agreed to play one of their games scheduled for this weekend on Friday. The schedule for the rest of the series is uncertain. I'm excited to make it out - my first chance to see baseball this year!

http://www.willamette.edu/athletics/news/article/2009/03/bearcats_and_bruins_will_start_series_with_one_game_on_frida.xml

Hopefully we can rebound from an ugly, ugly series at Menlo last weekend.

coco · March 13, 2009, 06:44:26 PM

Catfan08,
Welcome to the board!

BearcatPress,
It's the paper's loss that you're not covering baseball, IMO.

Too bad they didn't play ALL the baseball games in the past few days instead of leaving them for the weekend.

Jack Parkman · March 14, 2009, 12:26:47 AM

Is it just me, or are the top 3 in the NWC pretty good and the rest of the league is terrible? Not to be so blunt, but it sure seems like the schools other than George Fox, PLU and Linfield are all pretty bad. How does the coach at Willamette leave that kid in in the 8th

http://www.willamette.edu/athletics/teams/baseball/stats/2009/game11.htm

cat_fan_08 · March 14, 2009, 12:33:25 PM

Linfield, Fox, and PLU are usually in the top 3 but there is usually another team in the conference that will have their year with all of their seniors. Then the next year they will drop back down. Just like a lot of other athletic conferences there will be a a few teams at the top, then a grouping of average teams in the middle, and then there are the one or two terrible teams at the bottom.

For the NWC, the team with the deepest pitching staff is going to win. Especially since they went to a 4 game conference series each week. That might have been Willamette's closer. Although after he gave up 5 runs in the 8th I would have pulled him.

Can you blame that on a rookie head coach?

Bearcat Press · March 14, 2009, 09:36:04 PM

It was our closer. I think he got almost every batter he faced to two strikes, mostly 0-2 or 1-2 counts, but then just got taken to town on the next pitch. It got to the point where me and my friend were making bets on where the next ball would go. It was really, really ugly.

Matt Wycoff (sp?) for GFU went 5-5 with 3 HRs, 8 RBIs, a walk, and pitched the last inning.

I'm still confident that we can get a split out of this series, but Stott needs to find an out pitch. Like, NOW.

Jack Parkman · March 15, 2009, 11:43:24 PM

Updated "Far West" regional rankings. As of 3/15/09

TEAM WINNING %
1. George Fox 1.000
2. Pomona-Pitzer .917
3. Cal Lutheran .867
4. Linfield .786
Redlands .786
6. Claremont .667
7. Chapman .643
8. Pacific Lutheran .615
9. Whittier .500
Occidental .500
11. Willamette .455
12. Puget Sound .444
13. La Verne .400
14. Menlo .385
15. Pacific .333
East Bay .333
17. Whitman .125
18. Whitworth .111
19. Lewis & Clark .091
20. Cal Tech 0

There could be some mistakes but I think these are pretty much right on. Thoughts?

wildcat11 · March 16, 2009, 12:47:25 PM

Well, the conference standings are a mess right now because of all the rain outs over the past few weeks. 'Cats are set up to roll into the last two weekends of the season.

NWC, Overall
George Fox 9-0, 12-3
Linfield 10-2, 13-3
PLU 6-2, 10-5
Puget Sound 2-1, 5-6
Willamette 3-2, 5-6
Pacific (Ore.) 2-8, 5-10
Lewis & Clark 1-7, 1-12
Whitworth 1-8, 3-11
Whitman 0-4, 1-9

Jack Parkman · March 17, 2009, 01:51:01 AM

I finally added the ASC and SCAC schools to the mix. Pretty interesting as it looks like all of the Texas schools are beating up on each other.

TEAM WINNING %
1. George Fox 1.000
2. Pomona-Pitzer .917
3. Cal Lutheran .867
4. UT Tyler .833
5. Linfield .786
Redlands .786
7. Claremont .667
8. UT Dallas .647
9. Chapman .643
10. UMHB .625

That is the top 10 as of 3/16/09

I realize there is still a lot of baseball to be played but the SCAC West needs to have a team win their conference tourney to get in.

BB: NWC: Northwest Conference

wildcat11

wildcat11

wildcat11

cat_fan_08

cat_fan_08

wildcat11