BB: NWC: Northwest Conference

[dahlby]

Linfield and Chapman split in twinbill today in sunny  Southern California...
Chapman took first game, and Linfield the second in extra innings.
Details and write-up at:

chapmanathletics.com

[CrashDavisD3]

Linfield and Chapman split in twinbill today in sunny  Southern California...
Chapman took first game, and Linfield the second in extra innings.
Details and write-up at:

chapmanathletics.com

Chapman is now 0-6 in extra inning games in 2012. 12 games they have lost by 2 runs or less. It has been a very difficult year for the Panthers.

[(509)Rat]

Current standings after this weekend. Pacific still in the driver's seat even after dropping 2 to Whitworth. Win and they're in...

Pacific (Ore.)   14-4
Whitworth           13-5
Linfield           15-6
Pacific Lutheran   12-6
George Fox           12-9
Willamette           7-11
Puget Sound   5-13
Whitman           5-16
Lewis & Clark   4-17

The biggest series left will be Pacific v PLU to close out the season. Linfield needs to root for a PLU sweep and hope that Willamette and Whitman can each take a game from Whitworth over the next 2 weeks. The top 3 teams are all still in it. Don't know much about baseball but this is going to be an exciting finish

[tigerfan_2001]

Linfield and Chapman split in twinbill today in sunny  Southern California...
Chapman took first game, and Linfield the second in extra innings.
Details and write-up at:

chapmanathletics.com

Chapman is now 0-6 in extra inning games in 2012. 12 games they have lost by 2 runs or less. It has been a very difficult year for the Panthers.

jeez...that is rough

[forheavendial4999]

Current standings after this weekend. Pacific still in the driver's seat even after dropping 2 to Whitworth. Win and they're in...

Pacific (Ore.)   14-4
Whitworth           13-5
Linfield           15-6
Pacific Lutheran   12-6

The biggest series left will be Pacific v PLU to close out the season. Linfield needs to root for a PLU sweep and hope that Willamette and Whitman can each take a game from Whitworth over the next 2 weeks. The top 3 teams are all still in it. Don't know much about baseball but this is going to be an exciting finish

Linfield still loses any tiebreak against the top 2, right? So Linfield would have to sweep George Fox in that scenario as well? Willamette winning 2 against Whitworth might be more likely than Whitman winning 1.

[wildcat11]

Current standings after this weekend. Pacific still in the driver's seat even after dropping 2 to Whitworth. Win and they're in...

Pacific (Ore.)   14-4
Whitworth           13-5
Linfield           15-6
Pacific Lutheran   12-6

The biggest series left will be Pacific v PLU to close out the season. Linfield needs to root for a PLU sweep and hope that Willamette and Whitman can each take a game from Whitworth over the next 2 weeks. The top 3 teams are all still in it. Don't know much about baseball but this is going to be an exciting finish

Linfield still loses any tiebreak against the top 2, right? So Linfield would have to sweep George Fox in that scenario as well? Willamette winning 2 against Whitworth might be more likely than Whitman winning 1.

Correct.  Both Whitworth and Pacific have the tie break.  Linfield has to sweep Fox (tall enough task) and hope to get a lot of help.  Stranger things have happened.  Go 'Cats!

[forheavendial4999]

Correct.  Both Whitworth and Pacific have the tie break.  Linfield has to sweep Fox (tall enough task) and hope to get a lot of help.  Stranger things have happened. Go 'Cats!

Certainly true...

[Whatagame]

With Pacific dropping 2 at Whitworth, that means there is a ton of baseball yet to be played in order to settle the NWC.   Yes, the Pacific/PLU series looks big on 4/28-29, but, Pacific plays Puget Sound this coming weekend.  On paper the series might appear a mis-match, but Puget Sound appears to be playing better baseball the last two weeks, as they took 2 of 3 from Lewis and Clark, but more impressively, taking 2 of 3 from George Fox.  Puget Sound, Willamette and Whitman are teams that the schedule positions as possible "spoilers" the next two weeks.

[idalogger]

Strange season for UPS. Absolutely awful stretch when they were swept by Whitworth, PLU, and Linfield. Then, after waking up late in the first game vs. Fox and losing 7-4, they win consecutive 2-1 games against the Bruins, beat Concordia, and win the first two against LC in dramatic fashion, with a walkoff grand slam and a late rally, only to look horrible yesterday in a 13-10 loss. To play with Pacific, the team that beat Fox twice will have to show up. They have played the Tigers tough the past few years, however.

[wildcat11]

A lot of pressure are on teams that haven't been exposed to it before.  Should make for a great ending.

[Whatagame]

I agree on your assessment Wildcat, regarding team's experiences responding to pressure.  I made my call a few weeks ago that I thought Pacific would take the conference title, but although they took all three from Whitman two weeks ago, they didn't exactly roll 'em, getting single digits in hits all three games, and winning game three by one run in a game where Whitman committed (6) six errors and handed Pacific several runs!  Then, last weekend, Pacific loses two to Whitworth.  They are in the position now where they need to regain momentum.

I'll stick to my original pick of Pacific, on principle, but I like Linfield's chances a lot more now than I did two weeks ago.

[(509)Rat]

Pacific almost got a little more breathing room but Whitworth pulled out the second game 7-6 in 10 innings (against Willamette).

Linfield dropped 2 to GF today and officially dropped out of the playoff race.

Tomorrow is big for Whitworth and Pacific. Both need to win their games tomorrow, especially Pacific who has that series against PLU next week. I figured that lack of experience at the top would make for a wild finish...so far it's been a lot of chalk...

[wildcat11]

Linfield dropped 2 to GF today and officially dropped out of the playoff race.

Yeah, hard to see that happen but hope the 'Cats will finish strong over the next few weekends.  Go 'Cats and congrats to the one that represents the NWC at the Regional.

[(509)Rat]

Whitworth, Pacific and PLU all won today. GF got out the brooms to complete the sweep over Linfield.

For Pacific it's win and they're in. If they even drop 1 game they have to hope Whitman can knock of the Pirates once.

Whitworth needs one more win (against Whitman) than Pacific gets (against PLU) next weekend to finish in first

PLU has to win 2 more games than Whitworth next weekend in order to make the playoffs...they're not officially out of it yet

[Whatagame]

Wow, what a down-to-the-wire finish in the NWC!  Although Pacific indeed controls their destiny, a sweep at PLU is a tall order.  Could Whitman possibly take one from Whitworth, taking a tiny bit of pressure off Pacific?

Objectively, Whitman has some starting pitchers that have shown the ability at times to rise up and hold a team's offense down a bit.  The challenge is that the offense is scoring very few runs, so a number of fairly solid outings have gone to waste. 

Pacific better plan on sweeping....but, who knows, they'll still play the three games in Spokane this weekend, just to make sure....