BB: NESCAC: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[eclinchy]

Williams rallies to beat Tufts 8-5, clinching the NESCAC championship.

So where does this leave Tufts and Trinity in terms of Pool C bids?  Both teams appear to be near the bubble...

[Bostonian]

Neither will get a bid.

[Bostonian]

Looks like I was dead wrong on Trinity...absolute joke. Worst screw job I could imagine. Decker must have pictures of someone...team does not deserve to be there one bit.

[JustAFan]

Couldn't agree with you more, Bostonian. Neither Tufts nor Trinity deserved to go, in my opinion, but as between the two Tufts was far more deserving than Trinity. Trinity played a very weak schedule, and didn't win the two series in its NESCAC division that mattered (Tufts and Bowdoin) and this is its reward for playing patsies and not getting the job done in the NESCAC? Doesn't make any sense, and it penalizes schools like Tufts that play the best New England teams they can find, not to mention a MUCH tougher spring break schedule. For some reason, the NCAA has much better luck selecting the right teams for the DIII basketball tournament, taking into account subjective criteria like strength of schedule both in and out of conference, not just numeric data, but when it comes to the baseball tournament it really makes some poor choices, this being Exhibit A.  Who you play should be as important as how many wins you have, but it's not under the current NCAA selection criteria.  If it was, then Trinity would/should be watching the tournament on DIIICast. 

I give Casey big props for not dumbing down his schedule like Trinity to play weak regional teams to boost his team's winning percentage. Casey likes to challenge his kids by playing the best as often as he can--maybe that's why he attracts the kids he does. And my sense of the guy is that he won't compromise that principle going forward to win points come tournament selection time notwithstanding this year's selection of Trinity. 

Even though his team didn't make the tournament, Casey deserves at least NESCAC coach of the year for overcoming all of the injuries and key transfers he suffered this year and still having the success he did with the kids available to him. Tufts is a fairly young team, and its future looks promising, like Bowdoin's, although I also think Trinity will be the team to beat next year given the talent it will bring back in its senior class, especially on the mound.

[JustAFan]

NESCAC baseball recruits for next year--anyone have any idea what high school seniors and transfers will be enrolling at NESCAC schools next fall? I heard Trinity has a very good catcher coming in and Tufts has a pitcher named Bernstein from Foxboro HS and possibly a kid from BB&N (Sam Bean) but I also heard that he may go to Dartmouth instead. Others?

[Bostonian]

Tufts' top recruits are a CF from Chicago, Bernstein, a pitcher from Worcester Academy, and an infiedler from Arizona.

[Old Spartan]

Since the NESCAC does not have Fall games it makes it difficult for us to have off season discussions.   That said, is anyone aware of something interesting to post?

[BoomerIL]

Bostonian......

Just curious, what is the name of the CF from Chicago that Tufts recruited?

[Paul Heering]

I had some time so I went through some stats I had lying around.

Here are some stats based on 2007 NESCAC baseball results

Here are the figures for the production that teams got out of their underclassman pitchers (I didn't go through and check to see who was back, this is just based on their 200 statistics and roster)

To explain further, if Starts = 63% that means that in 2007 63% of their games were started by underclassmen (this is just pitching stats)

Amherst (20-14, 9-3) Team ERA 4.86
Starts = 59%
Wins = 70%
Innings Pitched = 72%
Appearances = 82%
Average of these = 71%

Bates (7-22, 1-11) Team ERA 7.28
Starts = 72%
Wins = 43%
Innings Pitched = 67%
Appearances = 79%
Average of these = 65%

Bowdoin (18-16, 9-3) Team ERA 4.51
Starts = 65%
Wins = 89%
Innings Pitched = 66%
Appearances = 70%
Average of these = 72%

Colby (7-22, 2-10) Team ERA 8.23
Starts = 76%
Wins = 71%
Innings Pitched = 75%
Appearances = 81%
Average of these = 76%

Hamilton (8-16-1, 2-10) Team ERA 7.02
Starts = 76%
Wins = 88%
Innings Pitched = 79%
Appearances = 86%
Average of these = 82%

Middllebury (19-11, 7-5) Team ERA 4.79
Starts = 100%
Wins = 100%
Innings Pitched = 100%
Appearances = 99%
Average of these = 100%

Trinity (30-8, 8-4) Team ERA 3.52
Starts = 66%
Wins = 67%
Innings Pitched = 64%
Appearances = 60%
Average of these = 64%

Tufts (25-12, 10-2) Team ERA 3.68
Starts = 59%
Wins = 64%
Innings Pitched = 64%
Appearances = 67%
Average of these = 64%

Wesleyan (12-23, 3-9) Team ERA 6.56
Starts = 83%
Wins = 67%
Innings Pitched = 77%
Appearances = 69%
Average of these = 74%

Williams (27-10, 9-3) Team ERA 3.51
Starts = 97%
Wins = 93%
Innings Pitched = 91%
Appearances = 89%
Average of these = 92%

Williams led the conference in ERA last year with a lot of underclassmen.  Middlebury seems to be getting a lot back and Britton had an all star summer in the NECBL

[Bostonian]

Boomer,
I believe his last name is Goldberg.

Paul,
Middlebury and Trinity should be the class of the NESCAC. Williams definitely has the potential to be strong again, but they lost alot of offensive firepower. Look for Bowdoin to be solid, too...

[Rick Vaughn]

It's been too long.  Let's get some thoughts flowing about the '08 season.  Wes Tech is about to head to Cali to get NESCAC teams in action.  Trinity appears head and shoulders above the rest of the East.  The West is a little more wide open, but Williams and Midd should rise to the top.  A few questions out of the west:  Where did Andrew Thal go for Amherst?  He disappeared from the website after a promising rookie season.  Who is going to catch for Williams?  Kenney leaves a huge hole in the Eph lineup (literally).

All Conference Predictions:

C: Nick Lefeber - Midd
1B: Neil Allar - Amherst
2B: James DiCosmo - Williams
SS: Tom DiBenedetto -  Trinity
3B: John Lanahan - Midd
OF: Max Pinto - Williams
OF: Steve Ragonese - Tufts
OF: Jim Wood - Trinity
P: Tim Kiely - Trin
P: Jack Britton - Midd
P: Dan Benz - Williams

PlayerOY: Pinto - Williams (biggest upside of any player in the league)
PitcherOY: Kiely - Trin (healthy and ready to repeat)

Predicted finish:

East:  Trinity, Bowdoin, Tufts, Colby, Bates

West:  Midd, Williams, Wes Tech, Amherst, Hamilton

I see a down year for the Lord Jeffs.  They lost a lot and will rely on a large amount of freshman.  Let the games begin.

[darkhorse]

Whats your reasoning for Wesleyan finishing in the 3 spot?  They lost their entire middle of their line up and have marginal pitching at best, what puts them ahead of both Amhers and Hamilton?

[DougiesGoinDeep]

Disagree with some of your All-Conference predictions....

Sean Killeen of Trinity is hands down better that Nick Lefeber, not even comparable.
Robin Allemand of Williams should be at 3rd instead of Lanahan.
Kent Graham of Trinity should have a big season at 1B in a potent Trinity line-up. Not saying he should be there instead of Allar, but both are very good hitters.

As far as pitchers, hard to believe you could leave off Chandler Barnard of Trinity, who went 9-1 with 66 K's in 68 innings.

I agree I think Pinto will have a big year, lot of good hitters this year in the NESCAC, but as always, the team with the best pitching at the end will be NESCAC champs.

[Rick Vaughn]

No real reason for putting Wesleyan 3.  I just was trying to display that I believe that Amherst will be down this year. 

I have never seen Kileen, Graham, or Barnard play and I didn't want to simply list the Trinity starting nine which is why I left them off.  The dominance that Trinity should have this year can be seen by looking at the All-NESCAC teams from last year.  Trin had 7 all-conference players and ALL of the them return, including 2 frosh and 2 sophs. 

Kiely and Britton are going to the be the two best pitchers going in this year.  Telian lost some steam after getting lit by Amherst in the tourney last year.  Barnard was OK in regionals.  Benz on the other hand, threw a one-hitter vs Bowdoin in NESCAC's.  If all holds to form it will be those three battling for the thirds pitchers slot.

Forgot to add a utility guy to the list:  Joe Pace - Bowdoin or Barnard.   

[Bostonian]

Some things to consider...
1. Trinity is actually playing baseball teams on their Florida trip rather than their usual lineup of cupcakes. I don't expect to see the same gaudy offensive numbers that alot of their hitters had last year. I noticed that anytime they faced a semi decent pitcher, (which was extremely rare because of their not so ambitious schedule) they really didn't hit too much.

2. With that said, Trinity should be the class of the NESCAC and maybe the NE region. Their pitching is deeper than any NESCAC team I've ever seen. With Barnard, Kiely, Bayer, Rapp, and Regan, Decker has amazing options to work with. The lefties can sling it, too. Plus, they get the Bourdon kid back who is an on base machine.

3. Mid should win the west. While Britton is a stud, the lefty Wright finished veyr strong last year. That's a solid 1-2. There's amost nothing after that, but Mid crushes bad pitching like it's nobody's business, so the 3rd game is always winnable.

4. Tufts has some very good freshmen, but Protano and Telian will need to be on every time they pitch. They have to go to Bowdoin this year and that's a huge weekend. There's very little pitching depth.

5. I like some of the Bowdoin young players, but their pitching was unimpressive last year. They get the Driscoll kid back, so they now have a bonafide ace. they could surprise this year, because they always seem to play Trinity tough.