BB: NESCAC: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[gordonmann]

Trinity leads Amherst 11-8.  I couldn't hear much since the audio quality was really, really rough.

The broadcast is available here:

http://www.teamline.cc/free_listen?teamcode=2055&eventcode=5&status=FFU

[JustAFan]

All-Conference selections announced, and Trinity dominates, deservedly so:

2008 NESCAC Baseball All-Conference Team   
             
First Team 

1B/C     Neal Allar                   Amherst    Sr.       Floyds Knobs, Ind. 
P/OF     Chandler Barnard      Trinity        Sr.       Lubbock, Texas 
P          Jeremiah Bayer          Trinity        So.       Greenfield, Mass. 
P          Dan Benz                   Williams     Jr.        Cicero, N.Y. 
2B        James DiCosmo          Williams    Sr.        Fair Lawn, N.J. 
1B        Kent Graham              Trinity        So.       Longmeadow, Mass. 
P          Tim Kiely                     Trinity        Sr.       Swampscott, Mass. 
C          Sean Killeen               Trinity       Jr.         Greenfield, Mass. 
OF        Max Pinto                   Williams    Sr.        Palo Alto, Calif. 
1B/2B   Steve Ragonese         Tufts         Sr.        Upper Saddle River, N.J. 
OF         Jim Wood                   Trinity      So.        Windham, N.H. 
               
Second Team 

C         Josh Card                    Amherst      Sr.      North Adams, Mass. 
SS       Drew Dominguez         Wesleyan    Jr.      Braintree, Mass. 
OF       Pat Duchette               Bowdoin      Sr.     Wales, Mass. 
C         Nick Lefeber                Middlebury   Sr.     Branford, Conn. 
OF       Al Mathews                 Williams       So.     North Hampton, N.H. 
P         Patrick O'Donnell         Tufts            Fr.     Worcester, Mass. 
2B       Ryan Piacentini            Trinity          Jr.      Portland, Maine 
3B       Brendan Powers          Amherst      Jr.      Walpole, Mass. 
P         Michael Regan             Trinity          Sr.     West Roxbury, Mass. 
OF/DH  Chase Rose                Tufts            Fr.      Scottsdale, Ariz. 
OF/DH  Angus Schaller            Amherst       Jr.      Leucadia, Calif. 
1B        Mark Shimrock            Middlebury   Jr.      Lansdale, Pa. 
               
Player of the Year           
Steve Ragonese   Tufts    Sr.   
               
Pitcher of the Year           
Tim Kiely    Trinity     Sr.   
               
Rookie of the Year           
Chase Rose     Tufts   
               
Coach of the Year           
Bill Decker  Trinity     


 

[Rick Vaughn]

The league switched it up this year.  In years past they have stuck to the best at each position, but this year it was more of a hodgepodge of the top talent.  I'm fine with either way.

Also, what's the deal with Ragonese being listed as a 1B/2B?  I thought he was a RF. 

[Nuke LaLoosh]

He started out playing first base this year, then once Nate Bankoff went down for the year, Ragonese switched to second base. He actually arrived at Tufts as a second baseman, but was such a good athlete, that he easily made the transition to outfield for his junior year.

Congrats to Steve on having a great year and winning POY. I'm surprised with NESCAC politics being what they are that a Tufts player actually won the award.

[Rick Vaughn]

NESCAC politics?  There was a disdain for Barnard at Williams and that didn't stop Scialabba, Bergeron, and Kenney from winning the award.  I've heard grumblings of "politics" before, but would love to be further enlightened.

[Nuke LaLoosh]

Casey is either strongly liked or strongly disliked by everyone.

The fact that he did not win coach of the year last year is kind of a joke. Barrale did do a fine job last year, but for Casey to inherit season-ending injuries of two of his top pitchers and your clean-up hitter, have your top freshmen pitcher and your top returning sophomore transfer, and deal with the death of an assistant coach two weeks before the season starts...to deal with all that and still lead your team to a 25-12 record was nothing short of amazing.

Honestly, if you know anything about the guy you'd know Casey couldn't give two you-know-whats about winning NESCAC coach of the year, and frankly, neither could I, but a whole lot of people in this league would love to see him fail, and when he pulled a rabbit out of his hat last year and won the NESCAC East, he was passed over. And his hated rival was given an at-large to the NCAA's after not making the NESCAC tourney.

[JustAFan]

More honors, this time from the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association.  The players voted to the first team get to play in the DII/DIII vs. DI all-star game at Fenway Park in June. Link:
http://www.neiba.org/

NEW ENGLAND INTERCOLLEGIATE BASEBALLL ASSOCIATION

ALL-NEW ENGLAND DIVISION 3 TEAMS

Player of the Year: Chris Burleson, SS, Southern Maine
Pitcher of the Year: Tim Kiely, Trinity
Coach of the Year: Bill Decker, Trinity

1ST TEAM
DH – Nick Martinho, Jr., Suffolk
C – Sean Killeen, Jr., Trinity
1B – Kent Graham, So., Trinity
2B – Ryan Piacentini, Jr., Trinity
3B – Joe Rousseau, Sr., Keene St.
SS – Chris Burleson, Jr., Southern Maine
OF – David Vincent, Sr., Curry
OF – Jim Wood, So., Trinity
OF – Anthony D'Alfonso, Jr., Southern Maine
OF – Bobby Doyon, Fr., Keene St.
UT – Steve Ragonese, Sr., Tufts
UT – Chandler Barnard, Sr., Trinity
P – Tim Kiely, Sr., Trinity
P – Jeremiah Bayer, So., Trinity
P – Adam Gingras, Jr., Wheaton

2nd TEAM
DH – Travis Schwamb, Sr., Western New England
C – Alex Perry, So., Tufts
C – Jeff Lienek, So., Wheaton
1B – Nate Nelson, Sr., Worcester St.
2B – Matt Delaney, Sr., Babson
2B – Jamie Chevalier, Jr., Keene St.
3B – Ryan Gaffney, Jr., Southern Maine
SS – Luke Enman, Sr., St. Joseph's (ME)
OF – Steve Tahmoush, Sr., Babson
OF – Steve Smith, Sr., Bridgewater St.
OF – Jesse Bruinsma, So., Curry
OF – Scott McNee, Jr., WPI
UT – Greg Ford, Sr., Keene St.
P – Mike Regan, Sr., Trinity
P – Dan D'Elia, So., Suffolk
P – Jason Pizzoferrato, Jr., Western New England
P – Jamie Morin, Sr., Keene St.

3rd TEAM
DH – Shawn Gilblair, Jr., Eastern Connecticut
C – Neal Allar, Sr., Amherst
C – Matt Gardiner, Sr., Western Connecticut
1B – Mark Shimrock, Jr., Middlebury
1B – Alex Perry, Jr., Roger Williams
2B – Brad Polcare, Sr., Castleton St.
3B – Dan Conley, Fr., Castleton St.
3B – Kevin Simpson, Jr., Roger Williams
SS – Brad Jackson, Sr., Johnson & Wales
OF – Max Pinto, Sr., Williams
OF – Chris O'Connors, Jr., Rhode Island College
OF – Chris Newell, Jr., Western New England
OF – Bob Foote, Jr., Wheaton
OF - Jeff Perkins, Jr., Keene St.
UT – John Parke, So., Eastern Connecticut
P – Andrew Aizenstadt, Fr., Babson
P – Chris Wojick, So., Eastern Connecticut
P – Dan Benz, Jr., Williams
P – Martin Anderson, Sr., Bridgewater St.

[Rick Vaughn]

The SENIORS voted to the first team get to play in the all-star game at Fenway.  The D1 team has a bunch of underclassmen as does the D2 portion of the "College" team, but all the D3 players in the game are seniors. 

This team confuses me every year.  Alex Perry was not even All-NESCAC, but was 2nd team All-NE?  Piancentini is 2nd team NESCAC and first team NE at 2B, while first team all NESCAC 2B DiCosmo does not even show up on the New England teams. 

[Nuke LaLoosh]

All New England is done by statistics I believe. There are so many teams in NE that it would be impossible for a coach from one league to vote on a player from another, so they have an index for how they rank guys. They factor in offense and defense, which I'm guessing is why Perry made it because he threw out a lot of guys this year.

NESCAC awards are votes from coaches. It happens every year that a few guys make 1st team all NESCAC and then don't get all NE. Not a surprise. Lot of NESCAC coaches know Dicosmo is a solid player but his stats, either offensively or defensively, probably didn't run level with the other guys.

[frank uible]

Better than solid.

[Nuke LaLoosh]

Excuse me. Yes, he's better than solid. Wrong adjective.

[YagsUMB]

It seems to me, the further you get outside of your conference (All-region, All-district, All-American) the more politics plays a role and the teams who have a deeper tradition always seem to be well represented. Piacentini should have been 1st team NESCAC, I have no idea what happened there. Sometimes when a team is so loaded an individual player takes a hit because it seems strange to have 7-8 guys out of a starting lineup representing your all-conference team. If you look at situations like Nick Conway and Joe Esposito being 1st team All Little East and not making any of the All New England Teams and the 2nd team All Little East P Jamie Morin was 2nd team all new england, things get lost somewhere and trying to make sense of it useless. A few years ago Nick Conway from UMB was the LEC pitcher of the Year and Shawn Gilblair was a 1st team All-American. Go figure.

[dgilblair]

It seems to me, the further you get outside of your conference (All-region, All-district, All-American) the more politics plays a role and the teams who have a deeper tradition always seem to be well represented. Piacentini should have been 1st team NESCAC, I have no idea what happened there. Sometimes when a team is so loaded an individual player takes a hit because it seems strange to have 7-8 guys out of a starting lineup representing your all-conference team. If you look at situations like Nick Conway and Joe Esposito being 1st team All Little East and not making any of the All New England Teams and the 2nd team All Little East P Jamie Morin was 2nd team all new england, things get lost somewhere and trying to make sense of it useless. A few years ago Nick Conway from UMB was the LEC pitcher of the Year and Shawn Gilblair was a 1st team All-American. Go figure.

This is how it figures.
Player                        ERA   W-L   APP  GS  CG SHO/CBO SV    IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  2B  3B  HR   AB B/Avg   WP HBP  BK
S. Gilblair, ECSUBB........  1.65   8-1    14   9   3   0/2    0  81.2  66  20  15  11  88   5   1   2  306  .216    0   5   0
N. Conway, UMBBB...........  2.83   5-7    14  11   5   2/0    0  86.0  76  37  27  24  82  16   2   3  326  .233    8  16   0

Plus MVP of the LECT and MVP of the of the NY regional with 2 wins pitching, One in the championship game against Cortland in relief along with
a 2nd inning grand slam in that game.  I like NIck as a pitcher but for you to hint that Shawn didn't deserve All America over Nick is silly at best.  GO FIGURE.           

[Jcon8958]

DGILBLAIR I have alot of respect for you but are u trying to say that Conway did not deserve the pitcher of the year that year?

4-2 In LEC play one loss coming in the bottom of the ninth vs keene state after 145 pitches. not to mention a 2.22era dnt get me wrong Shawn is a great pitcher but we all full well kno who deserved the POTY that year and deserved to be all region for carrying a ball club he came back from florida that year 0-3 with an 0.87 ERA in 25 innings I MEAN COME ON. he should have mad The new englanfd team at least that is on all stats and nothing else not to take anythingt away from shawn.

[MSG77]

Err...

Just to throw my $.02 in here.  I don't think that YagsUMB was trying to suggest that Conway was better than Gilblair in 06.  Just that some of the selections don't always seem to make sense.  And for the most part, I'd agree with that statement.

Its very hard to compare stats when teams don't play anywhere near the same schedules as other teams, even within a region.  So of course campaigning and politics comes into play for selections.  At the end of the day, does it really matter?  Are people losing sleep over not making 2nd team All-NE in DIII?  Its a nice honor and I'm sure it makes your mother proud, but is it really that meaningful?  I think there should be other things in life that are more important when you look back.

Anyway, all that aside, using Shawn Gilblair in 06 as an example is foolish anyway, because for the most part, he was an exception to the rule.  I don't think there have been many 1st team All-Americans who didn't make 1st team All-Conf or 1st team All-Region.  And that isn't to say he didn't deserve it, because he did.

Its just that he BECAME an All-American in May, mainly after most teams had already finished their seasons.  All-Conference teams are based on the regular season, and heavily rely on performance in conference games.  Well, Gilblair wasn't even pitching in conference games.  So why should he have made All-Conference?

At the end of the day on May 1st 06, Gilblair was a promising freshman who had pitched well against Suffolk and was 3-1.  He was on a team that was 8-4 in conference and 23-14 overall.  Honestly, I don't think there was too much buzz about anything to do with that Eastern team.  A few days later, he completely shut down #4 Wheaton, ending their 24 game win streak.   He commanded 3 pitches very well and Eastern won easily, 8-0.  That was probably when a bit of buzz really started.

Had Eastern not won 4 games in 27 hrs in Maine a few weeks later, it probably wouldn't have mattered.  Gilblair would have finished maybe 4-2 or 5-1 with a very good ERA.  It would have been a very good freshman year, but nothing really out of the ordinary and certainly not an All-American season.

All of this, of course, is a bit chicken-and-egg.  If Gilblair was not an All-American (especially when it counted in May), Eastern would not have won the LECT or the NY Regional.  But if Eastern didn't win the LECT and the NY Regional, Gilblair would not have been an All-American.  The two were dependent on each other.

Here are Gilblair's pitching stats from that Wheaton game on May 4th thru getting the win vs Cortland St in NY on 5/21

ERA   W-L App GS CG Sho/CBO Sv  IP    H    R   ER  BB  SO
1.54  5-0    5    4    2     0/1     0  35.0  26  8    6   5    35

He beat Wheaton (top 5), RIC, Keene St., St Lawrence, and Cortland St (top 5)

I can't be bothered going thru all the stats to see how he hit in May 06, but it was very well.  He certainly was helping with his bat as well.

Gilblair was fully deserving to be an All-American at the time those awards came out.  But to be honest, he wasn't exactly snubbed by not being named 1st team All-Conference, due to the criteria and timing of those awards.  It is a rather unique situation, one which I haven't heard or come across elsewhere.