BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Krakatoa]

Trinity: Bronson, Bignall, Oates, Poffenroth, among others, take to the hill this season. Does anyone in the SCAC have greater depth on the bump?

[Ralph Turner]

Welcome Krakatoa!  Glad to have a new poster!

I think that Coach Iwasaki is building a good staff at Austin College.

TU has a good representation of games vs. the ASC (13 games) including at least one game versus every team in the ASC-West except SRSU.

[Krakatoa]

Thanks Ralph.  It appears my son will pitch in the SCAC starting next season, so trying to brush up on the conference a bit.

[Just_Some_Guy]

Trinity: Bronson, Bignall, Oates, Poffenroth, among others, take to the hill this season. Does anyone in the SCAC have greater depth on the bump?

You could probably add Britton Horn, Michael Hunter, maybe Zack Bukowski (I thought his stats were better than he was last year) and some newcomers into that group.

Personally, I don't think any team in the West region has as much pitching as that team is CAPABLE of having, but they still have to prove it, AND they are going to have to score runs to win games.

They'll have a slew of freshman starting from what I understand, and most of the veterans on that team haven't proved they can swing it yet. Ramos is the only everyday starter they return from last years team that hit over .300.

They need Fregosi to swing it, they need Hoover to swing it, they need Pennington, Bays, and Claydon to swing it. (These are guys they're counting on). They need Lawson and Jones to duplicate what they did last year in limited action. There's SO MANY questions on offense they'll be an interesting team to follow.

IF Hunter finds the zone he's throws HARD, IF Bignall and Horn pitch like they're capable of and don't implode, and IF Oates stays healthy there's not much telling how many games this pitching staff can carry TU to, but there's a lot of IFs. I'm rooting for them, but like I said -- they'll be interesting to watch.

JSG

[frank_ezelle]

Trinity: Bronson, Bignall, Oates, Poffenroth, among others, take to the hill this season. Does anyone in the SCAC have greater depth on the bump?

Yes.  I believe the Millsaps pitching staff is as deep as any in the league, bringing back 3 senior starters that combined for a 22-5 record plus a lot of guys who got experience last year.  They added a freshman who held Rhodes to 1 hit over 5 innings and struck out 5 of the first 8 batters this past weekend.  I think they are also excited about a few other freshmen.

But all of that really means nothing right now.  Let's say that both schools (and probably others) have the potential for very deep staffs and we'll see how it pans out.  Plus, as we discovered last year, the SCAC playoffs are set up where 3 outstanding pitchers can carry you a long way so depth might be a great luxury but not an absolute necessity.

[Leadoff Man]

Yes, both Trinity and Millsaps have pitching depth, but I think what it will come down to is how both teams perform offensively.

Millsaps is already showing so far at least that they have one of the most potent offenses in D3 baseball, again.  It is amazing that year after year they graduate key position players, only to have someone waiting in the wings to fill the gap (i.e. Quinn Salmon).  I think that they have to have the edge in the SCAC West until Trinity or another team proves otherwise.

I can't wait to see how the Trinity bats swing it in Austin on Friday!

[frank_ezelle]

For the 3 game weekend series it looks like Millsaps had 16 extra base hits--8 doubles, 1 triple and 7 home runs.  Hunter Owen had two of the home runs but the other five came from guys who didn't start last year--Quinn Salmon(3), Joe Blades, and Billy Murphy. Quinn was 7 for 10 with 12 rbi's.

Even at that, Millsaps did struggle at the plate somewhat, only scoring 6 and 8 runs in the last two games.  A few of the guys got off to somewhat of a slow start, but they are guys who you would expect to come around before too long.  As I said in an earlier post, the Millsaps players talked like this team was hitting the ball harder in preseason than teams of the past few years.  They sure seemed to hit it hard this past weekend, but I'd like to see them do this for 10-15 games before I jump to any conclusions.

[infielddad]

Trinity posted their roster today.
It includes 16 freshman and continues to show how hard Coach Scannell recruits on a national basis.  He has 4 more from CA.
I only know of one of them. He has significant(maybe better) upside having been the leading hitter in what most consider one of the top 2-3 conferences in CA.  His team has players who were top recruits at Cal, UCLA and a number of other DI programs and he has the skills to be a top hitter, early.
Hopefully these 16, and especially the CA guys, can produce quickly, like some others from CA did, and get Trinity  battling at the top of the SCAC's.

[frank_ezelle]

I must say that Trinity probably has one of the most diverse rosters in the country when it comes to the home state of the players.  It is interesting to compare the reach of their roster with the far more regional approach taken by Millsaps:

Trinity Roster:  http://www.trinity.edu/departments/athletics/Baseball/roster.htm

Millsaps Roster:  http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/baseball/roster.shtml

[infielddad]

Frank,
I have seen Coach McCain at the Stanford All Star camp the last two years.
Building a national recruiting base takes some time and effort but it appears Millsaps has seen what Coach Scannell does and is making some efforts that direction, or is getting a better idea of the players he is attracting.
For Trinity, recruiting nationally seems to partly reflect the views of Coach Scannell but also is reflective of the extremely tough Trinity admission requirements. He needs a broader base to attract quality players with extremely high academic performance.
Coach Scannell also recognizes the significant talent base in CA.  There are far more quality players throughout CA than there are places to play in college, especially at the DIII level.  Trinity has done a very nice job at identifying players with DI talent who, for some reason, get lost in the masses of available talent in CA.  For those types, Coach Scannell outworks many of the CA coaches.  Combine that with the fact that Trinity has much to offer and San Antonio is a terrific community and the result can be a great academic and baseball performance.
The other thing Coach Scannell has done which, is starting to be followed in other programs, is placing players in Summer Wood Bat leagues.  In 2001, he placed about 10 players and I believe that exceeded the number in all other SCAC programs combined.  While Trinity continues to place large numbers around the nation, it is great to see Rhodes, Millsaps and a few others making similar efforts and seeing those players compete on a level with top DI's. 
All of it makes the SCAC a better baseball league.

[frank_ezelle]

I think Trinity's baseball recruiting in some ways reflects the wider net that Trinity casts as a school.  When it comes to baseball recruiting, I think Millsaps is content to concentrate on Mississippi and the neighboring states of Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee.  Recruit well in those states and then add some from Texas, Georgia and Florida and you can have a heck of a team. 

On another note, the SCAC West is off to a rough start.  Hendrix is 0-7, Southwestern is 0-2, and Austin is 1-2 to go along with the 3-0 start of Millsaps.  These records are of no significance to the winner of the SCAC Tournament, but they do play into the chances of teams that are hoping for a shot at an at-large berth.  I certainly have become of a fan of all SCAC teams when they play non-conference games because every time an SCAC team wins a non-conference game it is a plus for the other SCAC teams.

[frank_ezelle]

NOTE:  This game has been move to 6:00 Thursday night because of bad weather. 

MS College is scheduled to play at Millsaps this evening at 6:00 Central time.  The weather is a little iffy, beautiful at the moment but with an 80% chance of rain this afternoon and evening.  There will be two broadcasts available if the game is played:

MC Broadcast:
http://www.gochoctaws.com/Sports/admin/2006/Broadcast.asp

Millsaps Broadcast:
http://www.espnradio1240.com/

Just bringing this forward.  I expect a tough game tonight, especially since this is the opening game of the Con Maloney Series, a competition that runs throughout the season between Millsaps, MC and Belhaven College.

MC is 1-2 after two tough losses to Creighton (sp?) by scores of 7-5 and 7-6 and a win over Huntingdon by a 6-1 score or something close to that.  With this game being moved from Tuesday to Thursday, all pitchers should be available for both teams and it will be interesting to see who takes the mound.  Millsaps has a big series with Emory this weekend with single games on Saturday and Sunday.

[jekelish]

On another note, the SCAC West is off to a rough start.  Hendrix is 0-7, Southwestern is 0-2, and Austin is 1-2 to go along with the 3-0 start of Millsaps.  These records are of no significance to the winner of the SCAC Tournament, but they do play into the chances of teams that are hoping for a shot at an at-large berth.  I certainly have become of a fan of all SCAC teams when they play non-conference games because every time an SCAC team wins a non-conference game it is a plus for the other SCAC teams.

Just a quick note regarding AC's 1-2 start...while they would have liked a couple of wins, they also did not pitch Chermak, who is far and away the ace of the staff and very well may have been enough to push the 'Roos past TLU (who, by the way, was ranked No. 17 at the time) for another win.  It's also still a pretty young team, and Coach Carl made sure to play a lot of guys during that opening weekend.  I think the 'Roos will be just fine the rest of the way if Chermak throws anything like he did last season, and there's no reason to believe that won't be the case.  Plus, it appears we've got a solid No. 2/3 combo now in Steed and Stevens.  Stevens didnt get a win, but he pitched well in his first start of the year, and Steed obviously got Co-Pitcher of the Week after his collegiate debut.

[frank_ezelle]

Jekelish, your post brings up the issue of the SCAC moving to the 4 game weekends last year.  That put coaches in a position where they had to develop more pitchers in the early part of the year, hence increasing the potential for losses, and they sometimes found themselves depleted of pitching for the mid-week games. But, those things don't factor in when calculating win-loss percentages, etc, so losses for whatever reason hurt.

On another note, Millsaps beat Mississippi College 10-0 this evening in a game that hit the 10-run rule in the bottom of the 7th.  We've been talking about pitching depth and it was good to see Tait Hendrix turn in an outstanding performance.  He pitched 6 innings, struck out 9, allowed 3 hits, and I think he hit a batter but allowed no walks.  That's a far cry from 2007 when Tait pitched 39.1 innings, struck out 49, but also allowed 40 hits and 33 walks.  It will be a huge boost to Millsaps if Tait has put those control problems behind him.

Millsaps once again had a fair number of extra base hits.  I remember a Hunter Owen home run and a double he hit off the fence.  As for the rest of the stats, Millsaps SID Kevin Maloney is pretty good at getting the box scores posted soon after the game.  When it is posted, the box score can be found at this link:
http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/baseball/results.shtml

[Krakatoa]

Speaking of control problems, and having cruised around many, many college ball team stats pages (all levels), I have to say I'm somewhat surprised by the failry high percentage of pitchers who would appear to have serious control issues (# walks very near # IP).  Being that I'm sure the picthing coaches have been working with the pitchers all fall and winter, what can we attribute wildness to when the season rolls around?  Shouldn't all pitchers have found reasonable control after five and a half months of preparation?  I know the answer is 'not necessarily', but wanted to get some discussion going on this as, obviously, 'depth of staff' has almost everything to do with reasonable control from 5-7 pitchers.......