BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

jekelish · March 16, 2008, 02:15:52 PM

Wow...unassisted triple play by Andy White to get AC out of a jam after two singles. Abrams and Owen got some solid singles, and Boland ripped a line drive up the middle, but White got over to it, stepped on second, and tagged out Owen for the unassisted triple play.

Great play by White.

jekelish · March 16, 2008, 02:45:48 PM

Millsaps finally got a run home on Curtis and had the bases loaded, but Scooter Merritt makes a great diving catch just off the infield for the third out to keep it tied at 1-1 heading into the bottom of the 8th.

frank_ezelle · March 16, 2008, 03:50:09 PM

I don't know what other top pitching performances were thrown in the SCAC this week, but it will take a lot to top the performance by Tait Hendrix as Millsaps gets a win this afternoon to even the series with Austin. The difference between this series ending 2-2 instead of 1-3 will probably be a big factor at the end of the season. Tait went 9 innings, allowing 2 hits and 1 unearned run, and got the win as Millsaps scored 2 runs to take a 3-1 lead in the top of the 10th and then Drew Maddox pitched a scoreless bottom of the 10th.

In addition to this gem, Tait also got a win over Mississippi College on Tuesday, going 6.1 innings and giving up 3 hits and no runs. That's 15.1 innings pitched, 2 wins, 5 hits, and only 1 unearned run. Not a bad week of pitching.

Lou_Brown · March 17, 2008, 09:06:16 AM

Rhodes pitcher's had a good weekend. And I think Brett Lindsey is player of the week with his performance over the weekend. He hit .571 (8-14) 7 RBI's and was 2-2 SB's against Oglethorpe.

Bmo · March 17, 2008, 04:19:34 PM

Daniel Ward from Hendrix had an ok weekend versus Trinity. 11-13, hit for the cycle, 2 hrs, and 4 2bs.

frank_ezelle · March 17, 2008, 04:50:00 PM

Those are some strong numbers for Daniel Ward.

It was an interesting first week of conference play with no sweeps. OU got a win off of Rhodes, Hendrix got a win off of Trinity in a close series, Millsaps and Austin split, and Birmingham took 2 of 3 from Centre. Is it a case of the weak have gotten stronger or the strong have gotten weaker? Whatever the case, it seems like this might be a year where there's enough parity that only the AQ will get to the NCAA Tournament and 5 or 6 teams will probably be strong contenders for the SCAC crown.

jekelish · March 17, 2008, 05:12:29 PM

I know the AC folks were a bit disappointed that they didn't pull out the victory on Sunday, but the prevailing thought is that going 2-2 against another championship level team will both serve as a confidence boost and also, considering they could have easily taken 3 games, serve as motivation going forward as they travel to Hendrix this weekend.

What the weekend proved to me is that, despite a relatively shallow pitching rotation for Coach Carl, when the 'Roos are swinging the bats well they will be tough to beat in the SCAC this year. They are playing outstanding defensive baseball right now, and Andy White is a name to remember. He's only a sophomore and started to make a name for himself being All-Tourney last year as a frosh, but the progression he's made from frosh to soph is incredible. He's improved himself so much physically that, by the time he's done at AC, you're looking at a potential SCAC Player of the Year type of kid. Great defensively, and he's gotten himself to the point where he's a huge threat at the plate. Meanwhile, we've got some kids who were 1st Team All-SCAC last year who are still trying to find their swings (Finke and Means, specifically...which has to stem at least a BIT from missing fall ball as they were both playing football)...once they get back into form and if Christian Curtis and Tyler Steed can develop into front line pitchers, watch out.

Lou_Brown · March 17, 2008, 11:21:45 PM

Response to Frank: I think the SCAC has a ton of parity...teams like Millsaps/Trinity have forced the Rhodes/Austin of the world to get better! Southwestern has been a little less dominate in the last few years and Hendrix keeps improving. On the East Birmingham is going to be a powerhouse. I've said it before. Sewanee is down, DePAuw is good, Centre has been on the upswing and OU has played a very tough schedule...Piedmont (16-3), Emory (#5), Wash&lee (14-4), Adrian (10-3), Transy (9-1)..... I think the east is up for grabs. Rhodes is still the favorite with their pitching, but offensivley they look vulnerable. With Centre/Rhodes not playing this year and OU/DePAuw not playing, Birmingham will have a lot to say about who wins the east.....

I can't see any other team getting a bid this year....but I do think the two weeks of SCAC tournament is going to be a blast....

frank_ezelle · March 18, 2008, 10:59:31 PM

In a pitching duel this afternoon, Millsaps took a 21-16 win over Illinois Wesleyan. There was a strong wind, maybe 20-25 mph blowing out to center and right and baseballs were flying out of the yard. Millsaps had 3 HRs in one inning, I believe IW has 2 in one inning, and there must have been 7 or 8 homers during the game.

No box score links at the moment. I'll try to get that link when a box score becomes available.

frank_ezelle · March 22, 2008, 05:21:56 PM

With spring break going on, it took a while to get the box for the Millsaps-Illinois Wesleyan game. Millsaps had 6 HRs in the game, two by Hunter Owens and one each from Russ Boyd, Hunter Abrams, Derrick Boland, and Ronnie Wheat.

Here's the box score link: http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/baseball/mcb-031808.htm

jekelish · March 23, 2008, 12:17:45 PM

Looks like AC wasn't happy with their split against Millsaps, taking it out on Hendrix over the weekend in a four game sweep. They outscored the Warriors 37-8 over the four game span, and got an absolute gem from Cory Stevens in an 8-0 win. Seven complete innings, 12 strikeouts against three walks and seven hits. Best game of his career, I'd say.

Big week ahead, too. AC takes on No. 4 UT-Tyler on Tuesday and then will face Trinity to see who can come out on top of the West Division at this point in the year. Of course, if they split the series it leaves the door open for Millsaps to move up the ladder as well. Going to be a big week in the West Division, that's for sure.

Krakatoa · March 23, 2008, 10:45:09 PM

Really looking forward to the TU - AU series this weekend. There will be some HOT baseball in Texas! TU has had some pitchers really step up and fill some gaps. I suspect both teams will be making solid use of most of their pitching staffs to get through this quad-stacker. Good luck top both sides!

frank_ezelle · March 24, 2008, 02:08:18 AM

In other recent results:

Rhodes split with Emory, Holt pitching well in the victory and Flanagan getting hit fairly hard in the loss.

Trinity took a 3-1 series over Southwestern. Pitching dominated the first two games and then the run production started to creep up.

OU got a much needed series win over Sewanee, 3-1.

DePauw has taken 3 convincing wins over Birmingham Southern with the 4th game being played on Monday.

Millsaps got a nice break with no games this weekend. After a lot of travelling in the first half of the season, Millsaps plays their next 11 games at home. It should be a great opportunity for the team to peak prior to the final road trip to Trinity and then the SCAC Tournament.

Lou_Brown · March 24, 2008, 09:20:42 PM

OU played a fairly decent series against Sewanee...except for the second game. But there is some news filtering out of Atlanta about some trouble with Huntingdon.

OU and Huntingdon were supposed to play a doubleheader on Tuesday but the game has been cancelled. Apparently, last week Huntingdon's CF barrelled into one of OU's catcher, sending the catcher to the ER with a grade 5 separation of his left shoulder, he will miss the rest of the season. From what I'm hearing the collison was malicious and could have been easily avoided. The play was a 5-2 putout were the runner was out by at least 5 steps...The CF was ejected from the game. He stood at home plate over the catcher and laughed until the umpire removed him from the area. This all happened in game one of a doubleheader. The player in question returned to the starting lineup in game two and was all laughs and continued to show poor sportsmanship. He apparently continued to jab at OU from the dugout and apparently kept talking trash to the players in the field.

I keep saying apparently, b/c I'm getting this info second hand. But the facts are that Huntingdon showed zero class in a very serious situation. The NCAA clearly states it is very concerned about the safety of its student-athletes....the fact that he continued to run his mouth during the second game is low class. Has anyone heard anything about the incident? Obviously I'm hearing this all from OU's side but I think they cancelled the games to avoid any further conflict.

DPULefty22 · March 24, 2008, 11:15:13 PM

Quote from: Lou_Brown on March 24, 2008, 09:20:42 PM
OU played a fairly decent series against Sewanee...except for the second game. But there is some news filtering out of Atlanta about some trouble with Huntingdon.

OU and Huntingdon were supposed to play a doubleheader on Tuesday but the game has been cancelled. Apparently, last week Huntingdon's CF barrelled into one of OU's catcher, sending the catcher to the ER with a grade 5 separation of his left shoulder, he will miss the rest of the season. From what I'm hearing the collison was malicious and could have been easily avoided. The play was a 5-2 putout were the runner was out by at least 5 steps...The CF was ejected from the game. He stood at home plate over the catcher and laughed until the umpire removed him from the area. This all happened in game one of a doubleheader. The player in question returned to the starting lineup in game two and was all laughs and continued to show poor sportsmanship. He apparently continued to jab at OU from the dugout and apparently kept talking trash to the players in the field.

I keep saying apparently, b/c I'm getting this info second hand. But the facts are that Huntingdon showed zero class in a very serious situation. The NCAA clearly states it is very concerned about the safety of its student-athletes....the fact that he continued to run his mouth during the second game is low class. Has anyone heard anything about the incident? Obviously I'm hearing this all from OU's side but I think they cancelled the games to avoid any further conflict.

The real question is - did any OU pitcher bother putting one in the kid's ear? That's the tried and true way to stop that bullcrap in its tracks. If he's being half the punk that your second-hand info says he is, there's no reason the OU coach shouldn't have put in his hardest thrower with explicit instructions to put one on him. But then, I'm an old-schooler by nature, and a former pitcher, so that's where I'm coming from. Some folks don't like the idea of a retaliatory HBP, but I sure as hell am not one of them.

DePauw's off to a 15-3 start, their best since 1996. Got a 7-6 win over BSC today to complete a four-game sweep. They get Emory and Piedmont during this Spring Break trip so we'll get a better idea of what this team is made of. The big difference has been the pitching - seniors Jeremy Alland, John Tschantz, and Aaron Myers have really emerged as workhorses in the rotation, and they give the Tigers a great shot to beat anybody every time out. It's certainly the best starting rotation DPU has had since Tyson Becker and PJ Mitchell went 1-2.