BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

frank_ezelle · February 12, 2009, 08:53:27 AM

etg--I looks at Millsaps at 6-0 and Trinity at 0-4 and the numbers are absolutely meaningless when it comes to the SCAC regular season and the SCAC Tournament. I look at the very close Millsaps win over Rhodes and I see that Rhodes is gong to be very tough to beat in the SCAC Tournament. Southwestern's Brantley Freeman sounds like an ace pitcher based on his first week of action, so I don't think winning a series againest SW is a given, especially the 2-game weekends. I could go on.

What I do see when I look at the early season records is two things. First, Millsaps has put themselves in better position for an at-large berth than Trinity. That's not important if you win the SCAC Tournament, but look at the improbable finish Trinity needed at the SCAC Tournament last year just to get into the NCAA Playoffs--and they were a team that was good enough to get to the West Regional finals. The SCAC Tournament this year promises to be as tough or tougher than some NCAA Regionals, and having an alternative route to the playoffs will be important.

The second thing I see is that Trinity's 0-4 start hurts Millsaps and all the other SCAC teams. I believe I'm correct about these three stats from the 2007 season, a season where Millsaps and Rhodes were left out of the at-large selections:
1) Rhodes swept a 4 game series with OU and the overall rating for Rhodes went down because OU's winning percentage was under .333.
2) Millsaps lost the final game to Hendrix in a 4-game series and it actually helped the Millsaps rating because it moved Hendrix to or above .333, giving more value to the multiple wins Millsaps had over Hendrix earlier (and to the one loss). (SEE BELOW)
3) When Austin beat Millsaps in the SCAC Final to take the SCAC AQ, the silver lining was that it pulled Austin up to a .500 team which added more value to the results of the Austin games from earlier in the season.

Now I may have those things a little bit off, but the bottom line is that every SCAC loss to a non-conference D3 teams hurts the other teams in the league just a little. I would be much happier to see Trinity 4-0 at this point than their current 0-4.

(REGARDING ITEM 2: The more I thought about it, I didn't think Millsaps lost that last game to Hendrix and they did not. I think that because it was the last game for Hendrix, a loss put them under a .333 regional winning percentage for the season and a win would put them over, so Millsaps got the win and it lowered their rating a little bit more than where it would be if they had lost the game and Hendrix had become an above .333 team.)

BATR441 · February 12, 2009, 10:04:54 AM

Quote from: richball on February 11, 2009, 08:20:16 PM
Question for the OU guys about their new #1 Sarisky from North Ga Coll & State. I see in 2007 he threw 12innings with a 6.75era and for the 2008 season he was not on the roster. Is he coming back from an arm injury, academics???

The word out of NG on him is that he is a hard thrower who had control issues, I do know he has had issues with his back but is ready to go. I look forward to seeing him throw, and hope his control issues are behind him.

nvnorthpaw · February 12, 2009, 05:18:54 PM

Hendrix is leading Harding (D-II) 16-7 in the 9th..wow

frank_ezelle · February 13, 2009, 08:28:32 AM

Quote from: nvnorthpaw on February 12, 2009, 05:18:54 PM
Hendrix is leading Harding (D-II) 16-7 in the 9th..wow

Hendrix won that game 17-9. As noted above Harding is D2 so it doesn't count on the D3 records for Hendrix, but it is a nice win nevertheless. Link to final live stats: http://www.hardingsports.com/sports/baseball/LIVE/xlive.htm

There are no games today and then a bunch of games on Saturday, including SCAC matchups of Hendrix at Millsaps, and Austin at Trinity. You can look up the complete schedule at this SCAC link:

http://www.scacsports.com/sports/bsb/2008-09/schedule

historymajor · February 13, 2009, 10:49:25 AM

Etg... see you at EM Stevens this weekend. Hopefully our Tigers will be feasting on Kangaroos.
They should be 'hungry enough'!

frank_ezelle · February 13, 2009, 11:36:09 AM

A quick note that will only interest Millsaps people--the photos from the Rhodes game were posted last night and are at this link: http://gomajors.smugmug.com/gallery/7347321_v8TyC#472910380_NpZuU

Unlike football and basketball, my final edits in baseball rarely include opposing players so I don't think folks from Rhodes will find much of interest in the album.

frank_ezelle · February 14, 2009, 12:59:02 PM

The first pitch for the Hendrix-Millsaps game has been moved from 1:00 Central to 2:00 Central because of overnight and early morning rain.

Currently in Jackson--let me go out on the back porch--it is cool, damp and overcast but it looks like most of the rain is gone. Of course since it's February 14th, todays weather in Jackson would be warm and sunny for all you SCAC teams up north.

The game will be webcast and that link is below in my signature. The Sunday game will not be webcast since they are doing the noon men's basketball game which should be a good one. Millsaps and Southwestern are battling for the last SCAC West spot in the tournament and both are playing well of late. Millsaps beat Trinity handily last night here in Jackson and Southwestern edge out Hendrix on the road. If you want to see a highly competitive game with a lot on the line, tune in at noon for the Southwestern-Millsaps basketball game Sunday.

frank_ezelle · February 14, 2009, 06:12:45 PM

Deja vu all over again.

Hendrix came to Jackson in 2006 for the SCAC opener and they won the first game 6-4 behind a lefthander named Jordan (I believe he was a lefty and I know it was a cold and windy day for baseball). It was Jordan Wooley back then and today it was Joran Suydam, and in both cases Millsaps was held to 4 runs (a 6-4 game in 2006, a 5-4 game today). Millsaps came back in 2006 to win the Sunday game 6-2 and went on to have a decent year, making it all the way to a NCAA Regional final, so today's loss isn't the end of the world for Millsaps.

I haven't seen the box score and anyone watching the video probably has a better idea of the stats from the game and who did what at the plate. You could say it was a tough loss for Millsaps and it was, but on the other hand, they have had several close games go their way already this season. With baseball, they won't all go your way.

I see that Trinity and Austin also opened up with a close one, with Trinity winning 9-8 in 11 innings. It's going to be a dogfight in the West this year. In other scores, BSC beat Emory 12-5, Rhodes won over Huntingdon 7-5, and Southwestern beat Hardin-Simmons 4-3. A great day for the SCAC overall, not such a great day for Millsaps and Austin.

BATR441 · February 15, 2009, 12:10:39 PM

rarely see much on here about OU so for those that have an interest OU Vs Maryville game 1 Sirisky was pretty much unhittable through the first 3 innings giving up 1 hit which was a GB that took a weird hop or lack of hop. When he came out in the 5th he had given up 2 runs on 3 hits. And the bullpen struggled from there Maryville ovrcame a 5 run deficit to earn the win the big blow being a 3 run HR from there Soph. catcher Goherly.

game 2 Briend was stellar, yeilding only 2 hits through 6 innings and the OU offense exploded. All in all OU looked very good still a few early season issues with base running and maybe a little nerves from the relivers, but 19 runs in 2 games is hopefully a preview of the offenseive abilities of this team. As the seaons goes they will learn how to put away a team when they have a 5 run lead.

frank_ezelle · February 15, 2009, 06:54:10 PM

I've been adding basketball posts and I had hope someone would have already done an SCAC update. No such luck.

At Millsaps, Aaron Williams picked up a 10-inning complete game victory, allowing just 4 hits and an unearned run in the low scoring 2-1 affair. The game was decided in the 10th by a Hunter Owen walkoff HR, his 2nd roundtripper of the season. Since I was at the Millsaps basketball games, I don't have much to add that you can't get from the boxscore:

http://www.gomajors.com/custompages/Baseball/09Baseball/stats/mcb09-08.htm

In other action, Austin won 14-8 at Trinity so we have a 4-way tie for first in the SCAC with the 5th team, Southwestern, yet to play a conference game.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I think we are going to see lower scores on average in the SCAC this year. Last year a team had to find 32 innings of pitching every weekend and you might have some guys unavailable because of midweek games. In these 2-game weekends, teams will be throwing their best two starters and they can go to the bullpen earlier. Even in the 3-game weekends, it will make a big difference to not have to save a guy for use as a 4th starter. It should be interesting to see how this develops.

donotknowscac · February 16, 2009, 11:07:48 AM

Ughh. Looks like Rhodes had a clunker yesterday. Looking at the livestats page, it looks like 2 passed balls, 4 errors, 4 hpb and giving up 5 runs on only 3 hits. Hopefully they can get over that and get after it in Atlanta next weekend. A real tough schedule in the tournament upcoming. Piedmont, Emory, Greensboro and NC weslyan.
Ralph, who knows on the pitching and low scoring games. It seems like every year you have to average around 10 runs per game to be one of the leaders in the SCAC. For that matter, any level of NCAA baseball. It's just that the advent of metal bats makes a good inside pitch by a pitcher that would saw off a wood bat, gets muscled over the infield with metal. Two or three of those hits a game combined with the usual long ball and you have 5-6 runs there. I believe the big difference in comparing teams is there defense. A fine defensive team will keep a couple of runs off the board per game. I also believe that is one of the big differences between the D 1 ball and DII/III ball.
Don't be mislead by Milsaps 2-1 game. You guys will still bash. After all, Hunter Owens did hit a walk off. If he didn't probably Hawkins would have. (or Malaschak or Barnthouse, etc. etc.)

donotknowscac · February 16, 2009, 11:14:33 AM

Oops, made an error like Rhodes yesterday,

I meant to reply to Frank.

frank_ezelle · February 16, 2009, 03:22:31 PM

Here's a question for the Trinity fans and it is related to my observation that the 2-game series means that each team will be facing top pitching in both games. Millsaps goes to Trinity in mid-March for 2 games and it's almost like those games are an afterthought on the schedule. Here's what's showing on the Trinity website:

Tues., Mar. 10 Concordia (TX) University 7:00 p.m.
Wed., Mar. 11 vs. Illinois State University (@ Irish Classic) TBA
Thurs., Mar. 12 Wabash College 7:00 p.m.
Sat., Mar. 14 Millsaps College* 1:00 p.m.
Sat., Mar. 14 vs. University of Notre Dame (@ Irish Classic) TBA
Sun., Mar. 15 Millsaps College* 1:00 p.m.

Is this still correct that Trinity is actually going to play Notre Dame in the middle of a SCAC series and after playing 3 midweek games?

tiger_fan2000 · February 17, 2009, 09:11:00 AM

Quote from: frank_ezelle on February 16, 2009, 03:22:31 PM
Here's a question for the Trinity fans and it is related to my observation that the 2-game series means that each team will be facing top pitching in both games. Millsaps goes to Trinity in mid-March for 2 games and it's almost like those games are an afterthought on the schedule. Here's what's showing on the Trinity website:

Tues., Mar. 10 Concordia (TX) University 7:00 p.m.
Wed., Mar. 11 vs. Illinois State University (@ Irish Classic) TBA
Thurs., Mar. 12 Wabash College 7:00 p.m.
Sat., Mar. 14 Millsaps College* 1:00 p.m.
Sat., Mar. 14 vs. University of Notre Dame (@ Irish Classic) TBA
Sun., Mar. 15 Millsaps College* 1:00 p.m.

Is this still correct that Trinity is actually going to play Notre Dame in the middle of a SCAC series and after playing 3 midweek games?

That is the schedule. We will see. I wouldnt be surprised to see Bronson throw against Notre Dame either. Knowing Coach Scannell, he will have the mindset that TU will need at least 2 other pitchers to win the Conf Tourney so those guys can throw against Millsaps. Maybe TU will catch fire and go 5-1 or 4-2 in that stretch. They could very easily go 1-5 as well........

frank_ezelle · February 17, 2009, 10:13:24 AM

Quote from: tiger_fan2000 on February 17, 2009, 09:11:00 AM
Quote from: frank_ezelle on February 16, 2009, 03:22:31 PM
Here's a question for the Trinity fans and it is related to my observation that the 2-game series means that each team will be facing top pitching in both games. Millsaps goes to Trinity in mid-March for 2 games and it's almost like those games are an afterthought on the schedule. Here's what's showing on the Trinity website:

Tues., Mar. 10 Concordia (TX) University 7:00 p.m.
Wed., Mar. 11 vs. Illinois State University (@ Irish Classic) TBA
Thurs., Mar. 12 Wabash College 7:00 p.m.
Sat., Mar. 14 Millsaps College* 1:00 p.m.
Sat., Mar. 14 vs. University of Notre Dame (@ Irish Classic) TBA
Sun., Mar. 15 Millsaps College* 1:00 p.m.

Is this still correct that Trinity is actually going to play Notre Dame in the middle of a SCAC series and after playing 3 midweek games?

That is the schedule. We will see. I wouldnt be surprised to see Bronson throw against Notre Dame either. Knowing Coach Scannell, he will have the mindset that TU will need at least 2 other pitchers to win the Conf Tourney so those guys can throw against Millsaps. Maybe TU will catch fire and go 5-1 or 4-2 in that stretch. They could very easily go 1-5 as well........

I'll point out the obvious--a team doesn't need 2 other pitchers to win the SCAC Tournament if they don't qualify for the SCAC Tournament. Out of the 5 teams from the West--Austin, Hendrix, Millsaps, Southwestern, and Trinity--there will be 2 teams that don't make the Tournament. Austin just split with Trinity, Hendrix looked for real to me, and Southwestern is 6-3 in pre-conference play. While the Millsaps vs Trinity series has often determined 1st and 2nd in the SCAC West, this year it might determine who goes to the SCAC Tournament and who stays home.

While I can hope that Trinity burns their #1 and #2 pitchers on Wednesday and Saturday against D1 teams that don't count for squat on their D3 record, I just don't see how they could possibly discount the importance of those two games with Millsaps. On the flip side, if you save all of the top guys and get pounded by a couple of D1 programs, I don't see how that helps the Trinity program at all. Maybe there's some logic to this scheduling, but it escapes me.