BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[frank_ezelle]

When it comes to baseball, the Western teams have a huge advantage because of the weather.  It's not just that they can start sooner and play more games, but they recruit kids who play baseball year round.  Millsaps has 15 players from Mississippi, 6 from Louisiana, 4 from Texas, etc.  These are all kids who had the opportunity to play baseball at least 10 months out of the year when they were growing up.

Last weekend Millsaps won against Flanagan, the top pitcher for Rhodes, and then they lost to one of the other Rhodes starters so a Millsaps win today is certainly no guarantee.  The batting average against the other two starting pitchers for Rhodes is over .300 for the season so I do think that Millsaps will be able to score runs this afternoon.

On the other hand, going strickly by the stats, it appears that RHIT has three strong starters and their starter yesterday was pretty good so I think that RHIT will have a fairly strong pitching performance in their game against Trinity.  Without a doubt Trinity is the favorite in that game but I'm just pointing out that they might see better pitching than one would normally expect from a team that lost in the 1st round.

[Ron Boerger]

Didn't RHIT knock off TU in last year's classic?

Yep .. 14-4 now that I look at the SCAC baseball site, though a rematch was 3-2 in Trinity's favor.  Should be an interesting game. 

[frank_ezelle]

Ron, I agree that it should be a good matchup.  The scores your are referring to took place 2 years ago in the 2004 tournament.  There isn't a link to the 2005 tournament but the scores are shown in the final stats for the 2005 season.  Trinity beat Sewanee and Southwestern (twice) last year and lost to Millsaps twice.

[BigPoppa]

I disagree on the weather aspect... If weather had much of an impact on the players development, more teams from the warm-weather states would win national titles. The majority of them are from the north. I know they have more JCs to compete with in the south for players, but that is a recruiting issue, not a weather issue. A solid recruiter can convince a kid to play anywhere.

[frank_ezelle]

Are you saying that weather isn't a factor?  When it comes to national championships there are obviously many factors that are involved.  One would be the size of the school since some D3's are less than 1,000 students and others are 10,000 students.  Athletic budget may be the biggest factor and it goes hand-in-hand with a school's commitment to athletic excellence. 

Back at the SCAC Championships, DePauw leads Sewanee 7-0 but I don't know the inning.  After 3 innings, Trinity leads RHIT 3-0.  RHIT has left 2 runners on base in all 3 innings.  According to the RHIT announcers (BTW, they do a great job), Triinity has made great defensive plays for the 3rd out in two of those innings.  On the other hand, an RHIT error lead to one of the Trinity runs and a poorly played ball that fell for a double help in the other scoring.

And speaking of defense or lack of, apparently the first 3-run homer by Rhodes yesterday bounced off the bicep of a RHIT outfielder, then off his glove and over the fence. 

And RHIT now has the bases loaded in the bottom of the 4th, no outs, top of the order coming up, and Trinity is changing pitchers.

[frank_ezelle]

RHIT tied it up 3-3.  Now in the top of the 5th.  Both starting pitchers are out so it becomes pitch by committee at this point.

Interesting note.  If RHIT wins then the Rhodes-Millsaps winner will be the only remaining undefeated team.  That undefeated team will then have the advantage of playing their 3rd game against a team that is playing their 4th game and their 2nd game of the day.

[frank_ezelle]

Just got back from lunch.  Still 3-3.  RHIT batting in bottom of 8th.  Had a runner on first, batter bunted, Trinity pitcher threw ball into RF.  Now runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out.  Frey has come in to pitch for Trinity.

[frank_ezelle]

RHIT took the lead in bottom of 8th 4-3.  A sloppy start to the 9th by RHIT has Trinity tieing the game 4-4.  TU now has runners on the corners, no out.  RHIT has brought in Salisbury from rightfield to pitch.  He apparently is their career saves leader but has only pitched 5 innings this year. 

TU gets a hit to score a run and on the play RHIT makes their 6th error to allow another run (later ruled no error but the RHIT guys say it was an error).  TU gets another hit to go to 7-4, no outs, 2 runners on base.  RHIT is toast as it is now 8-4 with the prospect of it getting worse.

[frank_ezelle]

Trinity 10, RHIT 4.  RHIT had battled back to take their first lead in the bottom of the 8th and they fall apart with a hit batter, some errors, a wild pitch, along with Trinity throwing in a bunch of hits.  Apparently RHIT came in the game thinking that a good showing might get them an at-large berth even if they didn't win the tournament.  Thoses hopes are gone now even though the team still has 4 games left on the schedule.

I would have preferred a Trinity loss because of the advantage it would give to Millsaps if Millsaps can win this afternoon.  But, for the record I'm pulling for Trinity to win if Millsaps doesn't and Trinity fans should have the same attitude.  I think both teams go to the Regionals if either win the SCAC Tournament but I'm not sure if both go if they both have to go on at-large bids.

[Ron Boerger]

11 errors in that RHIT-TU game ... ugh.

After five games, two of three East teams are out, the third is in only because it eliminated the second. 

[Ralph Turner]

...

... I think both teams go to the Regionals if either win the SCAC Tournament but I'm not sure if both go if they both have to go on at-large bids.

Frank I was hoping that we would have the 1st Regional Rankings posted, so we could get an idea about the Pool C candidates.

You may be right about RHIT needing a really good showing in the Tourney to get a Pool C bid.  Their fans maybe thinking that their departure to the HCAC has not come any too soon.

I think that both Millsaps and TU have a good chance at the Pool C bid.

SCAC-West 4 wins, SCAC-East 4 losses.

[frank_ezelle]

The box score is up for Millsaps vs. Rhodes.  Millsaps won 7-0.  Kindler pitched the complete game shutout for the Majors and upped his record to 9-2.  Schneider pitched well until a 4-run 7th and he took his first loss of the year to go to 5-1.

Carter and Wetzel each had homers and they combined to drive in all 7 runs.  Each team had 9 hits but Millsaps was also aided by 4 hit batters, 2 walks, and 4 Rhodes errors.

Fox and Kindler are now a combined 17-2 for Millsaps this season but there is no regular 3rd starter on the team so it will be interesting to see who starts against Trinity tomorrow.  My guess would have been Hollenbeck but he pitched an inning yesterday.  That might be an indication that he will start because I wouldn't have expected him as the first choice out of the bullpen so maybe that inning was just to ease his nerves prior to the Trinity game.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity has the same problem ... Bignall (6-2, 9 starts) got the start in game 1, Huggins (6-1, 10 starts) started game 2 and was relieved by Frey (5-2, 6 starts).  That leaves as a possibility Brittan Horn (4-1, 1.08, 4 starts, 15 appearances) who faced four batters in the eighth inning of Game 1.    Ryan Hopkins (4 starts, 3-2/4.06) is also possible but I doubt Trinity wants to start the pitcher with the highest ERA on their staff against Millsaps.

I wonder what happened to Brian Oates.  Started out the season 4-0 with a 1.46 ERA in 6 starts, but has not seen any time since 1/3rd of an inning in a start vs Rhodes on 3/25. 

[historymajor]

Trinity came back and handled RHIT.... bye..bye... 10-4... Adam Frey put out the fire and earned the W....  tomorrow the BIG rematch against Millsaps.....

http://www.trinity.edu/departments/athletics/Baseball/Recaps/2006/TU-SCAC2.htm

http://www.trinity.edu/departments/athletics/Baseball/statistics/scac2.htm

[consultant]

The Millsaps/Trinity game will be a big one as is always the case. I expect Millsaps to start Tal Hendrix, "who has been here before" and who will look to rebound from his poor performance in his relief appearance last Sunday in the loss to Rhodes.  Tal has actually been tagged with two losses against Trinity already this season.  One came in a start against the Tigers in the third game of the first series between the two teams in San Antonio.   Stats below:

Millsaps College        IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
Tal Hendrix.........      3.2  2  3  2  3  4 13 17
Drew Maddox.........  4.1  2  1  0  0  4 15 16

His other loss came in Jackson in a relief appearance in game two of the series......

Millsaps College         IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
Brandon Ingram......  3.2  5  2  2  3  4 15 18
Tal Hendrix.........       1.2  4  6  5  2  1  7 11
Brad Mizerany.......    2.2  2  0  0  0  3 11 11
Tait Hendrix........      1.0  0  0  0  0  1  3  3

Tal has had six days to rest, so perhaps he'll be able to get through a few innings and give way to some strong relief pitching in the form of Johnny All-Staff.

Trinity may very well pitch by committee, too.  And I'll not speculate on a
Tiger starter because I am not well versed in their pitching habits. 

In any event, it should be a great game......any broadcast so a guy on the west coast can get up early to listen?