BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

frank_ezelle · February 05, 2006, 06:04:32 PM

Thanks for the update--hope you'll stick around and add comments throughout the season. The 2005 roster is still posted on the Hendrix webpage. It shows that Hendrix only had 18 players in 2005 and 13 were freshmen. Have the numbers gotten any better? It a tough go to have a struggling program stuck in the same division with Trinity, Southwestern, and Millsaps, teams with 30-40 player rosters.

HeadingForHome · February 05, 2006, 06:31:46 PM

The two teams last year with the worst records in the SCAC Oglethorpe and Hendrix both lacked depth last year which probably was a huge factor in their records. Hendrix does not have the roster up yet but Oglethorpe does and they list 22 man roster.

From what I remember from last year like four or five of the players are actually on the Basketball team, so Oglethorpe still is lacking depth it will be interesting to see if they can succed without the depth which probably means lack pitching they only had 7 pitchers that pitched more than 10 innings last year and 2 of them are not on the 2006 roster. They picked up 3 freshman pitchers so we will have to see how it all plays out

But your right it would be tough to build a program against the powerhouses Trinity, Southwestern, and Millspaps.

Bob_Lotts · February 05, 2006, 08:00:31 PM

I am here for the "Unofficial" Oglethorpe preview...As a Petrel backer here is what I am hearing from the baseball program:

Pitching:

Only one starter returns from last years squad (Greenfield). But they do return two starters from the 2004 season who missed last season (Baker-medical redshirt and Hess-a transfer back to OU). I believe Hes started the extra inning loss to Millsaps in the SCAC Championship in 2004, where OU lost 6-5 in 12 innings?? Baker was All-SCAC in 2004, I think. They brought in three freshmen who should step in right away, one who is 6-6 with a huge upside and apparently could be their number 1 by the end of the year. Should be a much improved staff. Last year there ERA was around 8.50!!!

Defense:

They return an ALL-SCAC CF Ernst who played in the Cape Cod league last summer and also their ALL-SCAC C Sabala who is a pretty good player. Not too sure about the middle infield but last year their 3B, SS, 2b combo fielded something like .860%!!! Not going to win many games like that! I think two of those three players were seniors so probably a group of freshmen there...

Offense:

Ersnt was 7th in the country in batting average but did not score many runs...They lost their big power guy (Sims), I right now I have not heard anything about the hitting of this club. Sabala hit over .300 and a couple of other guys over .300 but other than that not much else.

Overall:

Going to be a lot of new faces in the lineup and a much improved pitching staff. But still going to be tough to crack the top 2 on the east but the third spot is always wide open. I do not know much about coach Giordano other than he pitched for the Petrels from 1999-2002 and they won the East in 2002. He's young and will have to try and get the most out of all his players. Another recruiting class and they should be right in the thick of things in the east.

More to come later.......

HeadingForHome · February 05, 2006, 10:28:48 PM

Hendrix fall hard to 0 - 3 loosing again to University of Dallas 3 - 20

Not a great way to start off the year.

By the way with close examining I think that Hendrix's "2005" Roster is the 2006 roster with 13 freshman and it looks like they started 6 of them. I do not know much about Hendrix's team last year they must of lost a lot of players.

Depth at pitching could hurt as well. Hendrix has 8 pitchers five of them play another position. They have 5 freshman, 1 sophomore and 2 seniors.

Looking at the bright side for Hendrix is the fact that they were able to bring in 13 and if they can keep all the freshman and get another recruiting class like that it bumps them up to 26 young guys which could be a nice start of a program but again they have to battle Trinity, Southwestern, and Millspaps.

SCAC still seeking first baseball win

frank_ezelle · February 06, 2006, 08:39:31 AM

The Hendrix basketball team rebuilt this year with a lot of young guys and it could be argued that they are only a few plays or one player away from being a mid-level team in the SCAC this season. I would think that it takes a little longer to turn around a baseball program but maybe the baseball team can take some inspiration from the rapid turn around of the basketball program.

Dirty_South · February 06, 2006, 01:59:59 PM

Bob,

Thanks for the preview on the Petrels. Seems like they are going to be a young team. Checking their schedule they sure play some tough teams:

Emory--3 times (always good)
LaGrange -- 3 times (31-13 last year, #23 this year)
Huntingdon -- 3 times (won GSAC in 2005)
Adrian -- (Midwest regional team in 2005)
Heidelberg --2 times

Not a lot of road games but nontheless they will have to run the gauntlet....

Anymore previews from other SCAC schools??

SCAC_fan34 · February 06, 2006, 07:02:52 PM

Bob_Lotts-
How is the rest of the east looking this year? What is your pre-season prediction?

Bob_Lotts · February 06, 2006, 08:34:33 PM

Sorry SCAC_fan34 I mainly follow OU women's basketball but since I've been around OU lately I have heard some good things about baseball. I'm hoping in a few years down the road they have the same success as the Lady Petrels. Looking forward to the Trinity/OU game Friday night.

scaccommish · February 07, 2006, 11:42:40 AM

SCAC Baseball Predicted Order of Finish:

http://www.scac-online.org/baseball

frank_ezelle · February 08, 2006, 08:05:34 AM

We all were eager to see the preseason poll and now we have no comments? I assume that the lack of comments indicates that the poll showed exactly what we all expected. Millsaps opens up this Fri-Sat with a pair of games vs. East Texas Baptist, follows that up with 4 home games including a pair against Hendrix, and they end the month in San Antonio in a 3-game series with Trinity. That should start answering some questions about the 2006 team (still no 2006 roster posted on the Millsaps website--I'll post a link whenever that gets added).

Dirty_South · February 08, 2006, 09:00:29 AM

The predicted finish was pretty much expected, of course that means absolutley nothing. There was some interesting things to note:

1) Sewanee getting one 1st place vote on the EAST?
2) No real clear cut favorites to win the respecptive Divisions this year, but I imagine all the East coaches voted for Millsaps to win the SCAC.

By the way way- SCAC 0-4 as Oglethorpe lost 4-2 at LaGrange.

Ralph Turner · February 08, 2006, 11:17:03 AM

Quote from: Dirty_South on February 08, 2006, 09:00:29 AM
The predicted finish was pretty much expected, of course that means absolutley nothing. There was some interesting things to note:

...but I imagine all the East coaches voted for Millsaps to win the SCAC...

Dirty South, the stated vote totals suggest that the East did not get to vote on the West and vice versa.

The vote matrix is pretty straight forward.

Team 1 2 3 4 5 Total
MC 3 1 - 1 - 21
TU 1   3 1 - -    20
SU 1 1 3 - - 18
RC - - 1 3 1    10
HC - - - 1 4    6

Bmo · February 08, 2006, 11:52:47 AM

What happens next year with the departure of Rose Hulman? I assume that Rhodes moves to the East due to its geographic proximity to others in that side of the conference.

HeadingForHome · February 08, 2006, 01:34:30 PM

The predictions were as I expected

I think that rhodes is coming to the East and then Austin College is moving in on the West side.

I saw that Dirty beat me to the score update but I did how ever find this on Oglethorpes website

"Petrels Picked Off by Panthers
The Oglethorpe men's baseball team lost their season opener at LaGrange College on Tuesday afternoon, 4 - 2. The 23rd ranked Panthers jumped out to an early 1 - 0 lead, scored some insurance runs in the middle innings and held off a late Oglethorpe rally to claim the victory.
Read more...

The Petrels were able to get runners on base all afternoon and had only one inning elapse without putting a player on base. The Panthers, however, managed to pick off 4 Petrel runners, catch another one stealing and turn a double play to thwart several potential rallies.

Centerfielder Tim Ernst was 3 for 4 on the afternoon, including run scoring triple in the ninth inning. Petrel shortstop Evan Baker recorded the other RBI for Oglethorpe on a grounder to second in the ninth.

The Petrels got encouraging signs from their pitching staff as Jimmy Hess, Sean Tuttle and Nick Greenfield limited the Panthers to 4 runs on 9 hits and did not allow a walk."

La Grange is ranked 23 it was nice to see that the Petrels played them close

SCAC 0-4 Rhodes is next in line for the SCAC's first victory tomarrow at 2:30 against LeMoyne-Owen

Lets all pray for a SCAC win tonight

HeadingForHome · February 08, 2006, 01:56:19 PM

Here is a quick rundown on Rhodes's Roster

They have
12 Freshman
8 Sophmores
4 Juniors
5 Seniors
29 Players

They have 11 pitchers only 2 are just pitchers and 5 of the pitchers are freshman.

5 returning pitchers that pitched more than 10 innings last year

Lost one true starter although last year they only had two pitchers that routinely started one with 13 starts and the other with 12 then next highest was 5

Looks like Rhodes has more depth than Hendrix and Oglethorpe and that should help them out.

You can see that I think that depth of pitching is huge for a winning program

GO Baseball!!