BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[jekelish]

Well, Chermak brought his a-game but Austin College commits 5 errors on their way to a 4-3 loss.  Chermak took a no-hitter into the sixth and ended up giving up 4 runs (only one earned) on 3 hits while striking out six batters.

It was a nice little pitchers duel, though Hendrix had a little trouble with hitting AC batters...7 or 8 hit batters for the Warrior pitching staff, but they also combined to give up just five hits.

[frank_ezelle]

Early in the season I thought that even with it being just Austin, Millsaps, Southwestern, and Trinity as the contenders, no one should assume that they were going to be in the top 3 from the West that will go to the SCAC Tournament.  I was obviously wrong to let past history rule out the possibility of Hendrix competing for one of those tournament slots. 

At 3-2, Hendrix is now second in the West behind 4-1 Millsaps.  Keep in mind that Millsaps won a 2-1 extra inning game against Hendrix last weekend which shows how close Hendix is to being 1st in the West.  There will be no breathers on the schedule this year and I won't be surprised if 2 of the 3 spots are still up for grabs going into the last weekend of the regular season.

PS--I see that Rhodes beat NC Wesleyan.  While I have seen a score on the OU vs. NC Wesleyan game, I think that NCW came into the day with only 2 wins and they now have 3 so they must have beat OU.

[donotknowscac]

Rhodes swept through the Rawlings Classic in Atlanta.  Andy Holt pitched a heck of a game this morning at Emory.
Rhodes won the afternoon game over NC Weslyan.  Not as pretty, but a win.  This young team is playing very well.  There were a lot of contributors over the four game span. 
Now, it's on to next weekend's games.  Rhodes finally get to play at home, but against very tough competition in Emory, Millsaps and Lagrange.  It's early, but the Lynxes feel good.

[BATR441]

Early in the season I thought that even with it being just Austin, Millsaps, Southwestern, and Trinity as the contenders, no one should assume that they were going to be in the top 3 from the West that will go to the SCAC Tournament.  I was obviously wrong to let past history rule out the possibility of Hendrix competing for one of those tournament slots. 

At 3-2, Hendrix is now second in the West behind 4-1 Millsaps.  Keep in mind that Millsaps won a 2-1 extra inning game against Hendrix last weekend which shows how close Hendix is to being 1st in the West.  There will be no breathers on the schedule this year and I won't be surprised if 2 of the 3 spots are still up for grabs going into the last weekend of the regular season.

PS--I see that Rhodes beat NC Wesleyan.  While I have seen a score on the OU vs. NC Wesleyan game, I think that NCW came into the day with only 2 wins and they now have 3 so they must have beat OU.

NCW BEAT OU IN 7 12-0 UGLY GAME

[tiger_fan2000]

Trinity finally knows what a winning streak is, sweeping Sul Ross State in a 3 game series.  The TU bats finally came alive.  The defense and pitching will need to improve with a SCAC weekend against Hendrix. 

I think 12-8could very well win the west this year. 

[Ralph Turner]

Trinity finally knows what a winning streak is, sweeping Sul Ross State in a 3 game series.  The TU bats finally came alive.  The defense and pitching will need to improve with a SCAC weekend against Hendrix. 

I think 12-8could very well win the west this year. 

Eight SCAC West Division in-region losses really hurt Pool C chances.

[Lou_Brown]

OU's Stephen Archer tied a NCAA DIII record with 5 doubles in one game on Friday night. He went 6-6 with 5 doubles and a single and scored 4 times. Dating back to a pinch hit performance earlier in the week he hit 5 consecutive doubles and 6 doubles in 7 plate appearances!!

The very next game against OU,  York's SS went 5 for 6 and hit for the cycle!

Fun tournament this weekend in atlanta. Congrats to Rhodes who played exceptional baseball. They will be tough to beat in the east and I think this team is built to win tournament style baseball.

[wishbone ash]

I didn't see Rhodes play, but if they won all their games they have to be pretty darn good. After sitting and freezing for the 4 OU games, I wasn't gonna hang around to see anything else. I needed hot chocolate or cold beer immediately after every game.

OU definitely came back to earth this weekend. We gave up 12 runs in every game. That being said, Sarinsky did hurt himself a bit and is day to day with his back. Piedmont transfer Mark Hoban pitched very well for OU. But one of our up n comers, Andrew Llano popped his toe with a foul ball and was done after a game and a half and he never did get to pitch. He was really coming on as a pitcher. We'll know more about the toe next week.
Over all it was a rough weekend for Oglethorpe, but we did win one game and really were in the other games til late.

The bats have cooled a bit but no one could have expected 4 or 5 guys to hit over .400 forever. Steven Archer did have a career day, going 6 for 6 with 5 doubles. I bet he had the time of his life that night. It was fun to watch. Andy Farrey and JJ Rizzo had good series too. Matt Cornwell could also emerge as a nice starting pitcher as he threw well every time he pitched. We shall see. Have Lagrange on Weds and they are pretty tough. At least the weather will be in the 50's that day and not 40 with another 10 degrees off for wind chill. Man it was brutal. 

Ferrum looked like they have a real good club and they are very well coached too. I would look for them to make some noise this season.

[tiger_fan2000]

Trinity finally knows what a winning streak is, sweeping Sul Ross State in a 3 game series.  The TU bats finally came alive.  The defense and pitching will need to improve with a SCAC weekend against Hendrix. 

I think 12-8could very well win the west this year. 

Eight SCAC West Division in-region losses really hurt Pool C chances.

absolutely....but that doesnt matter if TU can win the tournament.  Losing 6 in region games to start the season didnt do anyone any good when it comes to Pool C chances.  First things first, TU has to take care of a very good Hendrix team weekend.  There wont be any easy games in the west side of the SCAC this year.....

[pitchdad]

I thought the tournament in Atlanta this weekend was very good baseball.  Rhodes did exhibit their newly found (this year) bats and scored something like 35 runs in the 4 games. There is not a hole in the line up, and there is some very good pop to go along with the small ball the team has shown with its speed. The lineup has a very good combination of upper and lower classmen.  While the starting pitching was really good, the depth and quality of the bullpen was evident, too.  Holt (sr), Carden (fr), Babich (so) and Lainoff (rfr) got each game off with solid pitching.  Simmons (sr), Gertz, (jr), Chandler (so), Ungashik (so) finished the games, and there was still some solid arms ready to go.

Of interest, the victory over Emory represented the senior class' 100th victory.  This is a great testamant not only to the team that Cleanthes and Schrier (and Cat) have put together, but a recognition of the program that is in place.  The players this year are having fun.  It's quite evident.

[frank_ezelle]

Trinity finally knows what a winning streak is, sweeping Sul Ross State in a 3 game series.  The TU bats finally came alive.  The defense and pitching will need to improve with a SCAC weekend against Hendrix. 

I think 12-8could very well win the west this year. 

It would be a strange year indeed if 12-8 won the SCAC West, but there has been early signs of parity so that's not impossible.  I'd like to think that Millsaps can win 3 of 5 games from here on out which would put them at 13-7, or 2 of 3 games which would put them at 14-6.  Continuing at their current pace would put them at 16-4, but a record like that would take a nice combination of good play and good breaks.  That's just the nature of baseball where no one is expected to win every game.

Is it too early and/or too odd to say that the Hendrix series at Trinity is critical?  Trinity won last night to move to 5-6, but these last 4 games have been ones where even a single loss would have hinted at major problems.  The sweep of Sul Ross State dropped them from 1-9 to 1-12, and Schreiner fell from 3-6 to 3-7 with last night's loss.  I see that Trinity brought in Bronson after the first batter reached in the 8th and he pitched 2 scoreless innings to preserve the 7-6 victory.  They probably wanted to get Bronson some midweek work anyway, but it also sounds like they had to have him on the mound in order to win this game.

Habitual thinking tells me that Trinity will sweep both games from Hendrix, but someone with no historical knowledge might look at the results of this year's Austin games and see Hendrix coming away with the sweep. 

When you throw in the fact that Trinity has the scheduling oddity of hosting all of their 2-game series and being on the road for the 3-games matchups, they are on the road for 9 of their last 11 SCAC games, and they are playing the Millsaps home games while participating in a D1 Tournament, then I think Trinity needs two wins this weekend or else their SCAC Tournament chances get dicey.  Is this a fair statement or should I have more belief in the Tigers?

[tiger_fan2000]

Trinity finally knows what a winning streak is, sweeping Sul Ross State in a 3 game series.  The TU bats finally came alive.  The defense and pitching will need to improve with a SCAC weekend against Hendrix. 

I think 12-8could very well win the west this year. 

It would be a strange year indeed if 12-8 won the SCAC West, but there has been early signs of parity so that's not impossible.  I'd like to think that Millsaps can win 3 of 5 games from here on out which would put them at 13-7, or 2 of 3 games which would put them at 14-6.  Continuing at their current pace would put them at 16-4, but a record like that would take a nice combination of good play and good breaks.  That's just the nature of baseball where no one is expected to win every game.

Is it too early and/or too odd to say that the Hendrix series at Trinity is critical?  Trinity won last night to move to 5-6, but these last 4 games have been ones where even a single loss would have hinted at major problems.  The sweep of Sul Ross State dropped them from 1-9 to 1-12, and Schreiner fell from 3-6 to 3-7 with last night's loss.  I see that Trinity brought in Bronson after the first batter reached in the 8th and he pitched 2 scoreless innings to preserve the 7-6 victory.  They probably wanted to get Bronson some midweek work anyway, but it also sounds like they had to have him on the mound in order to win this game.

Habitual thinking tells me that Trinity will sweep both games from Hendrix, but someone with no historical knowledge might look at the results of this year's Austin games and see Hendrix coming away with the sweep. 

When you throw in the fact that Trinity has the scheduling oddity of hosting all of their 2-game series and being on the road for the 3-games matchups, they are on the road for 9 of their last 11 SCAC games, and they are playing the Millsaps home games while participating in a D1 Tournament, then I think Trinity needs two wins this weekend or else their SCAC Tournament chances get dicey.  Is this a fair statement or should I have more belief in the Tigers?

You are dead on.  Trinity needs to sweep this weekend to not press the panic button.  I was pleasantly surprised to see Trinity escape with a win from Schreiner yesterday.  They, for some reason, always play Trinity tough in Kerville, no matter the records.  Coach Scannell and Coach Smith didnt want to chance anything, so bringing in Bronson was a no-brainer.  He didnt throw many pitches and will be ready for either Saturday or Sunday. 

On a different note, how in the world did someone not notice that TU has only 2-game series at home?  Is it that hard to make sure everyone have 2 2-game series and 2 3-game series???

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps, Hendrix, and Austin all have an even split with 10 games at home and 10 on the road.  Trinity has the 8 home game and 12 away, while Southwestern has 12 home and 8 away. 

It's too early in the day for me to do the math, but it could be that with 5 teams there is no way to do the schedule without one team getting just 8 home games and another getting 12. 

That's just a guess--this sounds like a question that Ralph can figure out and answer.

[Leadoff Man]

It is possible to split the conference games up evenly with every team having 10 home games and 10 road games... just did the math.

I still don't know if the Hendrix games are a must must win for Trinity, but the fact that we are even addressing that at this point in the season is crazy.

Parity is good.  My question is whether yall think the previous years' bottom tier teams are getting that much better, or if the historically strong teams of late are getting worse?  And why either way?

[Ralph Turner]

It is possible to split the conference games up evenly with every team having 10 home games and 10 road games... just did the math.

I still don't know if the Hendrix games are a must must win for Trinity, but the fact that we are even addressing that at this point in the season is crazy.

Parity is good.  My question is whether yall think the previous years' bottom tier teams are getting that much better, or if the historically strong teams of late are getting worse?  And why either way?

I think that the issue in this part of the country is parity.  Trinity won the SCAC last season, but was only 3-6 versus the ASC.  McMurry made the NCAA's as West Region "Quad-Champs".  UT-Tyler wins 35 games but is swept by CTX in the ASC tourney.

I think that Hendrix has the most up-side ahead of it.  AC, Southwestern and Trinity seem to be back in the very large pack.

Millsaps is on my radar.  Let's see how they do in conference play.