BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

Lou_Brown · March 07, 2009, 09:43:12 AM

Oglethorpe put on a hitting display vs. Mt. Aloysius and beat them 12-2...20 hits including 6 doubles and a HR...I think 3 guys in the lineup had 3 hits apiece (Rizzo, Farrey, Lucas)..Sarisky started but had to leave the game early due to another injury, it seems his back is still giving him problems, yesterday he sat at 91-92 and reached back and hit 95 on a few occasions.

OU moves to 6-6 and has played some good games against some good teams. If they can get their pitching together they are going to win a lot of ball games.

frank_ezelle · March 07, 2009, 09:43:08 PM

Millsaps won the opening game of their DH with Austin, taking a big lead and holding on for a 13-9 victory (I'm not 100% certain on the score but that's close).

In the nightcap, Austin held a 5-4 lead going into the bottom of the 9th. Tait Hendrix started things off with a single. He stole second and scored on Russ Boyd's hit, a double I believe. With the score tied at 5-5, Hunter Owen hit a ball well over the leftfield fence to give Millsaps a 7-5 victory. I'm working on getting photos to Millsaps at the moment. I'll try to post more later.

More later: Here's the story from the Millsaps website which includes links to the box scores:
http://www.gomajors.com/news/2009/3/7/BB_0307093524.aspx

jekelish · March 08, 2009, 12:22:59 PM

Thanks for the report Frank.

It's just been that kind of year for AC so far, particularly in conference. At this point, they're about 5 or 6 runs (and a few mistakes here and there) away from being 7-2 instead of 2-7 in conference.

frank_ezelle · March 08, 2009, 01:40:18 PM

Quote from: jekelish on March 08, 2009, 12:22:59 PM
Thanks for the report Frank.

It's just been that kind of year for AC so far, particularly in conference. At this point, they're about 5 or 6 runs (and a few mistakes here and there) away from being 7-2 instead of 2-7 in conference.

You're absolutely right about Austin being close to reversing their record and they seem far better than a 2-7 team to me. When their hitters get rolling, they can hit a ton.

At the moment Austin leads Millsaps 3-2 going into the bottom of the 2nd. Hunter Owen followed up last nights game winning home run with another 2-run shot in the bottom of the first. That ties him for the career lead at Millsaps and it's his 4th HR in the last 4 games.

frank_ezelle · March 08, 2009, 04:36:40 PM

Millsaps wins today 10-7. The 16-1 start is the best start in school history. Will Hawkins added a home run in his last at bat to complete a 5 for 5 day which also included a triple. Drew Maddox got the save which ties him for the most saves in Millsaps history with 10. Tait Hendrix got the win and did a much better job on holding down the walks.

As for Austin, they remind me a lot of the Millsaps Mens Basketball team this year that played everyone tough and seemed to have everything go against them. I believe this puts them at 2-8 in the SCAC but I won't be surprised in the least if they rally back to 9-11 over the next 10 games and I'm thinking that might be good enough to get to the SCAC Tournament.

frank_ezelle · March 09, 2009, 11:33:52 AM

Wasn't it just a couple of years ago that the better teams were beating Hendrix by scores of 21-2 or something similar?

Now the scores like the 15-3 win by Trinity last Sunday seem like the flukes. Admittedly, Hendrix has lost 3 times since that Trinity game, but the scores have been 9-5 and 9-4 against #7 University of Texas-Tyler and 10-8 against #9 Chapman. Those are competitive games against top-10 teams, plus they split with Millsaps who might very well be top-10 by tomorrow.

Congratulations are in order for the coach and his staff. I'd mention them by name except Hendrix doesn't include anything about the coaches on the Baseball page. I'm sure it's somewhere on the athletic website, but you Hendrix folks know who they are and it looks like they have really turned the program around.

Jack Parkman · March 09, 2009, 01:06:35 PM

Cal Lutheran vs. Hendrix will be on live video today at 2:30 PM (PST)

www.kadytv.com

frank_ezelle · March 09, 2009, 08:10:31 PM

Hendrix is giving #18 CLU a heck of a game, just scoring in the top of the 9th to tie the score at 3-3 and now with runners at 2nd and 3rd and 1 out. Check out the link above to see if the game is still on--it's a good one.

svbbcoach · March 10, 2009, 12:41:25 AM

New to this Board and a Hendrix supporter. Following 5 local players from So.Cal. and watching the team turn around instantaneously. With only 3 seniors, the team is very young. Last year I watched a 4 game series against UT Dallas without an offensive or defensive substitution through all 4 games (other than pitchers). Now they have some depth and youth on their side. I watched both the Chapman game and the CLU game. Chapman scores 8 in the 2nd inning until a pitch calling miscommunication is discovered and out plays Chapman for the next 7 innings. Smoyer then throws 6 innings of 2 hit ball against CLU. The game is a 4-3 loss in the bottom of 9. Basically 2 long balls (very long) were the difference. Competitive baseball, what more can you ask? After this swing in California, they head home for the rest of the season until Southwestern in April. Coaches Thomas, Maddox and Groat have done a great job!

Ralph Turner · March 10, 2009, 10:15:45 AM

The good thing for Hendrix baseball is that they are playing the quality national teams (southern California) teams, that just happen to be, in-region games.

Hendrix needs to compete at that level to build their program. That is a big gain for all of the SCAC.

infielddad · March 10, 2009, 11:00:59 AM

I watched the last inning of the Hendrix-CLU game and it is clear Hendrix is better. The depth that was talked about earlier is very important progress for their program.
Recruiting CA and the West has long been a goal and skill of Coach Scannell. He was the first SCAC coach to attend the Stanford Camp and recruit heavily from CA.
In 2000 he recruited our son and Mike Frost from CA and they ended up being the player/pitcher of the year in 2004 and led TU to their first regional appearances.
The current TU roster is filled with West Coast players.
Now, at camps like those at Stanford and Headfirst, you see Coach McCain from Millsaps, the Hendrix coaches, DePauw and others.
Most parents and players on the West Coast know nothing about the caliber of academics and athletics in the SCAC. They are considered "fly over" schools" to get to to the Ivys, Williams, Amherst, Bucknell and the like.
That isn't the case any more and it is great for schools like Hendrix and it is great for the SCAC and the players/parents from the West who get recruited there.
Each gets a very, very high quality education and the ability to compete at the highest level of DIII athletics.

frank_ezelle · March 10, 2009, 12:04:34 PM

Since the subject of the day has been the improvement of Hendrix, who wants to take a shot at this fill in the blank:

There is a ___% chance that Hendrix will finish in the top 2 in the West.

They are already in second after playing 7 road games. That gives them 10 out of the 13 remaining games at home--hosting Millsaps and Trinity for 3 each, Austin and Southwestern for 2, and going on the road for 3 at Southwestern (I'm not exactly sure about those Austin games--is one a neutral site tomorrow?).

Even though Hendrix, Trinity and Southwestern are bunched together and one bad series will bring Millsaps back to the pack, don't you think there's at least a 50% chance that Hendrix will be in the top two considering the number of home games they have remaining?

frank_ezelle · March 10, 2009, 02:51:14 PM

I thought Hunter Owen had a shot at SCAC Offensive POTW with his .353 batting average (6 of 17), 1.118 slugging %, 11 rbi's, 7 runs, and 4 home runs, including the walk off home run Saturday night.

Maybe he can pick it up a little and win the award next week.

Lou_Brown · March 10, 2009, 08:44:16 PM

Two good wins for OU today over a good Haverford club. A 3-2 win in game one and a 10-5 win in game two. Looks like OU is starting to get some decent pitching. They played two solid games on defense turning a few double plays and offensivley they picked up a ton of 2-out RBI's...

HeadingForHome · March 10, 2009, 11:59:52 PM

Quote from: Lou_Brown on March 10, 2009, 08:44:16 PM
Two good wins for OU today over a good Haverford club. A 3-2 win in game one and a 10-5 win in game two. Looks like OU is starting to get some decent pitching. They played two solid games on defense turning a few double plays and offensivley they picked up a ton of 2-out RBI's...

Lou it amazes me looking at the box score that the good pitching didn't come from what was thought to be Oglethorpe's top 3 pitchers coming into the season. The great pitching came from Oglethorpe's starting SS Cornwell getting his first start after only pitching 4 innings before. He went 5 dominate innings and got a little tired in the sixth and gave up the two runs. The second game was pitched by what I guess is Oglethorpe's top reliever since he has the most appearances but this was his first start. He was able to give the Petrels I think 5 good innings to clinch the 10-5 win.

Hopefully, the two good outings that these two pitchers had will help rest of the pitching staff to come around and follow suit. Next up for the Petrels is a three game conference weekend with Centre so it will nice to see how the the first week of eastern conference play shakes out.