BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

donotknowscac · April 06, 2009, 02:10:10 PM

Yep, he will admit he stunk it up the first two games. He did make some nice plays yesterday though. And yes, the 1st baseman is at the chiropractor today! But, he is a unselfish player. He went over to third just last week and is playing a position he hasn't played.
I think the ball found him about 12 times in the first half of the game Saturday! He is a good athlete and will only improve over there as seen yesterday.
Defense has been an issue with Rhodes all year. Just look at the stats page. But, a few games over .500 may be enough to get in the tourney and then hope you play some errorless ball. If a few more plays could have been made over the course of the year Rhodes would be the other SCAC team with a national rating. But, right now, that's baseball. The Lynx haven't hung there head about it.

frank_ezelle · April 07, 2009, 11:28:05 AM

I see that Emory(19-10) is playing today and tomorrow against OU and then they will travel to Jackson to play Millsaps on Friday and Saturday. In the past they might have thrown some lesser pitchers against OU and saved the top of the staff for Millsaps--it doesn't seem like that would work so well this season with OU playing so well. It will be interesting to see how they use their pitching.

For anyone interested, today's Millsaps game with LA College at 4:00 Central will be webcast and the link to that webcast is in the signature area below.

tiger_fan2000 · April 07, 2009, 01:06:01 PM

Frank--
How is Tait's back. I know it was bothering him when they played TU and then saw he hasnt been hitting much lately. Finally, I read he came out against SU on Sunday because of it. I hope he can get healthy down the stretch because he is a lot of fun to watch.

frank_ezelle · April 07, 2009, 02:14:36 PM

Good question about Tait's back. Tait was going to pitch the second game at Austin two weekends ago but he hurt his back while pinch hitting at the end of the first game. He did pitch 3 innings against Southwestern and did well, but I think his back started bothering him again so Boomer Hudson came in to pitch.

It has been described as a day-to-day injury. It wouldn't surprise me if Tait pitches against Emory this Saturday, but the key thing is to have him at 100% for the SCAC Tournament. He's really been pitching well lately and Millsaps needs him healthy for the SCAC and hopefully NCAA Tournaments.

In the meantime, the role of the 3rd starter seems to be start someone and then bring in Drew Maddox or Boomer Hudson. Drew came in to start the 3rd inning against MS College last night and he pitched 8 innings for the win in extra innings. Boomer's last two outings have been very successful 6 innings stints. Unless a solid #3 starter steps up in the next couple of weeks, look for those two relievers to pitch a lot of tournament innings.

FlightofthePetrel · April 07, 2009, 11:26:22 PM

Wow... Oglethorpe tops Emory 8-7 in 11 innings. OU came back to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th inning as Chris Lucas scored on a wild pitch to score the game. Ironically it was Lucas who came around to score the eventual walk off game winning run on a throwing error by the 3rd baseman. This team sure is getting comfortable coming back in the late innings and stealing games away!

Sarisky comes in to pitch 4.2 innings in relief and gets the win to improve to 5-0... check out the stat line
4.2 IP 1H 0R 1BB 11K... striking out 11 of 16 batters faced... looks like everyone in the emory lineup got a taste of him. That brings his season total to 59 strikeouts in only 34.1 innings picthed. The 59 strikeouts puts him second to only Evan Bronsons 77 in 67.1 IP.

Oglethorpe improves to 17-11 and continues to improve on their best season in recent memory. Look forward to hopefully seeing the guys take another one from Emory tomorrow.

frank_ezelle · April 07, 2009, 11:53:10 PM

A great win for OU and the SCAC. There's no doubt that teams will want to have a lead on OU going into the late innings when you see what Sarisky is doing in some of these games. It also points out how tough the SCAC Tournament will be this year because it's going to be 6 teams that are capable of winning the thing--that has rarely been the case in the past.

As I wrote earlier today, I thought Emory would be making a mistake if they looked past OU to the Millsaps series. I see that the Emory starter was making his first start of the season and he only had 12 innings going into the game. He gave up 6 of the 8 runs during his 3 innings. I wonder if Emory will go with one of their top 3 starters tomorrow against OU or will they save them all for Millsaps?

frank_ezelle · April 08, 2009, 05:50:10 AM

There's an interesting thread regarding strength of schedule under the national topics (link: http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=6282.0 ).

It shows Austin with the 3rd toughest schedule, Hendrix at #4, DePauw at #7, Millsaps at #13 and Trinity at #21. This is taken from an interesting statistical list of D3 baseball that can be found at http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/d3_isr.html

I did not find Southwestern on the list which is odd, but the other 4 SCAC West schools all rank as being in the top 10% in the nation when it comes to having the toughest schedule. That might help explain why only Millsaps is above .500 overall in that division.

Outside of DePauw, the SCAC East teams didn't fare as well on the list, but they didn't do poorly. There was Rhodes at 41, Centre at 75, BSC at 117, OU at 119, and Sewanee at 133. That's out of 222 teams on the list so only Sewanee is significantly below the midway point. And by the way, if you want to argue these numbers, keep in mind that I didn't create the list and I'm only the messenger so don't address your arguement to me.

donotknowscac · April 08, 2009, 07:45:59 AM

Great info Frank. You are a super sleuth!

Ralph Turner · April 08, 2009, 08:38:31 AM

Let's see what happens with the list of SOS created by Boyd as the season progresses. (No, I am not shooting the messenger!

)

That reflects games played. The West and South have played more games.

frank_ezelle · April 08, 2009, 12:30:55 PM

In my mind, the Millsaps baseball season starts over this Friday. The 28-4 start is great, the national rankings are nice, winning the Maloney Trophy was rewarding, and clinching a spot in the SCAC Tournament was critical. What those things have done is allowed the team to look at the remaining 6 games and the SCAC Tournament in a different light:

Games vs Emory on Friday and Saturday: I believe Emory will save their best pitching for these two games. While the Emory record this year isn't on par with some of their NCAA teams in recent years, they are still going to be representative of the type teams Millsaps will have to beat in the SCAC and hopefully the NCAA Tournaments. This is an excellent challenge for Millsaps with post season play coming up on April 23rd.

Let me just add that I think Millsaps has slumped a little since the early part of the season. Not much obviously since they are 28-4, but they haven't seemed as sharp in little ways. Maybe it's the difference between a B+ and an A, or maybe it's more like the difference between a B and an A, but Millsaps needs to gear up to play their best ball of the season over the next 20 days and the Emory games would be a great place to start.

April 14th vs Belhaven: Another strong team and it's a game where someone could step up and earn that #3 starter spot for the SCAC Tournament. The Maloney Trophy is won but it would be nice to go 6-0 for the 2009 series.

April 18-19 vs Trinity: So much will be on the line in this series. Millsaps needs wins here to clinch an at-large berth guarantee, maybe a #1 ranking in the South, and maybe a #1 seed in a regional. Plus, they get to face Bronson again after he held them to 2 runs earlier in the season. For Trinity they are still looking to clinch a spot in the SCAC Tournament so they will be as focused as they possibly can be--which is about the norm for a Millsaps-Trinity series anyway. This is also a series for a #3 starter to step up.

SCAC Tournament: I don't need to write anything about the importance of this weekend.

As a Millsaps fan looking at this closing schedule, it doesn't get any better than this: Emory 2 games, Belhaven, Trinity 3 games, and then the SCAC Tournament right here in Jackson. The first 32 games have set the stage for a potentially great season, but there are plenty of challenges to go and I believe we are going to see Millsaps go to a higher level to meet those challenges. I can't wait.

Lou_Brown · April 08, 2009, 08:20:29 PM

Tough 3-2 loss for the Petrels at Emory today. OU led 2-1 entering the 8th but was unable to hold the lead and eventually lost in the bottom of the ninth. Sarisky obviously was not available today after 4+ innings last night. Good game, both teams had good pitching performances. OU had bases loaded in the top of the 9th with one out and was unable to push across a run.

OU is off to Sewanee this weekend looking to get into the top three in the east...Sewanee is a tough place to play but I think this team is ready.

richball · April 08, 2009, 10:07:28 PM

I think OU is in for a little more game than they think with Sewanee. To get to Sarisky in the bullpen, OU is going to need a starter to step up. Sewanee's record and stats may not reflect that they are capable of staying in the box and hitting. If Bartleski throws like he did against Centre he will be a tough test. I believe Bartleski gets win 1, Hoban, relief, & Sarisky game 2, and slugfest game 3.

frank_ezelle · April 09, 2009, 02:40:05 AM

The SCAC East is still very wide open when it come to tournament slots. BSC has a comfortable lead a 7-2, but they can't go to the tournament. That leaves Rhodes and DePauw at 5-4, Centre at 3-3, OU at 2-4, and Sewanee at 2-7. And crazy me, I didn't realize until this week that the East only plays 15 games in the form of 3-game series against each of the other teams instead of any home-away setup.

Here are the remaining games for each team:

Rhodes: 3 at BSC, 3 hosting Sewanee (BSC could put them in a world of hurt)
DePauw: 3 hosting Centre, 3 hosting OU (seems like the easiest remaining schedule)
Centre: 3 at DePauw, 3 hosting BSC (seems like the hardest)
OU: 3 at Sewanee, 3 at DePauw (finishing out with 6 road games)
Sewanee: 3 hosting OU, 3 at Rhodes (not an impossible task to get to the tournament)

You sharp eyed readers may notice that this still leaves OU and Centre with just 12 games. Their series was cancelled earlier in the year and there's no time to make it up. It seems like that's going to become a big factor in the race for a tournament spot and I don't know exactly how that will be handled.

tiger_fan2000 · April 09, 2009, 09:53:25 AM

Quote from: frank_ezelle on April 09, 2009, 02:40:05 AM
The SCAC East is still very wide open when it come to tournament slots. BSC has a comfortable lead a 7-2, but they can't go to the tournament. That leaves Rhodes and DePauw at 5-4, Centre at 3-3, OU at 2-4, and Sewanee at 2-7. And crazy me, I didn't realize until this week that the East only plays 15 games in the form of 3-game series against each of the other teams instead of any home-away setup.

Here are the remaining games for each team:

Rhodes: 3 at BSC, 3 hosting Sewanee (BSC could put them in a world of hurt)
DePauw: 3 hosting Centre, 3 hosting OU (seems like the easiest remaining schedule)
Centre: 3 at DePauw, 3 hosting BSC (seems like the hardest)
OU: 3 at Sewanee, 3 at DePauw (finishing out with 6 road games)
Sewanee: 3 hosting OU, 3 at Rhodes (not an impossible task to get to the tournament)

You sharp eyed readers may notice that this still leaves OU and Centre with just 12 games. Their series was cancelled earlier in the year and there's no time to make it up. It seems like that's going to become a big factor in the race for a tournament spot and I don't know exactly how that will be handled.

Only in the SCAC could we have two halves of a conference that dont play the same format. WOW. I understand the reasoning, but still.

spring bruce09 · April 09, 2009, 02:08:26 PM

As a new follower of the SCAC I still find myself wondering how it is possible that the two divisons of THE SAME CONFERENCE can play a completely different format? As a follower of OU I can say I definitely believe the entire conference should be playing the way the West plays because that way every team is playing enough games so that if something happens like a rained out weekend like OU-Centre, there is less likelihood of ending up with a tie. As it stands a lot can still happen in the East but there is obviously the possibility of OU and Centre ending up with the same conference record. I just think it is ludicrous that the people who run this conference cannot set one format for the whole conference.