BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

nvnorthpaw · April 14, 2009, 10:12:07 AM

Hey all,
Just wanted to be the first to congratulate Millsaps on being ranked #1 in the country!!!!!!
It has to bode well for the SCAC that the only team's to defeat the number 1 team are teams within the SCAC-West (Hendrix twice, Trinity, Southwestern) am I wrong??

HeadingForHome · April 15, 2009, 11:21:46 AM

I want to also congratulate Millsaps for there number 1 ranking its pretty cool to think that number 1 team in the nation is in the SCAC.

About the only losses being in the SCAC West I bodes well to a point but even for the number one team in the nation it is hard to beat a team 5 times. So I feel like it would make sense for their only losses to come in the SCAC West.

Neverless, Congrats to the Millsaps!

frank_ezelle · April 15, 2009, 12:13:56 PM

Good point about the difficulty of beating a good team 5 out of 5 in a season. Right now Millsaps is 3-2 vs Hendrix, 4-1 vs Southwestern, 5-0 vs Austin, and 1-1 with Trinity and the remaining 3 games being played this weekend.

Last night the Millsaps announcer was out so the webcast for the Belhaven at Millsaps game was handled by the Belhaven announcer. At one point he was talking about the other teams in the SCAC West, noting that none of them had very good records outside of Millsaps and indicating that the West is a fairly weak conference. I'm afraid that this is the perception many have because they only look at the records, but the West teams all play difficult schedules and they they beat up on each other in conference play.

I think back to the Hendrix trip to California this year. Despite the disadvantage of such a long trip, they were very competitive with the best of the West Coast: Hendrix lost to Chapman 10-8, to Cal Lutheran 4-3, and to Pomona-Pizer 9-4. Chapman is a team that just dropped from the top-25, Cal Lutheran is #15, and Pomona-Pizer is #8. Plus, Hendrix was playing their 4th day in a row against a rested Pomona-Pizer team. I have a feeling that if you took the Hendrix team and based them in California for a full season, they would have a far better record than what they have now.

BY THE WAY, it looks like the Millsaps vs. Trinity games have been moved up a day. The Millsaps website has a single game on Friday with the time TBA and a DH on Saturday starting at 1. These games were originally scheduled as a DH on Saturday and a single game on Sunday.

tiger_fan2000 · April 15, 2009, 02:57:44 PM

Frank....that MC/TU series was moved up to a single game on Friday night and then DH on Saturday. This was done to allow TU players to get home Sunday and be able to work on school before they had to leave again for the conf. tournament.

Question about the conference tournament---I have seen pictures of the field from the milsaps web page, but I heard it was all field turf. I can find any pictures with field turf, but is that true? Is there any dirt on the field at all?

Jack Parkman · April 15, 2009, 03:28:07 PM

Quote from: tiger_fan2000 on April 15, 2009, 02:57:44 PM
Frank....that MC/TU series was moved up to a single game on Friday night and then DH on Saturday. This was done to allow TU players to get home Sunday and be able to work on school before they had to leave again for the conf. tournament.

Question about the conference tournament---I have seen pictures of the field from the milsaps web page, but I heard it was all field turf. I can find any pictures with field turf, but is that true? Is there any dirt on the field at all?

Tiger_Fan- Check out these great pics by Frank. All field turf!

tiger_fan2000 · April 15, 2009, 10:33:28 PM

Quote from: Jack Parkman on April 15, 2009, 03:28:07 PM
Quote from: tiger_fan2000 on April 15, 2009, 02:57:44 PM
Frank....that MC/TU series was moved up to a single game on Friday night and then DH on Saturday. This was done to allow TU players to get home Sunday and be able to work on school before they had to leave again for the conf. tournament.

Question about the conference tournament---I have seen pictures of the field from the milsaps web page, but I heard it was all field turf. I can find any pictures with field turf, but is that true? Is there any dirt on the field at all?

Tiger_Fan- Check out these great pics by Frank. All field turf!

Wow--even the pitchers mound in field turf......going to be interesting.

FlightofthePetrel · April 16, 2009, 12:24:10 AM

The Petrels were given a good ole fashion butt whooping by Emory tonight 21-1. Hopefully this will serve as a wakeup game that will cause OU to buckle down before the HUGE series at Depauw and carry that momentum into the conference tournament.

frank_ezelle · April 16, 2009, 02:30:42 AM

Yikes on the Emory at OU score. My assumption was that the same thing happened to OU as with Millsaps Tuesday, namely a big loss due largely to saving pitching for a weekend series, but it looks like OU used two main starters early in the game and Emory was the team that went with pitchers who hadn't thrown much this year (http://www.go.emory.edu/Statistics/Current/Base/eu35.htm).

In both games however, the big concern would have to be the lack of run production as OU only managed 1 run while Millsaps hitters could only plate 3. I expect to see both of these teams hitting better than that this weekend.

Regarding the field at Smith-Wills stadium, the site of the SCAC Tournament, it is indeed all artificial turf including the pitchers mound. It is an older stadium and therefore outdated somewhat for a minor league pro team, but it is a nice site for a D3 Tournament. Plenty of chairback seating behind home plate that is all covered. Lots of seating down both lines that is protected from foul balls by netting. Lots of restroom facilities. I think the teams and the fans are going to enjoy the location--I just hope plenty of fans are there to enjoy the location.

Lou_Brown · April 16, 2009, 10:15:45 AM

OU took one on the chin last night as emory thrashed them for 21 runs. OU did start tuttle one of two seniors but I heard he was only scheduled to pitch one inning last night in prep for DePauw. Other than that OU was just plain bad last night, tons of errors, no hitting and poor pitching. To me it looked like a team that was focused on DePauw...not emory. Well, now dePauw is next on the scheulde...going to be a fun weekend in the SCAC.

nvnorthpaw · April 16, 2009, 08:41:23 PM

A couple of comments...first off frank_ezelle, did you say the mound was turf!?

Also, I want to congratulate Daniel Ward of Hendrix on his National Hitter of the Week award. Anybody who has followed the SCAC over the past four years has had the opportunity to observe one of the best offensive and most well-rounded ball players in the country!

frank_ezelle · April 16, 2009, 09:32:53 PM

The entire surface is artificial--click on this link to get to a photo of the mound:

http://gomajors.smugmug.com/gallery/7776431_Zz2X4#505489626_YhcTJ

Gus Sinski · April 17, 2009, 01:27:05 PM

That just doesn't look right.

By the way, for those who don't know, Daniel Ward is featured in this week's SCAC podcast, if anyone wishes to take a listen. You can find it on the official SCAC website.

I still don't know what the hell a "podcast" is, but oh well.

frank_ezelle · April 17, 2009, 06:15:58 PM

While the big series in the SCAC West is at Hendrix, the series between Trinity and Millsaps will be a good one to watch. The teams play tonight at 7 Central. I've been at the tennis courts all afternoon which are besides the baseball field. The wind was blowing out hard to dead center all afternoon. If that holds up, it's going to be a difficult challenge for whoever pitches this evening--my guess is a rematch of Evan Bronson and Aaron Williams.

Pregame will start around 6:45 or 6:50 and here's the link:

http://www.atwsportscast.com/Colleges/Players/Millsaps%20College.htm

Gus Sinski · April 18, 2009, 12:05:26 AM

Small correction, Frank. The Hendrix-Southwestern series is at Southwestern, not Hendrix.

On that note, Rockwell Field is apparently lacking the bandwidth to do a live gamecast, so those wanting to keep up with the series will have to settle for live stats. Bummer.

frank_ezelle · April 18, 2009, 12:10:17 AM

Millsaps wraps up the top seed in the West and the SCAC West Region Championship with a 14-4 win over Trinity this evening in 7 innings.

(Before I forget, the DH tomorrow has been moved up a 12 o'clock start time (that's Central time).

There lots of hitting stars with Millsaps getting 15 hits in their 6 at bats, but the biggest difference was the fielding. Millsaps went without an error and Trinity committed 3. Bronson allowed 10 runs in 4 innings, but only 4 of them were earned. Of course, Millsaps hitters deserve a lot of credit for taking advantage of those second chance.

Here's the link to the box score: http://www.gomajors.com/custompages/Baseball/09Baseball/stats/mcb09-36.htm

PS--Thanks Gus for that correction. By the way, the other game tonight had Centre beating BSC. That pulls Centre even with OU with a .500 record. (Hmm, I just notice that it pulls them even with Rhodes as well. They are all at .500 with Rhodes being 6-6, Centre being 5-5, and OU being 4-4.)