BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[infielddad]

Ralph, thank you. That is good news for Coach Page and his players who truly deserve a post season berth. I hope it happens and am very happy the waiting times for selections is shorter this year
To put this in some context, every year since they left the SCAC, Rose Hulman is right there in the regional rankings.
When they were in the SCAC's, they never made it to Sunday with their very best teams.
So, they leave the SCAC's and they end up getting regional rankings and some post season chances, when teams like Millsaps and/or UTT  get overlooked.
Sometimes the difficulty of seeing all DIII's  makes comparative assessments of team quality difficult when post season selections occur.
To me, though, when/if Rose Hulman gets Pool C selections, it is a much clearer picture.  They knew they would never make it in the SCAC's so they leave and get what they hoped while better teams sit home.

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph, thank you. That is good news for Coach Page and his players who truly deserve a post season berth. I hope it happens and am very happy the waiting times for selections is shorter this year
To put this in some context, every year since they left the SCAC, Rose Hulman is right there in the regional rankings.
When they were in the SCAC's, they never made it to Sunday with their very best teams.
So, they leave the SCAC's and they end up getting regional rankings and some post season chances, when teams like Millsaps and/or UTT  get overlooked.
Sometimes the difficulty of seeing all DIII's  makes comparative assessments of team quality difficult when post season selections occur.
To me, though, when/if Rose Hulman gets Pool C selections, it is a much clearer picture.  They knew they would never make it in the SCAC's so they leave and get what they hoped while better teams sit home.

I think that the SCAC-West gets out of the gate faster than the northern teams, and they get farther into the season faster, too.

RHIT can start with the rest of the teams in the HCAC and arrive at the destination better with the later start.

I think that RHIT is getting the extra 2 weeks of the season that they need to get into form.  You are right.  It would have never happened in the SCAC.  A Millsaps and a Hendrix and an RHIT are roughly equal by May 15th, but not by April 22nd.

[richball]

Well, from what I saw Millsaps is a hell of a team and very deserving team for a berth into the big show. They have a solid lineup that doesn't chase pitches and the middle with Owen and Hawkins is just plain good. They play good defense and they have some tough arms on the mound. And I'm pretty sure they will not see a starting pitcher with the velocity and secondary pitches(maintained throughout a game) of Centre's Jake Jones. If he were just a closer he'd be a 93-95 guy.

But maybe this video can help Mllsaps cause, this is Jones throwing against Birmingham Southern for a full 9inning game. And remember against Millsaps the kid was still 88-90 in the last inning after 140 pitches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OAvnJ5Ev0E

[frank_ezelle]

If Millsaps stays at the #2 ranking in the South, it's hard to see a scenario where they get excluded from the NCAA Tournament.  The discussion has often come up on the board about the long break between the SCAC and NCAA Tournaments.  Personally, I think it's an advantage.  There's a mental and physical drain that goes into an SCAC baseball season and I like the fact that the guys get to focus on finals, get some much needed down time, and then have time to come back recharged and ready to go.  I understand the argument about being away from live games for too long, but there are some positives in this long break as well.

If Millsaps gets an at-large bid, it was won in February and March against the likes of the Ozarks, LaGrange, Piedmont, Huntingdon, etc.  The importance of these games never fully registered with me in the past.  Those first weeks of the season are ones where you keep your at-large hopes alive.  Sophomore Andrew Pearce only pitched 3.1 innings of varsity ball this year, but his contribution was huge as he held Rhodes to 1 run in the 8th and 9th innings of a 14-13 win on February 8.  Freshman pitcher Ryan Zemke was only 1-1 this year, but his great start in the 6-5 victory over #27 Piedmont on February 9 was critical as Millsaps was trying to find enough pitching to win 6 games in 6 days.  When a team gets to the NCAA Tournament via an at-large bid, just about every player has a hand in the accomplisment because there is so little margin for error. 

Regarding the finish to this great regular season, Millsaps went 2-4 in their last 6 games.  That's a stretch that started on April 14 against Belhaven.  The Millsaps baseball team hit #1 in the nation in the D3baseball poll on April 12.  Coincidence?  Maybe and maybe not.  It was a tough stretch of games:  a loss to NAIA Belhaven while trying to save pitching for the Trinity series; winning 2 out of 3 against a Trinity team that can hit the ball a ton; a loss to Centre ace Jake Jones; and then a loss to a talented Hendrix team playing their best ball of the season.  A lot of teams would have gone 2-4 or worse in those games, but I think the Millsaps team of March that was climbing the rankings would have been 4-2 or better in that stretch. 

That's just my opinion, but let me stress a critical part of that opinion.  If the rise in the polls hurt Millsaps, it wasn't because the team got overconfident and cocky.  If it hurt the team, it was because the individuals put more pressure on themselves because they didn't want to let down their teammates.  That's what appeared to be happening over the last few weeks--at least in my far less than expert opinion.  There comes a time when trying too hard is counterproductive and trying to do too much results in doing less.  I believe the Millsaps team that plays in the NCAA Tournament will more closely resemble the team that was hitting the snot out of the ball in early March and that will be a very dangerous team.

One last point to make in this rambling post.  Maybe the most impressive thing about Millsaps this year is the closeness of their losses.  I was thinking about that this weekend as MS College won 10-0 in a mercy game against Texas-Dallas, #4 in the West regional rankings, and then won 15-4 in another mercy game against West #2 Texas-Tyler.  Let's put that in perspective:  Millsaps, a team that went 3-0 against MS College this year, lost 7 D3 games this year by a combined total of 12 runs.  There were 4 losses by a single run, 2 losses by 2-runs, and the only "blowout" in D3 was a 4-run loss to Trinity (Millsaps did lose 11-3 to Belhaven in that April 14 game prior to the Trinity series).  You add up all the Millsaps losses and the seasonal total hardly would make a mercy loss--that's an example of playing consistently well from start to finish.

[Lou_Brown]

Frank,

Can you give us an update on Millsaps? Are they practicing? Intrasquads? Whats the mood around the baseball team?

[BigPoppa]

Frank,

Can you give us an update on Millsaps? Are they practicing? Intrasquads? Whats the mood around the baseball team?

They SHOULD be practicing... they will be playing a regional in ten days. I do not see any way they could be left out of the tournament.

[d3baseballnut]

Frank,

Can you give us an update on Millsaps? Are they practicing? Intrasquads? Whats the mood around the baseball team?

They SHOULD be practicing... they will be playing a regional in ten days. I do not see any way they could be left out of the tournament.

agreed.

[frank_ezelle]

I heard a radio interview with Coach Page this past Monday.  They are practicing and apparently all is going well.  Coach Page said that since Hunter Owen is a senior and doesn't have exams, they were able to work on his swing all week and he is hitting the ball better than ever.  That shouldn't be surprising.  The best players in all sports are always having little flaws creep into their form and Coach Page is a guy who can find that minor flaws in a baseball swing.

Coach also talked about how Shelby Robertson has really looked good and he's excited that Shelby is getting this extended work.  Shelby is a big JC pitcher new to the Millsaps program this year and he struggled early but has looked very good over the last few weeks.  My guess is that he'll be the third starter in the NCAA Regional rotation.

I mentioned this in the last post--I really think there are more pros than cons with the 3 week layoff prior to the first regional game.  The guys get to concentrate on exams and get a breather for a week, and then they can turn 100% of their attention to baseball.  Also, as with Hunter, when you have a stretch without games you can go back and work on some of the small things that might be difficult to work on when playing 2-4 games a week.  It won't surprise me if this break does wonders for hitters up and down the lineup.

I'm excited about the probability that this team will get an NCAA bid and I'm anxious to see how they will do in regional play.  My bet is that they will do quite well.

[infielddad]

Frank,
Thank you for the update.
From what I know about Coach Page, his love for baseball, his passion for hitting, and his ability/willingness to teach both, Hunter Owen might be wishing he had some exams to take. 

[Lou_Brown]

Someone asked me this question the other day. Since technically all teams are still in the running for an at-large berth (at least teams with decent records) can these teams be practicing like Millsaps? I know the week limit comes into play but Millsaps is out of weeks? Anybody? I see this as a big grey area. I imagine some teams take advantage of this, but it really hurts the spirit of d3.

[frank_ezelle]

Lou, that's a good question.  I know that in the past Millsaps teams with a shot at an at-large bid have practice in preparation only to be disappointed at selection time.  The same was true with Rhodes in 2007. 

I very, very vaguely seem to remember that maybe the NCAA allows you to keep practicing if you are a legitimate contender for an at-large bid and maybe you have to get that okay from them.  That's probably more of a guess than a memory on how the procedure works.  Odds are pretty good that someone will have the answer here within the next 12-16 hours.

[Gus Sinski]

 Since we're talking about practicing for the regionals, here's a quick dispatch from Conway:

The week began with R.J. Thomas arriving at the ballpark, only to find the field missing. However, several witnesses from the area would later claim they witnessed the field floating down Interstate 40 towards Little Rock.

Plans were initially hatched to practice on other area fields. However, the field at Central Arkansas was completely submerged, and the UCA athletic administration opted to turn lemons into lemonade by re-naming Bear Field the Bear Natatorium and re-naming the baseball team the water polo team.

Meanwhile, a practice at Conway High School was cut short after Daniel Ward found himself having to wrestle an alligator in order to get to the dugout. Meanwhile, we found that Kyle Raskin's exceptional range at third base was rather hampered by the fact that he had to wear waders.

Even an attempt at just some casual long toss in the backyard of assistant coach Neil Groat had to be aborted when a massive amount of frogs that had been washed ashore by the flood waters refused to leave after being asked nicely.

So to sum things up: Hendrix may not have had much time on the field by the time the post-season begins, but if an impromptu backstroke contest breaks out, I like our chances.

[frank_ezelle]

It's a shame that weather has interferred so much with the Hendrix practices for Regionals.  Considering that the first games are next Wednesday and there has to be time set aside for travel, there aren't a lot more days of practice time available.  I'm a little anxious about the Regional rankings coming out today--there were some games played after the last release so in theory someone might have passed Millsaps for #2 in the South.  I don't think that will be the case, but we'll see. 

Since I don't know anything about who will be in which regions, I'm leaning towards wanting Millsaps in the South region if they get a bid.  That's not because I think the South region is easier, but I'm just interested to see how Millsaps compares on the field to these South Region teams that are too far away to play in the regular season. 

[BigPoppa]

I think Millsaps will land in the Central or Midwest regions.

[frank_ezelle]

I sort of think the Central region.  It's 1,100 miles from Jackson to the South Regional site--it goes to show just how big some of these regions are which makes true regional competition difficult--I know the folks out in the West region have an even bigger problem with this distance factor.