BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[frank_ezelle]

VERY interesting and important game going on right now between Austin and Hendrix.  Hendrix has won the first two and is now 7-10 in the SCAC.  Austin has dropped to 8-9.  The winner of this final game will hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the other.

Here's what's left for these two teams after today:  Hendrix goes to Southwestern for 2 and Austin hosts Trinity for 2.  SO, if Hendrix wins today they earn the tiebreaker over Austin and are one game back  tied with Austin with the 'Roos having the tougher finish.  OF COURSE, if Austin wins today then Hendrix is mathmatically eliminated, but I think this is a do or die game for both teams.

At the moment, Austin is leading 5-3 with Hendrix batting in the bottom of the 5th.  Here's a link that should bring up the live stats for the game:

http://livestats.prestosports.com/hendrix/bsb/?e=8v594ag3svd4rkj2

[tigerfan_2001]

looking at the box score and watching online, TU banged the ball again.  After scoring 18 yesterday, the scored 19 today.  Difference was the on the mound, with Klimesh going 6 strong innings.  The Tigers will need him to continue that if they want to accomplish some of their goals this season.

Austin up 10-5 in the 8th against Hendrix...if this holds true, the West side of the tournament is set.

[tigerfan_2001]

looking at the box score and watching online, TU banged the ball again.  After scoring 18 yesterday, the scored 19 today.  Difference was the on the mound, with Klimesh going 6 strong innings.  The Tigers will need him to continue that if they want to accomplish some of their goals this season.

Austin up 10-5 in the 8th against Hendrix...if this holds true, the West side of the tournament is set.

Austin holds on and so the west is set for the tourney....just need the seeding.

[frank_ezelle]

Austin won over Hendrix 10-6 so the West is almost set.  If Southwestern wins out and Millsaps loses out, then Southwestern ties Millsaps and has the tiebreaker.  

Trinity is obviously in and Austin holds the tiebreaker over Hendrix, Millsaps and Southwestern so it seems like they are in even if they lose twice to Trinity.  

The East side is only halfway through their schedule so everyone is still in the hunt.  It's a little odd to see DePauw as one of the teams that wouldn't make the tournament if the season ended today.  The Tigers lost to Rhodes today and will be in some trouble if they lose both ends of tomorrow's DH with Rhodes.

Link to standings:  
http://www.scacsports.com/sports/bsb/2009-10/standings-division

[Ron Boerger]

The Trinity baseball team got a 3+ minute feature on one of the local TV stations ... for one of the training methods the pitching staff is using.  Fun stuff.

That may be the longest story I can ever remember an SA station doing on any TU athletics.

[infielddad]

Ron,
Thank you very much for posting the link.

If you have tried even a few/small amount of pilates work, the core strengthening is hard and painful, actually really hard and painful.  That core work plus the flexibility do make a lot of sense..but it didn't look like the Coaches were participants!

So, after this past weekend, if I read the numbers correctly, Hendrix needs to win their last 2 and Millsaps needs to lose all 6 of their remaining conference games for Hendrix to get to the tournament.
In my view this is just further evidence that the work done year in and year out by Coach Page and his staff and Coach Scannell and his staff is pretty darn solid.
Coach Cleanthes at Rhodes seems to be heading their program in that direction, also. Staying at or near the top year in and year out can sometimes get taken for granted.
It should not. Those staffs work very, very hard year round.

[frank_ezelle]

One of the greatest moments I've seen in Millsaps sporting history.

Millsaps took an 19-18 victory over Huntingdon College in 11 innings this evening.  It wasn't a game of any great importance, it certainly wasn't the best played game of baseball you'll ever see, but what a fantastic final play.

Huntingdon had taken an 18-17 lead in the top of the 11th on a long HR to center.  Millsaps came to bat in the bottom of the 11th and the first three batters produced two outs and a walk to Carson Goldsmith.  That brought up rarely used junior Drew Respess for his 4th at bat of the season as well as the 4th at bat of his Millsaps career.  

Drew, that seldom used player who is always the one pumping up his teammates and getting the noise started in the dugout, worked the count to 3-2.  A full count, two outs, the winning run at the plate in the form of a great guy who rarely gets the chance to contribute on the field.  A two run walkoff homer would be too unbelievable even for Hollywood, but that's exactly what happen tonight.  

A great moment for a great guy.  I hate that I saw it on the webcast and not in person with my camera recording it all, but I don't think that Drew or his teammates will need photos to remember the amazing ending to tonight's game.  What a fantastic finish.

[ILVBB]

Frank:

Thanks for the story; I am sure that he and his family will speak of tonight with abundant joy for some time to come. In my book; it is stories like this that make college baseball so important to so many.

[frank_ezelle]

While I wasn't at the game to take photos of Drew Respess' home run and the celebration that followed, I did think to grab a camera and film the PC monitor during the post game interviews.  It's about 10 minutes and I think it's worth a listen.  Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z5WU6PL5iM

[Bob_Lotts]

Good W for the Petrels today at Emory. They are now 2-0 vs. Emory with both victories coming on Emory's home field. OU heads to Centre this weekend in another big SCAC weekend.

[frank_ezelle]

As we all should know, the baseball polls are interesting but what's really important are the NCAA Regional rankings.  At least that's what is important when it comes to receiving an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.  Where does your team stand at this point?  Here are the last published South regional rankings from 2009 (the very last ranking is never released by the NCAA) and a link to the last 2009 published rankings:

South Region
1. Salisbury 36-6 29-6
2. Millsaps 32-8 29-7
3. Shenandoah 33-8 27-7
4. North Carolina Wesleyan 27-19 25-15
5. Christopher Newport 24-11-2 20-11-1

http://www.d3sports.com/dailydose/category/ncaa/regional-rankings/

I'll write more later, but now I've gotten into that area of the message box where the message box keeps displaying the text that is above what I'm trying to type.  Very annoying.  I'll do a post as a word document and then copy and paste that into a followup post.

[frank_ezelle]

Here's a second link that you'll need to go with that regional ranking.  It's a thread from the messageboard that starts off with which teams made it into the 2009 NCAA Tournament:

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=6415.0

What I really need to find is a link to which teams made it to the 2009 tournament as a Pool C (at-large) team.  Ralph, Pat, Ron or someone--do you have a link to something like that so a person could compare the regional rankings with a list of the teams that actually got an at-large bid?

[Ron Boerger]

If anyone will have something like that, it'll be Ralph.

Two weeks until the first regional rankings for 2010, or three?  

[frank_ezelle]

The Following is a post that was made last year about the teams in the tournament and I believe the teams I've change to bold font were the Pool C teams.  It may be a little early to talk about these things, but I'm thinking that a few SCAC teams might still have an at-large shot, but they really need to finish strong.  Maybe even Millsaps has a shot if they finish 8-0 or 7-1 in the D3 games left and then pick up 3 wins in the SCAC Tournament (maybe even 6-2 considering the strength of the remaining Millsaps schedule:  Southwestern(3 games), Rhodes(1), Trinity(3), and MS College(1).)

Well shoot--I can't get down to the lower portion of the post to highlight and bold any selections.  The Pool C teams seem to be:  Marietta (29-15), Millsaps (32-8), Wisconson Whitewater (26-17), Southern Me. (35-7), WPI (28-11), Kean (34-9), Montclair St. (26-17), Cal Lutheran (31-9), Shenandoah (28-6), Christopher Newport (24-11-2), Rensselaer (31-9), St Thomas (31-10), and St. Norbert (23-13).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Division III Baseball Committee has announced the 54 teams that will compete in the 2009 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.
Six teams will compete at five first-round sites; eight teams will compete at three first-round sites.  All first rounds will use a double-elimination format.  Thirty-five conference champions qualified automatically.
Winners of the eight first-round tournaments will qualify for the double-elimination championship at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wisconsin, May 22-26.
DATES/SITES/SEEDINGS:

May 13-17
Hosted by Adrian College, Adrian, Michigan
1.   Heidelberg  (36-7)
2.   Wooster  (35-8)
3.   Marietta  (29-15)
4.   Adrian  (31-9)
5.   Concordia Chicago  (33-13)
6.   Rose-Hulman  (31-12)

Hosted by Augustana College (Illinois), Moline, Illinois
1.   Carthage  (32-6)
2.   Millsaps  (32-8)
3.   Wis.-Whitewater  (26-17)


4.   Washington-St. Louis  (25-10)
5.   Wartburg  (27-18)
6.   Fontbonne  (25-17)

Hosted by Eastern Connecticut State University, Mansfield, Connecticut
1.   Eastern Conn. St.  (35-6)
2.   Southern Me.  (35-7)
3.   Trinity (CT)  (29-5)
4.   WPI  (28-11)
5.   Suffolk  (30-9)
6.   Westfield St.  (23-15)
7.   Husson  (31-12)
8.   Babson  (21-15)

Hosted by Kean University, Lakewood, New Jersey
1.   Kean  (34-9)
2.   Keystone  (37-4)
3.   Montclair St.  (26-17)
4.   Penn St.-Behrend  (31-11)
5.   TCNJ  (24-16-1)
6.   Elizabethtown  (27-13)
7.   Alvernia  (26-15)
8.   Penn St.-Berks  (21-20-1)

Hosted by Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon
1.   Pomona-Pitzer  (35-5)
2.   Texas-Tyler  (38-10)
3.   Cal Lutheran  31-9)
4.   George Fox  (33-9)
5.   Chapman  (26-14)
6.   Hendrix  22-21)

Hosted by Salisbury University, Salisbury, Maryland
1.   Salisbury  (37-6)
2.   Shenandoah  (28-6)
3.   N.C. Wesleyan  (27-19)
4.   Christopher Newport  (24-11-2)
5.   Wash. & Jeff.  (33-12)
6.   York (PA)  (27-14)
7.   Johns Hopkins  (24-14)
8.   Wash. & Lee  (22-13)

Hosted by Skyline Conference and Stat University of New York at Farmingdale, Farmingdale, New York
1.   Cortland St.  (30-12)
2.   Ithaca  (29-8)
3.   Rensselaer  (31-9)
4.   Farmingdale St.  (26-13)
5.   Western New Eng.  (29-15)
6.   Clarkson  (21-19)

Hosted by University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin
1.   St. Olaf  (29-12)
2.   St. Thomas  (31-10)
3.   St. Scholastica  (35-5)
4.   St. Norbert  (23-13)
5.   Wis.-Stevens Point  (29-14)
6.   Beloit  (28-7)

First-round matchups for the championship site will be as follows:

Augustana (IL) regional winner vs. Adrian regional winner
Kean regional winner vs. Eastern Conn. St. regional winner
Salisbury regional winner vs. Skyline/Farmingdale St. regional winner
Linfield regional winner vs. Wis.-Oshkosh regional winner

[OshDude]

Here's a second link that you'll need to go with that regional ranking.  It's a thread from the messageboard that starts off with which teams made it into the 2009 NCAA Tournament:

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=6415.0

What I really need to find is a link to which teams made it to the 2009 tournament as a Pool C (at-large) team.  Ralph, Pat, Ron or someone--do you have a link to something like that so a person could compare the regional rankings with a list of the teams that actually got an at-large bid?

http://www.d3baseball.com/notables/2009/04/28/2009+Playoff+Central.html