BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[svbbcoach]

Coach, if you know Jim Page, give him a call and ask him. Don't post on a message board.
Do you know anything about the budget in each school and how tight it is to travel and have 0 games. Frowned upon. Did you not believe tigerfan on his comments about the drainage for the field at TU?  He knows!
Second issue, TU is heading into finals so they are not going to tolerate playing Monday and missing classes, going to class on Tuesday and then missing the next 3 days for the SCAC's. It is just not tolerated, not an option. Those guys get back Sunday night(hopefully) and start finals right away.
Look, I recognize you placed kids at Hendrix. Everyone on this board was gracious last year and gave those coaches and players all the kudo's for what they did. Seems odd to contrast how the board was 52 weeks ago for players including yours and now to be reading this stuff.
Your post sounds either very ill informed on what is demanded of a student in the SCAC's, ill informed on budget shortfalls,  or something else.
What you have posted and built into a subtle attack on two top coaches is really too bad. Clearly you felt you want to subtly get in a jab on each coach.
Too bad.

I falsely assumed that the meaning of my post was in no way questioning integrity or throwing jabs. Pointing out observations and offering thought provoking conversations should be the purpose of the message board in addition to recognizing players, coaches and teams for their accomplishments. In the unlikely event that either coach feels offended by my observations and opinions, I apologize. I do however also assume that both coaches are intelligent enough to understand the written words and observations posted here are not personal attacks. It is a bit entertaining watching the reactions to any post that is not warm and fuzzy. Provoking thought through words is a great mental exercise!

[infielddad]

Great that you find all of this amusing.
Why apologize to the coaches when you have posted to question their integrity.
Funny, how things turn.
Last year a reporter for the Conway paper wanted an opposing coach to comment on the Hendrix team, players and coaches.
He called Coach Scannell because Tim's team had been beaten in the Championship game but also had been so helpful to their coaches on how to improve their program, including having Coach Groat come to the Stanford Camp to assess talent and recruit. Coach Scannell happily provided that reporter feedback and absolutely raved about Daniel Ward and the difference he made.
Coach Scannell did that the way Coach Page and Coach Mallon of Southwestern did  for our son on his baseball journey and dream of playing professionally.
I guess if you find all this amusing, that is clearly your choice to sit and smile while you post.
I happen to know the difference these coaches make in the lives of many of these players and also know the opportunities they provide and memories they facilitate.
Very special stuff.  You bet I will defend them.
Hope you continue  to find all of this enjoyable.

[svbbcoach]

Clearly BSC would be one of the favorites in the SCAC Tournament, maybe a co-favorite with Trinity because both teams are so explosive--especially once the opposing teams gets past their top one or two pitchers.

It's interesting in my mind that the OU series would be used as an example of the near unbeatable nature of BSC.  Looking at the scores, the games seem like a mismatch, but look closer.

Game 1 was a BSC 6-4 lead after 6 innings and then BSC won the 7th inning 10-1 for a final score of 16-5.  Game 2 was simply a blowout.  Game 3 had OU leading 6-5 after 8 innings and then BSC won the 9th inning 6-0 for a 11-6 victory.

Now just suppose that OU still had the fireballing relief pitcher from last season.  All of a sudden game 1 is tight and maybe game 3 is a victory.  All of a sudden this is a fairly even series if OU just had that one player back from last season.  That's something to think about.

And another point I'd like to mention will be in a second post because I've gotten into that jumpy area of the message box.

It appears by the stats and records that BSU is a clear cut above the rest of the East for whatever reason. It doesn't make sense to me why the East and West don't play each other. Rather than travel 2 weekends to each location, it would make more sense playing each team in your division 3 times and each team in the opposite division 2 times. Beginning the season with the East teams traveling to the southern or West teams that have better weather early in the season. This would truly make the tournament more of a true playoff with everyone having some scouting reports. It would also give credence to 1 team having a vastly superior conference record. Without the tournament, the East and West SCAC are completely different conferences/leagues. I am sure there are reasons why this does not happen and I am not trying to disrespect anyone or question anyone's integrity. Seems silly that each post appears to need that disclaimer anymore!

Simple answer: budget/money. They cannot afford that level of travel for baseball.

Maybe I am missing something. There are 10 weekends in the season. If 9 of those were Conference weekends, that would be no more than 5 road trips. No additional travel. Not to mention that at least 1 of the schools in the East is 4 or so hours closer to Hendrix than the closest West team. I have not done the geographical layout of the entire conference or analysis of each team but until Colorado gets involved in baseball, this doesn't appear to be outlandish. Once again, simply an observation and no decisions on these matters occur from this message board.

[infielddad]

Clearly BSC would be one of the favorites in the SCAC Tournament, maybe a co-favorite with Trinity because both teams are so explosive--especially once the opposing teams gets past their top one or two pitchers.

It's interesting in my mind that the OU series would be used as an example of the near unbeatable nature of BSC.  Looking at the scores, the games seem like a mismatch, but look closer.

Game 1 was a BSC 6-4 lead after 6 innings and then BSC won the 7th inning 10-1 for a final score of 16-5.  Game 2 was simply a blowout.  Game 3 had OU leading 6-5 after 8 innings and then BSC won the 9th inning 6-0 for a 11-6 victory.

Now just suppose that OU still had the fireballing relief pitcher from last season.  All of a sudden game 1 is tight and maybe game 3 is a victory.  All of a sudden this is a fairly even series if OU just had that one player back from last season.  That's something to think about.

And another point I'd like to mention will be in a second post because I've gotten into that jumpy area of the message box.

It appears by the stats and records that BSU is a clear cut above the rest of the East for whatever reason. It doesn't make sense to me why the East and West don't play each other. Rather than travel 2 weekends to each location, it would make more sense playing each team in your division 3 times and each team in the opposite division 2 times. Beginning the season with the East teams traveling to the southern or West teams that have better weather early in the season. This would truly make the tournament more of a true playoff with everyone having some scouting reports. It would also give credence to 1 team having a vastly superior conference record. Without the tournament, the East and West SCAC are completely different conferences/leagues. I am sure there are reasons why this does not happen and I am not trying to disrespect anyone or question anyone's integrity. Seems silly that each post appears to need that disclaimer anymore!

Simple answer: budget/money. They cannot afford that level of travel for baseball.

Maybe I am missing something. There are 10 weekends in the season. If 9 of those were Conference weekends, that would be no more than 5 road trips. No additional travel. Not to mention that at least 1 of the schools in the East is 4 or so hours closer to Hendrix than the closest West team. I have not done the geographical layout of the entire conference or analysis of each team but until Colorado gets involved in baseball, this doesn't appear to be outlandish. Once again, simply an observation and no decisions on these matters occur from this message board.

Flying 25 players from SAT to get to Greencastle Indiana, at a time budgets are being cut, the schedule will be 36 next year with a possibility the SCAC's will be 4 teams??? Worse yet if they get there and the games cannot be played due to weather???

[frank_ezelle]

Well, last week and the games played and not played are over so maybe we can move on to this week. 

In their possible last regular season game, pending scheduling games after the SCAC Tournament, Millsaps plays at MS College tonight.  I suspect Millsaps will be totally focused after being shutout last Thursday by Belhaven and then rained out last weekend.  Naturally the problem is what to do about pitching and I won't be surprised if Millsaps goes with a big "pitch by committee" approach to get everyone a few outs of pitching before opening tournament play. 

The tricky part is balancing the need to prepare for the tournament while playing a game where a victory is really needed to keep slim at-large hopes alive.  Let's hope the bats are booming.  The game starts at 6:00 Central.  The Millsaps site shows just live stats available this evening at http://www.gomajors.com/ .

The MS College websites indicates that live stats and live audio are available for the game:  http://www.gochoctaws.com/

[frank_ezelle]

The Millsaps at MS College game has Millsaps up 3-0 after 3 innings.  Millsaps going with a pitch by committee approach and so far they have pitched Aaron Williams, John Marshall Pemberton, and Shelby Robertson.  Don't know if anyone will get more than an inning of work tonight.

MS College obviously would really like a win tonight to help their at-large possibilities.  They are going with Chris Ferriss this evening who seems to be their #2 starter.  It's the top of the 4th and MC doesn't have anyone warming up so apparently they are going with Ferriss just as you would on a weekend game.

(Now going to the bottom of the 4th, still 3-0, and Robertson is getting another inning after only throwing 7 pitches in the 3rd.)

[frank_ezelle]

From an at-large standpoint, this game was probably bigger to MS College than to Millsaps.  Millsaps had a 6-2 lead going into the bottom of the 8th and brought in a freshman infielder for his first outing of the season.  MS College got 3 that innings to close the gap to 6-5 and then they scored 2 in the bottom of the 9th on a sqeeze bunt plus two error play for the victory.

[golden_dome]

From an at-large standpoint, this game was probably bigger to MS College than to Millsaps.  Millsaps had a 6-2 lead going into the bottom of the 8th and brought in a freshman infielder for his first outing of the season.  MS College got 3 that innings to close the gap to 6-5 and then they scored 2 in the bottom of the 9th on a sqeeze bunt plus two error play for the victory.

No question the game was bigger for MS College considering Millsaps has the SCAC Tourney in a couple days. No Millsaps pitcher threw more than 22 pitches. It ended up good and bad for Millsaps. The early guys didn't have to pace going hard for a few batters and all were very sharp, but the best arms threw early.

That was really the only way Millsaps could approach it with the rainout last weekend and SCAC Tourney upcoming, but the first 3-4 arms were sharp tonight. If they pitch like that in the tournament, they'll be tough to beat.

For MS College, Ferriss has been a weekend starter most of the year and has had a solid year. He's one of four starters and didn't throw last weekend, so he was available in a big game. That was a good start for him tonight going 8 innings against a very good hitting team.

[frank_ezelle]

Chris, there's no doubt that Millsaps had to go with a pitch by committee last night and it's good news that the main pitchers did well.  It was just surprising that one of the pitch by committee members was Will Elmore, a freshman who had not pitched this season, coming into the game in the 8th with Millsaps leading 6-2.  When I heard that on the webcast, my first thought was the 4th quarter of the 2008 MC-Millsaps football game.  Unfortunately, the results were the same with the 3 runs in the 8th really setting the stage for the victory.

Personally, I would have preferred to see Will Elmore pitch 3 or 4 innings in Monday's JV game against Belhaven and then maybe have him play third last night while Will Hawkins pitched the 8th, but that's just the perspective from a fan's point of view.  I'm not sure if Millsaps had any at-large prospects to lose last night, but now it seems fairly certain that they only have one route to the NCAA Tournament.  The first step will be to regain some momentum by getting a victory over Rhodes this Thursday.

[Bob_Lotts]

Ok, I'll go first. Here is my bracket and predictions:

Trinity over OU -- TU too much for OU to handle, close game until late.
Millsaps over Rhodes -- This game is nip and tuck, but Chandler wears down late. MC gets to RC pen.
DePauw over Austin -- DePauw gets a W here, but very, very close.

Trinity over Austin (Austin Eliminated) -- Same story, TU too much for Austin. Tough seeding for AC.
Millsaps over DePauw -- Millsaps bats come alive.
OU over Rhodes (Rhodes Eliminated) -- First upset of tourny.

Trinity over Millsaps -- TU draws first blood.
OU over DePauw (DePauw Eliminated) -- OU plays spolier again.
Millsaps over OU (OU Eliminated) -- Millsaps overcomes some poor defense, OU runs out of pitching and MC outslugs OU.

Millsaps over Trinity -- MC bats continue to stay hot.
Trinity over Millsaps (Millsaps Eliminated) -- I have to think at some point in the tournament MC defense will cost them a game. TU wins the crown.

Trinity SCAC Champions

[Ralph Turner]

Millsaps needed some work for its starters because of the TU cancelation.  

What it showed is that very few teams in this part of the country have a 4th starter.  That is what hurts us at regionals, not to mention nationals.



Thanks for the projection, Bob.

[wishbone ash]

BSC will not be eligible for the SCAC tournament til 2012. Although they will not be eligible next season for the SCAC, they will be eligible for the NCAA.

They are a very good team. I agree with Frank we were in both of those games he mentioned. Daniel Sarisky would have made a huge difference if he were still around. OU has a good team and could possibly surprise some people.

I looked at the roster for BSC (not BSU, infielddad).  One senior, 17 juniors, 7 sophs, 8 frosh.  That team is going to be one handful next year when they are finally eligible for a SCAC championship.  A 4.44 team ERA is nothing to sneeze at, even if they aren't playing the heavy hitters in the West, and with virtually the whole team with another year under their collective belts, they'll be dangerous.   It'll give Coaches Scannell and Page yet another challenge to deal with.   

[casual_observer]

I predict OU to pull a Hendrix this year and steam roll their way through the tournament.

OU over Trinity...convincingly
Millsaps over Rhodes....1 or 2 run close game
DePauw over Austin....Shaky pitching by Austin

OU over Austin (Austin Eliminated)....in extras after Austin ties it in the 9th
Millsaps over DePauw...Ten Run Rule
Trinity over Rhodes (Rhodes Eliminated)...Evan Jones goes nuts at the plate for at least 6 RBIs

OU over Millsaps...pitchers duel that ultimately is decided by a couple costly errors
Trinity over DePauw....Trinity comes back in the late innings

Trinity over Millsaps (Millsaps eliminated)....Trinity holds on in a slugfest

OU over Trinity (Trinity Eliminated)...boring game. OU takes lead early and never gives it up. Final 8-4.

OU SCAC Champions!

Correct me if my bracket isn't correct. I tried to go off what Bob_Lotts did.

[Bob_Lotts]

Casual,

Love IT! As much as I follow OU and like that team they would need A LOT of breaks this weekend to pull off the Championship. I think they can win a game or two but Trinity and Millsaps have more depth, better pitching and the experience to take home the crown. But let's hope your right!!!!!! Look foward to watching the games online. Good luck everyone.

[BATR441]

Well lets see.... if TU is looking forward to Sunday this 1st game prediction by casual could come about but....... hey Get to the tournament and anything can happen. And as far as BSC  goes I will tell you this that squad would compete against many smaller D-I programs at least the ones I am familiar with in Georgia, yes OU was in 2 of those games to the end but they also kept it close against Georgia State last season but ended up giving up 5 runs in the end to get busted up pretty good. This game takes a lot of talent but it also take a lot of heart to stay in it when your down, to hold on to it when you go ahead, and finish. The loss' to BSC still had some positives attached to them you just have to see them and understand them.