BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity exploded for its 19th win of the year tonight against visiting Cardinal Stirich (4-5), 23-3.  Ryan Lucero improves to 5-1, pitching six full innings and allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out seven.   Nick Pappas was 2-for-3 with three walks and two stolen bases, driving in five runs including a three run HR.   Kyle Felix was 3-for-4 including two doubles, drove in three runs, stole three bases, and scored four times.  Dylan Early added a home run and a triple, driving in three runs.   Jacob Lark (0-2) picked up the loss for the Wolves after allowing six earned runs in four innings of work.   Tiger pitchers struck out 13 in the win.

A tougher matchup is likely tomorrow as Trinity makes the short drive out I-10 to take on Texas Lutheran (12-8, 3-0 ASC) in a single game.   Oddly enough the Bulldogs, who are on a four game winning streak, have so far played better on the road (8-0) than at home (4-8). 

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps celebrated their entry into the top-25 with a 15-4 victory over #11 and defending national champion Illinois Wesleyan.  Obviously the 18 hits in the 7 inning game were great to see for any Millsaps fan and quite a few players who have been struggling lately.

IW is on a road trip to start their season and this drops them to 4-1.  It isn't really fair to compare tems that are at different points during the season, but IW did beat MS College 7-5 earlier on Tuesday and their staff was rested coming into the day.  Rested, but just not many innings pitched this season.

The two teams play again today at 5 Central time.  That game will be webcast, a link that can be found at the Millsaps athletic page.  And here's a story and box score from yesterday's game:

Story:  http://www.gomajors.com/news/2011/3/15/BB_0315112206.aspx

Box score:  http://www.gomajors.com/custompages/Baseball/11Baseball/mcb11-19.htm

[Ron Boerger]

The 'tougher matchup' yielded a 6-2 loss for Trinity at Texas Lutheran, as the Bulldogs manage to score six despite being held to four hits on the day.   Michael Panozzo (3-1) Matthew Tyndall (0-1) gets the loss, allowing 4 earned (two hits, one walk) and being pulled with the bases loaded (after, among other things, two hit batsmen, a walk, and an error by 3B) and one out in the fourth.   For TLU, Nick Jones will get the W in relief, pitching four complete innings of shutout ball from the fifth inning.  

The highlight for Trinity was Kyle Felix's RBI double in the third to break the school record in that category.   That hit was the only extra base hit of the day for the Tigers, who were held to a total of six.

Edit:  TLU live stats had wrong starting pitcher for TU

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps takes an 8-5 win over Illinois Wesleyan this even to get the 2 game sweep.  I only saw the last at bat for both teams so don't have much in the way of details from the game.  Millsaps did have 12 hits and Jules Roussel and Will Hawkins had back-to-back HR's that added some cushion in a 6-5 game.

Millsaps next plays a 3 game series at Hendrix.  This games will be webcast by both schools--but the Millsaps webcast is free so tune in to James Hill and the Majors starting at noon on Saturday.

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps at Hendrix DH is scheduled to start at 1 this afternoon.  It will be interesting to see if the Millsaps bats stay hot after a good 2-game performance against Illinois Wesleyan. 

Millsaps webcast can be found at this link:

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

[BATR441]

OU COMES FROM BEHIND TO BEAT #3 UW- STEVENS POINT PETRELS SITTING ON A 5 GAME WINNING STREAK.This team has, just maybe figured out a few things, they are getting contributions from the entire roster.Pitching has been better than good. Another tough match up tomorrow as they face Washington and Jefferson, then a long bus ride home and a double header against Suwanee on Tuesday, and then Wed. face Selma, 2 days off and then we get Centere for the weekend. Hope the pitching can hold up to 10 games in 9 days.

[Ron Boerger]

Austin College breaks something like a five-game losing streak with a 6-2 win in the first game of a DH against Trinity - no details available.   Trinity up 5-3 in the top of the fourth in the second.  All the AC runs in the second game (so far) are unearned.

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps narrowly avoids a sweep at Hendrix.  Down 2-1 going into the 9th, Millsaps got the bases loaded with 2 outs, then scored on a balk which also took away the force play at 2nd.  Next batter hit a ball to short, there was an error on the play to first, and Millsaps took the lead.  Later scored two more runs for a 5-2 lead. 

Hendrix scored 2 and had runners on 1st and 3rd with two outs.  A difficult ball was hit to Leonard at short, one where throwing out a runner at first would have been unlikely, but he was able to go to second for a close play that ended the game.

[jekelish]

Game two pretty much summed up the season for Austin College...competitive throughout, but some badly timed mistakes and the bats now and then going quiet have just killed them. I cannot stress enough how much their 4-14 record is NOT indicative of the ability of the players on this team.

Tyler Steed was pretty much dominant in game one. He only needed 79 pitches to earn a complete game win. Actually, if any one player is indicative of how the season has gone for AC, it's Steed. Always good enough to get the win, but just hasn't had any of the luck. He's been outstanding all year, and this was just his first win of the season.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity wins the rubber game today, 5-3.   Chris Walden gets his first decision of the season in relief,  entering in the sixth inning and holding the 'Roos to two hits over the remaining four innings.   Walden inherited a bases loaded, no out situation and held AC to a single run on a infield sac.   For the third straight game in the series, the 'Roos scored more unearned than earned runs.  Trinity pitchers only gave up three earned runs this weekend ... errors yielded nine.   Kevin Calbick was 2-of-3 with HR and a triple for the Tigers.  Tyler Applequist had 2 RBI for AC.   Christain Curtis (1-3) picked up the loss, allowing five runs, all earned, in six and 2/3. 

[Lou Brown]

Oglethorpe gets off to a 2-0 start in SCAC play with two nail bitters against Sewanee and also run their win streak to 8 games. Matt Cornwell continues to show why he might be one of the toughest competitors in the league. He pitched 3 innings in game 1 picking up the save and pitched the final inning in game 2 to pick up his 5th save of the year. Of course he also started at SS both games. That makes 4 saves in the last 4 games. Also, I found out yesterday that he was struk by a line drive in the face while pitching Sunday and didn't miss a beat, in fact after laying on the ground for a minute or two he got up to strike out the final batter vs. Washington and Jefferson.

I will also mention that Sewanee has a good team this year. Both starting pitchers were very solid and that lineup can hit! My prediction is they will not be pushover in the East, they will win their fair share of games in SCAC play.

Petrels going for 9 in a row today vs. Selma University.

[BATR441]

Suwanee much tougher than expected, possible a bit of fatigue setting in for the Petrels, Sam looked very good as did the relievers. Hoban struggled a bit but kept us in it, a few of the typical hitters are struggling right now but the good thing is that others are stepping up and filling the gaps, if the offense all starts clicking at once these guys can compete with anyone.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity's recent struggles (2-3 in last five) continued last night with a 2-1 loss to visiting Hardin-Simmons.  Four HSU pitchers combined on an eight hitter and allowed only one hit after the fourth.   Joshua Fink (0-1) picked up the loss despite allowing only two hits in four innings of relief.  Troy Tennant's solo shot in the sixth was the difference, and made a winner of middle reliever Sam Walker (4-1), who pitched a perfect fifth inning.    The Cowboys improve to 18-5 while the Tigers fall to 20-6. 

Next up for Trinity are two weekend games at Hendrix.

[Ralph Turner]

Nice win for the Cowboys.  That was a mid-week game for both teams and the deep pitching staff came thru with the win for the Cowboys.

Season stats  -- HSU

[frank_ezelle]

Will Hawkins had 4 hits last night in the Millsaps 11-3 win over LaGrange.  This gives Will 200 hits for his career, making him the 28th SCAC player to reach that milestone.  His perfect 4 for 4 night included 3 runs scored, 3 rbi, a double, a stolen base (his 18th), and a walk.

This was a nice win over a LaGrange team that now stands at 16-8 on the season, and a great followup to the midweek 12-2 victory at Huntingdon (15-7).  As you can see from the story and box score (links below), Will had plenty of offensive help from the middle of the lineup last night.  Jules Roussel had 4 hits and 4 runs and 2 rbi and a stolen base, Jake Mills had 2 hits and 3 rbi and a run scored, and Josh Ordeaneaux had 2 hits and 3 rbi and stole a base.  It looks like some of the Millsaps bats are waking up at just the right time.

Elliot Varney backed up that offense with a strong 7 inning start, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits.  Varney is a sophomore with a huge upside and it was good to see him go 7 good innings against a quality team.  An injury (hit by a line drive) sidelined him for a couple of weeks this year, but maybe he will peak into a dominating pitcher right around the time of the SCAC Tournament.

Box score:  http://www.gomajors.com/custompages/Baseball/11Baseball/mcb11-25.htm

Story:  http://www.gomajors.com/news/2011/3/25/BB_0325112849.aspx