BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[108 Stitches]

Thanks! Really nice, the SCAC has their media stuff together.

[Ralph Turner]

2015 SCAC Baseball Media Guide just released - includes preseason Predicted Order of finish (as selected by the head coaches):
http://www.scacsports.com/sports/bsb/2014-15/releases/2015_media_guide

Nice media guide!  Congratulations!

[108 Stitches]

Former TU catcher Chris Bianchi signs with the Dodgers, that makes three from last year's team who have signed professional contracts.

[108 Stitches]

TLU Splits taking 1 from Louisiana college and dropping 1 to UTT.
Dallas squeeks by Hardin-Simmons
Centenary drops 1 to ETBU
Schreiner gets killed by Birmingham Southern
Southwestern takes one from CTX (my sleeper team for the conference)
Trinity takes care of business vs LeTU

Up for the weekend
TLU vs LeTU
Cent vs ETBU
Trinity vs Louis. Col.
Trinity vs UTT
SW double header vs CTX
Dal vx Carleton Col x2
Austin vs Arlington Baptist

TLU vs LeTU should be close, LeTU has the edge
Trinity sweeps, but could drop 1 if it runs into a good pitcher
SW splits
Dal and Austin ??

[108 Stitches]

TLU went 2-2, losing 2 to UTT.
SWest took 2 of 3 from CTX
Cent lost 3 to ETBU
Dallas went 3-1
Trinity went 1-2
Austin went 2-1
Schreiner lost 3

Looks like the SCAC will be much more competitive this year TLU, SWest and Trinity all look competitive.  Trinity should have their starting SS and CF back this week, although they out hit UTT 11-5, they did not get them at the right times, you can't get 11 hits and only score 2 runs. Pitching is still a bit shaky for TU in spots, but should come around, there is no question the new ball really carries on warm days, the LC game had 4 HR's, 2 triples, and 3 doubles.  The LC game could have gone either way, but TU just could not come back in time after going down by 4 early.

[108 Stitches]

SWest vs Fountbonne,
           vs Wheaton
            vs Washington
I have no idea on the other teams so I am going to punt.
TLU vs Hardin-Simmons 2-1
Centenary idle
Austin vs Castleton & Rust
I have no idea on the other teams, but probably does not matter in the SCAC universe
Schreiner vs Whitworth 1-3
Trinity vs Dallas 2-1

[sportsfan]

Two wins for Trinity today    Two great pitching performances by Speer and Rape        Tindall super and TU goes for sweep tomorrow.    If TU gets pitching like this sky is limit

[108 Stitches]

Looking over the scores this weekend the SCAC is going to end up: Trinity..... TLU - SWestern..... TBD. In this order with the gaps.

I am not sure what happened to TLU, but they are a young team and you expect stumbles from young teams. SWestern will be dangerous come the end of the year IMO, and TLU and them are probably pretty close, but Trinity is a team with national potential, but has yet to live up to it IMO. Dallas or Centenary will probably be the 4th team.

Trinity almost gave up the first game to a very average Dallas team once you get past their first pitcher and top 3-4 hitters. (who are very good) Trinity is playing very average baseball given their talent IMO.They made way to many mistakes on the base paths, poor offensive execution, below average pitching given their ability, and while on the books you don't see errors, I sense a laziness in their approach defensively. I watch for little things like OFers covering for overthrows, defensive positioning, etc, and while you can get by with poor execution against  mediocre teams, these things are what  make a difference in a close championship 3-2 game vs top flight competition. At least right now I don't see this in the Trinity team. They will probably only lose 5-7 more games this season given their schedule but this will be the challenge for this team. How do you improve and prepare for top flight teams when your schedule (because of location) does not allow for this? They have to focus on the little things and execute regardless of their competition. This team probably has the best chance to break through the Regional to the CWS I have seen in 4 years, but time will tell if they execute. My 2 cents. 

[CAK72B]

Looking over the scores this weekend the SCAC is going to end up: Trinity..... TLU - SWestern..... TBD. In this order with the gaps.

I am not sure what happened to TLU, but they are a young team and you expect stumbles from young teams. SWestern will be dangerous come the end of the year IMO, and TLU and them are probably pretty close, but Trinity is a team with national potential, but has yet to live up to it IMO. Dallas or Centenary will probably be the 4th team.

Trinity almost gave up the first game to a very average Dallas team once you get past their first pitcher and top 3-4 hitters. (who are very good) Trinity is playing very average baseball given their talent IMO.They made way to many mistakes on the base paths, poor offensive execution, below average pitching given their ability, and while on the books you don't see errors, I sense a laziness in their approach defensively. I watch for little things like OFers covering for overthrows, defensive positioning, etc, and while you can get by with poor execution against  mediocre teams, these things are what  make a difference in a close championship 3-2 game vs top flight competition. At least right now I don't see this in the Trinity team. They will probably only lose 5-7 more games this season given their schedule but this will be the challenge for this team. How do you improve and prepare for top flight teams when your schedule (because of location) does not allow for this? They have to focus on the little things and execute regardless of their competition. This team probably has the best chance to break through the Regional to the CWS I have seen in 4 years, but time will tell if they execute. My 2 cents.

What about this team is different than the past couple of Trinity teams who were able to get to the final day of regionals but was not able to break through?

[108 Stitches]

CAK, I think the difference in this years Trinity team are: 1) Pitching depth. While they did not need to bring out all of the arms this weekend,  they have more arms than ever in the past that could carry the team deeper in the Regionals. They pitched 7 guys against OU in the fall, and every one of them was competitive against quality D1 hitters. I think 5 of the 7 were in the 90's with two sitting above 90. The fourth pitcher out of the pen made three very good Dallas hitters look completely over matched,(peaked at 94) and they had other guys in the pen who never saw the field with the same potential.  The question is can they develop them during the season to peak at regionals?

2) Defense. The middle and third base infield probably has the most athletic infield I have seen in 4 years, and the OF has more speed than probably ever as a group. This will be critical come regionals. 3) As ILVBB pointed out they don't have a huge bat in the middle of the lineup, but 1-9 they have the potential to execute. Can they? Time will tell. They had 13 hits against UTT and lost, this can not happen come regionals they have to learn to execute on offense. Can they? Time will tell. In the end, pitching and defense with timely hitting win close games, I think they will have the pitching and defense, not sure about the timely hitting.

[infielddad]

I am a bit curious how much anyone can tell less than 10 games into a season, especially when the West Region appears like it may not have many, if any, teams which distinguish themselves from everyone else, assuming that can be done less than 10 games into a season.
One item not addressed but Coach Scannell seemed very high about in the SCAC pre-season interview was leadership.  Seems to me that little should  be drawn from the first conference series when we consider there are 30 games to play where leadership and maturity through the depth of the roster makes an awfully big difference, or not. Solid leadership and some freshman and sophomores starting to hit their stride changes an awful lot in measuring whether a team "loses it" around the middle of the season of makes the run from games 25-40, to  the SCAC's and into the Regional. Unless some team in the West region makes a huge statement and separates themselves, this very veteran team seems like it has all the tangibles. The question which seems pretty early to guess at by anyone is the intangibles.

[108 Stitches]

Huge shout out for ex Trinity Super Sr pitcher Clayton Freimuth @ Frostburg State who threw a no hitter over the weekend. Congrats to Clayton!

[NWBaseballFan10]

Huge shout out for ex Trinity Super Sr pitcher Clayton Freimuth @ Frostburg State who threw a no hitter over the weekend. Congrats to Clayton!

Very cool. Just another example of how deep and talented the Tigers' pitching staff has been over the years. A guy with less than 2 IP last season (I assume it was not an injury issue due to his lack of innings over his entire career at TU) transfers and tosses a no hitter with 14 K's for his new team.

[108 Stitches]

It is hard to draw too many conclusions from last weekend for the SCAC due to the weather.

Dallas/Schreiner - Cancelled
SWest/Austin - Cancelled
TLU/Cent - Split
Trinity - 1-0 vs Northern NAIA Cardinal Stritch

Notable would be the TLU split, Trinity pitching is starting to shape up. Tindall is probably the most dominate pitcher in D3 ball that no one knows about. He is making hitters look silly. 0.00 ERA in 8 innings with 13K's and a 0.111 BA against. His FB is running up to 95 with a sick slider that he is now able to throw for strikes. Once Griffith hits his stride it will be a 6 inning game for Trinity with teams facing 91-93 then 92-95 both throwing strikes on multiple pitches and working corners.

Next weekend should give us some additional data points.

Cent @ Austin - Cent should sweep
TLU @ SWest - This is probably the most interesting series for the weekend and will give a view on who might be the number 2/3 seed behind Trinity for the SCAC tournament.
Dallas @ ETBU  - good test for Dallas, they probably go 1-2
Trinity @ Schreiner - Yawn Trinity Sweep, but should allow them to continue to work their arms into shape, and work some other kids into the lineup.

[108 Stitches]

Trinity beat DeSales 4-3 on Thursday eve. Cold but dry game, and a bit ugly. TU only had 4 hits but made them count. Speers gave up 9 hits but only 2 ER's. Not really hit hard, just a bunch of squibbers.  Griffith shut down a threat in the 6th, leaving runners at 2&3rd,  and then cruised through the 8th and Tindall closed it out, again striking out the side in the 9th. Conditions probably had something to do with the 3 TU errors. TU needed to be more patient with junk ball pitching, but their pitching carried them through.