BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[CAK72B]

You are correct bzzboyz, TLU more or less wrapped up the SCAC hosting by sweeping SW,  I watched a little bit of the game, nice comeback by them last night. Cent would have to sweep SW and then take 2 of 3 from TLU to host the conf tournament which is not likely.

Cent or Trinity will end up being 2 or 3 seed; which in the format does not matter other than being a home team for the first game. SW should secure the 4 seed HOWEVER if they continue to play the way they have the last two weekends it is possible they could lose the 4 seed to Austin, but given that Austin has to play Trinity in the final conf series this is not likely to happen, but hey its baseball so you never know.

Most likely first round playoff games will be:

TLU vs SW
Trinity vs Cent

Once you get to conf games all it takes is  a hot pitcher and anyone of them could win game 1. I would favor Trinity due to their pitching depth, but the offense will have to show up, which has been off and on for them this season. TLU has clearly improved during the year and deserves credit for taking the key series when they had to, its a bit premature but congrats to them.

TLU has a nice facility and field and San Antonio is close by so hopefully they wrap it up.


108,

Trinity is 4-5 against the probable SCAC tournament teams. They scored 54 runs in those game and gave up 50 runs. I know they played these games earlier in the season and obviously things have changed since then. Are you not worried about the pitching also since averaging 6 runs scored a game should probably produce better a better record than that. It seems like the pitchers better show up also. The pitchers are filled with seniors it's their time to take over in a lose and your done situation.

[108 Stitches]

CAK72B,

I could see how you might think that, just looking at the conf stats but, Trinity has been working through and juggling their pitching during the season to find one or two dominant pitchers who can go toe to toe with anyone in a tournament situation. If you listen to Scannell's pre-season interview he talked about this, they have a deep staff but they needed to find "the guy".   It has also taken some time but "those guys" are now emerging. Also as a side note, they also don't necessarily pitch their "number 1" in conference play since their tougher games tend to be mid-week or other non-conference games.

Right now they have three pitchers who have the ability to shut down an opponent  in a given outing. Gray who has been absolutely dominant after a shaky start early in the season, I would put him up there with Cameron Cox, (CTX) who is the best pitcher I have seen this year. Gray has pitched 37 innings and has 51K's and batters are hitting 0.130 against him, if he does not walk anyone - then teams don't score. Rape is also right there with him, and they are now grooming Tindall as a starter. Behind those three they have Speer and Walker, who will always keep the team in a game. This gives them 5 starting pitchers, (two lefty's and three RH's) who would likely be the number one on any other team in the conference. Griffith moves into the closer role and Turner into the set up and you basically have a D1 staff on a D3 team. I don't think any other team in the West comes close to this staff.

But as we all know you have to perform as a complete team come playoffs and this team has lacked that fire I have seen on the teams the past few years. We will soon see what happens.

[jekelish]

The second game between AC and UD today probably sealed in the top 4 seeds. It would have been a little bit of a stretch for AC to overtake Southwestern given AC has Trinity and Southwestern has Schreiner next weekend, but if the 'Roos had managed to sweep UD they'd at least have put themselves in position to be able to take the 4 seed by stealing a win at Trinity. As it stands, they now need to win the last game against UD and then take 2 of 3 at Trinity just to get to 9-9. Taking 1 of 3 could still sneak them in, but they'll need a lot of help from Southwestern dropping some games they probably shouldn't.

AC and UD's last game has been moved to Monday night due to excessive rain in Sherman tonight, by the way.

[108 Stitches]

TLU and Cent will have to play this weekend to determine who gets to host the SCAC tournament.

TLU:  13-2
Cent: 12-3

Whoever wins 2 -3 hosts the tournament as they are slit in their previous two meetings and one game was cancelled. Should be a great weekend for both teams.

Trinity could move up into second place, but the only advantage would be to be Home for first game of playoffs.

[Just_Some_Guy]

...and you basically have a D1 staff on a D3 team. I don't think any other team in the West comes close to this staff.

Great D3 staff, without question, but bolded is it a bit aggressive, No?

[108 Stitches]

...and you basically have a D1 staff on a D3 team. I don't think any other team in the West comes close to this staff.

Great D3 staff, without question, but bolded is it a bit aggressive, No?

Probably, but at least in makeup and depth. They probably would compete in a mid-major D1 conference, certainly not in a top 50 program. Granted it was only one game but they were toe to toe with OU in the fall, I think they lost 7-5. Really does not matter, what matters is how they pitch the rest of the season.

[CAK72B]

...and you basically have a D1 staff on a D3 team. I don't think any other team in the West comes close to this staff.

Great D3 staff, without question, but bolded is it a bit aggressive, No?

Probably, but at least in makeup and depth. They probably would compete in a mid-major D1 conference, certainly not in a top 50 program. Granted it was only one game but they were toe to toe with OU in the fall, I think they lost 7-5. Really does not matter, what matters is how they pitch the rest of the season.

Well it looks as if the Trinity team is still trying to figure it out as that "D1" pitching staff got shelled yesterday in a 12-4 loss to McMurry. The team has a ton of talent but I'm just waiting for them to go on their run and for the first time all year put everything together.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

...and you basically have a D1 staff on a D3 team. I don't think any other team in the West comes close to this staff.

Great D3 staff, without question, but bolded is it a bit aggressive, No?

Probably, but at least in makeup and depth. They probably would compete in a mid-major D1 conference, certainly not in a top 50 program. Granted it was only one game but they were toe to toe with OU in the fall, I think they lost 7-5. Really does not matter, what matters is how they pitch the rest of the season.

Well it looks as if the Trinity team is still trying to figure it out as that "D1" pitching staff got shelled yesterday in a 12-4 loss to McMurry. The team has a ton of talent but I'm just waiting for them to go on their run and for the first time all year put everything together.

That may be but McMurry is still transitioning back to D3, so I am not sure the games count. Is it possible Scannel was actually trying to figure some stuff out in a meaningless game? Looks like they went with pitcher by committee. It is disappointing to see Walker gave up 5 ER in 2 innings pitched.

[CAK72B]

...and you basically have a D1 staff on a D3 team. I don't think any other team in the West comes close to this staff.

Great D3 staff, without question, but bolded is it a bit aggressive, No?

Probably, but at least in makeup and depth. They probably would compete in a mid-major D1 conference, certainly not in a top 50 program. Granted it was only one game but they were toe to toe with OU in the fall, I think they lost 7-5. Really does not matter, what matters is how they pitch the rest of the season.

Well it looks as if the Trinity team is still trying to figure it out as that "D1" pitching staff got shelled yesterday in a 12-4 loss to McMurry. The team has a ton of talent but I'm just waiting for them to go on their run and for the first time all year put everything together.

That may be but McMurry is still transitioning back to D3, so I am not sure the games count. Is it possible Scannel was actually trying to figure some stuff out in a meaningless game? Looks like they went with pitcher by committee. It is disappointing to see Walker gave up 5 ER in 2 innings pitched.

Well based on the pitchers he used it seems all but 1 will be key guys that will get innings down the stretch so it is a little disappointing. And yes I do not think the game counts but its more about the performance this late in the season.

[108 Stitches]

I saw some of the McMurry/TU game via video feed, Walker is a soft throwing lefty and was just leaving the ball up, he is normally effective vs a strong fastball hitting team when he is hitting his spots, and I really don't know the McMurry lineup profile, I have no doubt that he will be used against a power team if TU moves on to the Regionals. Overall not a great pitching performance though, particularly this late in the season, but it was a just one of those games that you toss out and move on. TU did have 13 hits which was a good sign.  It is  a tough game to bus 5 hours for a midweek game, play it, and then come home.

[108 Stitches]

The unpredictability continues in the West and SCAC as Centenary took two from TLU at TLU to pick up the number one seed in the SCAC and host the tournament next weekend. Cent will play SW in game one and TLU will face Trinity in game 2. Trinity should be the favorite, but the way the West is going this year who knows.

Trinity knocked Austin out of a playoff spot with a two solid pitching performances with Tindall and Gray one hitting Austin in game 1 for a 1-0 win and Rape and Griffith for the second game 9-1. Game 1 was the type of game Trinity has to play to move on where it was a close game but they were in control these are the type of games that will be played in the conf tournament and Regionals where pitching and defense dominates.

Both teams finish off the weekend today.

[Ralph Turner]

McMurry (29-9) is very strong this year. They have gone 2-4 against NAIA Wayland Baptist and 1-2 against D-2 Angelo State.

They are 15-2 against a representative D-3 schedule & play a DH against UTD today.

[Ron Boerger]

Just noticed the playoff section says the SCAC will hold theirs at Trinity ... should be updated to say that Centenary is hosting this year.

Very impressive performance by the Gents against TLU this weekend.   Will be interesting to see if the momentum continues this weekend.

[108 Stitches]

Conf tournament link is here:

http://scacsports.com/tournament/spring/baseball/index

The SCAC always does a great job during the tournaments with coverage and interviews.

SCAC stats:

2015 SCAC Baseball
SCAC Leaders Summary as of Apr 27, 2015           
(All games)

TEAM BATTING           G   Avg   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR   BB   SO  SB-ATT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trinity.............  39  .320 1348  286  432   87    9   28  137  187  64-81 
Texas Lutheran......  37  .302 1285  268  388   76   17   13  128  176  42-56 
Centenary...........  37  .288 1226  201  353   51    7    8   99  173  41-67 
Southwestern........  39  .285 1324  245  377   67   13   17  115  260 119-164
Austin College......  29  .258  944  115  244   32    4    3   89  183  23-35 
Dallas..............  36  .242 1151  151  279   38    6    8  110  212  26-39 
Schreiner...........  38  .233 1180  129  275   37   12    4  128  276  22-30 
Totals.............. 127  .278 8458 1395 2348  388   68   81  806 1467 337-472

TEAM PITCHING          G   ERA   W   L  Sv     IP     H     R    ER    BB    SO
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trinity.............  39  3.12  28  11  10  332.0   275   149   115   118   342
Austin College......  29  3.49   8  21   1  239.2   288   154    93    72   141
Texas Lutheran......  37  3.82  25  12   6  316.0   289   164   134   114   238
Centenary...........  37  3.86  22  15  11  314.2   342   190   135   117   263
Southwestern........  39  5.20  19  20   7  339.0   340   252   196   196   207
Dallas..............  36  6.52  10  26   4  291.1   399   250   211   134   200
Schreiner...........  38  7.23   7  31   5  307.2   429   318   247   148   162
Totals.............. 127  4.76 119 136  44 2140.1  2362  1477  1131   899  1553

TEAM FIELDING          G    PO     A     E    Pct    DP    PB SBA-ATT
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Texas Lutheran......  37   948   332    52   .961    19    10  43-53
Trinity.............  39   996   423    58   .961    28    19  38-57
Centenary...........  37   944   396    66   .953    25    11  27-43
Dallas..............  36   874   357    67   .948    25    19  66-80
Schreiner...........  38   923   348    71   .947    24    14  74-92
Southwestern........  39  1017   426    81   .947    37    12  54-77
Austin College......  29   719   310    69   .937    19    21  32-53
Totals.............. 127  6421  2592   464   .951   177   106 334-455

[108 Stitches]

SCAC tournament preview:

http://scacsports.com/sports/bsb/2014-15/releases/scac_tourney_preview

First round games Friday afternoon:

Cent vs SW:

Cent has been playing much better the last 1/2 of the season and SW has been struggling, however they will come ready to play. I have to go with Cent as their pitching looks much better.

TLU vs Trinity

TLU has struggled the last two weeks and Trinity appears to be shaping into post season form; advantage Trinity, so I have to go with Trinity.

All games should be close and within a couple of runs as teams will be throwing their aces. Lose the first game and it is a long battle back through the losing bracket. Weather should be perfect for baseball.


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