BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Spence]

You're not planning on this for a career are you? 

[Ralph Turner]

You're not planning on this for a career are you? 

[frank_ezelle]

If I may give a little bit of respect to the non-Holt and non-Flanagan pitchers on the Rhodes staff, we get back to the deal about strength of schedule.  When Rhodes plays a tough non-conference team they throw Holt or Flanagan.  In the SCAC weekends you have one winning team among the 4 conference opponents.  Centre, OU and Sewanee are a combined 23-68, hardly the type of competition that lets you judge the strength of a pitcher.  I guess we will get the answer to their pitching depth if they get past the crossover.

In the SCAC race, the East looks like it will be Rhodes, DePauw, Centre and OU from 1 thru 4 unless Sewanee can split with Centre.  In the West it looks like Hendrix is eliminated unless they sweep Millsaps and Trinity gets swept by Southwestern.  The order of the West is still up for grabs from 1 through 4.

If Millsaps sweeps Hendrix then Millsaps wins the West.  Keep in mind that Hendrix was 1-19 in the SCAC last year with that one win coming over Millsaps and that kept Millsaps from winning the West so don't assume a sweep.  Austin is 9-6 with a postponed game with Trinity to possibly play.  Southwestern is 7-5 with 4 games against Trinity and Trinity is 5-6 with the above mentioned games to play. 

If Millsaps loses a game then Southwestern could tie for first with a sweep or fall to 4th if they lose 3 of 4.  Southwestern winning 3 of 4 moves them ahead of Austin unless Austin plays and wins the rematch with Trinity.  It's just all up in the air but it looks like Rhodes will play Trinity or Southwestern in the crossover and DePauw get Trinity, SW or Austin.  Those are tough matchups to have to play just to get to the SCAC Tournament.

[Spence]

All true, but the format plays to Rhodes and their top two. If they win with them, they only need to win one other game to get to and win the tournament.

If Holt or Flanagan lose though...then they have to win with Catalanotto in the cross divisional or win several in the tournament itself if they get to it and then lose in the first two games.

Much like any other tournament...win early and the end becomes much easier. Lose early and you've got a long road back.

[frank_ezelle]

Spence, you point out the tremendous amount of pressure on Holt and Flanagan to pitch well and to win their games.  For example, Trinity and Southwestern both have quality pitchers that are capable of pitching well and holding down the Rhodes bats on a given day.  Let's say that Flanagan has an outing like the recent game against Christian Brothers and Rhodes loses that game. 

All of a sudden someone like Catalanotto is in a game that he must win to keep the Rhodes season alive--certainly a berth in the SCAC Tournament is resting on the outcome and possibly an NCAA at-large berth.  Catalanotto has good stats on the season but the 4 wins were against Sewanee, OU, Centre and Elmhurst and the 1 loss was a rocky outing against DePauw. 

While I'm certainly interested to see the results of the Rhodes vs. Emory games this weekend, the most telling game might be the Rhodes vs. Washington game on Saturday.

[Spence]

I'm not sure based on their numbers if Trinity has just been unlucky or what. Their pitchers strike out a ton of guys, don't walk all that many (except Horn), but they're 14-18 and some guys have given up a lot of unearned runs. That's not what you'd expect...you'd expect them to give up fewer unearned runs because of the strikeouts they can get to get out of jams. But their fielding average isn't any lower than their opponents.

They are 1-5 in one run games, so they could easily have a couple more wins. but only 1-1 in the conference in one-run games.

Southwestern seems the opposite...hard to figure out they haven't lost more. They're 6-3 in one-run games, but 1-1 in the conference. Morrison has 5 of their 13 wins and accounts for 5 of the one-run games (3-2). Willis and Rogers are 2-10. Willis' numbers are amazingly odd...he's allowed 19 XBH in 44 innings and yet only has a 4.50 ERA.

[Baseball_fan]

Well Sewanee has tanked, so thats never any good...but on a side note,

I dont know what you are talking about with the Rhodes coach putting in pitchers simply to get wins for someone, I looked at the game reports on the SCAC site, Flanagan has had 9 starts, and won them all to get his 10-0 record, one instance is hardly some case of multiple times as you point out...Holt has 2 cases of this it appears, which means he has won 6 of his 7 starts, still very good.

As for Sewanee, it looks like our big win over DePauw is what will will Rhodes the East, it will be nice to see a team from the East make some noise in the SCAC tournament and hopefully regionals.  Looking at the way Rhodes really turned it around makes me hope that we here at Sewanee can do the same and that good things are in store for the baseball program here.

[Bob_Lotts]

Sewanee may have tanked but the Petrels came out and took care of buisness.

Game 1: Last inning, down by one and none on....3 straight hits to tie the game. Win in extras 8-6

Game 2: Sean Tuttle (6-2 in 2006, 1-6 2007) gets back to form and goes 6 2/3 falling one out short of a complete game. Wins 7-4

Game 3: Petrels complete sweep with some more clutch hitting....Win 9-6


I go back to the Rhodes series...

Game 1: 10-7 win for Rhodes. It was 10-1 going into the bottom of the ninth. Holt was dominat but the game was close all the way.

Game 2: 8-6 win for Rhodes. Catalanotto was ok, limiting the Petrels to just 7 hits, but 6 runs 5 earned. Not a very dominating performance.

Game 3: 8-7 Win for Rhodes. This is the game OU wishes they had back....Flanagan goes 8 innings giving up 10 hits and 6 runs, 5 earned. The Petrels take the lead in the bottom of the 8th on a two-out, two run homer off of Flanagan. Then give up 4 runs in the 9th. In the bottom of the 9th the Petrels get hosed on an 'illegal slide' at 2nd base. Still w/ 2-outs and none on, they hit back to back doubles. The game ends with the tying run on 2nd.

Game 4:  10-9 win for Rhodes. McAlpine, Mueller, Simmons combine for 9 innings, 16 hits, 9 runs. game ends with the tying run thrown out at 3rd base on a double.

Moral of the story: Don't sleep on the Petrels. Their ace was not available in the Rhodes series. A young team with a bunch of talent. That series was as close as it gets without winning a game. Flanagan was roughed up, I mean roughed up. 10 hits and they were not cheapies. Holt was the only pitcher that shut down the Petrels all weekend. Don't forget the Petrels have beaten LaGrange, Piedmont and Maryville this season. I'm not saying they are going to win the SCAC but they can give people some fits. Their magic number for the playoff is 2. My prediction; they go to DePauw and split that series. You heard it here first.

[DPU3619]

My prediction; they go to DePauw and split that series. You heard it here first.

Well good luck with that, then. (Bonus Related Fun Fact!: DPU 10-2 in last 12 against OU at home.)

DePauw took all four from Centre this weekend.  Got three excellent outings from Jeremy Alland, John Tschantz (good to see the big fella have a good outing), and Derek Bryant respectively.  The youngster Westernkirchner had a decent outing the nightcap yesterday, and the offense was there to provide enough of a lift to get through it. 

[frank_ezelle]

Interesting posts on baseball in the SCAC East. 

--Sewanee winning over DePauw and dropping DePauw into 2nd reminds me of Hendrix winning one game in the SCAC in 2006 but it was over Millsaps in the opening game of the SCAC season and that prevented Millsaps from tieing Trinity for the SCAC West crown.

--Hope springs eternal for everyone with the new crossover format and it should.  Everyone has a pitcher capable of getting hot and winning the first game and that really turns up the pressure on the opponent.  The crossover format reminds me of the SCAC basketball tournament because it gives 8 of the 10 teams a shot at the end of the season and most team stay in the hunt for one of those spots until the last SCAC weekend.

--The Rhodes vs. OU series is the mystery series to me.  OU opened the season with wins over LaGrange, Maryville (twice), and Piedmont and then they had a 10-game losing streak going into the Rhodes series and that was extended to 14 games with 4 close losses to Rhodes.  Was it just an odd series, is OU better than their record indicates, does it indicate anything about Rhodes, or was it all too long ago to be relavent at this point in time?

[D3baseballdad]

Well it has been a while for me since my first post. I must say this is a wonderfully active board. The SCAC is a fun conference to watch.

As for Sewanee, it looks like our big win over DePauw is what will win Rhodes the East, it will be nice to see a team from the East make some noise in the SCAC tournament and hopefully regionals.  Looking at the way Rhodes really turned it around makes me hope that we here at Sewanee can do the same and that good things are in store for the baseball program here.

The way I look at it the Sewanee team holds its fate in it's hands. They are a solid enough team to beat Centre in 3 games. They are not out of it yet. Now if they have a defeated attitude then you are right they are done. It is easy to say that Centre beat OU and OU beat Sewanee but things just are not that simple. It never is as far as baseball goes.

-The Rhodes vs. OU series is the mystery series to me.  OU opened the season with wins over LaGrange, Maryville (twice), and Piedmont and then they had a 10-game losing streak going into the Rhodes series and that was extended to 14 games with 4 close losses to Rhodes.  Was it just an odd series, is OU better than their record indicates, does it indicate anything about Rhodes, or was it all too long ago to be relevant at this point in time?

Frank, you are right to ask that. I have a thought on that series and it was a major turning point for OU. The Petrels had started a losing streak but stayed up beat because in most cases they were losing to very good teams. Rhodes rolled in and the boys hung tough with them the first game. They were excited and started to believe they could truly beat Rhodes. They played them tough and I truly believe they would have beaten Rhodes in one game had it not been for a truly bad call the umpire never should have made.

I know, I know those happen everyday but they should not change the out come of a game and this one did that without a doubt. The umpire even said after the game, he perhaps should not have made the call but felt he had to, to let a young team like OU know they have to slide into second the right way on a double play. I almost fell out when I over heard him saying this to his fellow umpire as they walked to their cars.

The team lost heart after that series and that is the problem with having such a young team. The entire attitude of the team changed and they started to doubt themselves. It has taken time for them to start to believe again and we shall see if they can keep up the positive attitude and play Depauw tough.

I have a question for the board though. The last game of the OU/Sewanee series was not played due to the weather. If Sewanee takes 3 games from Centre( and OU is swept by Depauw) do OU and Sewanee have to go ahead and play their last game to determine who gets the fourth slot or is OU just out of luck?

[Bob_Lotts]

On the bad call: It was a very bad call, how many times do you see an umpire walk up to a pitcher and warn him about balking?? It's over, can't go back and change it. Hopefully the young men can move on and learn from it.

The East is not quite done...Centre still has to win some games to guarantee them a spot. Sewanne wins four and OU wins two puts Centre out. Rhodes is locked in the #1 seed and Depauw is locked in at the #2 seed.

As far as I know Game 4 with Sew/OU is gone forever. 

Any Centre fans out there....looking through the box scores I did not see Justin Basham pitch against DePauw?? He's their #2 on a very thin pitching staff....makes a big difference when games 3 and 4 roll around. Any news?

[frank_ezelle]

I came into the office early this morning to work on some tax stuff--my typical waiting till the last minute procedure.  Naturally I checked the sports news first and was surprised to see LaGrange beat Rhodes 9-1 yesterday.  LaGrange has a good team so the loss wasn't completely surprising but the details were out of the ordinary.  The LaGrange pitcher broke a school record with 16 K's in the game and Holt got hit fairly hard (7 innings, 11 hits, 8 runs, 6 earned runs).

My guess is that Rhodes had a long bus trip before the game and that couldn't have helped matters, but it still is a South Region loss and Rhodes needs to bounce back in the game today and gain the split.

LaGrange Story:  http://www.lagrange.edu/athletics/baseball/news-Rhodes.htm
Box Score:  http://home.lagrange.edu/athletics/stats/Baseball/game28.htm

[frank_ezelle]

In an item from the SCAC West, there's the possibility that Austin and Trinity will play the game that was cancelled last weekend (http://www.trinity.edu/departments/athletics/Baseball/).  I judge from the story that the game will only be played if necessary.  Maybe in a case where SW and Trinity split, so SW goes to 9-7 while Austin is 9-6.  If Trinity plays and beats Austin, then SW would move into second because they have the head-to-head over Austin.

I can see where playing the game might be important but that would be a difficult task for Trinity to play their 5th game of the weekend against a team that has only played once.

[Lynx Tracker]

Attended the Rhodes vs. LaGrange game last night....

Assessment:

Rhodes Pitching—Plenty good to win a college baseball game. Holt should have been out of several innings long before he was. You can't give a good team 4 or 5 outs per inning.

Rhodes Defense—The worst I have seen since 2005.

Rhodes Offense—Did not put the ball in play enough to be considered "offense". Never made the adjustments needed to handle LaGrange pitcher Tim Canady, who had a career game against Rhodes.

Remedy: Pull the plug on the 4 day Easter weekend "pass" for the team. They may be able to win 30 games, but it seems that four days of "wine, women and song" may have put them in a tailspin.

For the record: This was Rhodes' first "away" loss of the season.  The Lynx Cats are Road Warriors! They live for bus rides, crowded motel rooms and cheap Chinese buffets! Shake it off and kick some fanny—you gotta score some runs for Holt, Cat and Flanny!