BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Baseball_fan]

Please don't get that bad poetry started again. 

Rhodes held on to win 8-6.  Morrison went the 8 innings for SW and Flanagan went 6, giving up 5 runs, 9 hits and 7 walks.  Simmons came in and cooled off the SW run scoring for the last 3 innings.

That game ended around 3:50 so I'm guessing the start of the Millsaps-Austin game will be pushed back just a little.

According to the box score here, Flanagan went 6 innings, 2 runs, 8 hits, 5K's and 5 BB's.
Your stats are wrong.

Congrats to Rhodes winning, and I was schocked to see that Millsaps lost, but thats baseball for you, Austin killed the ball it looks like.

[frank_ezelle]

I appreciate the update on Flanigan's stats because I would never have gone back and looked.  I was just going by the stats on Game Tracker and they had Flanigan for the numbers I posted--when you look at the final stats you can see that Game Tracker had Jeff Mueller's stats added in with Flanigan's at one point in time. 

As you can tell from my post saying that Flanigan was relieved by Simmons, Game Tracker wasn't even showing that Jeff Mueller came into the game when I was looking at the stats.  Thanks for pointing out that correction.

[frank_ezelle]

As for the Millsaps game, you have to start off with a huge congratulations to Austin.  I don't think it should have come as a big surprise that Austin won considering that the teams split in the regular season and I don't think it was a surprise that the Rhodes and Southwestern game was a close game.  These are 4 very good teams despite the record of Austin and SW.  Keep in mind that Trinity finished 4th in the SCAC West and yet they beat #8 Texas Lutheran last week and extended Rhodes to a 3rd game at the crossover.

For Millsaps the task is simple--they need to win a Saturday DH.  That's all they need to do today and they don't need to look ahead to Sunday.  We knew coming into the weekend that 3 of the 4 teams would eventually find themselves in the spot where they would have to go 4-1 to win the championship.  We also knew that if you were going to lose on Friday or Saturday, it was better to lose on Friday so at least that's a silver lining.  Millsaps has had time to get regrouped, they play at noon in a tough game with SW, and then hopefully they play again at 7.  That 7 o'clock opponent will be a team that just lost and is hopefully still a little down.

I'm sure Millsaps will start Brent Buffa at 12 and that leaves Brandon Ingram and Tait Hendrix as available starters if Millsaps continues winning.  If they get to a 5th game then Jay Hollenbeck will probably start even though he pitched some yesterday.

The road to the championship was tough prior to game one and now it is tougher but not impossible.  I certainly think Millsaps is capable of winning two today and if that happens then I think they can win the first game tomorrow.  If they can win that game then the momentum of a 3-game winning streak might help carry them to a championship.  I do think they have the pitching to get through 5 games and I think they have the hitting that will take advantage of the lower half of another team's pitching staff.

I anticipate a day with 3 tough games and no surefire favorite in any of them.

[frank_ezelle]

I thought I'd find more than myself on the board today.  Millsaps got behind early and battled back all day to take a nail biting 12-10 victory over Southwestern.  It was 6-6 going into the 9th and Millsaps scored 6 and Southwestern came back with 4 and I think they had the winning run at the plate.  In an interesting note, Brent Buffa pitched into the 9th and Brandon Ingram came in to get the save--Ingram will come back and start the night game.

I remember reading the quote that "the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little bit extra".  Today and yesterday Millsaps and Rhodes had that little bit extra over Southwestern but I would hardly call the Southwestern team ordinary.  They really played well down the stretch and it just shows the competitiveness of this tournament that they were the team that went 2 and out.

Here's a link to the Millsaps vs. SW boxscore:  http://southwesternpirates.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/stats/2006-2007/mcsu0428.html

Rhodes is batting in the top of the 6th with a 4-2 lead over Austin.  Who ever loses this game will have about an hour to get over the loss and face a Millsaps team that is probably going to play better than they played in the first two games.  As I've said before, I think the first round losers catch a break over the championship bracket loser which doesn't seem right but that's not my call and I'm glad Millsaps will now have that advantage.

[Ralph Turner]

Frank, your comment on the game 5 composition, championship bracket loser versus loser's bracket winner prompts this question.

Would you recommend this format?

Day #1 (Friday?)
Game #1 A vs. B  A wins.
Game #2 C vs. D  C wins.

Next day

Consolation game #1 (Game #3)  B vs. D  B wins; D eliminated
Winner's Bracket #1 (Game #4)  A vs. C; A wins; C to losers bracket.
Consolation Game #2 (Game #5)  B vs. C.

Let's go back to Friday night and pose an alternative.  As Team C, do you want to play Game #3 as a winner's bracket game at 11 am versus team A, or do you want to have the loser's bracket game precede you and then play the winner's bracket game starting about 2:30 pm?

If you win the Winner's bracket game at 11 am, then the next game is on Day 3.

[frank_ezelle]

All I would have done is flip-flopped the 1st and 2nd game today.  The games on Friday were afternoon games so everyone can play, get a meal and get enough rest.

I would have the winner's play the first game as a reward for winning in the first round.  It doesn't make much difference to the team that wins the winner's bracket game on Saturday, but the team that loses the winner's bracket game is going to need to regroup for an elimination game.  Shouldn't the first round winner get longer to regroup than a team that lost in the first round?

Millsaps will have about a 4 hour break to come down from their first game and prepare for the evening game.  Austin and Rhodes are in the bottom of the 8th in an 8-8 game.  One of those teams is going to lose a heartbreaker and they will have one hour to get refocused and play an elimination game.  It's a case of a team (in this case Millsaps) getting a better draw because they lost right away instead of losing in the second round.

I'm heading out from the office and I don't have internet at home so I'll leave it with you Ralph.  I won't bother me any if the Millsaps radio broadcast doesn't start till about 9 because Rhodes and Austin get hooked up in a long, long extra inning game.  

[frank_ezelle]

One last thing (I swear) regarding the Game Tracker.  Yesterday they had the stats on Flanagan wrong during the game.  Just now they showed the score as 8-8 with Austin batting in the bottom of the 8th.  All of a sudden the 2 runs showing for Austin in the 7th changes to 3 runs in the 7th, so apparently they were leading instead of tied going into the 8th.  Is Game Tracker always this bad--it makes it hard to trust what is being posted.

For the record I think it is Austin up 10-8 with Rhodes coming to bat in the top of the 9th.

[historymajor]

Hey Frank... I wish I was doing the webcast!

[Just_Some_Guy]

Austin College 10 - Rhodes 8

WP: Stevens (who as far as I can tell is their #4)

They'll have who I feel like is their #1 Rushing, and possibly the #3 Frost relatively fresh for Sunday's championship game(s).

The most impressive thing about this Roos team is they've done all of this without stud 1B Bobby Schleizer.. hats off to them and it should be a good game between them and Millsaps/Rhodes.

If Rhodes comes back (they're down 4-0 in the 4th) I don't know that they'll have much pitching left.  Millsaps on the other hand will have Jay Hollenbeck (7-1, 3.91, .215 against) Tait Hendrix, Bobby Osbourn and even 1st game starter Travis Bogue available for innings.

IF Millsaps wins tonight, they could take both games tomorrow with the arms they have left.

Some_Guy

[frank_ezelle]

PITCHING POST:

--Note to Jim Dixon or Pat Coleman or whoever:  I can't officially nominate anyone for pitcher of the week but I'd like to unofficially nominate Brandon Ingram of Millsaps.  With Millsaps facing the end of their season with a loss, Brandon came in and got the save in their first victory Saturday and then he came back and had a complete game in the nightcap victory over #25 Rhodes.  It allowed Millsaps to get through Saturday using only two pitchers, a huge plus since they need to win another two games today.

--As Just_Some_Guy noted, Millsaps is in good shape on their pitching.  Jay pitched a little on Friday when all the pitchers developed the jitters and Austin took advantage.  I expect to see him start in game one since he is a guy who will usually give a lot of quality innings.  That still leaves Tait Hendrix for a second game and Tait has pitched very well of late.  Spence loves Taits K's per inning stat and Tait would be high in the national rankings if he only had a few more innings pitched.  He falls just short of the 1 inning per games played by the team requirement.

--As for the Austin pitching, I thought it was an interesting move to go with Stevens against Rhodes and it certainly paid off.  He came into that game with a 1-6 record and a 6.53 ERA and they did have Frost and Rushing available.  I would expect that both of these will get a start if two games are played today and both have pitched some in relief already so that should help with the nerves.

[frank_ezelle]

THEORY POST:

--I wonder if Millsaps was a little tight on Friday because they had just gotten the news that they were unranked in the South?  That's not a knock on the Millsaps players or the Austin performance, but I think it certainly could have been a factor.  Think of a trapeze artist in a circus who works with a safety net.  He/she could be the best trapeze artist in the world but it would still add tension to their performance if the net suddenly was removed.  The lack of being ranked removed the safety net for Millsaps at the last moment and maybe it's not a coincidence that Friday was their worst loss of the season.

--Austin has the advantage of only needing to win 1 of 2 but that advantage goes away if Millsaps wins the first game.  Austin also has the advantage of only playing two games so far compared to three for Millsaps.  Millsaps has the advantage of having played and won two must win games.  They also have the advantage of being the victims of Aurora last season who came out of the losers bracket and won two against Millsaps last year.  It is proof positive that their task is not an impossible one. 

--The bottom line is that it should be one or two great games today.  Both teams have great hitting, both teams have outstanding pitching left, and both teams have the momentum of having won two straight games.  First pitch is at 11:00 (pregame around 10:45) and it will be broadcast at:  http://www.espnradio1240.com/listenlive.php

(I know they normally broadcast a church service on Sunday's but all indications are that they will start the baseball at about 10:45 with a pregame.  If I tune in and get a church service then I'm going to assume that something in the broadcast contract said they had to do the church service and they will join the Millsaps game in progress.)

[Ralph Turner]

(I know they normally broadcast a church service on Sunday's but all indications are that they will start the baseball at about 10:45 with a pregame.  If I tune in and get a church service then I'm going to assume that something in the broadcast contract said they had to do the church service and they will join the Millsaps game in progress.)

Count on Divine intervention for the Methodists over the Presbyterians and pray for Livestats to work! 

[Just_Some_Guy]

Millsaps finally got to starter Rushing for 4 runs in the top of the 6th to make the score 5-4.  The Majors haven't gone to Tait Hendrix; whereas, Austin College is going for broke (probably what they should do) with Frost coming in to relieve Rushing.  IF the Majors pull this one out you have to think they have the advantage going into the last game. 

Some_Guy

[Ralph Turner]

I think that I must root for the Roos to increase the chances that we can pull the Regionals into Texas.

[Spence]

8-7 Austin in the 8th, right?