BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[jekelish]

in terms of returning players, AC looks to be strong again in 08.  they're getting back Bobby Schleizer, who got a medical redshirt after missing most of last season.  he's a big time hitter, set the school record for homers in a season as a sophomore and will be a big boost to their offense.

they return three of their top pitchers in Will Chermak (ace), Justin Frost, and Cory Stevens but there isn't much depth in the rotation.  if they can find some more solid arms, especially a lefty or two, they will be tough to beat.

[frank_ezelle]

There wasn't exactly much depth in the AC rotation last year, but as they proved in 2007, depth is not as important with the SCAC tournament now split over two weekends.  If things go right, two good starters can get you through the crossover weekend and three good pitchers can get you through the SCAC tournament.  That's especially true if you are putting up runs like AC did down the stretch last season.

In a correction to my earlier post, Joe Blades is back for Millsaps this season.  He didn't get a lot of at bats last season, mostly splitting time at the DH position, but he adds power to the Millsaps lineup and he has a good shot at being the starter in left field.  That's where he was playing last Friday when Millsaps scrimmaged Hinds JC, a strong program in the local area.  I think Millsaps went 2-0-1 against Hinds. 

While pitching may seem to be the strength of the Millsaps team since they lost so many starting position players last season, don't be surprised if some of these guys who have had to wait their turn for a couple of seasons turn out to be very solid players.  I expect Millsaps to be in the thick of things along with Rhodes and just about everyone from the West.  While it is possible that someone in the east will step up to challenge Rhodes, past history says that once again the better ball will be from the western half of the SCAC.

[historymajor]

Frank, football's over Saturday for D3,,,  MtU vs UWW for all the marbles....  Let's get ready for Baseball!

I'm picking Trinity if that great pitching staff can stay healthy!

[petey.petrel]

Less than a month untile baseball starts.  Any word on new recruits for OU?

[frank_ezelle]

Frank, football's over Saturday for D3,,,  MtU vs UWW for all the marbles....  Let's get ready for Baseball!

I'm picking Trinity if that great pitching staff can stay healthy!

Historymajor, it's crazy, off-the-wall comments like picking Trinity to win the SCAC that has you at a negative karma.

As we saw last year, this new formula of a crossover tournament followed by a 4-team SCAC Championship really opens the door for a lot of teams to get the automatic bid.  If you have two really good pitchers then you will win enough regular season games to get into the crossover and you have a good shot at winning that 2 out of 3 game series.  From there, two good starting pitching performances get you into the championship game at the SCAC Tournament and you then go against a team that has been using up their pitching in the loser's bracket.

As a general statement based on the results from last year, I believe the top 4 teams from the West and the top 2 from the East will all have good shots at the AQ bid to the NCAA Playoffs.  Like in SCAC basketball, it's a crap shoot when you get to a weekend tournament with 4 strong teams, so teams need to position themselves for a potential at-large berth during the early part of the season.  More on that and on Millsaps later--my report just finished on the printer.

[frank_ezelle]

Another big report is printing:

When it comes to the subject of getting an at-large bid, I certainly learned a lot last year.  The number one lesson is that there is no unimportant game when you are playing against a D3 team that will count in your regional ranking.  Look at Rhodes last year and they probably lost their at-large bid on February 17th, a cold and miserable Memphis day when Hendrix beat Rhodes 6-5 in a non-conference game.  If that wasn't the deciding factor, then maybe it was the 2-loss trip to LaGrange right after Easter--I remember someone from Rhodes posting something about the team just wasn't focused after being off for Easter.  Those losses kept Rhodes out of the NCAA Tournament and they had the pitching to do well if they could have just gotten in the tournament.

The number two lesson from last year is that when a team in the conference is having a bad year, it hurts all the other teams in the conference.  I don't know if they will have the same system as last year but I'm sure there will be something in place where winning over strong teams gives you more credit than winning over weaker teams.  Last year Rhodes actually hurt their point average when they sweep a couple of series because they got so few points for the wins.  Millsaps had a similar problem in the West as they were the only team in the West to finish over .500 overall last year.  The non-conference losses by the other Western teams took away points from Millsaps, points that might have kept them out of an at-large bid.

Hopefully this year the SCAC as a whole will be a stronger league and that will give the SCAC a much better chance of getting at least 2 teams into the NCAA Tourament.

[frank_ezelle]

And now for part 3 of the trilogy--how will Millsaps do this year?

The short answer is, "Who knows?".  Gone are Luke Morrow, Nick Crawford and Justin Carter from the starting infield.  Gone are Jason Hadley and John Pacillo from the starting outfield.  Gone is starting pitcher Brent Buffa and I believe one of the top freshmen pitchers from last year.  All in all, that's a big loss to graduation and transfers, plus I'm sure there might be a few more non-returners that I'm not thinking of.

The good news is that they return a lot, especially on the mound.  The trio of Travis Bogue (7-3), Jay Hollenbeck (7-1), and Brandon Ingram (8-1) give Millsaps a great opportunity to win every 3 and 4 games series that they play.  Add Tait Hendrix (49 Ks but also 33 BB in 39.1 innings) to that group along with a freshman pitcher I saw this past fall and I think Millsaps has the depth of starting pitching that is needed to win a lot of games. 

On the offensive side, Millsaps returns Hunter Owen, Hunter Abrams, and Russ Boyd from the starting lineup last year along with the DH Derrik Boland.  That's a great starting point but after that the experience drops off big time.  Joe Blades is a good bet to take over in left field and he had 43 AB's last year and Billy Murphy looks like the starting SS after only getting 10 AB's last year.  Quinn Salmon with 12 at-bats is the only other returnee with double-digit visits to the plate.  Of course, Hunter Owen only had 5 at-bats in 2006 and he was a 1st team All-American in 2007 so who knows about the guys on the Millsaps bench.

It will be an interesting year at Millsaps and I look for them to be in the title hunt from start to finish with the biggest question marks being the offense of the new starters and the relief pitching.  If those two things come around then I could see Millsaps getting back to the NCAA Tournament despite losing a bundle of talent from the 2007 team.

[Ralph Turner]

Frank, football's over Saturday for D3,,,  MtU vs UWW for all the marbles....  Let's get ready for Baseball!

I'm picking Trinity if that great pitching staff can stay healthy!

Historymajor, it's crazy, off-the-wall comments like picking Trinity to win the SCAC that has you at a negative karma.

As we saw last year, this new formula of a crossover tournament followed by a 4-team SCAC Championship really opens the door for a lot of teams to get the automatic bid.  If you have two really good pitchers then you will win enough regular season games to get into the crossover and you have a good shot at winning that 2 out of 3 game series.  From there, two good starting pitching performances get you into the championship game at the SCAC Tournament and you then go against a team that has been using up their pitching in the loser's bracket.

As a general statement based on the results from last year, I believe the top 4 teams from the West and the top 2 from the East will all have good shots at the AQ bid to the NCAA Playoffs.  Like in SCAC basketball, it's a crap shoot when you get to a weekend tournament with 4 strong teams, so teams need to position themselves for a potential at-large berth during the early part of the season.  More on that and on Millsaps later--my report just finished on the printer.

Naw, the negative karma arises from the objections by grammarians to the commas in ellipses (i.e., ,,, ) that he sprinkles thruout his posts.   

Frank, great assessment of the SCAC. +1!  I, too, agree with your comments.  I think that the SCAC-West is four-deep.  The SCAC-West and the ASC have enough games to get a really good assessment of talent.

As I posted about Pool C last year, if you think that you "blew" an in-region game, then it probably cost you a Pool C bid.  Splitting a great three-game series versus a regionally ranked opponent doesn't hurt badly.  Three "blown" games against teams that you should beat definitely put you out on the bubble.

[frank_ezelle]

Ralph, I think what really hurt the SCAC the most was the weakness of the conference against outside competition, and I think some of that was caused by the change over to 4-game series.  That's just a gut feeling with my theory being that team might have lost a few games early in the season while trying to develop or find a 4th starter for the weekend series, plus during the season there would be less pitching left over for the mid-week games.  Again, that's just a theory.

While the Millsaps roster for 2008 hasn't be posted to the website, the 2008 schedule is available and it's fairly tough during the non-conference with two road games to Emory, a home and away with Rhodes, games with Wabash and Illinois Wes., and two away games with Jacksonville State.  Here's the link:

http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/baseball/schedule.shtml

[PetrelBaseball]

I am new to the board this year and am willing to bring detail and accuracy to the SCAC Baseball Conference. Can't wait for a great and exciting season to begin in the Spring, as we all know it will be a roller coaster ride through the SCAC regular season and playoffs. This is a tremendously talented conference and it should only get better. I am coming in looking to post on the news of Oglethorpe University's young yet "experienced" baseball team. They will look to improve vastly on their 10-32 overall record, and increase there 4-0 start from last year. I have heard many quality freshman have come in to the picture in the 2008 campaign along with some transfers who will look to help the majority sophmores.  They have the talent to make some noise this year, and hopefully will look to avenge some tough losses from last year incuding Emory,Rhodes,and Millsapps.  I will personally be looking forward to watching this young, high tempered team as they go on yet another journey throughout the year. Look out for the "youngins" as the teenagers call them these days. I will look forward to hearing from all of teams this year. Good Luck!

Spirit of the Petrel

[Ralph Turner]

Welcome to the boards.  We are glad to have more posters, especially from the SCAC-East.

The SCAC is one of the better boards.  You will find lots of good information here.  Please post hyperlinks to interesting articles and web sites.  Thanks. (+1     )

[frank_ezelle]

OU should be an interesting team to watch this year.  After winning their first 4 games, they lost their next 22 in a streak where they just didn't seem to get any breaks.  One of the oddities of that losing streak was the series with Rhodes, a series OU came close to winning with scores of 7-10, 6-8, 7-8, and 9-10. 

As mentioned above, OU will still be young with a roster that shows 1 senior, 1 junior, 14 sophomores, and 10 freshmen (http://www.oglethorpe.edu/athletics/baseball/roster.asp).  I have a hard time seeing OU beating Rhodes for the SCAC East title, but it's not too hard to see them moving up to 2nd if they have brought in some freshmen who can help right away.

[PetrelBaseball]

Frank, you are 100% correct about the Rhodes-OU series from last year. What a tremendous series it was indeed! The Petrels bang around Flanagan,the future 3rd team All American, and end up getting screwed on a horrible runners interference call.  But thats baseball, and there's always this year.  As Frank showed you guys, OU has 1 senior and 1 junior, and then 24-26 freshman/sophmores. Looks like the Petrels are loading up for the next 3 to 4 years and are looking to start making a run this coming year.  The Petrels will need to bring their "nitty-gritty" wont quit attitude to the field day in and day out to compete for a shot at a SCAC Championship, as they now have the pitching depth(with 8-11 quality arms from the pen) and an offensive massacre from all sophmores and the newly acquired freshman.  It will be another tough schedule for OU as they have to face Southern Region powerhouses Emory 4 times, LaGrange 3 times, Maryville, and Huntingdon plenty of different times.  Any other news on the SCAC?

Heart of the Petrels 

[frank_ezelle]

Speaking of Flanagan, I hear that he has a shoulder injury at the moment.  Any word from a Rhodes fan about his status?

[Pauperboy]

Frank,

I can report to you that the "rumors" speculating on Flanagan's shoulder are false as false can be. Reality is that he came off a tremendous season for the Lynx in 2007 and carried that over into an impressive summer league campaign. I'm sure like most coaches would do and the path Coach Cleanthes has taken is to scale back his normal fall routine. Fact is that in the limited action he did see this fall, he looked as good if not even a little better. And that statement can be applied to the whole Rhodes team itself, we the number of returning starters and the addition of some quality freshman to the mix for the upcoming 2008 season.

As for "getting screwed on a horrible runners interference call" alleged by PetrelBaseball, I'm not sure if your were there or not but I don't see how someone sliding 4 feet outside of the bag would be considered a legal play at the college level. But then again i'm sure you will argue it wasn't that far.....but the umpire thought so and that's all that matters.

Looking forward to the upcoming season.