BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[frank_ezelle]

It's very rare that I travel out of the Jackson area--there has to be some limit to this photo project.  I probably will listen to every inning of every game as I'll be tied to the computer all weekend working on softball, tennis and baseball photos from the last few weeks.  Taking the photos is time consuming but it only amounts to about 15-20% of the time involved in producing the finished product.

I will be interested to see how the Millsaps pitchers do against the Trinity hitters.  I expect the starters this weekend to be Travis Bogue, Tait Hendrix, Aaron Williams and Brandon Ingram, and all have shown the ability to put together 7-9 innings of outstanding pitching.  Can they do that this weekend?  That will be interesting to see.

As for the Millsaps hitters, Millsaps is 9th out of 11 SCAC teams in BA, but they have the most walks of any team and their OBP is 4th in the SCAC.  Plus, they have the most HRs of any team and their Slugging Percentage is 3rd in the SCAC.  Of course, Trinity leads most of the team hitting categories, but my point is that Millsaps is putting up some decent numbers despite the low BA. 

Still, based on the numbers, it looks like Trinity should take at least 3 out of 4 this weekend.  For Millsaps to prevent that, they will need to get some consistent production throughout the lineup instead of having dead spots that don't produce.  Last year's team seemed to put together big innings when a string of guys would bang out hits, and this year the team hasn't put together a lot of those big innings.  If all the guys get hot at the same time, then Millsaps can play with anyone.  I sort of have a gut feeling that this will happen in the last few weeks of the season and hopefully that will start with this weekend.

[frank_ezelle]

Any one else have a lot of difficulty picking up the Trinity broadcast this evening?  I tried just the audio first and could barely hear anything.  The sound on the video has been sporatic but they are very sparse in their description of the game.

[Krakatoa]

The audio had some problems yesterday and, no, the guys aren't ESPN broadcasters --  but give 'em a break (and everyone else who worked very hard to get the whole live-feed thing up and running).  What an absolute gift to parents (form BOTH teams, mind you) to enjoy seeing their kids play ball from anywhere in the world. 

[frank_ezelle]

Didn't mean to sound critical.  I would love for Millsaps to have such a feature and I know that several Trinity parents have done a lot to make the webcast available to fans from both teams.  In my case, I was hoping to pick up the audio that I imagine is geared more towards reporting the game, the balls and strikes, the outs, etc.  The webcast appears to be a little more informal, geared towards the P.A.W.S. group more so than just calling the game.  I have listened to quite a bit and am glad to have the up-to-date scoring, etc.

[frank_ezelle]

DePauw wins the East and gets Austin in the crossover.  Rhodes stays at 2nd in the East and will play Millsaps.  Millsaps played well at Trinity, winning the last two games to get the split and holding on to third place.

Trinity still won the west with the split and that puts them up against Centre or OU.  So far there aren't any scores posted for those two teams today so I'm not sure which will finish 4th.  Southwestern will obviously play the team that finishes 3rd.

It's hard to make much sense of the DePauw and Rhodes series this past weekend as to which team it is better to face.  I know the weather was wet and cold at DePauw so maybe that had something to do with all of the run scoring with games that finished 6-0, 12-9, 16-6, and 20-9.  That's a lot of runs against teams that are thought of as teams with strong pitching and I won't expect either team to give up that many runs next weekend.

All in all, it looks like there will be 4 good series next weekend and anything can happen when it is just 2 out of 3.  I look forward to seeing how it all turns out.

[etg]

(El Tea Gray--re: Crossover opponents for next weekend)

DePauw  vs.  Austin
Rhodes  vs.  Millsaps
Southwestern  vs.  Centre
Oglethorpe  vs.  Trinity

                                                                         

[Lou_Brown]

Now that the match ups are out there....let's hear the predictions!!

[Krakatoa]

I think.....

Austin will stun DePauw
Rhodes over Millsaps in a series of pitching duels
Trinity over OU
Southwestern Over Centre

and from there??

[Ralph Turner]

I think.....

Austin will stun DePauw
Rhodes over Millsaps in a series of pitching duels
Trinity over OU
Southwestern Over Centre

and from there??

It would not surprise me to see an All-SCAC West Final Series, especially if the AC DPU series goes for the Roos.

[DPULefty22]

I think.....

Austin will stun DePauw
Rhodes over Millsaps in a series of pitching duels
Trinity over OU
Southwestern Over Centre

and from there??

It would not surprise me to see an All-SCAC West Final Series, especially if the AC DPU series goes for the Roos.

Guess you folks will have to learn the hard way that we play some ball in the SCAC East. I like the top seeds out of the East to win with ease - sorry, this ain't 2007 (Austin) or 2006 (Millsaps). Garner Wetzel isn't walking through that door.

Those high scores in Greencastle this past weekend were just a tad out of character - you'll have to trust me when I tell you that miserable weather and wind blowing out contributed to those pinball scores on Saturday. I'd take DPU's top two (Alland and Tschantz) and Rhodes' top two (Holt and Flanagan) against any lineup you want to show me in this league.

[Leadoff Man]

DePauw over Austin in 3 games
Millsaps over Rhodes
Southwestern over Centre
Trinity over Oglethorpe

[frank_ezelle]

DePauw over Austin in 3 games
Millsaps over Rhodes
Southwestern over Centre
Trinity over Oglethorpe

I'm going with exactly the same picks as Leadoff Man, which is to say that I'm guessing that the results will be the same as last year with the #1E beating the #4W and the West winning the rest.  While that was the result last year, I think we all saw that there is no certainty in a 3 game series.

My thought on the DePauw series is that DePauw will win the first game behind their ace pitcher who has an ERA well below 2.  He threw a 2 hitter against Rhodes so I'm guessing that he'll do well against Austin.  After that, any team that wins the first game has to be the favorite to win the series.

With Millsaps and Rhodes, obviously I'm going to pick Millsaps.  I don't think this series will be about the pitching because both teams have plenty of pitching for a 3-game series.  It will be about the hitting and I believe that Millsaps is peaking at just the right time on offense.  This should be the best matchup of the weekend and I think most people would consider it a 50-50 matchup.

Southwestern over Centre and Trinity over Oglethorpe are similar series.  Centre went 1-3 against both DePauw and Birmingham Southern and they were 3-1 against OU and Sewanee.  They beat DePauw so I could see them winning a game against Southwestern, just not 2 games.  OU was a little different, going 1-3 against DePauw and Centre, splitting with Birmingham, and winning 3-1 over Sewanee.  OU also played well against some ranked teams so I could see them winning one game but not the series.

[Lou_Brown]

DePauw over Austin in 2 (Depauw can pitch, hit and run like crazy. This is a really good team.)

Rhodes over Millsaps in 3 (Old School West matchup, most entertaining games all weekend.)

Southwestern over Centre in 3 (Herbert wins Friday's game. When he pitches Centre believes they can beat anybody in the country! SU wins the other 2.)

Trinity over Oglethorpe in 2 (OU has been giant killers this year....not as easy for TU as some may think.)

[frank_ezelle]

I don't think anyone will be overlooking DePauw.  They are hitting over .300 and they have 3 good starting pitchers, plenty of pitching for the SCAC Tournament format. 

When you look at the numbers it looks like DePauw should be heavily favored.  Then again, it's hard to discount that Austin is about where they were at this time last year and they put together two winning weekends.  I don't think that was just luck.  I have to believe that they will be a dangerous team and I just have a feeling that Austin will find a way to win game 2 and then I believe DePauw might have the pitching edge needed to win game 3. 

[LargeTuna21]

Trinity over Oglethorpe in 2.
Southwestern over Centre in 3.
Millsaps over Rhodes in 2.
DePauw over Austin in 2.