BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[motorman]

Holt isn't on the fritz, he pitched well against JCU last week and got no run support. Thomas was rushed back 4 days after he had his splint removed to pitch against BW, which happened to be a Tuesday. Think they just went with him in the midweek and kept Holt and the freshman Huber, who was great against Mount, on the weekend. Huber struggled last week against JCU, but once again a lack of hitting pretty much made that a moot point.

Holt walked 6 and gave up 8 hits in 4 2/3 against John Carroll, striking out 3. That's far from a good outing for a top 2 rotation guy.

He walked 5 against Mount even though that obviously was a better outing. Threw 111 pitches there after throwing 121 in his first start back against Marietta. I'm guessing he was close to or over 100 against JCU as well (27 batters faced plus obvious control problems)

If he had been healthy all year, this wouldn't be anything...but coming straight back from injury and going over 110 pitches the first two times back (and 120 on the first one)...seems like asking a lot.

Seems like Holt walks several guys, question is just whether he'll miss enough bats to get away with it.

I forgot about the 5th inning, when Holt walked 4. I hate to say this cause it sounds like sour grapes, but the strike zone changed dramatically in that inning. Guy behind the plate was pretty incompetent. Up until that point he was calling stuff way off the plate strikes. I hate umps that do that. Berg had a left handed batter look at a change up that started off the plate and did nothing but get farther off the plate get called a strike, so he swung at the identical pitch and couldn't reach it.

In the second game while doing the bases this genius called the infield fly rule with runnners on first and third with 1 out. Might have gotten away with it if Berg 2nd baseman doesn't drop the pop up. Berg threw to 2nd to get the force on runner, but somehow they came up with the ruling that even though it was the wrong call the batter was out and since the runner going to 2nd wasn't tagged that he was safe.

[Dr. Acula]

Wow. Ott up 3-0 in the 2nd and BW pulls Havens already.  Tough for him as it may be his last outing.   I only saw one ball hit hard off of him but he was having some control issues.

[Dr. Acula]

9-2 Ott in the 6th. BW just hasn't come through with the big hit when needed.  Credit Meadows though. He's pitching well and got strikeouts when guys were in scoring position and the game was close.

Also, looks like Mount is up 7-2 in the 5th.

[Dr. Acula]

Berg trailed 10-5 after 5, scored 3 in the 6th and 4 in the 7th to go up 12-10 only to have Cap load the bases with nobody out, hit a sac fly and then a walk-off 3 run HR from the 9 hitter to win it 14-12. Sounds like that was a crazy game in Bexley!

[Dr. Acula]

According to Mount's Twitter the seedings are Etta, JCU, Mount, Ott.

[EttaFan1]

This is what the Marietta Sid said also.

[DagarmanSpartan]

Query: will Case's sweep of Marietta help it to lock up an at large bd?

[EttaFan1]

Query: will Case's sweep of Marietta help it to lock up an at large bd?

I think so. Case's SOS jumped a bunch. Their region win pct is like .667 .694 (my bad, laziness is no excuse )


I think it is enough. It should be. They were an impressive club.

[ADL70]

Query: will Case's sweep of Marietta help it to lock up an at large bd?

I think so. Case's SOS jumped a bunch. Their region win pct is like .667

I think it is enough. It should be. They were an impressive club.

.694

We still aren't certain how many B-s there are gong to be or how many highly ranked teams will drop from A to C.

[EttaFan1]

#4 Otterbein vs. #1 Marietta Thursday 1:00
#3 Mount vs. #2 JCU 4:00

Friday
11:00  Winners
2:00 Losers
5:00 Losers bracket final

Saturday
12:00 Championship
3:00 If game

I'm anxious to see the Carlino vs. O'Brien matchup in game 2.  That should be a good one, and could easily go either way.  JCU is playing very well right now. 
I'm anxious to see who Otterbein throws against Byers in game 1. 

Any team not named Marietta has to win the tournament to get a birth to the regional.  I think Marietta is a lock to advance to the NCAA tournament regardless of the tournament outcome. 

[Dr. Acula]

Mount is swinging the bats better now.  Of course, that's what DH's with Wilm and Musky will do for ya.  They didn't see O'Brien in UH, but they didn't hit great in that DH.  Lapaglia shut them down pretty well.  I don't expect them to score much off of O'Brien.  Just have to hope Carlino is on Thursday so maybe they won't need many to win.  Oh, and clean up the fielding.  Sheesh.  That was bad at Musky.  I think they combined for 13 or 14 errors in the 2nd game.  Gross.

[Dr. Acula]

This is totally off topic, but after watching the DH at Ott Saturday I couldn't help but wonder...do they need to adjust those BBCOR standards for the bats?  I'm all for dialing it back from where it was when I played and people were just clubbing home runs and gap shots constantly, but I think they may have gone too far with it.  Other than Wes Meadows (who I think we'd all agree is an elite OAC hitter) I really didn't see a lot of balls hit where the OF had to run back on it.  A lot of grounders through the hole.  A lot of looping liners served out into the OF in front of the fielder.  And this isn't an Ott/BW issue.  It's been every game I've seen.  My friends call a seeing eye single a "Buckeye single" because that's the only base hits we ever saw OSU get.  I'm not asking for some kid to hit 20 homers like the old days, but there were PLAYERS when I played that had twice as many homers as TEAMS do now.  I don't know off the top of my head but those guys like Streit and Coakley or Crates from ONU had to have more homers by themselves than any team does now.  Crates hit around 20 and I think Mount has 5 as a team this year maybe.  That seems like a little bit of overkill, IMO. 

Sorry for the rant!     

[MCB]

Fairly new on here but have a comment about the BBCOR bats. 

I have to agree the BBCOR bats are dialed back a little too much.  Watched my son hit more dingers in a very respectable summer wood bat league than he has almost his whole career playing college baseball.  Balls just do not seem to have the consistent carry with the BBCOR bats.  I like the concept but there needs to be a slight adjustment.  Would like to see college switch to wood as apposed to using these BBCOR bats.

[MCB]

Really confused on how Case is not ranked nationally.  I can honestly say that if they consistently play like they did against Marietta, IMO they are the best team Marietta has seen all season. 

I can say that Marietta hurt themselves in a couple key situations which led to the multiple run HRs.  Hats off to Case as they definitely have the SOS and in region wins to prove they are a top team in the Mideast.

[OshDude]

This is totally off topic, but after watching the DH at Ott Saturday I couldn't help but wonder...do they need to adjust those BBCOR standards for the bats?  I'm all for dialing it back from where it was when I played and people were just clubbing home runs and gap shots constantly, but I think they may have gone too far with it.  Other than Wes Meadows (who I think we'd all agree is an elite OAC hitter) I really didn't see a lot of balls hit where the OF had to run back on it.  A lot of grounders through the hole.  A lot of looping liners served out into the OF in front of the fielder.  And this isn't an Ott/BW issue.  It's been every game I've seen.  My friends call a seeing eye single a "Buckeye single" because that's the only base hits we ever saw OSU get.  I'm not asking for some kid to hit 20 homers like the old days, but there were PLAYERS when I played that had twice as many homers as TEAMS do now.  I don't know off the top of my head but those guys like Streit and Coakley or Crates from ONU had to have more homers by themselves than any team does now.  Crates hit around 20 and I think Mount has 5 as a team this year maybe.  That seems like a little bit of overkill, IMO. 

Sorry for the rant!     

I have not gotten too in-depth, but it appears that production across the division is way, way up over last year's numbers. Not saying it's approaching BESR territory, but I think the bat manufacturers made up some ground with this year's models. Either that or players have gotten more comfortable with how the BBCOR bats perform.