BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[forheavendial4999]

Agree with all. Hopefully the two OAC teams go to different regionals so I can root for both.

[Dr. Acula]

Congratulations to Zach Carlino for being named the Tekulve Award winner!  He has been an absolute workhorse for Mount all year. 

Meadows wins POY.  What can you say about that kid other than he literally does everything for them.  Kid was an excellent player for a long time for Ott.  THe rest of us are happy to see him graduate! 

I was a little bummed that Morino didn't get 1st Team, but I agree with the selection of Herringshaw.  He's really good.  If I can only pick one guy I'd have to go with Herringshaw as well. 

[EttaFan1]

Can't disagree with the selections for POY and Pitcher of the year.  Congratulations to both Meadows and Carlino.

1st Team.
C - Alex Toth (MAR)
1b - Jimmy Spagna (JCU)
2b - Mark Sizmmerman (BW)
3b - Mitch Herringshaw (JCU)
SS - Sean Kettering (OTT)
OF - Jordan Grilliot (MAR)
OF - Aaron Hopper (MAR)
OF - Brendan Toughey (BW)
UT - Wes Meadows (OTT)
DH - Steven Morse (HEID)
P - Jason Byers (MAR)
P - Zach Carlino (MTU)
P - Mike Mulvey (MAR)
P - Patrick O'Brien (JCU)
P - Andrew Doring, (JCU)

The interesting thing which stands out, 7 of the 15 first team honorees are seniors.  Of the seven, FOUR are from Marietta.  This is gonna be a very tough conference over the next couple of years. 

2nd team:

C - Alex Grove (Heid)
C - Cory Martin (ONU)
1b - Evan  Knott (MTU)
2b - Bobby Sabatino (JCU)
3b - Bryan Gregorich (MAR)
3b - Anthony Morino (MTU)
3b - Brad Gugliotta (BW)
SS - Mark Huddle (JCU)
OF - Taylor Branisel (CAP)
OF - Alex Green (BW)
OF - Jack Lamarca (ONU)
UT - Evan Brockemeier (MAR)
P - Mike Finlan (MAR)
P - Anthony Lapaglia (JCU)
P - Austin Price (ONU)

Three seniors on the second team, two of whom are from Marietta. 

Honorable Mention

C - Jordan Martin (HEID)
2b - Joe Staab (HEID)
SS - Brett Roberts (Musk)
OF - Dan Belliveau (ONU)
OF - Nate Cambell (CAP)
OF - Mitch Geers (MAR)
OF - Justin Jakubik (MTU)
OF - Connor Marrero (JCU)
Util - Hunter Justus (WILM)
P - Taylor Ellis (OTT)
P - Robert Fravel (CAP)
P - Ben Glichinski (ONU)
P - Ethan Holt (HEID)
P - Dominic Poretta (OTT)
P - Pat Havens (BW)

The thing which stands out to me about the honorees is the amount of young talent and returning talent for teams not named Marietta.  Mount and JCU would appear to have strong foundations for next year.  BW has some young guys.  This is going to be a very tough league going forward.  Congratulations to all of these young men.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount should be in good shape as they don't have a senior on the roster.  Next year they will have someone who has been All-OAC at every position except 2B and C. 

I think JCU will be in great shape again next year as well.  With BW back in the mix it'll be very tough to even make the OAC tourney.  There are going to be some solid ball clubs in this conference that's for sure. 

[Dr. Acula]

Just wanted to kind of put a bow on this season for Mount (and the OAC, I suppose)....

Obviously this season didn't end how I wanted as a Mount guy.  But man, I never thought there was a chance that I'd even have the opportunity to be disappointed about a Regional outcome this year.  They rebounded from a tough opener and battled their a$$es off against IL Wesleyan.  Exactly what I expected from this team.  What a ride that was the last week of the season, the OAC tourney and this week.  So fun and so unexpected.  Throw in Carlino winning the Tekulve Award and Hesse being COY and it's safe to say that was the best year in the program's history.  They return the entire roster next year.  Undercover is the fact that I think Clarke emerged as a legit #2 guy by the end of the year.  He pitched really well down the stretch, especially in the OAC and NCAA games.  If Murzynski can regain the form that landed him at 9-2 and 1st team All-OAC in 2012 their rotation should be VERY strong.

Etta showed why they're who they are.  They lose a ton of talent off of a two-time NC team, they finish 3rd in the OAC tourney...and they STILL make it the Regional finals.  They just always seem to rise to the occassion in the NCAA tourney.  It seems like Woo takes some heat on the NCAC board for possibly underachieving in the tourney.  They've made deep runs coming within a blink of a title, but they also hadn't won a NCAA game in a number of years I think I read.  I think that's something that differentiates Woo and Etta.  Whatever Etta's talent tells you they should do in the Regional they will play a level better than that.  At least.  I've said before they're the Gold Standard of DIII baseball and they are.  Their "down" teams win 30 games and go to the Regional finals.  That's a program headliner for 99% of us.  And Byers emerged as the heir apparent to that "next great one" title.  The assembly line rolls on.

Ott deserves a tip of the cap too.  I'm hard on them because I just see them too much I think.  It's the OAC.  If I watched anyone as much as I watch Ott I'd think they're worse than they are.  I just happen to live 15 minutes from campus and end up watching a lot of Cards' games.  Because of that I see the slumps, the bad outings, etc.  They played well in the OAC tourney and had a very real chance to have been the ones at RHIT.  It's going to be rough to replace Meadows next year.  He's just a huge void both in the lineup and on the hill.

Cap and ONU both showed some teeth this year.  No more lay up sweeps when you play those two.

BW definitely seemed like they had position players.  Their question mark is going to be pitching next year, IMO. 

I'll let motorman speak on Berg.  I'm interested to hear his thoughts on them going forward.  I did not see them at all this season, but it seemed like they just never clicked offensively for any extended period of time.  Holt was hurt some.  Thomas was hurt some.  Minteer was decent, but not great.  It just seemed like things snowballed on them a little this season.   

[forheavendial4999]

Not much to say about Marietta -- very good hitting, young pitching. Lot of potential there. Byers showed some of his in the tournament, hitting another level IMO. Some of the other FR haven't quite gotten there yet. This could be a great staff in a year or two. Hopefully they all come back -- always hard to tell about that in D-III.

Still losing a lot this year -- 7 seniors. Going to be a lot of competition for spots between now and next year.

[motorman]

Berg was quite an enigma this year. The loss of 2 of their top pitchers for a month seemed to really take  the wind out of their sails after an impressive 10 games in Florida and taking 2 of 3 from the eventual regional champs. If Minteer bounces back from an off year and Thomas stays away from hard hit comebackers, they will have a pretty impressive staff with the freshmen from this year who showed me quite a bit. The offense was spotty after the first third of the season, but it should only get better as the only senior position player was Jordan Martin, who had his best offensive season. Alex Grove caught close to if not more than half the season, so he should step into that role full time. The biggest question mark has to be finding a dependable glove for third base.

[Dr. Acula]

I like Grove.  Stark County bias of course, but hey, I'll take kids from Central all day.  Miller is a good coach.  Brechun didn't work out too badly for Berg.  Grove will be good too.

[Dr. Acula]

Congrats to Wes Meadows being named Mideast Region POY.  Always good to see an OAC guy win it.

[forheavendial4999]

I guess. I think it should have been Murphy and he's not even first team.

He proved in the regional that his numbers are not a product of their schedule. He's legit.

[Pat Coleman]

I don't participate in the awards selection process on D3baseball.com but I know from dealing with the logistics that nominations are at the end of the regular season, as with our other sports/sites. Voting took place in a very tight time frame between end of regular season and regionals.

[forheavendial4999]

I don't participate in the awards selection process on D3baseball.com but I know from dealing with the logistics that nominations are at the end of the regular season, as with our other sports/sites. Voting took place in a very tight time frame between end of regular season and regionals.

OK...perhaps they should be between regionals and the Series? There's not a whole lot happening right now, as opposed to after the selections come out there's a lot more, as well as the debate about selections...and in a shorter timeframe.

[Dr. Acula]

Congratulations to the OAC guys on the All-American teams:

1st Team:  Meadows, Ott

2nd Team:  Toth, Etta

HM:  Spagna, JCU and Toughey, BW

[Dr. Acula]

So Haley resigned at Wilm a month ago.  They hired Asst Coach Dan Cleaver as the new HC last week. All I can say is good luck with that. It's no secret that Wilm doesn't exactly flood athletics with support. Hell, for years Haley had a job outside of Wilm. Tough to compete like that when other schools have a HC and an Asst who work on campus full-time.  Throw in sub par facilities and it's not a recipe for success.

[Dr. Acula]

Congrats to Zach Carlino who tossed the first CG shutout in Syracuse Salt Cats history this week.  Carlino has made 2 starts in the NYCBL.  1-0, 15.2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 11 H. 

Also glad to see Connor Mathis hitting pretty well up there (.333).  He's 10 for 30 in 11 games.