BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Kenworth]

Marietta roster is up, 15 upperclassmen 21 Freshmen(11 of them show as pitchers)

[Spence]

3 lefty hitting Fr catchers has to be a record.

Looks like they want a FR to take the catcher job. Winpigler listed as 1B primary.

[motorman]

Marietta roster is up, 15 upperclassmen 21 Freshmen(11 of them show as pitchers)

I see rumor I heard is true, Byers has moved on.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Looks like 2 Seniors, and 6 Juniors. Josh Ungerbuehler is back, Son team played him last summer. He DH'd and played some outfield. I never saw him behind the dish.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

The princes Roster is up as well:

http://athletics.heidelberg.edu/sports/bsb/2013-14/roster

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Small class for the Polar bears:

http://www.onusports.com/sports/bsb/2013-14/roster

Looks like only two. But last years class was pretty large.

[Kenworth]

Marietta roster is up, 15 upperclassmen 21 Freshmen(11 of them show as pitchers)

I see rumor I heard is true, Byers has moved on.

found out Byers is working to regain eligibility for Spring Semester at Marietta

[Spence]

Marietta roster is up, 15 upperclassmen 21 Freshmen(11 of them show as pitchers)

I see rumor I heard is true, Byers has moved on.

found out Byers is working to regain eligibility for Spring Semester at Marietta

Not sure the reason he's not on the roster but I do know he's still in school at Marietta. Hopefully he's working hard to get his academics in order and set himself up for after college whether it's in baseball or not.

If he is on the team in the spring, the Etta Express will be very, very good. If he's not, they'll merely be very good! Just remember, Austin Blaski and Mark Williams didn't set the world on fire in their freshman years and ended up All-Americans and national champions. Historically, IMO the program's core competence was in player development more than recruiting, but this year it has appears to have recruited very well.

[motorman]

Merry Christmas to all OAC baseball posters. Now that we have that nasty football season out of the way, we are that much closer to Florida and baseball. Let's all ask Santa for a mild spring.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Merry Christmas motorway. Nice comment.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

What does everyone think about where Marietta is ranked in the ABCA and NCAA polls? Too low? Too high?

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/baseball/d3

http://baseballnews.com/collegiate-baseball-div-3-poll-12-24-13/

Any other OAC that did not make the cut but maybe should have?

I know these are only pre-season and do not really mean anything, I just want to get some baseball talk going.

[Dr. Acula]

Etta definitely has some bats to replace, but with Byers and that other freshman pitcher whose name escapes me they are going to have some good young pitching coming back.  If those two develop like Etta pitchers usually do they'll be a formidable core of the rotation going forward.  Add in that Etta always recruits well and you could see a younger feel to them this year.

IMO no one else in the OAC deserves to be in the top 30 right now.  Berg is coming off a tough season (for them) and trying to get their injuries healed up.  Mount won the conference tourney and returns their entire roster, but they weren't impressive enough record wise or at the regional to merit ranking in a preseason poll. 

I think we're going to see that it's going to be difficult to get multiple teams ranked this year simply because of the parity.  There are just not many flat out bad teams in the OAC right now.  I'm not sure there are any beyond Wilm actually. 

[Bishopleftiesdad]

You must mean Finlan.
Looks like they have picked up a couple of CC guys as well. OWU plays them again this year. I always look forward to that game.
Last year we kept in striking distance for the first 4 or five innings and then the wheels fell off. Our starters were only allowed 4 innings still at that point. We see them a little later in the year and hopefully some of our weekend rotation guys can get the start. Not saying that will make a difference but it would be nice to pitch some of our top pitchers against teams like Marietta.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Looks like Otterbein has a transfer from Eastern Kentucky, http://www.ekusports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=3856. The roster is not posted yet, but his College summer team for next year lists his School as Otterbein and he is no longer on EKU's roster.
My son played with him for a summer or two. Kid had some good velocity. But when he was off he was wild.

[EttaFan1]

The ranking for Marietta deserves a major asterisk, IMO.  If Byers is academically eligible, then I can see reason for being ranked.  If he is not....

Her are the returning pitchers and the innings they pitched Last Year:

Byers: 98.2 IP (25% of total innings pitched)
Finlan: 48.0 IP (12% of total innngs pitched)
Herstine: 16.0 IP (4% of total innings pitched)
Fulton: 19.2 IP ( 5% of Innings pithced)

Byers (if eligible), Finlan, and Herstine are sophmores, Fulton a Junior. 

Byers was probably the best pitcher on staff last year, and losing him would be a significant blow to the Pioneers, IMO. 

The Pioneers will be depending on a lot of freshman arms this year, this is probably one of the more inexperienced staffs in quite some time.