BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

There are some nice mile markers for current OAC coaches this year.  Brewer is going to surpass 500 wins.  Powell already eclipsed 400 wins.  Thompson will go over 400 wins this season.  And Hesse could reach 400 also.

All-time Wins for OAC Coaches through 2015 (active in bold):

1)  Don Schaly, 1442
2)  Bob Fisher, 700
3)  Dick Fishbaugh, 617
4)  Herb Strayer, 592
5)  Brian Brewer, 496
6)  Matt Palm, 469
7)  George Powell, 396
8)  Gregg Thompson, 393
9)  Paul Hesse, 379
10)  Marc Thibeault, 328

[Dr. Acula]

Tough going so far today for my Raiders.  They're kicking the ball around a little in their final DH against Wartburg.  They committed 3 errors in a 3-0 loss in game 1.  Phil Mary went the distance allowing 2 earned.  Not even 2 innings in the books in the 2nd game and already 3 more errors and a 6-0 deficit.  Need to wake the bats up quickly.

[Jim Dixon]

There are some nice mile markers for current OAC coaches this year.  Brewer is going to surpass 500 wins.  Powell already eclipsed 400 wins.  Thompson will go over 400 wins this season.  And Hesse could reach 400 also.

All-time Wins for OAC Coaches through 2015 (active in bold):

1)  Don Schaly, 1442
2)  Bob Fisher, 700
3)  Dick Fishbaugh, 617
4)  Herb Strayer, 592
5)  Brian Brewer, 496
6)  Matt Palm, 469
7)  George Powell, 396
8)  Gregg Thompson, 393
9)  Paul Hesse, 379
10)  Marc Thibeault, 328

Congrats to Brian Brewer on his 500th win.  Too bad Otterbein does not hype their coaches milestone.  I like to get a teams coach featured every 100 wins and missed Powell's 400th win.  For the good ones, that is every 3 years, for an average coach that is every 5 years.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount ended their spring trip with a 2nd loss to Wartburg, 9-8.  Down 6-0 they battled back to take the lead into the bottom of the 7th, but lost it on another walk off.  Tough last day.

Thoughts on the trip as a whole:

Welcome back to Sam Clarke.  His first two starts in a year were both very solid (1-1, 2.25 ERA) and certainly reason to be hopeful that he is back to 100%.  That'd be a big lift to the staff.  Clarke is a guy that's proven he can win OAC games and they need that.

Outside of Clarke I was very excited to see what Taylor, Skladan and newcomer Phil Mary did in their starts.  Taylor (2 GS, 1-0, 1.29 ERA) and Mary (2 GS, 2-1, 1.13 ERA) were the surprises of the trip IMO.

Mitchell Lake had a great trip hitting .450 including a game winning hit.  He did not play the last 5 games though so I hope he's not hurt.

On paper Toma didn't have a great trip at 1-1, 6.52 ERA, but I'm not worried.  His first start he pitched extremely well against SJF outside of one pitch.  He'll be fine.

Goodall (.364) and Weber (.343) both started a little slow at the plate, but both heated up by the end of the trip.  Weber also ended up driving in 10 in 11 games.

Another nice surprise was freshman Nick Satovich at 1B.  He hit .467 (7-15) in the 6 games he played.  I saw a couple of the box scores he was penciled into the middle of the order so the coaches must like his bat.

Overall I think the big concern is scoring runs.  They only scored 3.75 runs/gm and again this year they look like there are not going to be a ton of XBH.  They're going to have to manufacture runs.  That puts a lot of pressure on the pitching staff, but I am higher on the staff now than I was preseason.

[Dr. Acula]

New top 25 is out.  Etta moved up a spot to #18.  Berg dropped out and into ORV.  ONU and BW are still hanging around in ORV as well.  I was a little surprised ONU was still getting votes this week.

[Dr. Acula]

Wow. Musky has had 5 pitchers start games.  4 are freshmen. 

[Dr. Acula]

Musky had a nice spring trip finishing up 7-2 overall.

JCU really needs to stop playing Manchester.  They've now lost 5 straight after dropping a 3rd consecutive game against Manchester today.  The Streaks managed just 3 runs total in the 3 games.

[Dr. Acula]

New top 25 has no OAC squads in it with Etta (7-5) dropping out.  They're just outside the top 25 with 65 points. ONU (6-4) is receiving 10 pts along with Berg (3-7) with 9.  Before anyone brings it up, Berg was 3-4 when they voted.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

OWU squeaks one out over Ott today at Littick field. Score was 10-9. Ott led most of the game. OWU was down 6-1 after the second inning.  And did not take the lead until the eighth.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount (6-7) eased into the northern portion of the schedule with a 20-8 win over Hiram (1-10) yesterday.  Mount had 8 players with at least 2 RBI.  Congrats to SS Jimmy Scott who hit for the cycle going 4-5 with 4 RBI.  Taylor picked up the win in relief going 3 scoreless.  Mary got a 3 inning save by following Taylor with 3 shutout innings of his own.  With Westminster (1-8) coming to Alliance tomorrow the schedule doesn't get much tougher.  I just hope they get that Pitt-Greensburg game in Wed. because I'm not a huge fan of going from a pair of 1 win teams straight to Etta in the OAC opener. 

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Mount (6-7) eased into the northern portion of the schedule with a 20-8 win over Hiram (1-10) yesterday.  Mount had 8 players with at least 2 RBI.  Congrats to SS Jimmy Scott who hit for the cycle going 4-5 with 4 RBI.  Taylor picked up the win in relief going 3 scoreless.  Mary got a 3 inning save by following Taylor with 3 shutout innings of his own.  With Westminster (1-8) coming to Alliance tomorrow the schedule doesn't get much tougher.  I just hope they get that Pitt-Greensburg game in Wed. because I'm not a huge fan of going from a pair of 1 win teams straight to Etta in the OAC opener. 

Looks like Jimmy will be playing in the GSCL for the Irish Hills Leprechauns this summer.

http://ihleprechauns.bbstats.pointstreak.com/team_roster.html?teamid=104048

[Dr. Acula]

Mount (7-7) beat Westminster 5-1 today.  They changed the DH to a single 9 due to weather concerns.  Sherwood had the big blow with a 2-run double in the 7th that made it 3-0.  Toma threw 4 shutout innings and Clarke allowed just a lone unearned run over the final 5.  I listened to it online and Clarke sounded especially sharp today. 

[Bishopleftiesdad]

OWU beats Baldwin Wallace. 7-4. Harison gets ejected.
Stausbaugh hit a ball down the first base line. Looks to us that it goes i bounces over first. First baseman is standing on the base and tries tobraech straight up and it goes over his glove.
Mott walks out from third base coaches box and has a discusson with the base ump. Base ump confers with home plate umpire aand they awardbthe base to Stausbaugh.
Harison comes out and starts having a discussion with the base ump. Does not seem all that heated,  but I am on the other side of the field. Base ump eventually starts to walk away. Harison follows and continues talking.  By the time the ump gets most of the way tobfirst, he must have heard enough and ejects Harison.
Frankly I was surprised when they awarded the base. I thoughtbthe ball was fair, but did not expect the ump to over ti0urn his call.

[Dr. Acula]

BW is really struggling.  They're hitting .239 as a team.  That's not going to get it done at all.  Cole Nieto, who's a big bat they're counting on, is hitting just .170 this year.  And their pitching isn't great either so far.  Zimmerman has been very good as expected and Albright has been good too, but after that they've got some question marks.

To me this is looking like it's going to be a wild (but down) year in the OAC.  I wouldn't be surprised if the regular season champ loses 4-5 games again this year.  I also wouldn't be surprised if 6 or 7 teams still have a shot at the OAC tourney heading into the last DH.  Just feels like a lot of 10-8ish records are coming.

[Dr. Acula]

Etta at Mount has been pushed back from today to tomorrow.  Mount's DH at OWU tomorrow PPD indefinitely.  I don't know about NE Ohio but it poured in Columbus yesterday evening so I'm unsure about tomorrow either.