BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

Etta chases Scott and Blaski is cruising.  7-0 in the 5th.

Berg leads JCU 6-1 in the 4th.

[EttaFan1]

Blaski shuts out the leagues top offense (numbers wise) holding BW to three hits in a 7-0 shutout.

The pioneer bats have been hot lately.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount cruises 13-1 final.  Connor Mathis goes 2-4 w/ 5 RBI.  Zach Carlino went 2-3 w/ 3 RBI and a couple doubles to compliment his 6 IP, 0 ER on the hill.

[Dr. Acula]

Berg 7, JCU 1 final.  Nice game by freshman Minteer.

[Dr. Acula]

Musky stays alive, 6-0 over ONU.

Cap downs Ott 5-3 in game 1.

[mideastfan2]

Marietta shortstop Tim Saunders makes a run for OAC hitter of the week. In 5 games he hit .680 (17 for 25), with 11 runs scored, 6 RBI, 2 3b, 2HR, and 5 stolen bases....and MC won all five!

Raised his overall average a ton this week....back to the all-American status expected of him before this senior season began.  Great week!!!

[EttaFan1]

Marietta shortstop Tim Saunders makes a run for OAC hitter of the week. In 5 games he hit .680 (17 for 25), with 11 runs scored, 6 RBI, 2 3b, 2HR, and 5 stolen bases....and MC won all five!

Raised his overall average a ton this week....back to the all-American status expected of him before this senior season began.  Great week!!!

When Tim came back from Florida, his average was in the low .300's if not below. He is now hitting over .400 on the season and is trying to make a case for conference player of the year.

Hats off to Brian Gasser who settled in after a rough first two innings where he allowed two runs and struggled with his control a little to throw four scoreless after that

And how about Kyle lindquist?  Yet to allow a run earned or otherwise in his multiple relief appearances.  He threw three scoreless against BW today and faced the minimum.

I was surprised by the sweep. Pitching had been a little adventurous the past few games. The guys on the hill were excellent today.

[motorman]

Quick note before I dash off to work, these Sunday games have been a big inconvenience to the old work schedule.

I see that the Berg live stats froze up before the end of the game. Berg gave up 2 in the 8th to fall behind JCU 8-6 but responded with 4 in the bottom half to go back up 10-8. JCU had runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out but could only plate 1 with an RBI groundout as Daniel Brannum got the final out with the tying run on 3rd base to push the Berg into a tie with BW for 3rd place in the league.

[Dr. Acula]

Marietta shortstop Tim Saunders makes a run for OAC hitter of the week. In 5 games he hit .680 (17 for 25), with 11 runs scored, 6 RBI, 2 3b, 2HR, and 5 stolen bases....and MC won all five!

Raised his overall average a ton this week....back to the all-American status expected of him before this senior season began.  Great week!!!

When Tim came back from Florida, his average was in the low .300's if not below. He is now hitting over .400 on the season and is trying to make a case for conference player of the year.

That's an INSANE week!  His average had to have gone up 50 points! 

But I would hope Connor Mathis has the POY in the bag at this point.  He's hitting, what, 50 points better than anyone else at .468?  And leading the conference in RBI with 51.  Trust me, I'm a MUC guy, but I NEVER would give the nod to a soph from MUC over seniors like Saunders and Lizcano who have earned respect by playing at a high level for a long time unless the results of the season made it that obvious.  I think Mathis and Blaski should be the picks.  Consistently excellent from start to finish.

[EttaFan1]

Down the Stretch They Come!

1.  Marietta 14-2:  @Wilmington.  Not much to say here.  Wilmington taking two from the Pioneers is highly unlikely.  The tie breakers between them and Mount Union would likely be in Marietta's favor. 

2.  Mount Union 12-4: vs. Muskingum.  A dangerous DH, but one that is certainly VERY winable.

3.  'Berg 9-7: vs Capital.  Not much to say here either.  Capital is pretty bad.

3.  BW 9-7 vs Otterbein.  Otterbein is dangerous.  Rueter is the real deal and could very well induce a double header split.

5.  JCU 8-8 vs. Ohio Northern.  They a sweep and some help.

5.  Muskingum 8-8, they need a sweep and some help. 

Tie break scenarios as I understand (there are MANY).

Marietta and Mount Union:
Marietta swept 'Berg, Mount Split.  Marietta Swept BW, Mount Split.  Advantage Marietta.
'Berg and BW
Berg and BW split.  Both were swept by Marietta and both split with Mount Union.  BW split with JCU, 'Berg swept JCU.  Advantage 'Berg.

To get in....
JCU:  Must win two and either BW split with Otterbein -OR- 'Berg lose two. 

• JCU split with BW.  JCU split with Marietta, BW swept by Marietta, advantage JCU
• JCU was swept by 'Berg

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Muskingum:  Must win two AND JCU must lose one, AND BW or Heidelberg must split.

• JCU swept Muskingum
• Muskingum and BW Split.  Both were swept by Marietta.  Muskingum (if they are at this point) will have swept Mount Union, BW split with the Raiders
• Muskingum swept 'Berg

So....Clear as mud.

My predicted order of finish:

1.  Marietta (sweeps easliy)
2.  Mount Union (sweeps, not so easily)
3.  'Berg (sweeps easily)
4.  JCU (Sweep ONU, and BW stumbles against Reuter).

The most interesting side note in this tome...Mount Union's Pool C resume.  Though it is etirely possible that Mount Union could win the OAC tournament, they still need to build that Pool C resume in case they do not.  Winning two over muskingum is important.  But I would argue, equally important is their non-leauge DH with Washington and Jefferson.  Getting a SPLIT here would help tremendously when it comes down to making the regional.  I would be interested to hear Dr A's opinion on this.
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[Dr. Acula]

Honestly, I assumed Mount needed to go 3-1 heading into the OAC tourney to get a pool C.  If they do that they'll have at least 1 win over W&J and 29 wins.  That should land them over that 30 win mark unless they drop the ball in Marietta and go 2 and out.

The good thing is the pitching sets up fairly nicely.  With the Musky DH next weekend we'll see Carlino and Murzynski again there.  That leaves Smith, Bekelsky, Horning and Pryor all available for W&J.  Now, I'm not sure how Hesse will juggle that to decide who starts against W&J vs. who he wants to hold back as relievers for Musky or if he wants to have each of those guys throw a lower number of innings vs W&J or what, but that gives them some options and all but Smith have done pretty well both starting and relieving.  I'm guessing the senior Smith starts against W&J.  My hunch would be Bekelsky is the other starter.  His last 2 starts (Cap, Berg) he allowed 1 ER in 11.2 IP. 

[baseballfan5]

with one week left of OAC play how does everyone see the postseason awards shaping up?

Mathis has to be POY, with Saunders right behind..Thoughts?

[EttaFan1]

Austin Blaski is probably a lock for pitcher of the year.  His numbers are more ridiculous than Gasser's were a year ago.  0.64 ERA in 70.2 Innings, 8-1, 77K's, Opponents hitting a paltry .185 against him.  He is probably a good bet for National Pitcher of the Year honors as well.

Saunders is is trying to make his case, and yes Mathis has some gaudy numbers and is probably going to win the honor.  Saunders does it on defense too and that could play into things.

Hesse (sp) would be my choice for Coach of the year for the tremendous job he has done with the Raiders this season. 

Candidates for all OAC from Marietta:  Sanders (SS), Becker (2b) Hopper (OF), Grilliot (OF), Brockmeier (1b) Blaski (P) Lindquist (P), Mulvey (P).  If you consider the defensive side of the ball, there may not be a better catcher in the conference than Alex Toth.  He has a fielding percentage of 1.000 on 259 chances.  He has thrown out 11 batters trying to steal, but opponents are 5-16 (.323) stealing bases against him.  They just don't run on him!  His offensive numbers won't wow you (hitting .294, SLG .412, 1 HR) and that will keep him from being honored as a first team all conference guy, IMO. 

[Dr. Acula]

Catcher will be tough because of Meadows.  I think he was hitting around .350 last I saw and he obviously has the track record.  Toth sounds a lot like Martin at Berg.  Excellent defensively, coming around as he gets older offensively. 

I think Blaski is a huge slam dunk.  No brainer.  Mathis is my pick for POY.  Hesse would be a good choice for COY.  Obviously Brewer would be the other choice IMO.

I think Mathis and Murzynski should be 1st team All-OAC.  Murzynski is 8-1, 2.88 ERA.  The problem for him is that you already have Blaski, Havens, Gasser, maybe Lindquist, maybe Reuter.  There's only so many spots.  Do they bump the soph down to 2nd team to let a senior like Reuter make 1st team?  I also think Carlino will be 2nd team at least.  He's a big part of their success pitching at the top of the rotation and batting 5th in the order.

[EttaFan1]

What happened to Pat Havens at BW.  His numbers were solid.  And in a situation where BW needed to scratch out a split to lock up a birth in the OAC tourney, he doesn't pitch an inning.  I can only assume he must be hurt.  He threw 1.2 innings at 'Berg and his name hasn't shown up in a box score since. 

If he is injured it could be extremely costly as they are not guaranteed a spot in the tournament at this point.  If they were to split this weekend and JCU bumps them out....Ouch.  School record for wins and don't make the top 4.