BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

12-4 final.  Mount now plays Berg in a few minutes to see who gets to try to beat Etta twice tomorrow.  Bad news for Mount is they got owned by Berg yesterday.  Good news is they have two good pitchers ready to go and their slumping bats seemed to wake up today.   

[EttaFan1]

Elvin Williams is having himself one heckuva tournament. Two three-run homers over the weekend so far. That is impressive.

Berg's pitching has got to be a mar concern heading into tomorrow, though.

Unfortunately mount's season is probably going to end here. I would be surprised if the Raiders will be able to get a pool c at large bid. Congratulations to the raiders for a very good season. They have a good nucleus and will be a force in the oaf next year.

[Dr. Acula]

Well, that was an ugly end to the season.  While I hate to see the season end with a blowout loss I think Mount fans have to keep in mind that was a GREAT season for us.  My quick thoughts:

School record 28 wins including 13-5 in the OAC.  Obviously, that's the best finish we've had.  Considering the fact that all 9 position players were soph/fresh that's extremely impressive.  The pitching staff was equally as young too.  Lots to build on for 2013.

Connor Mathis had one of the best individual seasons in Raider history.  His .450 and 56 RBI both lead the OAC.  He can hit, he can bunt, he can steal bases, he can play defense.  He's exactly the type of kid you want build your lineup around. 

Matt Murzynski had a 1st team All-OAC quality season (9-2, 3.03 ERA).  He was the consistent starter they absolutely needed with their overall inexperience.  Before the season I thought that would fall on Smith's shoulders, but to Murzynski's credit he handled it as a soph. 

Zach Carlino developed into a legit good OAC starting pitcher this year (6-2, 3.59 ERA).  He took some lumps last year, but he clearly grew from it.  As the season went on it seemed like he learned how to pitch when he wasn't at his sharpest.  He figured out ways to get out of innings, limit damage, etc.  That will be huge going forward because grinding out innings adds up over a 40+ game season.  He and Murzynski are a good 1-2 going into next year. 

The rest of the pitching staff filled out pretty well with Horning, Bekelsky and Pryor.  This should be the deepest rotation they've had that I can ever remember going forward.  With a staff ERA around 4.00 that is unquestionably the biggest improvement from past squads to this current roster.  As Etta has proven forever, deep staffs produce results especially in OAC play.  You HAVE to have 4 solid starters to contend.  That's how you sweep the bad teams and split with the good teams.  You have to give yourself a good chance to win every OAC game.  They should be in that position the next 2 years now.

Overall, very proud of the 2012 Raiders.  Great progress.  If they keep working, keep developing they'll put themselves in a position to get a pool C bid in the future. 

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Dr. Acula, Congratulations to the Purple Raiders. It is good to see a young team come together and step up. Could develop ionto a three team race the next couple of years with Etta, Berg, and Mount. Good luck in the future.

[EttaFan1]

Congratulations to both Marietta and Heidelberg.

Fruwirth pitched pretty well today. He induced a lot of easy fly ball outs and kept things within striking distance.

Lizcano, while he didn't have a great game today, has earned a lot of respect in his career from Marietta and the rest of the oac. The young man is a very talented individual and I congratulate him on an outstanding career.  You could tell every time he came up to bat, pitchers pitched very carefully to him.

Berg proved to be a very worth adversary, as usual.

Marietta had a strong tournament on the mound. They hit well at times. Tim Saunders is one of the best short stops I've seen at Marietta in my twenty years following the team. Offense, defense, base running. The kid can do it all. The only guy who might have been better is Bob Eddy. I know Mathis had great numbers for mount union, but it would be hard to argue with Saunders. Wong named player of the year in the league and the region. Coach Palm remarked that he believes saunders may be the best player i. Division 3. He has been fun to watch.

Time for the regional!

[motorman]

Congrats to Marietta, but the All Tournament Team is a joke. It must have been voted on by the Marietta coaches.

Hopper and Toth are ridiculous picks. Lizcano out hit Hopper .412 to .385 and played a solid right field. Lizcano had 19 fielding chances to only 8 for Hopper so it wasn't due to his defense.

Stotler of Mount out hit Toth .583 to .333. Toth had 3 hits and 4 total bases in 4 games while Stotler had 7 hits and 10 total bases in only 3 games.

Also, how Brockmeier gets picked at first is a mystery when Eric Monroe out hit him .500 to .364. And the Berg players had to hit against those 2 All Tournament pitchers who only went 6 innings each. I guess they just took the top 4 Marietta batting averages and they automatically made All Tournament. Saunders deserves MVP but the other 3 position players pale in comparison to others.

[EttaFan1]

The all tournament team.

Dick Fishbaugh Tournament MVP: Tim Saunders, Marietta

Pitcher: Chris Thomas, Heidelberg
Pitcher: Brian Gasser, Marietta
Pitcher: Austin Blaski, Marietta
Catcher: Alex Toth, Marietta
First Base: Eric Monroe, Heidelberg
First Base: Evan Brockmeier, Marietta
Second Base: Joe Staab, Heidelberg
Third Base: Steven Kisan, Heidelberg
Shortstop: Tim Saunders, Marietta
Outfield: Ryan Konsler, John Carroll
Outfield: Connor Mathis, Mount Union
Outfield: Elvin Williams, Heidelberg
Outfield: Aaron Hopper, Marietta

Monroe is on the all tournament team.

'berg is well represented on the list.  5 players honored. 6 Marietta players honored. Sometimes it isn't about the numbers it is about how you help your team in these situations.

[Kenworth]

In defense of Toth being selected to the all tourny team some other numbers of importance:

Toth  3 for 9 in 3 games not 4, 1 K, 2 rbi 3 BB,  threw out 2 stealing, no stolen bases allowed, team 3-0
Stotler 7 for 12 in 3 games      , 1 K, 6 rbi, 1 BB, 5 stolen bases allowed, team 1-2

different strengths, different weaknesses, I'll take Toth

[motorman]

The all tournament team.

Dick Fishbaugh Tournament MVP: Tim Saunders, Marietta

Pitcher: Chris Thomas, Heidelberg
Pitcher: Brian Gasser, Marietta
Pitcher: Austin Blaski, Marietta
Catcher: Alex Toth, Marietta
First Base: Eric Monroe, Heidelberg
First Base: Evan Brockmeier, Marietta
Second Base: Joe Staab, Heidelberg
Third Base: Steven Kisan, Heidelberg
Shortstop: Tim Saunders, Marietta
Outfield: Ryan Konsler, John Carroll
Outfield: Connor Mathis, Mount Union
Outfield: Elvin Williams, Heidelberg
Outfield: Aaron Hopper, Marietta

Monroe is on the all tournament team.

'berg is well represented on the list.  5 players honored. 6 Marietta players honored. Sometimes it isn't about the numbers it is about how you help your team in these situations.

It isn't about # of Berg players chosen that I have a problem. Don't think Staab or Kisan were necessarily deserving of All Tournament recognition either. Just going on a position by position basis I didn't think the players chosen were the best at their position in the tournament. I know Monroe was chosen, but why 2 first basemen when one drastically out hit the other?

[EttaFan1]

While my thought on this is based purely on anecdotal observations, typically the team or teams who are playing in the championship game are the ones who place a lot of players on the all tournament teams.  Yes other players from the teams who were eliminated putnupmgood numbers, but the bottom line is their teams are not there on Saturday when it really counts.

Marietta did not have a lot of offensive performances which would make you go "wow," but they along with Heidelberg were the two playing for the trophy.  If Mount Union were playing on Saturday, rate they would have been better represented on the honor roll.

[EttaFan1]

All OAC Post Season awards.

Player of The Year: Tim Saunders
Pitcher of the Year: Austin Blaski

C: Wes Meadows - OTT
1b: Evan Brockmeier - MAR
2b: Kirby Becker - MAR
3b:  Mitch Herringshaw - JCU
SS:  Tim Saunders - MAR
OF: Connor Mathis - UMU
OF: Ricardo Lizcano - HEID
OF: Aaron Hopper - MAR
UTL: Zack Carlino - UMU
P: Austin Blaski - MAR
P: Brian Gasser - MAR
P: Pat Havens -BW
P: Kyle Linquist - MAR
P: Matt Murzynski - UMU

2nd Team:
C: Alex Toth - MAR
1b: Kyle Chontos- BW
2b: Jay Yost - BW
SS: Anthony Longhitano - BW
OF: Jordan Grilliot - MAR
OF: Patrick Jackon - CAP
OF: Tom Linder - OTT
OF: Ross Pruitt - HEID
OF: Brendan Toughy - BW
UTL:  Jimmy Spagna - JCU
P: Logan Lewis -MAR
P: Ryan Minteer - 'Berg
P: Dustin Reuter - OTT
P: Todd Spadaro - MUSK

Honorable Mention:
C: Jordan Martin - HEID
1b: Billy Harkenrider - OTT
1b: Tom Hickey - JCU
1b: Eric Monroe - HEID
2b: Devin Kisor - ONU
3b: Bryan Gregorich - MA
SS:  Lee Groscup - UMU
OF: Darren Garrett - MUSK
OF: Ricky Olasz - UMU
OF: Elvin Williams- HEID
OF: Eric Yunker - ONU
UTL: Hunter Justus- WILM
P: David Cydrus -OTT
P: Matt Free -MUSK
P: Mike Mulvey - MAR

Congratulations to all of these young men for their honors!

[EttaFan1]

Congratulations to Marietta's Austin Blaski for being named the D3Baseball.com pitcher of the year and 1st team All American.  First team honors were also awarded to Tim Saunders and Kyle Lindquist.  Aaron Hopper garnered third team recognition. 

Bryce Murhpy from Manchester and Kyle Strawn from Adrian were the only other Mideast region honorees. 

[Ralph Turner]

Congratulations Etta!

[BigRed]

Congrats to the Etta Express!  Always good to have the Mideast region win the whole thing to show why Mideast baseball is the best. 

[Dr. Acula]

Way to go Etta!  Back to back is unbelievable.  Truly the gold standard for D3 baseball.

And I'm very happy for Gasser and Mahaffey. Two seniors who've done it on the big stage do it again today and go out on top. Quite a senior class.  With Berg's class last year and this class that's two straight historic classes in the OAC.  Great thing for the conference. It pushes all the programs.