BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[motorman]

Berg improves to 4-0 today with 9-3 win over Dominican and 6-3 win over Alvernia. SO Ryan Minteer goes 6 innings for the win in the first game and SR Ethan Holt, in his first game action in 22 months pitches a complete game to beat Alvernia. Minteer had 9 Ks, 2 BBs while only allowing 1 ER in his six innings. FR Ben Sniezek finished with 3 IP, 1 ER, 7 Ks and 1 BB to get the save. Berg bats were led by JR RF Arneal Squibb's 4 for 4 performance which included a double and a triple producing 1 RBI, FR CF T J Harkness who was 3 for 3 with 3 RBI and a double, SO C Alex Grove at 2 for 5 with a double and an RBI, and SO Doug Miller with a triple and 2 RBI.

In the 2nd game, Holt had 10 Ks and 2 BBs while allowing 6 H and 2 ER. Grove led the offense with a 3 for 4 effort and 2 RBI while Squibb was 2 for 4 with an RBI.

[Dr. Acula]

Great to see Holt go all 9.  Seems some of the preseason question marks are being answered already.

[motorman]

Great to see Holt go all 9.  Seems some of the preseason question marks are being answered already.

Dr, was a little surprised they let him go all 9 as his pitch count was higher than I would have been comfortable with in his first start in 2 years. Thomas was at 98 pitches through 8. Coach said if it had been later in the season they probably would have let him pitch the 9th also.

Vacation did officially begin yesterday as it was the first day it was warm enough to wear shorts. Know that isn't much comfort back there in snowy Ohio.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Great to see Holt go all 9.  Seems some of the preseason question marks are being answered already.

Dr, was a little surprised they let him go all 9 as his pitch count was higher than I would have been comfortable with in his first start in 2 years. Thomas was at 98 pitches through 8. Coach said if it had been later in the season they probably would have let him pitch the 9th also.

Vacation did officially begin yesterday as it was the first day it was warm enough to wear shorts. Know that isn't much comfort back there in snowy Ohio.

Thanks for reminding us Motorman, Just finished shoveling the driveway. I will be driving down Friday. Towing a camper. Going to look a little odd with a camper hitched up to the truck with snow on the ground.

[Spence]

Great to see Holt go all 9.  Seems some of the preseason question marks are being answered already.

Dr, was a little surprised they let him go all 9 as his pitch count was higher than I would have been comfortable with in his first start in 2 years.

Tangotiger basic pitch count estimation based on the box would have Holt at 121 for the game. Boydsworld would have 128.

[motorman]

Heidelberg goes to 5-0 on the season with a 5-3 win over Widener today. Berg bats were led by JR 2B Joe Staab with a 2 for 4 day with a double and an RBI, and SO 3B Steve Morse also was 2 for 4 with a double. FR Alex Zander started on the mound and allowed all 3 Widener runs in 2+ innings pitched. SR Teddy Lowe took over in the 3rd and pitched 3 scoreless innings to pick up the win as Berg erased a 2 run deficit with a 3 run 5th inning. SO Adam Manner pitched 3 scoreless innings and FR Kyle Fluharty pitched a scoreless 9th for his 2nd save.

Day off tomorrow before resuming play in Florida Friday vs Central (Iowa) in Fort Myers.

[Spence]

Heidelberg goes to 5-0 on the season with a 5-3 win over Widener today. Berg bats were led by JR 2B Joe Staab with a 2 for 4 day with a double and an RBI, and SO 3B Steve Morse also was 2 for 4 with a double. FR Alex Zander started on the mound and allowed all 3 Widener runs in 2+ innings pitched. SR Teddy Lowe took over in the 3rd and pitched 3 scoreless innings to pick up the win as Berg erased a 2 run deficit with a 3 run 5th inning. SO Adam Manner pitched 3 scoreless innings and FR Kyle Fluharty pitched a scoreless 9th for his 2nd save.

Day off tomorrow before resuming play in Florida Friday vs Central (Iowa) in Fort Myers.

Are you actually in attendance at the games? Fluharty has had a couple of dominant relief outings now...was curious whether he throws gas or is fooling people with something else.

[motorman]

Heidelberg goes to 5-0 on the season with a 5-3 win over Widener today. Berg bats were led by JR 2B Joe Staab with a 2 for 4 day with a double and an RBI, and SO 3B Steve Morse also was 2 for 4 with a double. FR Alex Zander started on the mound and allowed all 3 Widener runs in 2+ innings pitched. SR Teddy Lowe took over in the 3rd and pitched 3 scoreless innings to pick up the win as Berg erased a 2 run deficit with a 3 run 5th inning. SO Adam Manner pitched 3 scoreless innings and FR Kyle Fluharty pitched a scoreless 9th for his 2nd save.

Day off tomorrow before resuming play in Florida Friday vs Central (Iowa) in Fort Myers.

Are you actually in attendance at the games? Fluharty has had a couple of dominant relief outings now...was curious whether he throws gas or is fooling people with something else.

Yes, am enjoying the weather even though it is cooler than normal. Fluharty has been throwing pretty hard and locating extremely well. Adds a very good breaking ball and he has looked outstanding. He has been incredibly composed for a freshman.

I am a Mount grad, but only been following OAC baseball since my son chose Heidelberg. Your post about the Marietta team not winning the league or the tournament after the 2006 championship seems to support my opinion they won't do it again this year. I saw what Berg went through last year after losing 5 position players, 2 starters, and the all time D3 saves leader. They were a solid team by the end of the year but it took much of the season to get to that point. I know Marietta will still be a good team this year. My biggest problem with the predictions is both Marietta and Mount to make regionals and not Berg. Berg finished regionally ranked while Mount did not. Everybody wonders where Berg offense will be without Lizcano. It looks fine down here. Nobody wonders the same about Marietta without Saunders and Becker. Berg pitching staff is virtually intact from last year except for Nino who missed the start of the year. Actually with what I have seen from the freshmen, it is better than last year and they shut Mount down completely in the OAC tournament.

[Spence]

Heidelberg goes to 5-0 on the season with a 5-3 win over Widener today. Berg bats were led by JR 2B Joe Staab with a 2 for 4 day with a double and an RBI, and SO 3B Steve Morse also was 2 for 4 with a double. FR Alex Zander started on the mound and allowed all 3 Widener runs in 2+ innings pitched. SR Teddy Lowe took over in the 3rd and pitched 3 scoreless innings to pick up the win as Berg erased a 2 run deficit with a 3 run 5th inning. SO Adam Manner pitched 3 scoreless innings and FR Kyle Fluharty pitched a scoreless 9th for his 2nd save.

Day off tomorrow before resuming play in Florida Friday vs Central (Iowa) in Fort Myers.

Are you actually in attendance at the games? Fluharty has had a couple of dominant relief outings now...was curious whether he throws gas or is fooling people with something else.

Yes, am enjoying the weather even though it is cooler than normal. Fluharty has been throwing pretty hard and locating extremely well. Adds a very good breaking ball and he has looked outstanding. He has been incredibly composed for a freshman.

I am a Mount grad, but only been following OAC baseball since my son chose Heidelberg. Your post about the Marietta team not winning the league or the tournament after the 2006 championship seems to support my opinion they won't do it again this year. I saw what Berg went through last year after losing 5 position players, 2 starters, and the all time D3 saves leader. They were a solid team by the end of the year but it took much of the season to get to that point. I know Marietta will still be a good team this year. My biggest problem with the predictions is both Marietta and Mount to make regionals and not Berg. Berg finished regionally ranked while Mount did not. Everybody wonders where Berg offense will be without Lizcano. It looks fine down here. Nobody wonders the same about Marietta without Saunders and Becker. Berg pitching staff is virtually intact from last year except for Nino who missed the start of the year. Actually with what I have seen from the freshmen, it is better than last year and they shut Mount down completely in the OAC tournament.

Well in fairness, Marietta didn't win the league in 2006 either! So that really wasn't any different.

Marietta outhit Otterbein in all 7 meetings against them, but unbelievably lost 5 of the first 6 meetings. Almost all of the meetings were close and decided in the last 2 innings, twice in extra innings, 5 decided in the last at-bat I think. The first 5 meetings were at Otterbein.

I strongly believe that if Otterbein had won the regional, they would have ended up where Marietta did. The regional was much tougher than the Series that year -- Adrian was eliminated in extra innings, Marietta scored 4 in the bottom of the 9th to beat Manchester and win their way to the title game (I don't know if anyone would have been able to shut down Manchester's offense twice -- they scored 16 runs that day and lost 2), the OTT-MC championship went 12 innings after OTT scored 3 in the 9th to force a 2nd game. And neither OTT nor MC was the top seed (which was a crime)!

But to the point...that Otterbein team that won the league in 2006 and finished 2nd in the regional returned mostly intact. Their ace was the Kent Tekulve Award winner over Mike Eisenberg in 2006 and I believe is still pitching in the pros. Marietta returned only 1 of their top 5 in innings despite only having 1 senior among them in 2006 (Eisenberg was drafted, two freshmen transferred to scholarship ball). So it was entirely proper that Otterbein be the favorite that year, and they lived up to it. But again, just as the previous year, Marietta won the regional as a Pool C. So Marietta had the firepower to win the regional then, just as they did in 06 despite all Otterbein returned. They were overmatched in Appleton, though.

And don't ask Roger Ingles about this...he probably still has nightmares about the great teams he had that could never get past Marietta to get to the Series (even when they lost DeSalvo). It got to where you just felt bad for Ohio Wesleyan. So I think people just assume that Marietta's going to be good and in the hunt, and no one else in the OAC really stood out as an obvious favorite.

But sometimes having a standout favorite doesn't even matter. Heidelberg looked like an obvious favorite in 2011 but Marietta won the national title. Heidelberg got a great split at home in probably the last really off game Blaski had in his career, then finished 2nd in the conference, 2nd in the tournament, 2nd in the regional. Really good team that had a lot coming back that year, but some FR and SOs had developed into great players that even managed to win the championship after losing a pro-caliber pitcher.

As far as Mount goes, they finished 2nd in the conference regular season last year and has pretty much everyone back. That's what everyone is looking at there.

I think the league is loaded this year, and Heidelberg certainly has the schedule advantage, but Marietta's swept up there fairly recently. I don't know if Ott or Mount have though. I look for it to be a really competitive and high-caliber year in the league.

[EttaFan1]

To follow up in the '06 squad...

The two regular season games in Otterbein were both lost in the last inning with unearned runs/walks.  I believe this is when the OAC was playing 2 7's in stead of the 7-9 series today.  Remember listening to them on the radio and fuming about the losses.  Also that was the day, according to the book released about the baseball program, they stopped at the Flying J on I-70 (a Brian Brewer Special, according to Eisenberg) and ate at the buffet.  When they got back, Brewer ran them to death because of the poor play and the team started to come together at that point. 

Otterbein was LOADED that year.  Pitching, Hitting, the whole way through.

Marietta had DeMark and Eisenberg (2 and 4 in IP in 2005), and the only real "known" offensive threat was Tony Piconke (who's 2006 season numbers weren't great) and Jared Klausman, though others became significant contributers.  To say Marietta got hot in the regional would be an understatement.  They caught a few breaks here and there too.  Mike Mooney and Justin Papania graduated from the rotation the year prior, as did Chris Sidick.  (Eisenberg, unless he signed with independent ball this past winter has been out of baseball for a couple of years). 

So in 2007, they lost DeMark, Eisenberg, Steranka, Klausman, and still went to the CWS to go two and bbq. So you never really know what is going to happen from one year to the next.   

'Berg is still my pick to win the conference, and has a good shot of winning the region.  I'm not convinced that Marietta's Pitching is going to be where it needs to be this season.  Offesnsively they have a lot of firepower returning.  But when it comes down to it, Pitching and defense are what wins championships.  The defense will probably be there, but the pithing?  We'll find out a lot next week.   

Regarding 2011...

I'll preface this by saying had Marietta and 'Berg gone to seperate regionals in 2010, I believe they both would have made the trip to appleton.  I would say the same was a distinct possibility again in 2011.   Both of those teams were loaded.  That 2010 'Berg team could mash it as well as anyone.  They were Loaded.   Marietta had pitching, but used it up battling throug the losers bracket. 'Berg, that year, had a fairly easy path through the regional playing only three games total (a rule that was changed in 2011). 

I think the differnce maker from 2010 to 2011 was the bat change to the bbcor standards and the improvement of MC's pitching staff.  Everyone's offensive numbers numbers dropped substantially, but it seemed to have a bigger impact on Heidelberg than anyone else in the OAC.  The two teams were largely the same for both MC and 'Berg from 2010-2011. 

Consider in 2010:

'Berg- Avg: .356, SLG: .535, HR: 46, 3b: 20, 2b: 145  ERA: 4.19, OppAvg: .268, OPP SLG: .385:
        AB/Gm:  35.98, HR/AB: .025, 3b/ab: .011, 2b/ab: .081
MC - Avg: .351, SLG: .514, HR: 40, 3b: 24, 2b: 118, ERA: 3.72, OppAvg: .278, OPP SLG: .384
        AB/GM: 35.79, HR/ab: .022, 3b/ab: .013, 2b/ab: .067

Then in 2011
'Berg- Avg: .316, SLG: .441, HR: 29, 3B: 14, 2b: 89, ERA 3.49 OppAvg: .259 OPP SLG: .329
        AB/GM: 33.38, HR/AB: .017, 3b/ab: .008, 2b/ab: .054
MC - Avg: .338, SLG: .449, HR: 15, 3b: 20, 2b: 105, ERA 1.74, Opp avg: .191, OPP SLG: .245, 
        AB/GM 33.78, HR/AB: .008, 3b/ab: .011, 2b/ab: .061

(for reference, the second line for each is the number of HR's per at bat, etc.)

'Berg's lineup, while still very dangerous, just wasn't as dangerous as it had been.  MC's pitching staff was unbelievably dominant, and their offense didn't suffer nearly as badly with the new bats. 

The jury is out on the MC team.  We will learn a lot starting Sunday.  'Berg has a few games under their belt, and is gaining confidence.  Mount Union is interesting.  Last year was one of their better teams in a long time, and when it came time to close the season, they fell apart.  It wasn't just the OAC tourney, they blew some games down the stretch they needed to win for whatever reason. 

Gonna be a fun year as the top 5 teams in the league are pretty good. 

[Spence]

I don't know if MC got hot in 06 so much as finally got to play Otterbein away from Westerville and caught a break. Brewer also handled his pitching staff better than Powell, IMO. MC was really good that year -- they started out with 3 straight L's on a trip from hell to Salisbury MD (which was never repeated), and then needed that refocusing that EttaFan talked about after 3 straight 1-run losses. They had 6 D-III losses after a 2-4 start -- 5 of those losses were to Otterbein.

Obviously, MC got a little lucky against Manchester. But I remember listening to that game and feeling that coming. We had tons of runners on with less than two outs all game but could never get the big hit. Then once Marietta put some pressure on, Manchester melted. Their relief ace had thrown 5 2/3 the day before because of a game suspended by severe thunderstorms and he never fooled anyone against Marietta.

I think you're getting 04 and 05 mixed up a little bit. Eisenberg was the 3/4 starter in 05, but he had more than 4 innings. DeMark was the ace and went 10-0. The team actually hit pretty well and had several impact guys coming back.

The 07 team lost a lot more than just those guys from 06 -- the guy that beat Chapman was a FR that never came back. Scott Dunn went to Seton Hill. Jason Baumler got injured midway through 07. They lost as much pitching as this year's team did from '12...which was the original point of all of this.

[motorman]

Heidelberg lost their first game of the season, 6-5 to Central College of Iowa. Berg was in a 6-1 hole after 3 innings and spent the rest of the game battling back. They had the tying run at 3rd with 2 outs in the 9th, but couldn't push it across. They were led at the plate by JR RF Arneal Squibb who was 4 for 5 with a double, FR CF T J Harkness who was 3 for 5 with an RBI, and JR LF Ben Blystone who was 2 for 4. SR Tyler Fruhwirth went the distance after his tough first 3 innings and took the loss.

[Dr. Acula]

Harkness is going to be a stud. Freshman CF and I think Palm's had him batting 2nd every game.

I can finally get excited for the season. Mount starts with a DH tomorrow and according to Twitter just rolled over the state line an hour ago. In Florida and finally ready to start!

[Spence]

Harkness is going to be a stud. Freshman CF and I think Palm's had him batting 2nd every game.

I can finally get excited for the season. Mount starts with a DH tomorrow and according to Twitter just rolled over the state line an hour ago. In Florida and finally ready to start!

I'd be interested to know who else recruited Harkness. He was all-Ohio I believe and does appear to be a good one.

[motorman]

Berg improves to 6-1 with a 7-2 win over Bluffton. Was quite the pitchers battle with Bluffton up 2-1 entering the top of the 8th. Berg scored 2 in the 8th to take the lead and 4 more in the 9th to salt it away. SO DH Alex Grove led the way with a 3 for 3 day including a triple and an RBI. JR LF Ben Blystone was 2 for 5 with 2 RBI and SO 3B Steve Morse was 2 for 5 with a double and 3 RBI. JR Chris Thomas pitched 8 innings, then walked the leadoff batter to start the 9th and SR Teddy Lowe came in to finish. Thomas allowed 6 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned with 7Ks and the 1 BB while improving to 2-0 on the season.

Berg continues Florida trip with 3pm game tomorrow vs Salem State.