BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[motorman]

Berg has shifted this weekends schedule to try to avoid the weather as much as possible. Today will be a single game vs Manchester with a 3:30pm start. DH has been moved to tomorrow at 1pm. Dedication of the new Patriots Park monument will be at noon Sunday.

[Spence]

Marietta drops the last game on their Florida trip, 8-5 to Wheaton.

MC fell behind big early and then scored 4 in the 8th and Wheaton's second baseman prevented the tying run from reaching scoring position when he snared Chris Winpigler's line drive into the hole between 1st and 2nd. The shot would have scored 2 runs.

The team played a very ambitious schedule in Florida as usual, but 5-3 on the trip would still not be what they were looking for. Doesn't get any easier next week with Montclair and Huntingdon coming to town.

[mideastfan2]

Marietta drops the last game on their Florida trip, 8-5 to Wheaton.

MC fell behind big early and then scored 4 in the 8th and Wheaton's second baseman prevented the tying run from reaching scoring position when he snared Chris Winpigler's line drive into the hole between 1st and 2nd. The shot would have scored 2 runs.

The team played a very ambitious schedule in Florida as usual, but 5-3 on the trip would still not be what they were looking for. Doesn't get any easier next week with Montclair and Huntingdon coming to town.

a positive to take away from the first 10 games....their in-region record stands at 5-0.  the hitting has been pretty solid, the defense has been there for the most part, and the pitching shows signs of shut down potential.  good things to work off of for the next 2 months!

[Spence]

Marietta drops the last game on their Florida trip, 8-5 to Wheaton.

MC fell behind big early and then scored 4 in the 8th and Wheaton's second baseman prevented the tying run from reaching scoring position when he snared Chris Winpigler's line drive into the hole between 1st and 2nd. The shot would have scored 2 runs.

The team played a very ambitious schedule in Florida as usual, but 5-3 on the trip would still not be what they were looking for. Doesn't get any easier next week with Montclair and Huntingdon coming to town.

a positive to take away from the first 10 games....their in-region record stands at 5-0.  the hitting has been pretty solid, the defense has been there for the most part, and the pitching shows signs of shut down potential.  good things to work off of for the next 2 months!

Certainly true. The in-region games are really the key (for one more year anyway). I think the best thing to be said about everything else is "it's early." It would be crazy to get wound up about a 7-3 start with this many people getting their feet wet on the mound and in the middle of the infield.

I hope to see more of Jordan Carithers. He seems like he's had very little trouble in his two short outings.

[motorman]

Berg knocked Manchester from the ranks of the unbeaten today with a 2-1 victory on a day more suited to polar bears than baseball players. Berg starter, JR Chris Thomas, went 8 1/3 innings allowing only 4 hits that didn't leave the infield and 1 unearned run but didn't get the decision. SO Adam Manner came in with runners on first and second with 1 out in the 9th and kept Manchester from scoring the go ahead run in the 1-1 tie. Berg then took advantage of a 2 base error, bunt single by SR C Jordan Martin, and RBI single by JR 2B Joe Staab to push across the winning run. Staab was 3 for 5 with both Berg RBI on the day while SO DH Alex Grove was 2 for 4.

[Spence]

You think it's suited for polar bears there...it's -12 where I live and we're looking for nearly a foot of snow in the next couple of days!

Was something wrong with Thomas last year? He had some good starts in limited time as a FR and then struggled quite a bit as a soph. This year it seems like he can do very little wrong.

Interested to see what happens tomorrow. Even though Heidelberg clearly had the better of the game, Manchester blew probably the best scoring chance of the game in the 9th. Up until then most of the runners in scoring position got there with 2 out. Seemed like a really well pitched game on both sides from following it online. I went back and forth on whether I would have walked Staab or not. But I think I would have.

If either team sweeps tomorrow, that team IMO is #1 in the region for now. Either a 3 game home sweep or a 2-1 series road win would be pretty impressive.

[motorman]

You think it's suited for polar bears there...it's -12 where I live and we're looking for nearly a foot of snow in the next couple of days!

Was something wrong with Thomas last year? He had some good starts in limited time as a FR and then struggled quite a bit as a soph. This year it seems like he can do very little wrong.

Interested to see what happens tomorrow. Even though Heidelberg clearly had the better of the game, Manchester blew probably the best scoring chance of the game in the 9th. Up until then most of the runners in scoring position got there with 2 out. Seemed like a really well pitched game on both sides from following it online. I went back and forth on whether I would have walked Staab or not. But I think I would have.

If either team sweeps tomorrow, that team IMO is #1 in the region for now. Either a 3 game home sweep or a 2-1 series road win would be pretty impressive.

Thomas's only start as a freshman came in the regional championship game vs Marietta where he matched Gasser until Marietta scored the winning unearned run in the 5th. He spent half that freshman season recovering from an injury.

Last year he was up and down, was 5-4, but strong down the stretch. He had 2 key relief appearances against JCU and Cap that helped get Berg into the OAC tournament, then shut down Mount in the first game of the tournament with a dominant complete game performance.

Today he faced 1 batter over the minimum through 5 innings. He didn't give up a hit that made it out of the infield. The 2 infield singles in the 9th were the only inning he gave up 2 hits in an inning. Berg outhit Manchester 10-4 and had a couple of multiple hit innings but couldn't come up with the clutch hit except for the 2 from Staab. All in all, a solid team win.

[Dr. Acula]

It was a matter of time and health for Thomas IMO. I base that purely on the fact that he was a GREAT high school pitcher (All-Ohio) at a good DI program. He put up insane numbers in the Federal League which is a good DI league.  You don't do what he did without being talented. Now that he's healthy we are seeing what had Palm probably doing cartwheels when he got him to come to Berg.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount split with Hope yesterday to end their southern trip 8-2.  Some thoughts on the trip:

I can't be disappointed with the pitching.  Overall very good.  Carlino and Murzynski are All-OAC guys and they looked like it.  Outside of one inning they were fantastic.  Can't ask for any more from those two.  Soph. Sam Clarke made a very nice start as well.  Definitely promising for depth purposes to see that.  Fellow soph. Brandon Bell was great closing making 3 scoreless appearances (2 saves).  Pryor was up and down in his two starts.  Bekelesky and Horning struggled with command, but I'm not worried about any of those 3 guys.  I liked soph. Gino Ceriani throwing some solid relief innings (2 games, 7 IP, 3 ER, 10 K).  In the past the issue was always depth.  With some of these sophomores potentially emerging as solid relievers it only improves that issue.  Hopefully they can keep it up in Ohio.

Offensively I'm not quite sure what to make of the trip.  Morino was definitely a great surprise.  He really hit the ball well.  So did Evan Knott (.429, 6 extra base hits, 14 RBI).  Mathis tripled twice (in one inning) in the last game of the trip so hopefully he's working his way out of his slow start.  He ended up hitting .229, but 3 of his 8 hits are triples so it seems like when he hits he hits it hard.  He'll be fine.  The question mark right now seems to be the 3rd OF spot.  Jakubik started and then freshman Scott Sherwood started the last few games.

The reason I say I'm not quite sure what to make is because statistically they hit .336 and scored over 7 runs per game.  But they scored more than 1/3 of their runs in 1 game.  While I don't ever see this as a long ball offense I do see it as an athletic lineup that can execute small ball.  Lots of guys that can steal a base.  They're going to put a lot of pressure on the defense.  I'll be interested to see how that translates against front line OAC starters.

Overall, that was a pretty successful trip.  I would have liked to take that 2-1 loss against Franklin & Marshall, but they snagged a couple comeback wins so you can't have everything.  The most exciting thing as a Raider fan is that this team is STILL very young.  This entire squad will return again next year as there isn't a senior on the roster.  Can't help but be a little pumped about that. 

[Spence]

They must have been using wood bats at Heidelberg this weekend. 11 runs total in 3 games?

There are a lot of solid teams in the conference. I don't know if there's a great one right now. But MC, Heidelberg, Mount, Otterbein, B-W and JCU will all win a lot of games I think.

The imbalance in the home-road schedules this year is kind of unfortunate. If Marietta or Otterbein (especially Otterbein) finish in the top 2 they'll have earned it.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Their first guy did fairly well but threw 80 pitches in 4 innings. That must have been his limit because they didn't seem to have much left after him.

Brockmeier may have been equal parts lucky and good, leaving 11 on base in his 5 shutout innings. 3 times the bases were left loaded.

Sounded like Byers was the only truly dominant pitcher on the day. 2 perfect innings.

Them throwing short outings today makes me think they're making another start on the trip, and this was their bullpen day in between starts.

Shortstop continues to be the only trouble spot in an otherwise excellent defense.

Yeah our guys are on a strict limit. Cooper was only allowed 75 pitches against BW. Sega did not last 2 innings in his game against mount St. Joe's. But Sega did not play in the fall and has not thrown a pitch that meant anything since Aug 2. Houck did very well against Etta. But he ran out of pitches and the bull pen fell apart. 

[Dr. Acula]

Etta drops from 2 to 4 in this week's poll.  BW nearly cracked the top 25 (27th).  Mount and Berg tied 3 spots behind that with 41 pts each.  JCU also received a vote.  Let's hope the OAC season turns out to be as competitive as it's looking so far.

[Kenworth]

Congrats to Marietta's Alex Toth being selected as OAC player of the week for his hitting and catching abilities.  He is currently leading the team in hitting average and was a gold glove winner  last year.

[Spence]

Congrats to Marietta's Alex Toth being selected as OAC player of the week for his hitting and catching abilities.  He is currently leading the team in hitting average and was a gold glove winner  last year.

Hottest hitter in the universe, as they say on the radio haha.

But he made an error this year...what's with him?

[Kenworth]

  yep 6th error in 3 years behind the plate, replace him!! Great performance from a middle infielder turned catcher between his freshman and sophomore years in college.  Outstanding work ethic.