BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

Bekelesky gives up 4 in the 1st (1 earned) and then puts up 4 goose eggs after that.  Mount battles back to tie it and still tied in the 9th they hang a 6 spot to go up 10-4.  Looking like they should take game 1 and have Murzynski in a now shortened to 7 innings game 2.

[Spence]

Heidelberg gets a home split against Marietta, 6-2 and 7-11.

Byers and Mulvey were the starters and threw all but 1/3 of an inning, so seems likely to be Brockmeier and Finlan against Otterbein.

Looking like a melee for 5th. Basically everyone except Wilmington is in it.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount gets a sweep in Ada to pull to 5-5. Cap tomorrow hopefully with Carlino going. Time to make their move.

[Dr. Acula]

Looks like everything is ppd until tomorrow. Full slate tomorrow and Saturday.

[Spence]

Wonder what this does to Marietta's non-con game against Denison...whether they'll play it Thursday or wait until a later date.

[EttaFan1]

Thursday's forecast looks poor.

I would also guess Brock and Finlan for the twinbill against Ott, need to win those two at home.

Really don't have a good feel for this Pioneer team.  The lack of really good pitching (hate to use the word dominant) is troublesome as we go down the stretch.  I still think they make the tournament, the next two series against Ott and JCU will be very telling and very important for league standings. If they can win those 4, they should be in really good shape to host the touranment (since BW is a not in the post season).  Split those and the league race is a hot mess down the stretch.

[Spence]

Closing with 6 of 8 at home and the last two against Wilmington has me feeling pretty good about things. Some pretty good opponents before that, though. obviously.

B-W has 3 straight road dates once they make up against Heidelberg. Ott has 3 straight at home following the MC DH, but already were swept by JCU so that could hurt in a tiebreak, plus one of their home series is against B-W. Sweeping Otterbein go a long way toward eliminating them as a competitor for the top spot.

The B-W DH looks to be one where everyone will be available, meaning Brock and Finlan could be bullpen options.

Dominant is certainly not a word I would use to describe this staff at this time. They're effective, for the most part, but MC batters have more strikeouts than pitchers.

I think Mulvey pitched better than it looks from the box score against Heidelberg. We're spoiled after the last 2 years, but I think Byers and Mulvey will have MC in most games. I'm still hoping for a couple of so-far little used (or unused even) freshmen to step up and provide some depth and bullpen options.

[Dr. Acula]

While I agree with you guys that Etta lacks a dominant arm I still think they're the most complete team.  I think their lineup is the class of conference.  And while they lack a Blaski/Gasser/Williams anchoring the rotation they do appear to be very solid as you'd expect.  Beyond that, I don't think anyone has what we'd dub a dominant pitching staff this year.  Everyone else has flaws somewhere.  Ott struggles offensively (.257 in OAC play).  Berg struggles offensively as well.  My concerns with Mount are well documented.  Honestly JCU is probably the most complete team outside of Etta IMO.  The great thing for us as fans is that without a dominant team the race to make the tourney and then the tourney itself should be great fun.

[EttaFan1]

I was looking at JCU's stats yesterday.  their pitching staff has some impressive numbers, and it is mostly guys not named Jim Spagna (who was their ace last year).  A staff ERA of 3.67 and oppBA of .259 will make anyone sit up and take note.  Their #2 and #3 (by innings pitched) both have sub 3.0 ERA's.  O'Brien pitched against OTT, has allowed 3 total runs in 24 innings (5th on the team in IP).  His ERA is 0.74! Yowza!

Offensively the streaks are hitting well at .328, which is also solid. If there is an area of concern it would be defense, is they are fielding only .948.

JCU has surprised me a little this year with as strong as they are.

[Spence]

I thought they would be pretty good. Doring is IMO their x factor. If he throws strikes, he can be really tough to hit. I was thinking they had a good chance to make the tournament. They're probably a little better than I thought, even.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount and Cap are tied 1-1 heading to the bottom of the 5th.  This game is humming along as Carlino has set Cap down 1-2-3 in 3 of the 5 innings so far.  Throw in that he and Finchum have yet to walk a guy and they're cruising along in Alliance.

Also, great to see Thomas back for Berg today. 

[Spence]

Kind of surprised Carlino got the call today rather than Saturday.

[Dr. Acula]

Mathis hits a walk-off bases loaded single in the bottom of the 7th to win it 2-1.  Carlino goes all 7.  He's now 6-1. 

Spence, I don't know why, but I assumed he was going today.  Hesse usually doesn't mess with the rotation once he has it set.  If it's an OAC game and he's ready I assume he's throwing.  I see your logic though with it being Berg Saturday and the schedule falling that those last 3 DH are Sat, Sat, Sat so you can essentially set your 1-2 on a nice set schedule coming down the stretch (weather cooperating, of course). 

[Spence]

Well, there's going to be a long break in there at some point regardless.

I guess it worked out for them since they needed a good pitching performance today.

[Dr. Acula]

Well, there's going to be a long break in there at some point regardless.

I guess it worked out for them since they needed a good pitching performance today.

Exactly. Now he won't start until the 27th I'd guess.  So there was going to have to be a long layoff somewhere.

They got the sweep. 4-1 final in game 2. Only 5 hits, but they made them count and Clarke made them stand up (7.1 IP, 1 R).  Back to back sweeps puts them at 7-5 in the OAC.