BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

Spence · April 05, 2014, 11:01:49 AM

Quote from: motorman on April 05, 2014, 07:42:05 AM
You have to beat them on the field to take the championship, complaining about it is just a bunch of useless noise.

You know, I had thought about a lot of other things to write as I read your post, but then I got to this and just laughed.

Buddy, you don't have to tell anyone from Marietta how winning championships works.

Spence · April 05, 2014, 12:54:18 PM

Brewer just said that Herstine will not be the Game 2 starter today. Byers will start Game 1.

So interesting development there...

ADL70 · April 05, 2014, 02:15:33 PM

Quote from: Spence on April 05, 2014, 12:54:18 PM
Brewer just said that Herstine will not be the Game 2 starter today. Byers will start Game 1.

So interesting development there...

Saving him for CWRU tomorrow?

Spence · April 05, 2014, 02:28:02 PM

Don't know.

ETA: Mike Finlan is the Marietta starter in Game 2. Marietta made five other lineup changes between games.

Dr. Acula · April 05, 2014, 03:51:17 PM

Mount is frustrating me today. Give up 7 runs in an inning and you literally give them 5 of them as runs were forced in on consecutively a HBP, BB, BB and then 2 scored on an E4. You have to make them earn it! Sigh. Luckily they got a big 3 run HR off of Hendrixson in the next inning to tie it back up. 10-10 score in the 8th now.

ADL70 · April 05, 2014, 04:09:06 PM

Quote from: Spence on April 05, 2014, 02:28:02 PM
Don't know.

ETA: Mike Finlan is the Marietta starter in Game 2. Marietta made five other lineup changes between games.

Spartans are saving Fortunato and Johnstone

Edit: I misspoke about Fortunato, he pitched Thursday.

Spence · April 05, 2014, 04:15:59 PM

Quote from: Dr. Acula on April 05, 2014, 03:51:17 PM
Mount is frustrating me today. Give up 7 runs in an inning and you literally give them 5 of them as runs were forced in on consecutively a HBP, BB, BB and then 2 scored on an E4. You have to make them earn it! Sigh. Luckily they got a big 3 run HR off of Hendrixson in the next inning to tie it back up. 10-10 score in the 8th now.

I guess Hesse just made up his mind he's not going to chase this game?

Little doubt now that Hendrixson is *clearly* Heidelberg's best pitcher. Twice now in the first five OAC games he's bailed out the starter. I think he's now tied for the OAC lead in wins.

Spence · April 05, 2014, 04:17:10 PM

Quote from: ADL70 on April 05, 2014, 04:09:06 PM
Quote from: Spence on April 05, 2014, 02:28:02 PM
Don't know.

ETA: Mike Finlan is the Marietta starter in Game 2. Marietta made five other lineup changes between games.

Spartans are saving Fortunato and Johnstone

Didn't expect anything else. Going to be a very tough ask for MC. Any chance for rain? haha.

ETA: Spartans certainly shouldn't lack for confidence after their DH sweep today.

Dr. Acula · April 05, 2014, 04:36:07 PM

Berg sputters in the red zone and settles for 3 field goals. 16-10 final. 8 walks, 4 HBP. Have to get better pitching in game 2.

Spence · April 05, 2014, 05:43:04 PM

4 HBP ...guess Berg had that forward lean going.

Maybe they'll break their own record, and what an honorable record it is.

It's too bad not enough umpires have the guts to enforce the rules...

2) If the batter makes no attempt to avoid being touched by the ball and the pitch is out of the strike zone, the pitch shall be called a ball. The ball is dead, no runners may advance and the batter is not awarded first base unless the pitch is ball four.

A.R.— If the batter freezes and is hit by a pitch that is clearly inside the vertical lines of the batter's box, the ball is dead and the batter is awarded first base.

(3) If the batter intentionally gets touched by moving or rolling any part of his body into the pitch and the batter does not swing, the ball is immediately dead; the umpire shall call a strike or ball in accordance with 7-4b and7-5a

If a guy crowds the plate like a lot of hitters do, about the only way the A.R. can apply by the description given ("clearly *inside* the lines of the box) is if he gets hit in the rump.

Dr. Acula · April 05, 2014, 07:52:20 PM

Berg completes the sweep. Mount pitched poorly today. No other way to say it. They can't seem to put together the pitching, hitting and defense in the same game. Sitting at 1-5 with Etta in town Tuesday they're already in must win mode if they want any chance of making the conference tourney.

Spence · April 05, 2014, 08:18:34 PM

Yeah, I'm sure we'll see two really motivated teams in that DH. Marietta really needs to keep contact during this supertough stretch, and of course Mount is fighting for their lives already.

I thought Mount should have been more aggressive pitching-wise in chasing that first game. It's almost like they were thinking the first game was a freebie and expected to win the second. When Thomas got knocked out early, they needed to do everything to pounce on that game.

Dr. Acula · April 05, 2014, 08:38:56 PM

In game 1 they went to Sason early and he's been their best guy out of the pen by far IMO. He's been really good and he gets a lot of strikeouts which obviously helps defuse a jam. He must have just been off today. It happens. They seem to be walking a lot of guys in general and that's a problem, especially when you're not playing great defense.

To me the thing that adds even more pressure is that there are no DH's beyond Wilm that you can point to and say "I'm confident we can sweep them." You can't afford to put yourself in must win DH's because the conference is too competitive this year. It's going to be next to impossible to rattle off multiple sweeps because 8 of the other 9 teams can play some ball too.

Dr. Acula · April 05, 2014, 08:42:28 PM

Hey Spence, who is Etta going to throw Tuesday? Byers went today and Herstine will probably go tomorrow? It could be interesting for both sides since Murzynski and Ceriani both pitched some relief today. I don't know how many pitches they threw though. I would imagine those two or possibly Toma for Mount.

Spence · April 05, 2014, 09:25:08 PM

I have no idea who will pitch Tuesday! I don't even know who will pitch tomorrow. The next 6 games is going to be just ridiculous. Can't say Brew is dodging anyone scheduling 2 at Case for this time in the season.

As far as today, it's really a tough one because you want your starter to go deep, but if you were willing to bring Murzynski on in the 5th, then I don't know why you don't just go to him first. You know Berg is going to be leaning into anything close to hitting someone, so I like the senior for that reason too. It would be nice if Marietta's staff had seniors, but that's sort of the price paid to keep that 2011-2012 group together.

I feel like Mount should have taken a page out of Palm's book and gone with Murzynski, and then all things remaining the same, you can pull him when he tires and bring in Ceriani or Bekelsky and have a chance to win the game. Of course, he could have thrown gas on the fire, in which case then pull him for another game and then use whoever to finish the game. The other option is to trust Clarke to get an out, but I understand he had been battling uphill most of the game.

Now anything short of a sweep against Marietta leaves you basically needing to run the table to be confident of being in the conference tournament. That's going to be a really intense doubleheader.