BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

Spence · April 11, 2014, 01:24:05 PM

That's quite unfortunate. Most posters don't get as intimately involved in personal life details as motorman is about mine.

I would encourage you to give it an honest chance. Do you follow a particular school?

motorman · April 12, 2014, 07:02:14 AM

It is definitely a sign of the strength of the OAC that they have 4 of the top 13 teams and 5 of the top 23 in strength of schedule.

Northland, the rec league team (someone else's term, not mine) that Heidelberg beat 37-2 has gone on a 6 game winning streak to take over first place in the UMAC.

Spence · April 12, 2014, 01:09:09 PM

Boy, you're going to get a trophy made for just that game, aren't you?

motorman · April 12, 2014, 06:33:30 PM

Berg and Etta split. 4 to 1 and 9 to 7. Etta won 1st game as Berg's defense turned a 2-1 nail biter into a 4-1 contest. In the 2nd game, Steve Huber only allowed 2 hits but 4 runs thanks to 5 walks. Derek Hendrixson got the save despite allowing a 3 run HR in the top of the 9th. DH Eric Monroe was 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and a triple in the 2nd game. With all the top 4 in the league splitting today, nothing has changed in the league standings.

Dr. Acula · April 12, 2014, 10:17:16 PM

Nice split for Ott today.

Mount brought the bats out on Cap big time. 30 runs on the day. Big day for Grosscup (6-10, HR, 2 2B, 7 RBI). First AB's for freshman Nick Piotrowski this year. He hit leadoff and had multiple hits both games. He played 2B and my guess is he's the heir apparent at SS.

Another absolute must sweep Tuesday against the Fish.

Spence · April 12, 2014, 11:55:18 PM

A little surprising (but not much) that Heidelberg used both their top 2 guys today with John Carroll coming up and knowing Byers wasn't going to start the second game. I guess Palm figured they had to get one today or Tuesday didn't matter much.

Will also be interesting to see how much Palm can get out of his best pitcher Tuesday after an extended relief outing. The other time he threw 3 days after pitching to 15+ batters was against Adrian, his worst outing of the season so far.
Also, apparently now an 8.10 ERA with a WHIP near 2 is effective enough pitching to qualify for a 3+ inning save? Don't want to hear anything else about stats being padded after that.

Elsewhere...
Ohio Northern continues to pitch very well (1.95 ERA in league play). Wins against them are going to be tough. Not a bunch of strikeout artists on the staff, but they've been effective. Biggest week of baseball coming up for them since probably the 90s hosting BW and Marietta.

John Carroll's sweep of BW may be the most significant result of the season so far. Even a split Tuesday keeps them top.

motorman · April 13, 2014, 08:43:54 AM

Pull out your rule book and read it. There is nothing about margin of victory, WHIP, or anything else in the save rule. You pitch 3 innings and finish a game it is a save and always had been whether you win by 1 or 41.

Not a bit surprising that Berg used their top 2 to start the 2 most important games of the season. Will be #3 Fluharty and #4 Manner against JCU. The best #3 and #4 in the league. Was more surprising that Marietta had to use their top 2 pitchers in the same game to get a win. Take Herstine out and not bring Byers in and Marietta is in jeopardy of getting swept, that's why. Get in the Etta pen and you have an excellent chance against them. Noticed there weren't any NCAA All Division records set yesterday.

Spence · April 13, 2014, 12:03:49 PM

Actually, we're both wrong.

The rule is two parts -- Part I is the pitcher finishes the game and his team wins (obviously), and the pitcher does not get the win (also obviously). Part II is that Part I happens after coming in with a lead of 3 runs or fewer, OR when the tying run is at bat or in the on-deck circle, OR after at least three innings of "effective" pitching. I would quote it to make sure, but the NCAA site is not working properly. Regardless, I'm pretty darned certain that's correct, if not precisely verbatim.

Since the bases were loaded when Hendrixson came on, he actually met that criteria for a save even though it was 7-2 at the time.

So you were wrong about the rule and I was wrong about whether or not it should have been a save.

Spence · April 13, 2014, 01:03:28 PM

Quote from: motorman on April 13, 2014, 08:43:54 AM
Not a bit surprising that Berg used their top 2 to start the 2 most important games of the season. Will be #3 Fluharty and #4 Manner against JCU. The best #3 and #4 in the league. Was more surprising that Marietta had to use their top 2 pitchers in the same game to get a win. Take Herstine out and not bring Byers in and Marietta is in jeopardy of getting swept, that's why. Get in the Etta pen and you have an excellent chance against them. Noticed there weren't any NCAA All Division records set yesterday.

That's flattering talk of the most important games, considering John Carroll came into the day with a better conference record than Marietta did. Didn't expect such a statement of respect for a 3rd place team. "Most important games of the season"...wow, still in the first half of April as well.

I wasn't surprised at all about Byers. Expected, really. He started earlier in the week so this would have been his short outing day, and he threw fewer than 90 pitches anyway. He's done it twice in staff games, only difference is he was the starting pitcher in those but still wasn't going to go more than 2-3 innings.

What I'm interested to see now is if Byers starts against Capital or is used in relief and then starts against Northern. We'll find out soon enough, I guess.

ADL70 · April 13, 2014, 01:08:07 PM

Spence

I couldn't access the NCAA site, but what I could see is that the NCAA adopts MLB Rule 10, 10.19 defines save and the third option is pitch three innings, no mention of effectiveness. You are thinking of the rule for a reliever getting a win when the starter goes fewer than five innings, and the reliever enters with a lead.

Spence · April 13, 2014, 01:45:38 PM

No, that's not what I'm thinking of at all.

----
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/Stats_Manuals/Baseball/baseball_softball_scorebook.pdf

SAVE
SECTION 26. If a relief pitcher meets ALL of the following conditions, the official scorer
should credit that pitcher with a save:
a. He is the finishing pitcher in a game won by his team;
b. He is not credited with the win, and
c. He meets one of the following conditions:
(1) He enters the game with a lead of not more than three runs and pitches at least one
inning;
(2) He enters the game with the potential tying run on base, at bat or on deck, or
(3) He pitches effectively for at least three innings.
----
Hendrixson met c(2), which oddly means that if that's the case you don't have to pitch effectively. If the score had been 8-2 when he came in, the scorer could have chosen not to give him a save despite pitching 3+ innings.

ADL70 · April 13, 2014, 01:51:07 PM

+k

EttaFan1 · April 14, 2014, 08:26:09 AM

The second version of midweek mayhem is upon us.

Best matchup: JCU (8-2) @ Berg (8-2). The leaders. A sweep by either has huge implications. 1. It puts the other in the drivers seat for the top spot. 2. The tie breaker scenarios, both first tier and second tier would be substantial.

Second best: BW (6-4) @ ONU (6-4). These two teams currently are tied for the last tournament spot, 1 game ahead of Muskingum (who split with ONU and has not yet played BW). This could go a long way to eliminating one team from playoff contention (a sweep) or just muddy the waters (a split). Wilmington provided plenty of batting practice for the jackest this past Saturday, but they will be facing a lot better pitching.

Playoffs!: Muskingum (5-5) @ Mount (3-7). Mount did what they had to do against Capital last week to have a shot-Sweep the crusaders. Now they REALLY need to do the same against a pesky group of fish. I still think the last playoff spot will have a league record of 11-7 or better, so this series means a lot, to both teams. Muskinum can't afford to be swept, and Mount cant afford a split. This could be an elimination series of sorts.

Keeping pace: Cap (2-8) vs. Mar (7-3). Marietta needs to take care of business to stay in the hunt for the top spot. Tripping up against poor teams will not get you there. Cap is pretty poor.

The Beatings will continue until morale improves: Ott (4-6) @ Wilmington (1-9) Having looked at the scores from the BW series over the weekend....Yowza. Ott can climb back into the thick of things by being 6-6 after tuesday.

Key tie breaker things...

Of course the first tie breaker is head to head results. But the next set is how well you did against the teams at the top and working your way down. Some key developments on this front.

1. JCU sweeping BW. BW is my favorite to be fourth. Let's just say BW and JCU split this week, and then Marietta and JCU split later, forcing a three way tie for first. Marietta and 'Berg split with BW. The tie break goes to the streaks (if BW is fourth).
2. Mount being swept by BW, JCU, and MAR. If they are tied with anyone this could be an undoing.

It is looking like Tusday's games will get pushed to Wednesday (at least here in SE Ohio).

motorman · April 14, 2014, 01:19:21 PM

Hopefully we don't get the same 2 umps as last year for the Berg-JCU games. First time I ever saw the infield fly rule called with runners at 1st and 3rd bases and less than 2 outs. That was bad enough but then we compounded the problem by not catching the pop up.

motorman · April 14, 2014, 03:47:06 PM

Dr A, pulling an all-nighter tonight? harkening back to the undergrad days? Don't envy you these next 2 days.

Big series for the Raiders will be BW. They may get help with ONU with teams they have left but even a split with BW is fatal when they are 3 games back of 4th place.