BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Marietta wins its first game in Wilmington, 10-0. Credit Wilmington, who kept it close for most of the game. 6 MC markers in the 9th blew it open.

Brewer taking no chances. He went with Herstine and Byers is expected to start the second game. Not a surprise.

Ohio Northern is batting in the 10th, tied 3-3 with Heidelberg. Derek Hendrixson has been brilliant in relief to keep Heidelberg in it. Eltzroth went 9 innings for ONU, giving way to #2 starter Ben Glischinski as Stechschulte knows they need two wins to have any chance at postseason play.

I looked at the live stats a while ago and you've got to tip your cap to Eltzroth too.  Last I saw Berg only had 3 base hits and that was in like the 6th or 7th inning I think.  They had scored a run on a balk and another on a steal of home (I'm assuming the 1st and 3rd variety) so they definitely weren't hitting him around at all.

I know Nick and his family quite well. I could not be happier for the season he is having.

[Spence]

Their pitching was very solid this year. Improve the offense and defense even just a little and that could be a ballclub next year.

[EttaFan1]

Game Day!

Should be an absolutely beautiful day for baseball, 85 and sunny.  Just what the doctor ordered after a year where every game/series at Pioneer park was cool or down right cold (except for one) and gale force winds.  (Winds TBA).  Weather for friday could be an issue, and Saturday looks to be rough, to say the least. 

Should be a couple of great matchups, and I don't know if there is an outcome that would surprise me in any of them. 

Some things I'm interested to see...

1.  Who gets the ball in game one for Marietta.  Early in the year it was Byers then Herstine, late in the year it was Herstine then Byers.  I think the decision comes down to who the staff feels could perform better on short rest if the Pioneers get to Sunday (I'm assuming that Saturday will be a wash out, from the looks of the forecast).  Given that Herstine had minor, very minor, arm issues earlier this year, it my be Byers today.  Either way, as a Marietta fan, I feel pretty good with either on the hill.

2.  Who gets the ball for BW?  Albright has been their typical first game guy.  Waite absolutely stymied the pioneer bats earlier in a Jacket win at Pioneer park.  It wil be interesting to see what happens with this matchup.

3.  How soon does Heidelberg turn to Hendrixson.  The youngster has had sparkling numbers all year long, and from the looks of some box scores, has saved 'Berg's bacon a few times.  I think to be successful in this tournament, Berg needs "quality starts"—6-7 IP from their starters—to keep Hendrixson's pitch count down.  IF Hendrixson has to go early and throw a lot of innings today, I think it raises the level of difficulty for Heidelberg's longer term success.

4.  Can JCU get moving in the right direction against a top quality team.  JCU's numbers against quality teams on their schedule are not particularly flattering.  Their pitching staff looks solid, until you see what they did against better competition, then not so much.   LaPaglia and Maddern didn't face Heidelberg earlier this year, it will be interesting to see what direction the streaks go. 

5.  Lastly, Wind.  Every home game this year (except for maybe BW early) at Pioneer Park Don Schaly Stadium (sorry, old habits die hard) has been impacted by wind.  I mean steady 15-25MPH wind, normally blowing out to right or right center.  It has had a fairly significant impact on the game as a whole. 

This is the most competitive OAC tournament field I've seen in years.  Often times it is a two team race with two other participants.  This year there are four legitimate contenders for the coveted Pool A bid. 

Good thing is, I get to watch it all and not spend every night in a hotel. 

Good luck to all of the teams!

[Spence]

Guessing you'll be getting that 15 dollar all tournament pass then!

The OAC tournament is usually all about how good your top 2 arms are, and not giving away outs and runs on defense. I don't know if Friday will be a washout, but getting 3 games in looks unlikely unless they stay open half the night. Looks like graduation day at Schaly Stadium!

If the tournament does go to Sunday, starting pitchers and any long relief outings from both Thurs and Fri could be available at least for relief. Regionals start Wednesday, though, so I imagine Marietta and Heidelberg wouldn't want to extend their top guys far enough that they wouldn't be available for the start of the regional.

They could also opt to flip the schedule and play elimination games on Friday if they're sure they won't get all 3 in. That gets teams on buses and clears out hotel rooms. We'll see how it all goes starting in about 4 hours!

[EttaFan1]

Guessing you'll be getting that 15 dollar all tournament pass then!

They sell those?  Crap!  I've been wasting a lot of money all these years!   

I actually remembered my suncreen too!

[Spence]

You'll definitely need that sunscreen today. Or you could just sit with the top row gang, such as it is these days. Miss hearing Brum's voice on the crowd mike. And so it goes.

[EttaFan1]

We walked into the stadium earlier this year, and my son climbed to the third row, I said to him "What? you want a nose bleed or somethin'?  Get down here." to the second row.

I'm not old enough to join the top row gang anyhow.   

[Spence]

Second row in the middle section is the best seat in the park.

Just saying if you needed shade from the sun, that would be how you could get from getting burned.

I got *really* burnt the day that Marietta and Allegheny scored about 600 runs over 7 hours when it was like 92 degrees. That and Allegheny's third baseman are what I remember most about that day haha.

I know an Allegheny dude dented a bat hitting a home run sometime in the tournament, but I don't know if it was that day.

[mideastfan2]

Marietta comes from behind with 2 runs in the 9th to walk-off with a 3-2 win over B-W.  The kid from B-W threw an outstanding game, but sailed a throw into CF on a sac bunt attempt in the 9th.  Bad luck loss for the kid.

This tournament is going to be full of close games.

[Spence]

That's a tough act to follow for Heidelberg and John Carroll.

Jason Byers gets the win with 1 inning of relief. Waite was the BW pitcher who did just as well as when he threw in the regular season in Marietta, but as mentioned, his error was critical in getting the 9th inning rally started.

Brandon Cichocki couldn't stem the tide as a sac fly and a single let in the two runners he inherited from Waite.

Kyle Chontos' 2-run HR accounted for all of BW's scoring. Marietta's Herstine gave up only 5 hits in an outing that probably looks better on paper than it sounded on the radio. You can get away with some wildness when you throw like he does, though.

[Spence]

John Carroll beat Heidelberg in the late game, 13-7. JCU got a workmanlike pitching performance from Aaron Lapaglia and by then had built a big enough lead to withstand some shaky relief work.

I guess the good news for Heidelberg is that only reliever Adam Manner threw enough pitches to matter (the starter got one out) and Hendrixson didn't pitch at all.

The bad news for them is they face Baldwin-Wallace in an elimination game.

[EttaFan1]

Some observations from both games:

Game 1. 

This game followed the script of the first matchup between Waite and Herstine.  2-1 headed to the ninth, and BW handing things off to Cichocki.  The difference was that Cichocki was unable to avoid the damage. 

Waite made the right decision (as was communicated to him by his catcher) to try to get the out at second on the sac bunt.  He simply failed to execute.  A good throw and the runner is easily out. 

Of the hits BW scraped out, only two or three were really hit well.  The home run (of course), a lead off single to start the game and a solidly hit ball on a hit and run in the later innings.  The rest were bloops and in the infield.  In fact the hit just proceeding the homerun was a blooper behind the thirdbase bag where the LF, 3B and SS all converged but nobody was able to find it.  the 3b (Hannahan) was looking back over his head trying to find it and couldn't, and the other two guys just had to run too far to make the play.  But as they say, that's baseball, and it all looks like a solidly hit line drive in the scorebook. 

The home run.  The ball was crushed.  Herstine left a pitch up in the zone and Chontos mashed it.  The only thing the wind did for it was to blow it back in play.  It was VERY CLOSE to being a foul ball.  From my vantage point, I couldn't really tell, for certain.  But it wasn't.

Some good defense by both teams. 

Game 2:

I hate using the term, "such and such showed up ready to play."  I think it is over used, and really doesn't give the other team credit for their preparation. 

JCU was extremely aggressive early, and everything went their way early.  After the leadoff guy reached, they executed a hit and run.  The runner from first, never stopped, came all the way around from first.  Heidelberg misplayed the relay (otherwise the runner is likely dead to rights at home by some 10 feet).  It also didn't help that they were throwing to third instead of just back to the infield.   From that point on, things seemed to go from bad to worse for 'Berg.  Seeing eye basehits, a dropped fly ball on a diving attempt (ruled a hit, as the ball came out of the glove when the cf landed).  Badly played balls by the outfield, and before they knew it, Thomas had been chased from the game, and they trailed by 5 runs.  They were very fortunate to get out of the first inning on a spectacular double play where the middle infield made a diving stop behind the second base bag flipped and just got the batter at first. 

LaPaglia had good enough stuff to keep 'Berg at bay most of the day.  He struggled later in the game, and the student prince bats started to solve him a little and then things got adventerous to say the least for the Streaks. 

Both bullpens struggled.

John Carroll hit the ball hard all day long.  Berg's defense let them down quite a bit--4 errors, bad outfield play.  They had a rough day, all around.  Heidelberg's pitching also struggled.  They worked behind batters quite often and struggled.

Eric Monroe was the bright spot as he absolutely tatooed two balls to left for "no doubt about it" home runs.  One was a three run shot, the other a solo.  Sadly, the bases were loaded in the inning prior to the solo shot, and Berg failed to extend the inning to bring him up with runners on.  That could have been very interesting and much tighter than JCU woud have liked. 

Weather is going to be a factor today, and perhaps tomorrow.  May only get one game in. 

[Spence]

Good info!

On the weather, this stuff looks to be coming from the SW and not the W. So the proximity of the rain on the radar may be misleading because the stuff around Cincinnati is more than likely not headed to Marietta...the stuff coming up the river or thereabouts would be. This is why Schaly would often look over the Williamstown Bridge to get his "weather forecast".

[mideastfan2]

JCU wins 11-8 in winner's bracket final.  Marietta will have to battle through loser's bracket, like Heidelberg.

from watching the live video feed, it looks like a jet stream to left center today (shifting to dead center/right center at end of game)...the difference in this one will be the runners on base when JCU got their big HR in the 9th, vs the solo shots for Marietta.  That and all the Marietta errors.

JCU sure is hitting the ball these first 2 days.  They deserve to get a regional spot IMO; we'll have to see how this all shakes out the next few days.

[Spence]

Looks like a storm popped up south of PKB and may be headed toward the ballpark.