BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

Dr. Acula · March 18, 2025, 09:20:20 PM

Wilmington got routed at home 17-3 by Witt. I have a feeling they will be giving up a lot of runs to Muskingum in the OAC opener. Call it a hunch. They have OWU so that'll be interesting.

Berg got beat around at Adrian too. I was looking at their stats. They have a freshman hitting leadoff and playing SS. He's hitting .385. The rest of the team is hitting .235. Team ERA of 6. That's not going to go well.

BobcatQB · March 19, 2025, 09:31:56 AM

Quote from: Dr. Acula on March 18, 2025, 09:20:20 PMWilmington got routed at home 17-3 by Witt. I have a feeling they will be giving up a lot of runs to Muskingum in the OAC opener. Call it a hunch. They have OWU so that'll be interesting.

Berg got beat around at Adrian too. I was looking at their stats. They have a freshman hitting leadoff and playing SS. He's hitting .385. The rest of the team is hitting .235. Team ERA of 6. That's not going to go well.

Kinda surprising for Berg. I thought they were going to compete again this year for that 4th spot. Not having Powers pitching really hurts.

Muskingum played a very sloppy game last night at Franciscan. Officially 4 errors but I would have scored it 6. Krupar got thrown out. Umpire's zone was about a 12 x 12 box. No infield fly called on a routine ball about 2 steps into the outfield, 2B lost it in the sun however and a run scored. Then a ball hit to 1B, tried to tag batter who went outside the running lane to avoid the tag and was called safe. Krupar was hot and got tossed. Squeezed pitchers all night and he had enough. I will say this, Franciscan can swing it. But it's much easier to barrel balls that have to be perfectly thrown down the middle.

Dr. Acula · March 19, 2025, 12:13:03 PM

Etta got beat at home 14-2 and 17-1 on back to back days by Spalding. The roller coaster of young guys playing a lot continues. They're at W&J today so we'll see how that goes.

The lone bright spot for the OAC was JCU dominating Bethany 10-0 in their final tune up before heading to Ott.

Looking at the schedule today should be a better day for the OAC. Quite a few games that should be W's.

Dr. Acula · March 19, 2025, 10:16:52 PM

Today went as expected mainly. BW handled Westminster easily.

ONU handled Asbury (not sure if they're a D3 college?).

Muskingum handled Bethany.

Mount handled PSU Behrend (surprisingly to me they were 8-4?).

OWU beat Wilm 6-2. That seems right and is not a ringing endorsement of either.

Ott needing to walk off 2-10 Bluffton didn't smell right but a win's a win I guess.

Berg walked off Hiram, but to be fair Hiram is more competitive. Looking at that box score they have multiple guys who have been there 5 yrs now. Brua is trying to make a push for progress.

Etta lost 6-1 at W&J and had only 3 hits today.

Ralph Turner · March 20, 2025, 01:23:35 AM

Yes, Asbury is a full member this year and is in the CCS.

Dr. Acula · March 20, 2025, 10:16:41 AM

Quote from: Ralph Turner on March 20, 2025, 01:23:35 AMYes, Asbury is a full member this year and is in the CCS.

I'm a dummy. I was looking at the scores on the composite schedule on the OAC page so none of the opponents are linked. I'm conditioned to see no link and think "not D3".

Dr. Acula · March 20, 2025, 10:20:38 AM

BW dropped out of the top 25 this week. They're now sitting a couple spots outside the top 25. Marietta and Muskingum are both ORV as well.

I had a hunch and I was close on both counts. I checked and Cap (9-9) and Wilm (5-6) will both equal their 2024 win total with their next W and we're just starting OAC play. Nice to see the competitiveness from top to bottom so far.

BobcatQB · March 20, 2025, 12:06:02 PM

Both Cap and Wil have a huge issue with facilities, certainly not an attraction for players..unless they can play all their games at Huntington Park and Action Sports Center. That being said, at some point you'd think that Manahan would turn things around to be competitive.

Dr. Acula · March 20, 2025, 12:41:43 PM

For sure. Tewksbury is basically a decent HS field. And it's not like the rest of campus or the town are wowing you.

Clowson is basically the same but has the added bonus of being off campus in a crap part of the city. A few years ago there was a rumor that Cap was trying to figure out a way to shoehorn in a turf multi-sport facility on campus. I picture something like Chatham has. I don't see how. Cap is stuck because their biggest asset (being in Bexley) is their biggest problem. They're land locked and the surrounding real estate is expensive to acquire.

BobcatQB · March 21, 2025, 08:57:30 AM

My sister is a Capital Alum and she got something in the mail about it a few years ago. Just not enough room on campus.

Dr. Acula · March 21, 2025, 12:34:57 PM

That seems right. They're getting a little dated at this point maybe, but what Cap did with the Capital Center and Bernlohr Stadium is about as well as they can utilize space for athletics with nice facilities. It'd be nice if Bexley HS had a baseball field that Cap could dump money into and share, but Bexley also plays at Clowson unfortunately.

Dr. Acula · March 22, 2025, 12:44:27 PM

Quick picks for today:

Cap at Berg: Split. I was waffling on a Berg sweep here, but I don't trust their pitching beyond Matusak and Cap has been hitting the ball pretty well so far.

Wilm at Musky: Fish sweep. I don't trust Wilm's pitching in general and definitely not on the road against this lineup.

JCU at Ott: Split. In all honesty with this one any result would not surprise me.

ONU at BW: Split. I'm high on the Bears right now. We'll see if that faith is misplaced.

Mount at Etta: Split. This is another one that no result would shock me although I'd freely admit a Mount sweep would be the most surprising of the options.

Dr. Acula · March 22, 2025, 06:37:55 PM

Result of the day is ONU with a statement sweep at BW. Their pitching was outstanding all day. Next most impressive will be JCU if they finish off the sweep in Westerville. 16-8 win in the opener was certainly an eye opener.

Dr. Acula · March 22, 2025, 10:10:47 PM

Mount sweeps Etta at Pioneer Park 7-2, 9-2. Bad news for Pio fans Mount isn't great and you have major problems offensively right now. Wharf even said it this DH combined w the poor showing at W&J earlier this week is concerning.

Dr. Acula · March 22, 2025, 10:18:15 PM

Power rankings after weekend 1:

1) ONU
(Gap)
2) JCU
(Gap)
3) Mount? I'm as surprised as you.
4) BW (as mentioned I'm high on ONU and you can convince me still above Mount)
5) Etta/Musky/Ott all interchangeable right now.

No offense but still just not buying Berg/Cap/Wilm. Bad pitching doesn't play.