BB: SCIAC: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sagehenalum47]

thanks for the update oxybob,
     it looks like the hens are really clicking! according to my calculations thats 8 HRs for frederick now. i hear he spent his winter break hitting and working out with his second cousin ryan zimmerman, and it really seems like it has paid off! hope those hens keep up the hard work! this hedman-frederick combo is scary.

[P-P Fan]

alum- you're right about that hedman-frederick combo, pretty scary! and especially now that mandelblatt seems to be swinging again!
side note, i had heard about frederick having some relation to zimmerman, but i wasn't sure it what it was. In any case that's quite an opportunity, imagine working out with a big leaguer!

[C.M.Stag]

Can anyone elaborate on Kitchens' injury/status?

From what I saw, the trainer looked like he was checking out Kitchen's shoulder. His velocity was way down, and he did not look like the same guy as I have seen in the past. That's the best I can do, I will be interested to see if he makes his next start.

On a different note, some good match-ups in SCIAC this weekend:

Redlands vs. Cal Lu
La Verne vs. Cal Tech
CMS vs. PP

I watched some of the Redlands-PP games last Saturday, and contrary to what someone else said, I thought Redlands looked bad offensively. Maybe it was a bad week, but they are going to have to bounce back in a big way if they want to take some games from a very strong Cal Lu squad.

As always, the 6th Street rivalry will be a fun one. Pomona is red hot and playing great baseball while CMS is coming off its 4th straight loss. The Stags will be a big underdog this weekend, but anything can happen when these two teams play each other.   

[P-P Fan]

Can anyone elaborate on Kitchens' injury/status?

From what I saw, the trainer looked like he was checking out Kitchen's shoulder. His velocity was way down, and he did not look like the same guy as I have seen in the past. That's the best I can do, I will be interested to see if he makes his next start.

On a different note, some good match-ups in SCIAC this weekend:

Redlands vs. Cal Lu
La Verne vs. Cal Tech
CMS vs. PP

I watched some of the Redlands-PP games last Saturday, and contrary to what someone else said, I thought Redlands looked bad offensively. Maybe it was a bad week, but they are going to have to bounce back in a big way if they want to take some games from a very strong Cal Lu squad.

As always, the 6th Street rivalry will be a fun one. Pomona is red hot and playing great baseball while CMS is coming off its 4th straight loss. The Stags will be a big underdog this weekend, but anything can happen when these two teams play each other.  

great point stag... whenever these two teams match up its a slug fest. despte PP being the better team last year, CMS almost took 2 of 3. You never know what could happen between these two rivals, and as such I'm quite excited to get a front row view of these games. (i'll try to update as much as possible, but i may be too excited to get online!). all i can hope for is a fun, well-played series!

[Jack Parkman]

Cal Lu dropped by Redlands 5-3.  It was 3-2 Redlands going into the 9th but they got 2 very big runs to seal the deal.  Not a good loss by CLU.

[beachlover]

Nicholson recovers from something of a mess last week against P/P to pitch 7 solid today against Cal Lu, handful of hits, no runs.  Cal Lu kicked a few as well. 

[C.M.Stag]

Great game at Pomona today. Hens led 2-0 going into the 7th, but the Stags rallied and scored four to take the lead. It was short lived; however, as Drew Hedman hit a two run bomb in the 8th to tie the game up. Not really sure why you give that guy a chance to make an impact with his bat that late in the game.

In the 9th, Pomona had the bases loaded no out, but failed to plate a run. Then in the 10th, CMS had the bases loaded 1 out and failed to score a run. With one out in the bottom of the 10th, Pomona catcher Mike Silva hit a walk off solo home run to win the game for the hens 5-4.

I hope tomorrow has two great games like this one. 

[beachlover]

Cal Lu takes two from the pups.  Redlands kicks it around in the first game and goes down big.  Cal Lu has two very good performances on the mound to stifle pups bats. 

Looks like a two team race at this point in the season.  Cal Lu  vs P/P.

[Jack Parkman]

Cal Lutheran gets 2 complete game shutouts today at Redlands.  Mike Rowe and Chase Tigert give up a total of 9 hits today, 8 of them singles, and a combined 14 K's.  Pretty impressive day by the 2 starters for the Kingsmen.

[Jack Parkman]

Pomona gets the sweep over Claremont but they gave up 22 runs in the 3 games.  I think we will find out is Pomona is for real in their last 9 games of the season.

[P-P Fan]

a couple notes on the PP-CMS series:
The huge difference in the series, in all three games, was the bullpen work. PP's bullpen- 12 1/3 innings, 0 runs. CMS pen- 8 1/3 innings, 22 runs.
Stags starting pitching was surprisingly decent. The freshman who through the first game was solid, certainly better than his ERA would indicate and Max Rose looked pretty darn good. The only reason he came out was the fact that the Hens worked deep in to counts and ran up his pitch total, despite not executing well with runners in scoring position.
In any case, I think PP showed they are for real from the nature of their victories. They won the first game in 10 innings, were down 5-0 in the sixth of the second game before unloading for a 10 run 7th, and were down 8-1 in the second inning of the third game before chipping away and then putting up 8 runs in the 7th. Most of their games this year had been blowouts and it was great to see them battle from behind to win, it showed a lot of character.

Finally, a note on CMS. The team is quite talented, but I was taken aback at the lack of respect their players showed for their opponents, fans, umpires, coaches, and the game in general. Perhaps it was a certain few individuals (there were certainly a number of players who displayed good sportsmanship... I was quite impressed with Nishioka and Blomberg who seem to be playing baseball for all the right reasons) but I witnessed players yelling obscenities at teammates, opposing players, fans, and umpires. One individual (three guesses who...) took it upon himself to loudly complain to the umpires on balls and strikes (something that shouldn't be argued, and if its is only by coaches) while pitching, hitting, and even running the bases. At one point, he dropped his bat in the batter's box and put his hands on his hips in disapproval (after a called strike 2 no less). A father mentioned that this player was yelling at him while playing defense and this same individual was stealing bases on his own when down 5 runs in the ninth as well. Call me old-fashioned, but I've been watching baseball for a long time and I've never seen such blatant disrespect for the game and it made me wonder where this game is heading. I understand the rivalry is an intense one, and there were certainly PP players whose actions weren't exactly in the spirit of the game, but I have to wonder what sort of coaching is going on at CMS that allows for such behavior.
Maybe I'm just an outsider who doesn't understand what's going on in that dugout and maybe it was just the heat of the rivalry that brought out the worst in a few players, but I couldn't help but comment on something that bothered me as much as CMS's behavior did.
Sorry for the rant!

[OxyBob]

From the "Local college roundup" article in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:

SCIAC baseball

No. 11 Pomona-Pitzer swept rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 13-6 and 12-8 to remain two games ahead of Cal Lutheran in the SCIAC. The Sagehens (25-3, 12-0) came from 5-1 down in the first game and 8-1 down in the second. The highlight was a grand slam home run by freshman James Campbell in the first game.

Redlands baseball

The Bulldogs managed just nine hits and were shutout in both ends of a doubleheader against Cal Lutheran, falling 11-0 and 2-0 in SCIAC play. It makes five losses in the last six games for the reeling Bulldogs (16-11, 7-5). Michael Lessig was the tough-luck loser in the second game. He gave up two runs in the first inning and shut down the Kingsmen for the next six, exiting with his team down 2-0. He scattered six hits and struck out nine.

La Verne baseball

The Leopards (16-10, 6-6) rolled to their 12th and 13th straight wins, cruising past Caltech 17-0 and 18-2 at Ben Hines Field in SCIAC play. The win in the first game marked the 200th career win for coach Scott Winterburn, who is in his ninth season. Mike Surina went 6-for-9 on the day with five RBI and three runs scored. Mark Larini also had six hits.

OxyBob

[CMSfan]

The huge difference in the series, in all three games, was the bullpen work. PP's bullpen- 12 1/3 innings, 0 runs. CMS pen- 8 1/3 innings, 22 runs.

True.  The CMS bullpen has a boatload of arms but has lacked consistency.  It's too bad because it's a talented team that could have done more damage in SCIAC.  But I've always thought that D3 baseball games more often than not are won and lost in the bullpen and this series was certainly no exception.

Sorry for the rant!

No need to apologize, but I saw most of the series and can't say I agree with your assessment.  Probably just comes down to rooting for different teams.

[OxyBob]

ULV item from the "Campus Life 5.0" column in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:

If only the University of La Verne baseball team had gotten off to a better start.

The Leopards (16-10, 6-6) swept lowly Caltech over the weekend to extend their win streak to 13 games. The problem was an 0-6 start in SCIAC with sweeps at the hands of Cal Lutheran and Redlands.

Coach Scott Winterburn's team has worked its way up to fourth but will be hard-pressed to overtake frontrunner Pomona-Pitzer (25-3, 12-0) with nine conference games left to play. The Leopards also are four games behind second-place Cal Lutheran and one behind Redlands.

The good news is the Leopards play the Sagehens the last weekend of the season and can gain ground with head-to-head wins.

Even if the Leopards don't chase down Pitzer, they might have an outside shot at an at-large berth in the West Regional if they can finish with a solid record. They will have a chance for some quality wins this week as they travel to Cal State East Bay for a nonconference series against a team that is a perennial regional contender.

OxyBob

[Jack Parkman]

ULV item from the "Campus Life 5.0" column in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:

If only the University of La Verne baseball team had gotten off to a better start.

The Leopards (16-10, 6-6) swept lowly Caltech over the weekend to extend their win streak to 13 games. The problem was an 0-6 start in SCIAC with sweeps at the hands of Cal Lutheran and Redlands.

Coach Scott Winterburn's team has worked its way up to fourth but will be hard-pressed to overtake frontrunner Pomona-Pitzer (25-3, 12-0) with nine conference games left to play. The Leopards also are four games behind second-place Cal Lutheran and one behind Redlands.

The good news is the Leopards play the Sagehens the last weekend of the season and can gain ground with head-to-head wins.

Even if the Leopards don't chase down Pitzer, they might have an outside shot at an at-large berth in the West Regional if they can finish with a solid record. They will have a chance for some quality wins this week as they travel to Cal State East Bay for a nonconference series against a team that is a perennial regional contender.

OxyBob

I think this is a pipe dream for ULV.  They can not lose any more games and need everyone in front of them to colapse.  Not going to happen.