BB: SCIAC: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[CrashDavisD3]

Whittier and Occidental should enjoy their stay in 1st place. They wont be there long and not sure they will make the TOP4 for the SCIAC tourney in May.

http://www.d3baseball.com/conf/SCIAC/2013/standings

[CMSfan]

CMS gives up 4 in the bottom of the ninth to drop the first game of the doubleheader to Chapman, 6-5. Painful to watch.

[Jack Parkman]

CMS gives up 4 in the bottom of the ninth to drop the first game of the doubleheader to Chapman, 6-5. Painful to watch.

Thats rough to say the least.

Pretty standard weekend in the SCIAC with the exception of Whittier taking 1 from Pomona.  I think each team played the same way they have all year.

Pomona- tough loss in game 3
Oxy- sweep of Cal Tech but game 2 was scoreless in the top of the 6th.  I just can't buy into this team at all.
Chapman- Swept CMS but as mentioned above, needed a complete meltdown to win game 2.
CLU- got shut down in game 1 and crushed Redlands in the double header.
Whittier- Looks like they can swing it a little bit.  Got one from Pomona which was likely unexpected.
CMS- Is the season over yet???
La Verne- Split 4 non-conference games.  Only scored 16 runs in 4 games and I just don't think their hitting is strong enough to win the SCIAC.
Cal Tech- obviously much improved and playing a few teams pretty close.  Gave up a bunch of big innings on Saturday.
Redlands- great pitching on Friday then their lack of depth showed on Saturday giving up 24 runs.

My 4 for the conference tournament right now are Pomona, CLU, Chapman and La Verne or Oxy.  Oxy finally gets into the tougher part of their schedule after starting out with one of the weakest in the nation.  Plenty of baseball left to be played.

[CrashDavisD3]

CMS gives up 4 in the bottom of the ninth to drop the first game of the doubleheader to Chapman, 6-5. Painful to watch.

Thats rough to say the least.

Pretty standard weekend in the SCIAC with the exception of Whittier taking 1 from Pomona.  I think each team played the same way they have all year.

Pomona- tough loss in game 3
Oxy- sweep of Cal Tech but game 2 was scoreless in the top of the 6th.  I just can't buy into this team at all.
Chapman- Swept CMS but as mentioned above, needed a complete meltdown to win game 2.
CLU- got shut down in game 1 and crushed Redlands in the double header.
Whittier- Looks like they can swing it a little bit.  Got one from Pomona which was likely unexpected.
CMS- Is the season over yet???
La Verne- Split 4 non-conference games.  Only scored 16 runs in 4 games and I just don't think their hitting is strong enough to win the SCIAC.
Cal Tech- obviously much improved and playing a few teams pretty close.  Gave up a bunch of big innings on Saturday.
Redlands- great pitching on Friday then their lack of depth showed on Saturday giving up 24 runs.

My 4 for the conference tournament right now are Pomona, CLU, Chapman and La Verne or Oxy.  Oxy finally gets into the tougher part of their schedule after starting out with one of the weakest in the nation.  Plenty of baseball left to be played.

Oxy 4-1 win over Cal Tech with OXY scoring only 1 EARNED RUN....Not very impressive for a team that is 13-2 and sitting on top of the SCIAC today. That should end before next Monday IMO...

[Jack Parkman]

Oxy beats #23 Bridgewater and moves up a notch in my book.  That puts them at notch 1.  Good win for Oxy.

[Colorado]

Oxy beats #23 Bridgewater and moves up a notch in my book.  That puts them at notch 1.  Good win for Oxy.

I agree. Much is said about Oxy's "easy" schedule but if it was that easy why doesn't everyone do it? There's a point where winning gets to be a habit and kids start to believe.  They are winning all of the games that they need to win so Maybe if they can steal a series or 2 from Pomona-Pitzer, La Verne, Redlands, Whittier and Cal Lu in the next few weeks, they could be in the hunt at the end of the season.     

Re Chapman, I like their chances of having a good "in region" overall record at the end if they can get their pitching in order:  A couple weeks back, they had one of those "star is born" moments with Tabor Watson. He came in against Cal Lu and shut them out over the last 7 innings to salvage the last game of their series. He's yet to give up an earned run ( 8 app-28 K's in 18 IP) and is racking up the K's with a high 80's FB. This year, T is having trouble getting consistency from his #1 and #3 SP's especially when they pitch against the better teams (Trinity and Cal Lu).  In years past, T liked to have a fireballer as a closer (if you remember John Semel in '09 and Kurt Yacko in "08 who both went pro) but last year, attempting to salvage the season, he put his closer into the starting rotation at mid season and Chapman seem to do better in the 2d half. Having Watson as a SP seems to better their odds of winning a weekend series and gives the other promising freshmen starter (Smith-who pitched well last weekend against CMS) a chance to develop without the pressure.  Plus Watson has a good back story. He came in last year as a transfer and started the season as the starting 2B and presumptive closer. He Faltered badly at both positions and found himself benched after a month of struggling -- only to resurrect himself at catcher in the 2d half because of his defensive skills/strong arm.  Now, he is in the midst of a dream season and maybe Chapman should jump on his back and go along for the ride. 

[Richard Hamstocks]

Oxy beats #23 Bridgewater and moves up a notch in my book.  That puts them at notch 1.  Good win for Oxy.

I agree. Much is said about Oxy's "easy" schedule but if it was that easy why doesn't everyone do it?

Because if you don't win the pool A bid, you have no chance at a pool C. 

[108 Stitches]

Good stuff Colorado, nice to see a little intelligent insight.

I don't think anyone has said Oxy is a "bad" team, just that their W-L record does not necessarily earn them a spot on the "Crashes top teams in the West" list. (very vaunted place I might add) Last year U of Dallas started out winning 9 or 10, and ended up a respectable 23-17. They were a good baseball team, just not a "top team in the West".

Winning is contagious so lets see what happens. 

[CrashDavisD3]

Monday's Chapman - Kean  game was one the best of the rivalry and one of the most exciting games Chapman/Kean games I have seen. I have been watching these teams battle against each other since 2007 both in Orange CA and Appleton, WI

Chapman 3 Kean 1
http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/bsb/2012-13/boxscores/20130311_6lls.xml

http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/bsb/2012-13/releases/20130312oipzl9

WOW is all I can say....The play of the Chapman Freshman are AMAZING. They learning quick. Hitting & pitching. Outstanding pitching by both sides. ...Chapman could surprise a few people this year with this young team including me.

They also have a closer that reminds me of a another Chapman closer from a few years back. Taber Watson for Chapman faced 6 Kean batters and struck out 4 out of the 6 batters he faced to get his 5th save. He has an outstanding fastball and very unhittable slider and thrives to shut down a team with runners on base. He has 32k's in 20.1 IP ERA 0.00.

Outstanding pitching performance by Chapman from FR RHP Connor Williams. In his 1st college game he only gives up 1 run on against one of the top teams in the country. Could he be that pitcher Chapman needs....

This weekend will be a great series Chapman vs Pomona-Pitzer. Key series for the Panthers to see if will have a shot at making the TOP 4 to make the SCIAC tournament,

[CrashDavisD3]

Oxy beats #23 Bridgewater and moves up a notch in my book.  That puts them at notch 1.  Good win for Oxy.

Great win for Oxy...If they can beat Ithaca and take 2 from Cal Lu, they will deserve a top 25 ranking IMO. They are winning the games they supposed to win. This could be their year to step out of the middle of the SCIAC and prove to everyone that many are wrong including me and others.

It happens. They have swept Austin, La Sierra, Claremont, Cal Tech and if they scored a few more runs against Chapman they would have swept them also. By next Monday OXY could have many believers. It getting hard to ignore a team with a 14-2 record. They could be 17-3 or 16-4 by next Monday....

OXY(14-2) gets no love in the TOP 25 poll this week while Pomona-Pitzer(13-4), Cal Lu(9-5-1) and La Verne(11-6) all got votes.
http://www.d3baseball.com/top25/2013/2013week-3

[CrashDavisD3]

Chapman News - http://www.ocregister.com/news/going-498218-field-year.html

[CrashDavisD3]

Monday's Chapman - Kean  game was one the best of the rivalry and one of the most exciting games Chapman/Kean games I have seen. I have been watching these teams battle against each other since 2007 both in Orange CA and Appleton, WI

Chapman 3 Kean 1
http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/bsb/2012-13/boxscores/20130311_6lls.xml

http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/bsb/2012-13/releases/20130312oipzl9

WOW is all I can say....The play of the Chapman Freshman are AMAZING. They learning quick. Hitting & pitching. Outstanding pitching by both sides. ...Chapman could surprise a few people this year with this young team including me.

They also have a closer that reminds me of a another Chapman closer from a few years back. Taber Watson for Chapman faced 6 Kean batters and struck out 4 out of the 6 batters he faced to get his 5th save. He has an outstanding fastball and very unhittable slider and thrives to shut down a team with runners on base. He has 32k's in 20.1 IP ERA 0.00.

Outstanding pitching performance by Chapman from FR RHP Connor Williams. In his 1st college game he only gives up 1 run on against one of the top teams in the country. Could he be that pitcher Chapman needs....

This weekend will be a great series Chapman vs Pomona-Pitzer. Key series for the Panthers to see if will have a shot at making the TOP 4 to make the SCIAC tournament,

http://www.keanathletics.com/sports/bsb/2012-13/releases/031113

[CrashDavisD3]

Several SCIAC players/teams can be in the NCAA top players/teams

http://www.ncaa.com/stats/baseball/d3/current/individual/200/p1

[CrashDavisD3]

Who is better?

Occidental(15-2)
Pomona-Pitzer(13-4)

[CrashDavisD3]

Big SCIAC Games Today

http://www.thesciac.org/sports/bsb/2012-13/standings

5 teams are TIED for 2nd place in the very tight SCIAC conference. Only the top 4 SPOTS go on to the SCIAC tournament for Pool A bid on May 3-5

Pomona-Pitzer(8-4) @ Chapman(8-4). Both are tied for 2nd place in SCIAC Conference with 8-4 conference records

Occidental(7-2) @ Cal Lutheran(6-3). 1ST Place vs 2nd place in SCIAC Conference.

6 teams have a shot being in 1st in the SCIAC conference by Monday