BB: SCIAC: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[BigPoppa]

But OXY is a classic place to play... great setting with short porches all around. Fans riding you left and right... love it!

[Tom Brady]

Yes!  I love the fact that we are starting to talk a little hardball.  Here is my idea of what will happen this year...

Cal Lu and La Verne will probably battle for the title but there are 2 teams they might want to watch out for.  Claremont and Redlands both want to knock those two teams out of the top spot.  I really don't know much about any of the players in the SCIAC, but Cal Lu always has legit players and it seems like the same over in LaVerne.  One thing I do know is that OXY will not be a spoiler to the SCIAC, they will finish at the bottom like they have a lot recently.
On the subject of Pomona, I just don't see them being able to get the freshman to compete.....yet.  If they have 4 good freshman than they might be a year of two away.
I agree OXY needs more seats.  I saw a game there a few years back and it was bad.  They have that big hill right behind the field which would be a sweet place to build it into more of a "stadium".  Keep up the talk, I love it.

[Browneagle64]

Vaughn

I have to agree with you on having more seats around the baseball field at Oxy. During my senior year, i used to hang around that place to do my homework and reading. On my free time, i would just imagine what the field would look like if there were seats on top of the hills. And yes, i must agree with you, if seats were there it would look like a small scale stadium. This would make a huge upgrade to the school's field.

I hope you guys are right in thinking that the 4 freshmen at Pomona can do a lot. Just that i've never come across any info from the past that says that a team with 4 freshmen can reach the top..........


Btw------who do you guys think is the best pitcher as of today in the league.? Who's the best closer?

[BigPoppa]

I hope you guys are right in thinking that the 4 freshmen at Pomona can do a lot. Just that i've never come across any info from the past that says that a team with 4 freshmen can reach the top..........

I know it can be done... Carthage College reached the Final Four in the 1993 World Series with four freshman starters... 3 infielders and 1 outfielder. It just depends on how well those kids perform.

Oxy's field could be amazing if they spent a little money on it... the hill would be a great place to put some seating, unless you enjoy students sitting in the grass behind rightfield heckleing your rightfielder... the hecklers could be much more effective if they were shouting distance from the pitchers.

[BigPoppa]

Here is just a thought that popped into my head... would the SCIAC be a better conference IF Chapman entered for baseball? I know they are independent right now, that is beside the point.

Do you think it would hurt the rest of the conference if Chapman ran away with the title? I know that LaVerna and Cal Lu are both well-respected programs right now, but would they lose some credibility if they got pushed down a notch with the addition of Chapman?

...or...

Would it help the conference in terms of raising the quality of play? Would they possibly get a second bid from the conference?

Like I said, no offenses meant, just something that crossed my mind.

[pomonaalum]

Oxy is a great place to play, but damn, those fences are short.  I gave up a pop-up homer to CF there one time that went maybe 350-360.

As far as hecklers, one of the better venues is Azusa Pacific, I think - where there are apartment style dorms in left field...

[Tom Brady]

Yeah the fences at OXY are pretty small.  You would think they would hit a lot more home runs there.  I went and watched Cal Lu play at Redlands a few years back and they had a bunch of guys in the apartments behind the field with signs and a megaphone.  It was pretty classic.  Any big games on tap for the weekend?

[Browneagle64]

Anyone with a megaphone at a game gets hats off from me. Anywho's, I know that Oxy-had a good game against Cal tech, ( I know , I know), but what where the other scores across the league. I though their would be a gathering of the faithful leeting us know what happen during the weekend games.


As for seeing chapman join the SCIAC... that would be a huge addition. This would indeed let other teams like Cal-lu, La Vern Oxy , Redlands, etc... see first hand what a D-3 baseball powerhouse team feels like. In addition, it would help them know how real good teams play steller defense in baseball. 

Or they could find a way to do non-league scheduling to have chapman...

[BigPoppa]

Most of the SCIAC schools already play Chapman in non-conf games. It would be interesting to see them throw their big dogs at Chapman during the week instead of Chapman seeing the #4s all week as the school rest the 1-3 for the weekend games.

I am sure Chapman would still do very well against them, but it would make things tougher for them.

[Browneagle64]

Thats a good point , Poppa, I have to say. I didn't know that coachs would be doing that against a team like chapman. (by the way---- just to clear things Poppa---by 1-3's you mean the starting pitchers right. ) If so, you are so right on the money.........

In that case, that's like having the Dodger's sending in their best 3 pitchers to face a good yankee team during the week, instead of the weekend.

[BigPoppa]

Thats a good point , Poppa, I have to say. I didn't know that coachs would be doing that against a team like chapman. (by the way---- just to clear things Poppa---by 1-3's you mean the starting pitchers right. ) If so, you are so right on the money.........

Yes... #1-3 would be the pitching. Most schools will save there #1, #2 and #3 for the conference games on the weekends.. and rightfully so.

[Browneagle64]

That would be rightfully so-----

But that would give the starters excellent experince in playing with better competition. I understand that the coaches might want their pitchers to be fresh, or just to have a low ERA, but this would teach them how to be better picters. I hope coaches would send their big dogs against a #4 ranked team just to make the game an OLD classic pitchers dual that would be worth watching.

[pomonaalum]

well, a Chapman player did hit for the cycle in back-to-back games against Pomona...you read that right, same guy hit for the cycle on both Friday and Saturday.

Pomona was off last weekend, back to action this coming weekend.

[Tom Brady]

Chapmans schedule would help any team around So Cal.  You know you will have your top guys starting every game.  Look at their stats from last year.  Its a joke when teams like Claremont or Whittier have to play Chapman mid-week and have Chapman throw it's #1 against the entire bullpen from a SCIAC school going into a conference series.  The only way to change it- have Chapman join the SCIAC.  I know that won't happen so looks like we are SOL.

[Ralph Turner]

Actually, it is not to Chapman's advantage in baseball to join the SCIAC.

They catch the mid-week pitching staff for every mid-week game!