BB: NACC: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

[WLCALUM83]

5-01 NAthCon Final:

Rockford 6, North Park 4  (Regents built a 6-1 lead and then held on. In North Park's last at bat, with one out and the tying runs aboard, Clay retired the last 2 batters he faced, per Rockford box score.)

[WLCALUM83]

Remaining conference schedule for contending in NAthCon teams 5/02-06 in conference)

5-02  Concordia-Chicago @ MSOE

5-03  Dominican @ Aurora
         Rockford @ Benedictine
         Concordia-WI @ Marian
         Lakeland @ Edgewood

5-04  Benedictine @ Edgewood

A Concordia-Chicago sweep clinches a post-season tournament spot for the Cougars. Benedictine could split in each of the IL Eagles' last 2 regular season DH's and still get in. That would leave Aurora, Marian and Edgewood in a dogfight for the final playoff spot. Unless Benedictine goes 0-4 I'd say Aurora has the best shot at getting the last spot.
         

[Just Bill]

According to their preview on their web site, if Edgewood sweeps all four, they get in.  EC would win a head-to-head tiebreaker over Aurora (because EC beat Rockford and AU didn't), a head-to-head tiebreaker over Marian (because they swept them) and they would win a three-way tiebreak between those schools on head-to-head-to-head record (EC 3-1, AU 2-2, MC 1-3).

If EC goes 3-1 then they need both Aurora and Marian to drop 1 of 2 as well.

[WLCALUM83]

5/02-03 NAthCon Finals:

5-02:  Aurora 14, U of Chicago 13  (Spartans got a 3-run 8th and then the final out with a potential tying Maroon run on base, per Aurora box score).

5-03:  Marian sweeps Concordia-WI  6-5 and 9-7  G1 11 innings.  (Sabers took the opener when the Falcon left-fielder misplayed a fly ball allowing the winning run to score;  G2  Sabers scored 7 of their runs in the first 2 innings, then held on for the sweep, per Marian box scores.)

Benedictine sweeps Rockford, 12-11 and 13-1. (G1, Ben rallies from a 10-4 deficit, and a Cariosia single drives in 2 to give the IL Eagles the win;  G2 7 innings, Eagles scored in all but 2nd and 3rd innings.)

Edgewood splits with Lakeland  7-8 and 4-1  (Muskies plated 4 in the 9th to win the opener, Dictus and Marlowe pitched well to enable the WI Eagle squad the split, per Lakeland press release.)

Aurora sweeps Dominican, 5-4 and 15-5  (G1, Spartans took a 5-2 lead on a K Williamson 2-RBI single, then held on;  G2, Aurora plated 2 in 2nd and 5 in 3rd to turn the nightcap into a rout.)

WLC splits with Maranatha 8-5 and 6-8.


With those results, Benedictine has clinched a NAthCon tournament spot. Edgewood falls to 12-8--. Unless CUC splits with MSOE, it'll come down to a tie-breaker between Marian and Aurora for the final NAthCon tournament playoff spot.
Ben and Edgewood also play today to finish the in-conference season.

[WLCALUM83]

5-04 NAthCon Finals:

Benedictine splits with Edgewood, 3-17 and 14-4. (WI Eagles' Kreuger throws CG in G1, in which 7 of Edgewood's runs were unearned; G2 Benedictine scored 11 runs in first 3 innings to turn the nightcap into a rout.)

Concordia-Chicago splits with MSOE  16-2 and 8-7 (G1, Bickell, Rotzoll and Rush go yard for the Cougars, In G2, Raiders plated 2 in bottom of 9th on a Gorzelnik HR and a 2-out RBI single by Curtin).

U of Chicago 8, Rockford 5 (Maroons used a 6-run 3rd to take the lead, then McConologue got B Smith to strike out with 2 runners on base in the 9th to end it.)

Rockford 19, Carthage 3  (Regents shot out to a 15-2 lead after 4 innings.  Red Men started a pitcher who hadn't had any decisions all season.) 

     (Sources for all games are NAthCon box scores.)

[WLCALUM83]

NAthCon Post-Season Tournament Teams Are:

Benedictine, Rockford, Marian and Concordia-Chicago. (Apparently Aurora lost out on tiebreakers.)

Opening matchups:  Ben/Rockford and CUC/Marian.

[Just Bill]

Complete NAC Baseball Tournament coverage:

http://www.edgewoodcollegeeagles.com/nacbaseball/2008/

Live Stats and Live Audio are available for every game.

[Just Bill]

NAthCon Post-Season Tournament Teams Are:

Benedictine, Rockford, Marian and Concordia-Chicago. (Apparently Aurora lost out on tiebreakers.)

Opening matchups:  Ben/Rockford and CUC/Marian.

The three-way tiebreaker went to head-to-head-to-head comparison which went like this:
MC:    3-1
CUC:  2-2
AU:     1-3

Marian's sweep over AU last week was the big blow.

[soxfan14]

NAthCon Post-Season Tournament Teams Are:

Benedictine, Rockford, Marian and Concordia-Chicago. (Apparently Aurora lost out on tiebreakers.)

Opening matchups:  Ben/Rockford and CUC/Marian.

Seeds for nac tourn.
1 Benedictine
2 Rockford
3 Marian
4 Con.-Chi

per conference website
www.northernathletisconf.com/sports/baseball/

[soxfan14]

conference website

www.northernathleticsconf.com/sports/baseball

my spelling mistake on previous post
all thumbs today

[goldengear]

copy of my post on the national board about Pool B contenders

Not a good weekend for some of the Pool B's good for others:

Good:
Conc (ILL)--Beat MSOE once
St. Scholastica sweeps DH vs Bethany Luth.

Bad:
Rockford--Loses 2 against Benedictine & 1 to U of Chicago
                Beats up on Carthage          Really hurts Carthage in Pool C
Ithaca--Loss @ Oneonta                 Probably can afford the losses
             Loss vs PS-Behrend
             Win vs York (Pa)

Ugly:
St. Johns Fischer--Loses 4 in a row to RIT (ouch)
Juniata--Split with U of Scranton     also ugly
              Loss vs Catholic

Salisbury, Chapman, Piedmont: No Worries they're in...
Emory is playing the waiting game.

Great assessment!  +1 

Before you classify Conc-Il as having a "good" week, you will need to take into account while they did beat MSOE , they also lost to them, and MSOE is not a good team to say the least.

My guess is that there will be one contender for Pool B/C to come out of the Nathcon, that would be whomever wins the post season tourney, Rockford and Benendictine are co regular season champions, If either of them or Conc-Chi wins out in the tourney that will be their contender, Rockford and Conc-Chi would be the strongest contender if they win but they would basically eliminate themselves if they do not. I don't see Marian going even if they win, if Benedictine wins they will have a shot but perhaps less so than Rock or Conc-Chi.

Whether that contender makes the cut or not is open to debate, I would tend to think that they will make it, due to 1.) the winner will be pretty much equal with other contenders in the applicable criteria, 2.) the down year of Washington Univ in St. Louis leaves an extra spot in the Central Region (yes I know they can move teams from region to region but there does seem to be a slight reluctance to do so and that may favor a Nathcon team) 3.) I think the ncaa will find it hard to let a 12 school member conference get shut out two years in a row, especially as it would be a close call, last year champions was right there but did not make it, to have another champion with solid enough credentials get shut out would probably cause a problem on some level, there has already been some uproar about another sport.

That all being said, Nathcon does alot of things that don't quite make sense, they could have organized their conference in such a way as to not have to wait 2 years for the AQ from what I've been told (it is basically the merger of a couple conferences, which I believe had AQs). Also the typical weekend sees teams playing a minimum of 36 conference innings, 9 inning double headers saturday and sunday, then throw in some inevitable rainouts and you end up playing 54, 72, or 90 conference innings a week then try to beat some of the non conference regional opponents on your off day. What do you need a 20 man pitching staff to do that? In comparison the CCIW plays 2-9's and 1-7 a week, much easy on the staffs and their teams ability to win non conference games. Then you move on to the upcoming tourney, they squeeze a 4 team double elimination into two days, Friday you have 1-4 and 2-3, then wg1-wg2, then lg1-lg2, then Saturday they make the 2 remaining teams play at 9 am, after playing 2 games the previous day and then the winner of that needs to beat the 2-0 team twice thereby winning 3 straight 9 inning games on a Saturday, who comes up with this stuff a bean counter?

I'll post this also on the Natcon board as most of it seems to be conference issues.

[soxfan14]

copy of my post on the national board about Pool B contenders

Not a good weekend for some of the Pool B's good for others:

Good:
Conc (ILL)--Beat MSOE once
St. Scholastica sweeps DH vs Bethany Luth.

Bad:
Rockford--Loses 2 against Benedictine & 1 to U of Chicago
                Beats up on Carthage          Really hurts Carthage in Pool C
Ithaca--Loss @ Oneonta                 Probably can afford the losses
             Loss vs PS-Behrend
             Win vs York (Pa)

Ugly:
St. Johns Fischer--Loses 4 in a row to RIT (ouch)
Juniata--Split with U of Scranton     also ugly
              Loss vs Catholic

Salisbury, Chapman, Piedmont: No Worries they're in...
Emory is playing the waiting game.

Great assessment!  +1 

Before you classify Conc-Il as having a "good" week, you will need to take into account while they did beat MSOE , they also lost to them, and MSOE is not a good team to say the least.

My guess is that there will be one contender for Pool B/C to come out of the Nathcon, that would be whomever wins the post season tourney, Rockford and Benendictine are co regular season champions, If either of them or Conc-Chi wins out in the tourney that will be their contender, Rockford and Conc-Chi would be the strongest contender if they win but they would basically eliminate themselves if they do not. I don't see Marian going even if they win, if Benedictine wins they will have a shot but perhaps less so than Rock or Conc-Chi.

Whether that contender makes the cut or not is open to debate, I would tend to think that they will make it, due to 1.) the winner will be pretty much equal with other contenders in the applicable criteria, 2.) the down year of Washington Univ in St. Louis leaves an extra spot in the Central Region (yes I know they can move teams from region to region but there does seem to be a slight reluctance to do so and that may favor a Nathcon team) 3.) I think the ncaa will find it hard to let a 12 school member conference get shut out two years in a row, especially as it would be a close call, last year champions was right there but did not make it, to have another champion with solid enough credentials get shut out would probably cause a problem on some level, there has already been some uproar about another sport.

That all being said, Nathcon does alot of things that don't quite make sense, they could have organized their conference in such a way as to not have to wait 2 years for the AQ from what I've been told (it is basically the merger of a couple conferences, which I believe had AQs). Also the typical weekend sees teams playing a minimum of 36 conference innings, 9 inning double headers saturday and sunday, then throw in some inevitable rainouts and you end up playing 54, 72, or 90 conference innings a week then try to beat some of the non conference regional opponents on your off day. What do you need a 20 man pitching staff to do that? In comparison the CCIW plays 2-9's and 1-7 a week, much easy on the staffs and their teams ability to win non conference games. Then you move on to the upcoming tourney, they squeeze a 4 team double elimination into two days, Friday you have 1-4 and 2-3, then wg1-wg2, then lg1-lg2, then Saturday they make the 2 remaining teams play at 9 am, after playing 2 games the previous day and then the winner of that needs to beat the 2-0 team twice thereby winning 3 straight 9 inning games on a Saturday, who comes up with this stuff a bean counter?

I'll post this also on the Natcon board as most of it seems to be conference issues.

From what i understeand the merging of the old NIIC and Lake michigan conferences lost the AQ because of the name change of the conference which meant they had to have a new set of bylaws. It does not seem fair that the kids that have been Juniors and Seniors have had to go into the last 2 seasons with a smaller chance of making the tour.(ie no AQ)and it really put alot of pressure to try and win all their (conf and non conf.) games. it does appear that the schools from the NAC are not on the same equal playing field when it comes to non conf regional games.But after this year that will change.
As far as the9 inning conf. games it sure does take a toll on all the pitching staffs and because of this and all the rain makeup rescheduling results in some unforseen upsets with the top tier and bottom tier teams.
If you look at all the teams that either made the conf. tour. or near the top they all  had at least 1or maybe more losses to some of the bottom four teams that really effected the standings and their possible ranking in the region.
The sceduling of reg conf. games and makeup of the tour is a little unusual but most of the players i have come in contact with just want to play as much as possible so they probably don't take into account the format or total innings they need to play.
Good luck to the four schools playing this weekend in Rockford. If you can make time Riverhawks Stadium is great place to watch a game.

[knarocky22]

That Carthage loss to Rockford doesn't hurt Carthage's Pool C chances at all.  The Red Men are in no matter what.

Also, the "if necessary" CCIW championship game is played on Sunday, not Saturday.  One team does not play 3 games in one day.

[WLCALUM83]

Some Pre-NAthCon Tournament Statistical Analysis  (Based on regular season in-conference only:)

Team with Highest Batting Avg.:  Rockford
Team with Most Dangerous Power O:  Concordia-Chicago (19 HR's 133 RBI)
Team with Lowest Batting Avg.:  Marian (.297)

Rockford had the lowest ERA of the 4 (3.32)
Benedictine the highest (4.72)

Source is the following link:

http://northernathleticsconf.com/sports/baseball/statistics/2008/lgconf.htm

Team Fielding--Best:  Concordia-Chicago
Worst of 4:  Marian.

Tournament Itself:

Should Concordia-Chicago and Rockford win their first games, it'll set up a real "fly on the wall" type match-up between both of those squads in their second game. Benedictine's offense came up big in the IL Eagles last win vs. Edgewood (and Vicenti's in the bullpen for them should they have a late lead.)  Marian's won its' last 5 in-conference games, and Dayton and Raddant have pitched some strong games this season.

$6,400 question:  Cougars are in a bit of a quandary. What's more important to them? Beating Carthage today, or going for the sweep of the NAthCon Tournament? 

(Just as a side note, even if the men get shut out of the D3 tournament, Aurora's softball team did get in on the women's side, so NAthCon wasn't totally shut-out on the diamond this season.) 

[bigdog55]

In past years, the Cougars have pitched 6-7 guys as a tune up for the Conference Tournament........ However, this game holds A LOT more than in past years.  Should be interesting. 

Another note on the game is that it is switched to Benedictine University at 7:30.  It has been said there was a travel schedule problem for Carthage.  Should be an interesting game to say the least.