BB: SLIAC: St Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[#1PantherFan]

Eureka joins Westminster, MacMurray, & Principia in naming a new head coach during this off-season in the SLIAC.
http://www.sliac.org/sports/bsb/2011-12/releases/eureka_clark_090211

[theoneandonly]

Whose ready for the 2012 baseball season!?! any updates on guys that are coming into the SLIAC this season?

[WU FAN]

Interesting start to the season already in the SLIAC with spalding at 5-0 and Webster is 0-3 after a rough weekend in Arkansas.

[Yatzee]

Webster ends the weekend with a 4 game sweep in the Cavallo Classic beating Grinnell College 4-1, 4-0 and Millikin University 13-1, 10-2. Webster is now 4-3 heading into their spring break trip to Florida.

[theoneandonly]

It looks to me like webster beat up on the bad teams and didnt fair so well against the better teams. However its tough for teams out of the St. Louis area to get outside and on the field before spring break, even with this freak of a winter. Spaulding is playing some good ball. Prin beat up a bad team and well.

[Yatzee]

Yes the teams Webster played last weekend were not as good as the Hendrix team they played in Arkansas. However, (not using this as an excuse for them just stating a fact) it is much harder to beat a good team that has already played 9 games on your opening weekend. It looks like in the first two games at Hendrix Webster had them beat, but had one bad inning and couldn't recuperate from it. That being said, I feel if they played Hendrix again down they road Webster would win at least 70% of the time. Webster's spring break trip outcome will show us if Webster will be a good team this year since it looks like they will be playing some good competition. 

[BigPoppa]

It looks to me like webster beat up on the bad teams and didnt fair so well against the better teams. However its tough for teams out of the St. Louis area to get outside and on the field before spring break, even with this freak of a winter. Spaulding is playing some good ball. Prin beat up a bad team and well.

From my preview of the SLIAC last year:
St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC): Can they keep up this pace? The Webster Gorloks have destroyed the rest of the conference by amassing an 80-9 conference record since 2007 and gaining four of the past five NCAA bids. The 2011 season will force them to replace one of the most decorated SLIAC pitchers in recent history as all-American Will Savage graduated and moved on to professional baseball. If the Gorloks are to continue their success, they need to find some arms to fill the massive hole left by Savage... but they may have to look no further than junior pitcher David Mueller (8-1, 2.08 ERA) who served at Webster's #2 last year. How he handles the role of staff ace will determine their season. Sophomore Cody Stephenson(.360, 27 SB) returns to lead the offense. One potential rival is second- year member Spalding, led by the all-conference arm of Jake Wardrip (5-4, 55K). They return two sophomores in P Frank Carter and DH Zane Wheatley who were both given second-team accolades in 2010. Greenville made quite a run in 2010, but gone are both conference Player of the Year, Stefan Neece and Pitcher of the Year, Matt Leefers. Greenville will lean heavily on sophomore utility man Kyle Winter (.310, 29 R) to spark an offense that may have lost more than it can handle this year. The SLIAC will most likely be a one bid conference when they NCAA comes calling in May so just getting into the post-season conference tournament gives anyone a fighting chance (see Greenville in 2009 who knocked off a 24-0 Webster squad). Where a team finishes in this conference is not nearly as important as how they finish, provided they can make it into the top four.


I like Spaulding... I was high on them last year, but I may have been a year early. They could give Webster a run for the title this year.

[theoneandonly]

BigPoppa, first of all hello again, it sure was a LONG offseason! I agree with you and remember you making these statements. and Yatzee, I completely agree with you as well. Only judging from the boxscores of course it looks like webster had them beat. The 8 run 6th inning helps for sure. Hendrix to my knowledge is still a fairly new program (10 years or so) I have had the opportunity to travel there a few times and they have a decent facility as well. Back to the product they put on the field, they seem to compete every year, but yes the 9 game head start definatly helps. They have also upset UT-Tyler this year who was ranked 23rd at the time. That being said they have always been known for being a team that battles back. Also, in 2009 their schedule the second most difficult in the country and that season they set a school record for wins in a season which is pretty impressive.

[Yatzee]

Spalding has definitely stepped up their game. If I remember correctly they had the SLIAC conference title won by 1 game after going 1-2 vs. Webster last year but dropped some key match-ups in their final few conference games to hand the title back to Webster. The Spalding vs. Webster series this year will definitely be one to go watch.

[Yatzee]

Webster ended up going 3-3 in the spring break trip. Pitching seems to be the only thing keeping them in games right now. Hitting hasn't come around yet from what I can tell from the games they lost in Florida (1-0, 4-1, 2-1). Having lost 6 games with a sub 3 ERA, looks like the pitchers will have to start throwing shutouts until the hitting starts getting better if they want to win. Webster has 2 tough match-ups this week playing Washington University tomorrow and Illinois State University on Sunday.

[y_jack_lok]

I saw the Webster/Wash U game on Wednesday. Learned from one Webster rehabbing pitcher that there are three others on the pitching staff who had surgery in the fall. I didn't ask, but I doubt any of the 4 of them will be playing this season. Also, in that game Webster's shortstop and 3rd baseman both got hit in the face by really hard grounders that took bad hops. Both guys had to come out of the game. Not sure of the extent of the injuries. I know they were bad, though hopefully not season ending. Webster's batters had a reasonably good day as did Wash U's. The game was winnable for Webster if the starting pitcher hadn't had a dreadful first inning, the aforementioned bad hops hadn't happened, and there hadn't been one bad throw that allowed two runs to score. But, hey, that's baseball.

[Yatzee]

Websters shortstop started all 3 games today vs Principia and the third baseman was the starting pitcher in game 3. Webster won 17-0, 9-5, 15-10. Webster is 10-7 on the season 3-0 conference.

[OshDude]

Fontbonne and Maryville were on Deadspin today for a recounting of the 2009 SLIAC championship.

[Yatzee]

Spalding posts another SLIAC loss to Westminster. Spalding 6-2 Webster 7-0

[Ralph Turner]

Lubbock in your rear view mirror.

Texas Tech's World Champion Chess Team is getting full scholarships by transferring to Webster.