BB: SLIAC: St Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[HangEmBangEm]

I was at the game. Unfortunately for Blackburn it is going to be a long season unless the defense can improve. The first game was a real tragedy for Ward, starting pitcher. He had good stuff got 6 strikeouts in 6 innings, gave up five hits (that I saw anyway) but still allowed 9 runs.

Just a few low lights, pop foul dropped, a give me double play kicked like a soccer ball, the right fielder fell down while fielding a routine fly and the ball hit him, of course he failed to catch it. And to top it off the center fielder came charging in on a hit to center, and he was still coming in as it passed over his head.

He has to be the absolute worst outfielder in the sliac. You know the old joke about why Cinderella ddn't make the baseball team? She ran away from the ball. That was the Blackburn center fielder tonight. Not only that but he was dogging it on every ball hit to him. He had a shot on a play at home but didn't even make the attempt. I don't know his name but he will never get it mentioned as player of the week, unless its April Fools Day.

The above is just the short list of poor defense. Bad throws, mishandled the balls, throwing to the wrong base and lack of hustle cost Blackburn the game. Unfortunately I think only two errors where awarded.

Ward's ERA is going to be double digit as a result of the poor play behind him. Too bad for him, too bad for Coach Neal, too bad for the fans they all deserved better.

The real shame is that kids in third world countries could have used the leather wasted on gloves at Blackburn for shoes.

With a good defense (not a great one) Ward would have given up 1 or 2 runs and Blackburn would have won. No kidding.

I also made it to this game and did not think for a second that the blackburn pitching itself was enough to hold off Webster's offence. Defence aside it was not going to happen. Blame it on errors all you want but Blackburn just does not have enough to take down Webster. On a sidenote, this post is absolutely terrible. Calling out specific players is not only uncalled for it is just plain despicable. Grow up and learn to be upset without being completely ruthless. The playing conditions were terrible for one, this contributed to some misplayed balls on both sides. Calling out specific players from blackburn does not make them look bad, it makes you look terrible for being imature enough to write something that terrible.

[theoneandonly]

Hangembangem, I agreen Karma+1

[VideoDawg]

I was at the game. Unfortunately for Blackburn it is going to be a long season unless the defense can improve. The first game was a real tragedy for Ward, starting pitcher. He had good stuff got 6 strikeouts in 6 innings, gave up five hits (that I saw anyway) but still allowed 9 runs.

Just a few low lights, pop foul dropped, a give me double play kicked like a soccer ball, the right fielder fell down while fielding a routine fly and the ball hit him, of course he failed to catch it. And to top it off the center fielder came charging in on a hit to center, and he was still coming in as it passed over his head.

He has to be the absolute worst outfielder in the sliac. You know the old joke about why Cinderella ddn't make the baseball team? She ran away from the ball. That was the Blackburn center fielder tonight. Not only that but he was dogging it on every ball hit to him. He had a shot on a play at home but didn't even make the attempt. I don't know his name but he will never get it mentioned as player of the week, unless its April Fools Day.

The above is just the short list of poor defense. Bad throws, mishandled the balls, throwing to the wrong base and lack of hustle cost Blackburn the game. Unfortunately I think only two errors where awarded.

Ward's ERA is going to be double digit as a result of the poor play behind him. Too bad for him, too bad for Coach Neal, too bad for the fans they all deserved better.

The real shame is that kids in third world countries could have used the leather wasted on gloves at Blackburn for shoes.

With a good defense (not a great one) Ward would have given up 1 or 2 runs and Blackburn would have won. No kidding.

I also made it to this game and did not think for a second that the blackburn pitching itself was enough to hold off Webster's offence. Defence aside it was not going to happen. Blame it on errors all you want but Blackburn just does not have enough to take down Webster. On a sidenote, this post is absolutely terrible. Calling out specific players is not only uncalled for it is just plain despicable. Grow up and learn to be upset without being completely ruthless. The playing conditions were terrible for one, this contributed to some misplayed balls on both sides. Calling out specific players from blackburn does not make them look bad, it makes you look terrible for being imature enough to write something that terrible.

First of all I have said I will watch the personal comments in the future and did recognize that I was too hard on Blackburn. Secondly no one had a problem when I broke down all the pitching in the whole conference preseason, naming names warts and all.

Lastly, I doubt you were at the game or you need to up your eye glass prescription. 8 of Webster's 9 Runs came in two innings when all of the misplays I described took place plus others I did not mention. The fifth inning had the blown "give me" double play plus many others and the third inning had the dropped pop foul (with two outs) and the unrecorded error (when the right fielder slipped and the ball hit him but he didn't catch it). Not to mention many more.

Take away the poor defense in those innings and Webster loses 1 or 2 to 5. The Blackburn pitcher faced the minimum batters in the 1st, the 2nd, the 4th and Webster earned 1 run in the 6th. None of those innings had poor defense.

Two innings of poor defense doomed Blackburn nothing more.

[HangEmBangEm]

I was at the game. Unfortunately for Blackburn it is going to be a long season unless the defense can improve. The first game was a real tragedy for Ward, starting pitcher. He had good stuff got 6 strikeouts in 6 innings, gave up five hits (that I saw anyway) but still allowed 9 runs.

Just a few low lights, pop foul dropped, a give me double play kicked like a soccer ball, the right fielder fell down while fielding a routine fly and the ball hit him, of course he failed to catch it. And to top it off the center fielder came charging in on a hit to center, and he was still coming in as it passed over his head.

He has to be the absolute worst outfielder in the sliac. You know the old joke about why Cinderella ddn't make the baseball team? She ran away from the ball. That was the Blackburn center fielder tonight. Not only that but he was dogging it on every ball hit to him. He had a shot on a play at home but didn't even make the attempt. I don't know his name but he will never get it mentioned as player of the week, unless its April Fools Day.

The above is just the short list of poor defense. Bad throws, mishandled the balls, throwing to the wrong base and lack of hustle cost Blackburn the game. Unfortunately I think only two errors where awarded.

Ward's ERA is going to be double digit as a result of the poor play behind him. Too bad for him, too bad for Coach Neal, too bad for the fans they all deserved better.

The real shame is that kids in third world countries could have used the leather wasted on gloves at Blackburn for shoes.

With a good defense (not a great one) Ward would have given up 1 or 2 runs and Blackburn would have won. No kidding.

I also made it to this game and did not think for a second that the blackburn pitching itself was enough to hold off Webster's offence. Defence aside it was not going to happen. Blame it on errors all you want but Blackburn just does not have enough to take down Webster. On a sidenote, this post is absolutely terrible. Calling out specific players is not only uncalled for it is just plain despicable. Grow up and learn to be upset without being completely ruthless. The playing conditions were terrible for one, this contributed to some misplayed balls on both sides. Calling out specific players from blackburn does not make them look bad, it makes you look terrible for being imature enough to write something that terrible.

First of all I have said I will watch the personal comments in the future and did recognize that I was too hard on Blackburn. Secondly no one had a problem when I broke down all the pitching in the whole conference preseason, naming names warts and all.

Lastly, I doubt you were at the game or you need to up your eye glass prescription. 8 of Webster's 9 Runs came in two innings when all of the misplays I described took place plus others I did not mention. The fifth inning had the blown "give me" double play plus many others and the third inning had the dropped pop foul (with two outs) and the unrecorded error (when the right fielder slipped and the ball hit him but he didn't catch it). Not to mention many more.

Take away the poor defense in those innings and Webster loses 1 or 2 to 5. The Blackburn pitcher faced the minimum batters in the 1st, the 2nd, the 4th and Webster earned 1 run in the 6th. None of those innings had poor defense.

Two innings of poor defense doomed Blackburn nothing more.

I mean sure it's easy to call it from one point of view. Lets act like Websters defence was sharp as well. If you were there you would have seen errors on both sides, and having an inch of standing water in the outfield doesn't make for great stopping. Webster had a few bad innings pitching wise and defensively that got them under early, which is the only reason Blackburn had a chance in the first game. This would have been made clear if you would have been there for the second game. Which if you saw was a 10 RUN GAME. I love it, lets keep looking at the if's and but's and nitpick college kids. Or we could chalk it up to a Webster team that has already come from behind before and leave it at that.

[theoneandonly]

VideoDawg, Just so were clear. The ball did not hit the right fielder. perhaps YOU werent there. I was on the other hand. The outfielder slipped on the wet surface and the ball went down about 15-20 feet away from him.  You are really digging a hole. lets try to find something positive to talk about. Anyone got anything.. ANYTHING AT ALL!?

[BigPoppa]

From Boyd's World.... Bottom ranked programs in d3 baseball based on their power rankings. Teams in bold are Central region teams.

http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/d3_isr.html

181    84.1    4  15      7  16   123  Eastern Mennonite
182    83.1    4  10      5  15   169  Emory and Henry
183    82.2    3  13      3  15   132  Whitman
184    81.9    3  16      4  17   110  Whitworth
185    81.8    5  11      7  11   182  Scranton
186    81.1    3   7      4   7   183  Elms
187    81.0    5   5      9   7   200  Grinnell
188    80.4    3   8      5   9   178  Lakeland
189    80.1    2   8      2   9   156  Massachusetts-Dartmouth
190    80.0    5  12      6  12   187  Carleton
191    79.4    4   9      5  12   190  Colby-Sawyer
192    78.3    5   7      6  11   199  Plymouth State
193    76.9    1  15      4  18   119  Arcadia
194    76.8    3   7      4   9   193  Blackburn
195    76.5    4   9      7  19   196  SUNY Tech
196    74.3    2  10      2  16   184  Eastern
197    73.0    3   9      5  14   197  Drew
198    72.8    3  10      3  10   195  Wisconsin Lutheran
199    72.5    4   6      4   6   201  Eureka
200    70.8    0  13      0  13   153  Cal Tech
201    65.7    4   6      4   6   202  Emerson
202    65.6    1  11      1  11   194  Newbury

[VideoDawg]

Well that last post was positive.

[thenatural13]

From Boyd's World.... Bottom ranked programs in d3 baseball based on their power rankings. Teams in bold are Central region teams.

http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/d3_isr.html

181    84.1    4  15      7  16   123  Eastern Mennonite
182    83.1    4  10      5  15   169  Emory and Henry
183    82.2    3  13      3  15   132  Whitman
184    81.9    3  16      4  17   110  Whitworth
185    81.8    5  11      7  11   182  Scranton
186    81.1    3   7      4   7   183  Elms
187    81.0    5   5      9   7   200  Grinnell
188    80.4    3   8      5   9   178  Lakeland
189    80.1    2   8      2   9   156  Massachusetts-Dartmouth
190    80.0    5  12      6  12   187  Carleton
191    79.4    4   9      5  12   190  Colby-Sawyer
192    78.3    5   7      6  11   199  Plymouth State
193    76.9    1  15      4  18   119  Arcadia
194    76.8    3   7      4   9   193  Blackburn
195    76.5    4   9      7  19   196  SUNY Tech
196    74.3    2  10      2  16   184  Eastern
197    73.0    3   9      5  14   197  Drew
198    72.8    3  10      3  10   195  Wisconsin Lutheran
199    72.5    4   6      4   6   201  Eureka
200    70.8    0  13      0  13   153  Cal Tech
201    65.7    4   6      4   6   202  Emerson
202    65.6    1  11      1  11   194  Newbury

I think that this system is flawed because it only takes into account the teams that schools have played. There is no reason for Blackburn to be ranked below Principia except for the plain fact that Prin has played crappy schools thus far, and Blackburn has played real competition. thats where this system is flawed. These rankings really mean nothing.

[BigPoppa]

Actually, it takes into account the level of competition that EACH team has played and assigns a ranking based on that. It factors in who you have played as well as how you have played against them. While it may not be 100% accurate, it is still better than the traditionally arbitrary polls most systems use.

From another poster:

What are the ISR's?

The ISR's are the results of an algorithm designed to measure the quality of a team's season to date by combining their winning percentage with the difficulty of their schedule. The algorithm computes all teams simultaneously and attempts to take advantage of inter-regional games more accurately than other rating systems.

How are the ISR's computed?

The basic idea is an iterative one. Begin with all teams set to an even rating -- 100 in this case. Then, for each game played, give each team the value of their opponent's rating plus or minus a factor for winning or losing the game -- 25 in this case. Total all of a team's results, divide by the number of games played, and that's the end of a cycle. Then use those numbers as the start of the next cycle until you get the same results for each team for two consecutive cycles.

Why are the ISR's needed?

While it's still a great game, college baseball suffers from the lack of an accurate rating system for measuring team quality. The traditional polls suffer from voters running on auto-pilot, and the RPI's used by the selection committee have some serious problems with the method used to determine strength of schedule. Because of the small amount of inter-regional play in the sport, some regions tend to be under-represented in the NCAA tournament, and mid-rank large conference teams tend to be unfairly excluded. Although trying to get the selection committee to acknowledge this may be a hopeless case, the ISR's are an attempt to find a better rating system.

[#1PantherFan]

From Boyd's World.... Bottom ranked programs in d3 baseball based on their power rankings. Teams in bold are Central region teams.

http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/d3_isr.html

181    84.1    4  15      7  16   123  Eastern Mennonite
182    83.1    4  10      5  15   169  Emory and Henry
183    82.2    3  13      3  15   132  Whitman
184    81.9    3  16      4  17   110  Whitworth
185    81.8    5  11      7  11   182  Scranton
186    81.1    3   7      4   7   183  Elms
187    81.0    5   5      9   7   200  Grinnell
188    80.4    3   8      5   9   178  Lakeland
189    80.1    2   8      2   9   156  Massachusetts-Dartmouth
190    80.0    5  12      6  12   187  Carleton
191    79.4    4   9      5  12   190  Colby-Sawyer
192    78.3    5   7      6  11   199  Plymouth State
193    76.9    1  15      4  18   119  Arcadia
194    76.8    3   7      4   9   193  Blackburn
195    76.5    4   9      7  19   196  SUNY Tech
196    74.3    2  10      2  16   184  Eastern
197    73.0    3   9      5  14   197  Drew
198    72.8    3  10      3  10   195  Wisconsin Lutheran
199    72.5    4   6      4   6   201  Eureka
200    70.8    0  13      0  13   153  Cal Tech
201    65.7    4   6      4   6   202  Emerson
202    65.6    1  11      1  11   194  Newbury

I think that this system is flawed because it only takes into account the teams that schools have played. There is no reason for Blackburn to be ranked below Principia except for the plain fact that Prin has played crappy schools thus far, and Blackburn has played real competition. thats where this system is flawed. These rankings really mean nothing.

Where was Principia listed? I didn't see them on the full list of 205 teams.

[BigPoppa]

To this point, to qualify for this list a team must have played a minimum of ten games and submitted their results. Many teams are a bit behind, so they do not all show up as of yet. Your best bet is to contact the SID at each school and ask them to submit their result to Boyd's.

[SLIAC4LIFE]

This weekend pending the rain will be a lot of fun for the SLIAC.

Series of the Weekend:

Fontbonne vs Webster
- This one could tell us who will finish 1 or 2 the way these teams are playing. Webster having expected sucess against conference opponents and Fontbonne is playing above expected so far.

Other key matchups:

Greenville vs Blackburn
-Greenville needs to show that they can climb out of the early hole they have dug themselves into and Blackburn wants to prove that their win against FU was no fluke and they are real contenders. If Blackburn pulls off 2 of 3 this weekend or a sweep i think they might make some believers out of SLIAC fans.

MacMurray vs Westminster:
-This matchup almost needs no build up on importance. This is extremely important for Westminster becuase if they cannot sweep, it would be hard to say they still have a chance. MacMurray's needs 2 of 3 if not a sweep to keep people thinking they have a chance.

Eureka vs Principia
-If Eurkeka can hold off Principia, which I do not see being to much of a problem, they will have a tight hold on the 4 spot which is always an important spot to have. If Prin wants to show they have something, this weekend will have to be a good showing.

MY PREDICTIONS

Blackburn takes 2 from Greenville

Eureka sweeps Principia

Westminster takes 2 from MacMurray

Fontbonne takes 2 from Webster

Here is how we look on Monday

Maryville          5-1
Webster          9-2
Eureka             7-2
Fontbonne       6-2
Blackburn         6-6
MacMurray        3-9
Westminster     2-8
Principia            1-5
Greenville         1-5

Any other thoughts on this weekend?

[flyonthewall]

http://masseyratings.com/rate.php?lg=cbase

this site also ranks teams... click on the D3 section for the D3 power rankings or check where each team ranks in the nation of ALL NCAA schools, D1 included.... it has where each opponent is ranked in the nation as well... so if a team plays a D2 school, it shows where they rank of all school. enjoy, its kinda fun to see where the SLIAC ranks, which isnt pretty but still fun

[martyshupack]

I would have to say that Fontbonne will not take 2 from Webster.  Being a Fontbonne grad i often attend games and I would have to say that the talent on this years teams is very much below par.  The way they play the game reminds me of a grade school team that is player coached.  So as much as i am rooting for my Griffs i would have to say that webster will take all 3 games this weekend, and will in dominating fashion. 

[#1PantherFan]

Blackburn defeated Greenville tonight by the score of 10-9 with two runs in the top of the ninth.

B 000 202 312 - 10
G 100 134 000 -  9