BB: MIAC: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[pickleshiner]

It's early but I agree with you about it being a huge split for St. Olaf.  Following Point for as long as I have which is many years it's very typical for the hype to be high and they generally start slow.  Come mid season they start to hit their peak and roll through the WIAC tournament.  The key for Point truly is pitching this year.  They can put up 15-20 runs in a game very easily but can also face some nobody and get shutout.  It seems they come to play when they face better pitchers at least that's what I've noticed in the past.  They rocked Dott from Whitewater at the WIAC tourney last year and scored enough off Schuld at Regionals to win but had a few key errors that cost them a shot at the series.

[Iluvd3BBALL]

You know why I'm not hyped on the Oles right now.....It's because they're probably a lock for the 2 or 3 slot and everybody knows it.  St. Thomas will roll this year and it will be the same as every year with St. Olaf falling in then the 3/4 slots will go to the 12-8 team.  Good split for them though, It's always fun to beat a WIAC school.

[biggio34]

Did anyone see the Tommies v Gophers?  Looks like it was a good game.  Thoughts?

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Did anyone see the Tommies v Gophers?  Looks like it was a good game.  Thoughts?

Yes, it was a good game. UST should have won (seriously)...had the game 4-3 in regualtion, but a defensive laspe ini bottom of 9th allowed Goophies to tie it and force extras.

[supermiac]

Pretty solid split for Macalester today it looks like according to the Johns Hopkins press release on D3 site

http://d3baseball.com/pressreleases/Johns+Hopkins/2010/03/13/Hopkins-and-Macalester-Split-Doubleheader/5342

4-0 loss and 1-0 win against a traditionally powerhouse team thats been blasting teams away to start the year. 18 K's for Murray in G2 in 8 innings is pretty ridiculous. How sure are we that Schuld is runaway pitcher of the year again?

[MIACLUV]

Hameline got a win!! 

[MIACLUV]

Anybody have a Tommies score from today?

[biggio34]

Anybody have a Tommies score from today?

No.  But according to the Bowdoin website, they swept St. Olaf today 3-2 and 8-3.

[MIACLUV]

Not a good sign for the Oles considering Steven Point just rolled that squad the other day 14-2! Oles may not be as deep on the mound as expected.

[OshDude]

Not a good sign for the Oles considering Steven Point just rolled that squad the other day 14-2! Oles may not be as deep on the mound as expected.

Who expected that?

[supermiac]

Not a good sign for the Oles considering Steven Point just rolled that squad the other day 14-2! Oles may not be as deep on the mound as expected.

Who expected that?

Not I... considering they've only thrown 4 pitchers through 8 games is pretty telling.

I'll give my abbreviated outlook for the conference season now, but I'll do some more in-depth capsules once all the teams have finished their spring trips.

1. St. Thomas- Cream of the crop, beating good teams without much offense bodes well for them at this stage. Schuld is a horse.

2. Macalester- Pitching has been key so far and Murray continues to dominate every team he faces.

3. St. Olaf- Beat UWSP (nice), got swept by Bowdoin (not nice)... We'll see how things go after their spring trip though.

4. Bethel- Played a pretty pathetic spring trip schedule so any results might be misleading. Still like their hitting though.

5. Augsburg- Tough spring trip with 12 games in 6 days. Hitting will be good, expect Blunt to boost his .148 average at some point 

6. Concordia- Looks like they can run; pitching has been solid so far. Don't know much else about them so far.

7. St. John's- Very tough schedule; but they haven't really beaten any teams of significance. Pitching has been overwhelmed by good hitting teams.  Butorac can rake.

8. Gustavus- Not going to be worse than the teams below, so kind of default for them now being here.

9. Hamline- 4 wins against very poor teams. Pitching isn't there (should be better though) and hitting is below average.

10.  St. Mary's- Playing some good teams close so far. Their pitching looks to be much improved this year, but their hitting looks pretty bad. They might surprise teams this year.

11. Carleton- Welcome back to the cellar. Playing a tough schedule is nice, but getting rocked isn't. Their pitching won't cut it in the MIAC, even though Wirta is actually a pretty decent pitcher. He's pitched 1.2 IP so far, so that's not looking good.

[tommiegun]

Does anyone know why St. Thomas put together such a cupcake Spring Break trip?

Lawrence (1-8)
Chicago (4-5)
Grinnel (6-6)
Edgewood (6-2) Looks to be a good team.
SUNY-Purchase (7-4) Looks to play only UMAC quality teams.

[Just Bill]

Does anyone know why St. Thomas put together such a cupcake Spring Break trip?

Lawrence (1-8)
Chicago (4-5)
Grinnel (6-6)
Edgewood (6-2) Looks to be a good team.
SUNY-Purchase (7-4) Looks to play only UMAC quality teams.

Teams have very little say in their spring trip opponents. You sign up for a tournament and you take who the tournament gives you.  Also, being that their spring break is so late, there's not many teams to choose from down there.

[tommiegun]

That makes sense I suppose.  I recall a few years ago it seemed like they played only ranked teams; Oshkosh, Salsbury, Amherst, etc.

[whozonfirst]

While  Carleton is not as strong as last year, the team is better than you would think from the scores - perhaps should have played only five or six days instead of seven in Arizona. It was good for the hitters to face good pitching and to have lots of innings to work on fielding/defense , but not good for pitchers stats. With so many innings to play in a short time they had to stretch arms to go longer in these games. Starting pitchers looked good through 5 or 6 innings, but were just left in one inning too long or were pitching on too little rest.  They will bounce back in MIAC.