BB: LEC: Little East Conference

[wordsmith]

No disrepect but Amherst's win was not an upset. They are legit and even $$ to win the NESCAC tournament. Their staff held a really good hitting Eastern team to 5 hits, much better than Tufts and Keene did earlier this week. They should be at or near the top of the list for at large consideration if they don't win their league tournament.

Amherst's record (4-1) versus the vaunted LEC top tier teams this year 

3/12 vs. Mass-Boston •  W, 5-4   
3/19 at Southern Maine •  W, 13-7   
4/20 vs. Keene State •  L, 5-4   
5/7 at Eastern Connecticut •  W, 11-4   
5/8 at Southern Maine •  W, 13-5 

[keenONkeene]

LEC Tournament

EConn vs. RIC    ECONN with the famous back door throws their #2.....too much for RIC..ECONN wins 8-3

USM vs. Boston--Boston takes a page out of ECONN's book and back doors USM with Ilgess....dominated them twice.........now three times........Boston quiets the USM bats while Walsh goes off..........Boston wins 7-3

UMD vs. Keene--Both teams have suspect pitching......go to hitting and Keene has the advantage (if you pitch to Doyon...why would you?) on offense...high scoring affair and longest game of the day.........Keene 13 UMD 8

Feel this tournament is somewhat wide open......ECONN has been struggling but has the top of the line pitching to go with a strong middle of the order.....Keene has one hitter.......UMD has one hitter.....USM has hitting but no pitching........RIC (have not seen).......UMB.....pitching and couple hitters.....
Thoughts?? Help me out on RIC

[Beaconville]

........ of the Year Choices

Player of the Year:
Walsh
He came close to a tripple crown in the conference, 3rd in Batting Average at .426, tied for lead in HR with 12 and led the league in RBI with 51.  Also led in Stolen Bases with 20.  Also UMB as a team hit .291, if you take Walsh's numbers out the team B.A. goes down to .273.  Needless to say, he meant quite a bit to that team.

Pitcher of the Year:
Schult
Hands down, 8-1 with a 3.65 ERA and led the league in strikeouts, seems like an easy call.

Rookie of the Year:
Chadwick
I will also go with him because of his numbers, but I found it a bit odd he was never once named Rookie of the Week.  O'Connell may give him some competition as he was named a 3 time Rookie of the Week.

[KSCfan]

LEC Tournament......
Eastern throws Schult and wins.  They will throw schult because that way they can bring him back on short rest on.  If they make it to sat, Schult would of had thursday and friday off, and can maybe give you 3 or 4 innings in a champ game on sat.  Thats why i think that you see Schult.

USM vs Boston- Boston throws Dalton.  You win today today and worry about tommorow tommorow.  If you get sent to the losers bracket on the first day its a serious, and i mean serious climb up and out of that hole to sat.  Im taking Boston in a close one.  Love watching Walsh hit.  JCONN WHERE ARE YOU MAN???  I need someont to talk up the beacons.  I cant belives that i am saying good things about UMBust!!!  Where is the beacon bandwagon?  Apparently in the shop!!!

Keene vs UMD- KeenONkeene keene has one hitter?  Diprato is hitting .421!!! 11 doubles 34 rbi!!! Bergs, and Bates both are hitting .350.  Keene has one of the best lineups in the LEC.  Im confused on your 1 hitter comment.  UMD has really turned around from the last couple of years and looks to be a team that a serious chance to do some damage.  I am going to take Keene here though as i think they have to much offense for UMD to get them.

Some thoughs on the Tournament as a whole.......
1.  The deeper your staff the better your chances.  Everyone has a good number 1 and most have a good number 2.  When you get to Friday of the tournament you have your 3 and 4 going in some of the most important games.  Need to have guys that were throwing midweek to step up and give you some quality innings.  (Starter advantage Eastern)

2.  Your bullpen needs to be on top of thier game.  If the starter starts to show sings of trouble then its a quick hook to the bullpen in the LEC tournament.  Bullpen guys are going to have get stretched a little bit if you are going to make a deep run.  These tournaments are very taxing on your bullpen as you dont have the luxury of letting a guy work through a game.  (advantage Keene Vogt, Wogs, Stanclift etc)

3.  There is no really hot team coming into the tournamet.  Years past we have seen teams that have steam rolled into the tournament and then ran right through it.  Western 2002, RIC 2005, UMB 2010.  This year i dont really see a team that is playing super hot right now and just flat out rolling.  Keene just dropped two to eastern, who had a bad week before playing keene, usm has had a tough year, RIC back doored into the tournament on a tie breaker, Boston has not had the year they have wanted, so that leaves UMD with the momentum?  Complete turn around from the last couple of years where they didnt make the tournament.  This tournament is WIDE OPEN !!

Im taking Keene to win the tournament and Eastern makes it to the NCAA as at-large, but i wouldnt be surprised if any of these six teams win

POY- Doyon ksc
Pitch-  of Year- Schult ecsu
Rookie- Chadwick USM
Coach- UMD coach for Lec play turnaround

[gap to gap]

No disrepect but Amherst's win was not an upset. They are legit and even $$ to win the NESCAC tournament. Their staff held a really good hitting Eastern team to 5 hits, much better than Tufts and Keene did earlier this week. They should be at or near the top of the list for at large consideration if they don't win their league tournament.

Amherst's record (4-1) versus the vaunted LEC top tier teams this year 

3/12 vs. Mass-Boston •  W, 5-4   
3/19 at Southern Maine •  W, 13-7   
4/20 vs. Keene State •  L, 5-4   
5/7 at Eastern Connecticut •  W, 11-4   
5/8 at Southern Maine •  W, 13-5 

That is a great stat and not taking away from Amherst who has a very good squad but Boston and USM were not that good this year and Eastern had little interest in winning much outside of conference. 

[7express]

My prediction:

Eastern should pound RIC.  Not that they'll mention it but I'm sure their happy their playing RIC instead of Western who's given them problem this year.  I'll say 9-1 Eastern
Southern Maine vs. Boston.  Whoever loses is in trouble.  Boston will probably throw Dalton which means if they lose they can't throw him again in the elimination game.  USM has a pretty good offense, but not a whole lot of pitching.  I'd have to give the edge to the Beacons, good pitching USUALLY beats good hitting.  3-0 Beacons my prediction.
Keene vs. Dartmouth.  Could be worse teams for Keene to play, they should get it done, I'll say 6-2. I'll take Eastern over Keene in the finals (sorry Keene guys, but they look like a better team).

Something I don't understand on the bracket or tournament central on the LEC website is that in game 5 it has the game 1 winner (more then likely Eastern) playing the game 3 loser on Thursday on 3:30 with the winner going onto game 7 Friday afternoon.  However, no where in the bracket does it have the game 5 loser playing anywhere else.  Lets say game 5 does turn out to be Eastern vs. Dartmouth which looks like it'll be.  That'll leave (in game 7), Dartmouth (with 1 loss) vs. Eastern (o losses).  Where does Eastern go if they lose that game??

[mainebaseball11]

........ of the Year Choices


Rookie of the Year:
Chadwick
I will also go with him because of his numbers, but I found it a bit odd he was never once named Rookie of the Week.  O'Connell may give him some competition as he was named a 3 time Rookie of the Week.

Chadwick was named Rookie of the week once, maybe week 1? Being named rookie of the week can also mean your streaky. Chadwick has been solid all year for the Huskies. Hitting in the leadoff spot as a freshman and going deep 8 times. Just because Chadwick didn't hit .700 one week and .250 like occonnel may have, he still should win hands down.

[hockeyfan77]

No disrepect but Amherst's win was not an upset. They are legit and even $$ to win the NESCAC tournament. Their staff held a really good hitting Eastern team to 5 hits, much better than Tufts and Keene did earlier this week. They should be at or near the top of the list for at large consideration if they don't win their league tournament.

Amherst's record (4-1) versus the vaunted LEC top tier teams this year 

3/12 vs. Mass-Boston •  W, 5-4   
3/19 at Southern Maine •  W, 13-7   
4/20 vs. Keene State •  L, 5-4   
5/7 at Eastern Connecticut •  W, 11-4   
5/8 at Southern Maine •  W, 13-5 

That is a great stat and not taking away from Amherst who has a very good squad but Boston and USM were not that good this year and Eastern had little interest in winning much outside of conference. 

Amherst is a good team: one of the better ones I have seen this year: I wouldn't down play their wins....

[gap to gap]

Didn't mean for it to come off that way.  I have seen Amherst play and they have some big arms at the front end of the rotation and hit and play D well.  I think they should take the NESCAC and make some noise in the NE regional as long as they dont get shipped because of their location to Cortland.  Not down playing their wins but commenting on the fact that that some of these Little East teams are struggling out of conference. 

[mainebaseball11]

I agree, Amherst is good, but not THAT good. Watched the USM vs. Amherst game yesterday and got a good look. Amherst threw their #1, while USM threw their #5 and then some low end relievers (made sense since they start the lec tourney Wednesday). USM was in this game the entire time until they brought in low end relievers like I said.

[Jcon8958]

You smell that boys... Thats the smell of TOURNEY TIME!!!! And the beacon bandwagon is primed and ready to ROLL into Mansfield tomorow.
This is as wide open as the tourney in my eyes has ever been without a doubt.

Eastern has the home field advantage... But UMB has owned that staduim as of late and I really dont expect that to change for the tourney. After a slow start they have really come together I mean when you have agruably both the best player(Walsh) and the best pitcher (starter-dalton reliever-heefner) you are going to be tough to beat. So with out any further delay my day 1 predictions.

ECSU over RIC- will be alot closer then people think
UMB over USM- see above
KSC over UMD- always tough games but KSC always plays well day 1 in the tourney

[KSCfan]

Finally Jconn awakes from his mid-season coma!  I actually agree with Jconn that this tournament is wide open, and i really have no idea how this tournament is going to go down.  From what i have seen everyone seems to have the same picks for day 1.  Is anyone going to the games on wed, i coach high school baseball and our game will get over at like 630 so i was planning on going to the end of umb and usm, and all of the keene vs umd.

[7express]

Finally Jconn awakes from his mid-season coma!  I actually agree with Jconn that this tournament is wide open, and i really have no idea how this tournament is going to go down.  From what i have seen everyone seems to have the same picks for day 1.  Is anyone going to the games on wed, i coach high school baseball and our game will get over at like 630 so i was planning on going to the end of umb and usm, and all of the keene vs umd.

I have classes Wednesday night, but because we have no classes Thursday or Friday (its a study day), depending on the matchups and how nice of a day it is I may drive upstate on Friday to go see them.  Where does Eastern even play, because I know its not on campus??

[kscer]

You smell that boys... Thats the smell of TOURNEY TIME!!!! And the beacon bandwagon is primed and ready to ROLL into Mansfield tomorow.
This is as wide open as the tourney in my eyes has ever been without a doubt.

Eastern has the home field advantage... But UMB has owned that staduim as of late and I really dont expect that to change for the tourney. After a slow start they have really come together I mean when you have agruably both the best player(Walsh) and the best pitcher (starter-dalton reliever-heefner) you are going to be tough to beat. So with out any further delay my day 1 predictions.

ECSU over RIC- will be alot closer then people think
UMB over USM- see above
KSC over UMD- always tough games but KSC always plays well day 1 in the tourney

jconn, I may choke but I agree with you. I think Keen's pitching will come through and carry them into the finals in the winner's bracket. Then it's up to Doyon, DiPrato and Longo.

[wordsmith]

ECorn over RIC 
USM over UMB 
UMD over KSC 

Word