BB: LEC: Little East Conference

[hockeyfan77]

#4 Keene State Downs #5 Southern Maine 9-3: USM falls to 22-18....



Next up for USM:



Eastern Connecticut on Friday  (3:30 p.m.)

[KSCfan]

Keene got another good performance from thier pitching staff as they beat USM last night.  The offense was back on top of it scoring another 9 runs.  Thats 21 runs in two games.  Doyon hit a moon shot, no real surprise there.  Again Keene State was aggresive on the basepaths stealing multiple bases.  I like it, it reminds me of the keene state teams of old that used great pitching, timely hitting, and were aggresive on the bases. 

Keene gets RIC today at noon, and unfourtanetly because of this stupid thing called work not going to be able to make it down to Eastern.  However, since i am a teacher , i have selected a wonderful movie for my students to start watching oh i dont know sometime right around noon.  Oh your tax dollars at work people!


Eastern and Southern Maine going to be a battle today at 330, and if eastern can win they might get some momentum going into tonights 7 oclock game. 

Excited about another good day of baseball to come.  Go keene

[fotoguy]

why dont all the other conferences do what the LEC does? its so darn exciting and rolls into next week.  they should all get on the same page.  this is great stuff.  you guys are playing ball while everyone else is playing golf. 

LEC has it right.

[gap to gap]

Because of schools finals schedules.  Most NEWMAC schools are done as of a couple weeks ago so they have that tournament way to early.  I am pretty sure the MASCAC is in finals this week as for the ccc so they cannot play a tournament this week.

[fotoguy]

in that case, they should move the finals to not conflict with baseball.  where the heck are their priorities???

[KSCfan]

I know that this was finals week for Eastern and Western.  Keene's was last week which is why they didnt play all week till they got to friday against Eastern.  I know that in years past the baseball players when thier was a conflict had to take their finals early.  Most professors dont see that as a problem and are very good about helping the student athletes out.  That was keene, i dont know about the other schools i can only speak about my experiences with keene.

The LEC does do it right and here is why.  This tournament is set up very closely to the regionals.  This is a great way to get prepared to play a tournament in 3-4 days.  The regionals is a grind, espically if you end up in the losers bracket.  The LEC tournament prepares the team for the mental and physical grind of the regionals.  Love the tournament.  They messed with it two years ago and quickly went back to the traditional style after one year

[7express]

No, this week was our last week of classes, next week starts finals at Western, though I think if you have a Saturday class they start tomorrow.

My Friday predictions:
Keene 7 vs. RIC 3
Eastern sends Southern Maine home with an 8-4 win
and finally RIC loses twice on Friday as they fall to Eastern 7-3.  Last prediction subject to change based on who wins the first 2 games.

[wordsmith]

But WConn usually doesn't have to worry about a LEC Tourney conflict and Finals.....

Just kidding....I do miss Carl "Down by the" Rivers though......


Matt Foley's picks today are

RIC over KSC (RIC is this year's UMB)
EConn over USM ...sure miss Dwight Wildmon, Tyler Delorme, Joey Serfass, Ryan Adams days.....

EConn over KSC....


Word

[LEC Fan]

KSCFan- I think the way the spring season is set up for the northern teams really helps with post season play. To be able to win in the regionals and beyond you have to have quality pitching...just having 1 stud arm doesnt do it. You look at the DIII teams down south that start in February and play 40+ games in 4 months compared to 40+ games in barley 3 months for the teams in NE. Preparing for that many games in a short period of time helps develop pitching and gets you prepared for the grind that is post season play. Most teams in NE have several good arms to throw at you everyday. You saw on the first day of the LEC tournament that #2's were starting for almost every team...I know it has been said that the pitching has been down in the LEC this year compared to other years but for the most part the teams in NE know how to win in the regional/WS...Trinity made that run couple of years back because of pitching...Eastern goes onto the WS because they have had stud pitchers...sure it helps to have All American hitters and fielders lol but still it comes to pitching! I am pretty suprised at this tournament so far with the scores of the games...been some very close great games...then Keene goes up and puts up 21 runs in the first 2 rounds...I am really hoping for a Keene Eastern final as those are easily the best 2 teams in the tournament and would be a hell of a battle for the title...if you want to be the best you have to beat the best!! GO OWLS!

[wildthngvaughn]

A big reason why, or atleast it should be a big reason why, other leagues don't hold their tournaments the weekend before the NCAA's is because what happens if it rains 3 days in a row.  If you don't play on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the NCAA's start on Wednesday and your league doesn't have a champion.  This situation happen about 8 or 9 years ago in the NESCAC.  I believe Tufts had beaten Trinity in the Championship round to force the if necessary game.  The if necessary game got rained out three days in a row so the championship was given to Trinity because they were coming out of the winners bracket even though Tufts had beaten them.  (It was almost 10 years ago so give me so slack if some of the details are incorrect)

Another big drawback is that if your Ace pitches the championship game on Sunday on three days rest, he's not going to be able to pitch the opening round game on Wednesday on just two days rest.

[gap to gap]

The short rest thing is why I do not like it.  While it has not hurt Little East teams as much with Boston going last year and Eastern winning NY a few years back it seems to have killed the NESCAC teams.  Tufts did not play well at all in region and DeGotti was burnt out in the NESCAC and got hit hard in the Regional if I recall.  The trinity team that won it was stupid with maybe the 3 best pitchers in the region so that was not much of an issue as no matter what guy they ran out the better arm was in their uniform.

[rob]

A big reason why, or atleast it should be a big reason why, other leagues don't hold their tournaments the weekend before the NCAA's is because what happens if it rains 3 days in a row.  If you don't play on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the NCAA's start on Wednesday and your league doesn't have a champion.  This situation happen about 8 or 9 years ago in the NESCAC.  I believe Tufts had beaten Trinity in the Championship round to force the if necessary game.  The if necessary game got rained out three days in a row so the championship was given to Trinity because they were coming out of the winners bracket even though Tufts had beaten them.  (It was almost 10 years ago so give me so slack if some of the details are incorrect)

Another big drawback is that if your Ace pitches the championship game on Sunday on three days rest, he's not going to be able to pitch the opening round game on Wednesday on just two days rest.

Thank you wildthng... I was reading through these posts and thinking doesn't anyone realize it rains sometime?  Look at this Spring where there were times the whole East Coast was getting drenched for a few days in a row.  Imagine trying to squeeze in all these tournaments in a day or 2 and then getting regional picks, and getting to the sites on time.

[KSCfan]

What if it rains in the regionals, what if it rains in the world series?  You cant sit around and play the what if game.  In order to be successful at this stage in the game you need pitching, and lots of it.  Everyone has 1 or 2 good pitchers, but the teams that win these kind of tournaments have 3 or 4 or 5's that can give someone quality innings.  In 2006 it was pouring in Gorham and the Little East drove 4 hours away to finish off the tournament.  Teams and leagues are flexiable when it comes to the rain game.  Called me a LEC loyalist but i truly believe thier tournament is done right as it prepares for the regionals, and is truly the most exciting conference tournament of New ENgland as it is not drawn out.  Some teams have games in between conference tourny games.  That just seems wierd to me

[gap to gap]

the only conference that I know that that happened was the NEWMAC and that was because of rain and then finals having to move the semis and championship to the next weekend.  Wasn't scheduled that way was just how it played out because of mother nature.

[KSCfan]

RIC up early 1-0 in top of 2nd load bases with 1 out