BB: LEC: Little East Conference

[Old Man]

Wiping the hibernation sleepy's from my eye's - LEC baseball Starts tomorrow.   West Conn game has live stats, anything coming from the LEFT coast from Whitman?

OM

[ECSUalum]

Wiping the hibernation sleepy's from my eye's - LEC baseball Starts tomorrow.   West Conn game has live stats, anything coming from the LEFT coast from Whitman?

OM

Old,
Looks like both live stats and video, (pay per view ) from Walla Walla WA:

http://www.whitman.edu/whitman/index.cfm?objectid=AB3B4A0B-AC8F-C64B-F6F47DBF34893743

[bulldog84]

Noticed UMB roster is posted but I see Tim Fontaine's name is missing.  Anyone have a news on this?

http://www.beaconsathletics.com/sports/m-basebl/2011-12/roster

[7express]

Western starts 1-2 down in Emory, VA.  Really should be 2-1 or even 3-0 as we were competitive in all 3 games.

First game on Friday night we lost 12-10, but were only able to play 7 innings due to darkness.   We had outscored them 7-1 in the 6th and 7th inning, so who knows what would have happened if we were able to complete it.  Kyle Savo finished 3-4 with 2 runs scored, and Conor Biefeldt was 2-4 with 1 run scored and 3 RBI's.
Western wins the second game on Saturday 16-8.  After going hitless in game 1, Mike Yates was 5-6 in game 2 with 4 rbi's and 4 runs scored and 2 home runs
Western loses the rubber match Sunday afternoon 10-9 giving up 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th to go back home with a 1-2 record.  Yates was 3-5 on the afternoon with 1 RBI and 2 runs scored.  I know it's only 3 games, but this is looking like an all offense no pitching kinda team once again this year.  I have no doubt we can outmash any team in the conference, but we'll have to get some pitching if we want to contend for the conference title.  As it is know, I see this as a 5th or 6th place team at best, right about where we finished last season.
We have 3 weeks off, before we return to the diamond against Thiel college on March 17 in Fort Myers, FL at 10:00 am where we kick off our spring break Florida trip.  On that trip we'll have games against: Thiel, Oneonta state (2x), Bethel (2x), New Paltz (2x), Colby (3x), Lawrence and Wooster.

[wordsmith]

Western starts 1-2 down in Emory, VA.  Really should be 2-1 or even 3-0 as we were competitive in all 3 games.

First game on Friday night we lost 12-10, but were only able to play 7 innings due to darkness.   We had outscored them 7-1 in the 6th and 7th inning, so who knows what would have happened if we were able to complete it.  Kyle Savo finished 3-4 with 2 runs scored, and Conor Biefeldt was 2-4 with 1 run scored and 3 RBI's.
Western wins the second game on Saturday 16-8.  After going hitless in game 1, Mike Yates was 5-6 in game 2 with 4 rbi's and 4 runs scored and 2 home runs
Western loses the rubber match Sunday afternoon 10-9 giving up 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th to go back home with a 1-2 record.  Yates was 3-5 on the afternoon with 1 RBI and 2 runs scored.  I know it's only 3 games, but this is looking like an all offense no pitching kinda team once again this year.  I have no doubt we can outmash any team in the conference, but we'll have to get some pitching if we want to contend for the conference title.  As it is know, I see this as a 5th or 6th place team at best, right about where we finished last season.
We have 3 weeks off, before we return to the diamond against Thiel college on March 17 in Fort Myers, FL at 10:00 am where we kick off our spring break Florida trip.  On that trip we'll have games against: Thiel, Oneonta state (2x), Bethel (2x), New Paltz (2x), Colby (3x), Lawrence and Wooster.

These are baseball scores not football scores right?  22, 24 & 19 runs respectively. Wow.

[7express]

These are baseball scores not football scores right?  22, 24 & 19 runs respectively. Wow.

Yes, those are baseball scores.  Probably outscored our football team though.  As I said in my message, this is an all defense, no pitching team.  The pitching stats for the conference is going to get skewed for those 2 games they have to play the Colonials, and I hope the conference is ready for 10-8, 15-12, 11-10 type scores.

[ECSUalum]

The battle of Holowaty East vs Holowaty West:
ECSU takes all 4 games....
Fri.    24  at Whitman College  Walla Walla, WA      +4-1 
Sat.   25  at Whitman College  Walla Walla, WA (2) +12-9, +12-7
Sun.  26  at Whitman College  Walla Walla, WA       +8-5 (10 innings)

UPCOMING MARCH SCHEDULE:

Sat.        10  at Kean U.                        Union, NJ   1 p.m.     
Fri.         16  at California Lutheran U.      Thousand Oaks, CA 1:30 p.m. EDT     
Sat.        17  at U. of Redlands                Redlands, CA  1 p.m. EDT     
Sat.        17  at Whittier College              Whittier, CA  6:30 p.m. EDT     
Sun.       18  at Claremont-MS Colleges     Claremont, CA  1:30 p.m. EDT     
Tues.      20  vs. Luther College               Tucson, AZ  1 p.m. EDT     
Wed.      21  vs. Carleton College             Tucson, AZ  noon EDT     
Thurs.     22  vs. Carthage College           Tucson, AZ  5 p.m. EDT     
Fri.         23  vs. Hamline U.                    Tucson, AZ  2 p.m. EDT   


   

[KSCfan]

Eastern starts the year 4-0.  Lets play PTI

Eastern that good Wilbon or Whitman that bad?

Well....

1.  Whitman is winless, they are 0-12..... Whitman that bad
2.  Really hard to beat the same team 4 times in a row... Eastern that good
3.  Eastern hit 8 doubles and had 2 Hr in the first three games... Todays stats not up yet at time of post.....Eastern that good
4.  Whitman college pitching staff has 8 games under the belt.... one pitcher has an era under 2.00, rest of staff all over 5.00!!  All pitchers had at least over 5 innings.... Whitman that bad

Easy answer is a combo of both.... but im going with we know nothing about Eastern after these four games.  They won all four games over a team that is winless, hit the ball a ton over a team with a weak staff, so they did what they were suppoused to do.  You have to beat the bad teams too.  None the less 4-0 start a good start no matter who you play.

 

[Whatagame]

I watched most of the Whitman/ECSU series.  I think if you asked the ECSU coaches and players, they'd say they had to battle most of the series.  Nevertheless, they swept, and Whitman is 0-12.  ECSU is obviously a far stronger team than Whitman.  ECSU had many more experienced, quality arms, particuarly in the bullpen, I think they only threw one Freshman the entire series.  Whitman has fewer quality, experienced arms, and are really relying on Frosh pitchers out of the pen in tough situations.  ECSU has upper class men team leaders, and they showed they know how to win, and showed they know how to come from behind.  Whitman has some talent, but they are very young, and really don't know how to win or close games out, yet, which they have shown so far this year. ECSU pitching held Whitman to a low .218 BA

ECSU hit .266 on the series, and slugged .380.  Not exactly tearing the cover off the ball, but the weather was absolutely inhospitable for baseball on Saturday and Sunday (bone chilling wind on Sat/2 snow delays Sun)  The ECSU hitting numbers are skewed down a bit for the series, as Whitman's game three Frosh starter, held ECSU to a .115 BAA for 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball until an error extended the 7th inning.

Good luck to ECSU, I'm rooting for you to have a great season.

[Jcon8958]

Bulldog84 Tim Fontaine will not be on the team this year. I know why and it has nothing to do with academics or anything and we can just leave it at that. Its a tough loss for sure but with
alot of new faces with alot of talent coming into this year its next guy up to get it done.

Pitching- This years pitching staff I am told is the deepest they have had during coach Eygabroats era. They dont have the dominant pitcher like a Dalton or Conway (YET!) But this staff runs plenty deep with Heefner and Cole leading the way. I think personally the wild card's of this staff are the Dan Gambill and Lucas Ilgas. Gambill is coming off an injurry but he has great stuff and if he can pull it all together he can be LIGHTS OUT. Ilgas is also very good coming off a solid freshman year im sure Coach E is expecting him to build off that and make the big next step to weekend guy.

Hitting- On offense this team is going to be led by McCormack, Mattei and Consiglio. Lots of new guys coming in but once again lots of young talent again from all over the USA. Lets start off with Jamill Moquette played for Dundalk CC in MD and the kid I am told can hit the ball and hit it all over the ballpark. Another guy thats expected to come in and make an impact is Dominic Morbidelli a big kid from Oakland the kid has a BIG BAT.

And of course the defense has to get better to back up this young team. You cant give teams 4 and 5 out inning's thats a recipe for nothing good. Good news is the team now has a turf surface in the fieldhouse to practice on and thats obviously a big help for live scrimmages and everything else that goes along with it. The early season slate looks like it could put some W's on the bpoard for this team and get there confidence going early on wouldnt be suprised to see them come back 8-0 or 7-1.

And lefthanders you must be new to the world of the boards because last time I checked KSC still hasnt gone to a world series or won a regional. The remind me alot of the Atlanta Falcons actually win all these games during the regular season only to get to the postseason and CHOKE and its wait til next year. Yah yah yah I know sustained winning blah blah blah. You can win all the games you want in the regular season but the numbers still dont lie. Regional titles KSC-0 UMB-1.  Haters gonna hate slaters gunna slate. BOOM good to be back boys.

[wordsmith]

So I post this on the LEC site because I find the banter much more engaging than on the NE Regional site. That being said.

For years the Top 2 programs in NE were always EConn & SoMaine, even when they had off years. So, I got to thinking that IMHO that duo does not necessarily reside at the top anymore (Heck is SoMaine even in the Top 5 at this point?). Looking at it now, and I ain't going to get into all the stats that others bring, just the eyeball test  , as it were. Here are my Top 5 Programs in New England. (Note: This is not a prediction for 2012 but an assessment of the overall state and health of the program, facilities, attraction to the school, level of consistence and success of the program, etc.)

1) Western New England
2) Eastern Connecticut
3) Wheaton
4) Tufts
5) Keene State
5) Tied- St. Joe's


Thoughts?

Word

[ECSUalum]

Word,

I think you are correct??!!!  I was looking at Holowaty's win record, because next year he will getting #1500. He currently in his 44th year, with a record of 1,353-502-6, or 73 winning %.  One stat I noticed was that  ECSU has not been to a CWS since 2007, 4 yrs, the longest since the 1976-1982 gap, 6 yrs, (they won the 1982 National Championship).  In between 1982 and 2007 it was never more than 3 yrs before they were back to the CWS.  So what has changed?  not sure.  I notice that Coach H seems to be relying more on D-I/II/III transfers vs Frosh out of HS over the last 2-3 yrs, and will need to recruit another Gilblair, DiPietro, Chiasson, if Eastern is going to get out of the NE Regional and win another National Championship.  I wonder if Coach is also getting a little "softer", as he moves toward the latter part of his coaching career.  Is that better or worse in terms of reaching the CWS end point ??  Dont Know!  I really think they miss Pitching Coach Risley, who was outstanding 

Wheaton And Western New England have always been fine programs, however they have to win the Walnut and Bronze for the program to be at the USM/ECSU level.  Keene, and, I believe, St Josephs need to get to a CWS and wrt Tufts, they have not been to a CWS since, I think, 1950, although Coach Casey has really done a nice job with the team over the last couple of years. Not sure what is going on with Coach Flaherty and USM, not getting the pitchers, hitters they have been accustomed to.

Ultimately the program reputatiion has to come down to the following:


1) University overall reputation
2) # of Wins/ Win % in view of SOS
3) # of LEC, NCAA NE, and CWS titles
4) # of All America/All Academic players
5) # of Draft picks/A,AA,AAA, MLB players
6) Quality of Facilitiies

I think Eastern is in good standing with respect to above

[ECSUalum]

Eastern starts the year 4-0.  Lets play PTI

Eastern that good Wilbon or Whitman that bad?

Well....

1.  Whitman is winless, they are 0-12..... Whitman that bad
2.  Really hard to beat the same team 4 times in a row... Eastern that good
3.  Eastern hit 8 doubles and had 2 Hr in the first three games... Todays stats not up yet at time of post.....Eastern that good
4.  Whitman college pitching staff has 8 games under the belt.... one pitcher has an era under 2.00, rest of staff all over 5.00!!  All pitchers had at least over 5 innings.... Whitman that bad

Easy answer is a combo of both.... but im going with we know nothing about Eastern after these four games.  They won all four games over a team that is winless, hit the ball a ton over a team with a weak staff, so they did what they were suppoused to do.  You have to beat the bad teams too.  None the less 4-0 start a good start no matter who you play.

KSCFan,

Not sure what PTI or Wilbon means, but the ECSU vs Whitman series was more a fun get together for a Father and Son vs any guage of how good or bad a team is.  The first 4 games are what they are!!  Each coach looking over his new recruits/returning players to get an initial feel for what he has in 2012.  I think Jered Holowaty will be a fine college coach and is actually starting to make a mark on the team from a recruiting standpoint, but time will tell.  ECSU will have a good test vs Kean March 10 and will play some good SCIAC teams in SoCal.
In 5-6 weeks we will have a pretty good idea if Eastern, Keene, UMB, or USM are any good.  As of now, they are all a work in progress

[wordsmith]

Word,

I think you are correct??!!!  I was looking at Holowaty's win record, because next year he will getting #1500. He currently in his 44th year, with a record of 1,353-502-6, or 73 winning %.  One stat I noticed was that  ECSU has not been to a CWS since 2007, 4 yrs, the longest since the 1976-1982 gap, 6 yrs, (they won the 1982 National Championship).  In between 1982 and 2007 it was never more than 3 yrs before they were back to the CWS.  So what has changed?  not sure.  I notice that Coach H seems to be relying more on D-I/II/III transfers vs Frosh out of HS over the last 2-3 yrs, and will need to recruit another Gilblair, DiPietro, Chiasson, if Eastern is going to get out of the NE Regional and win another National Championship.  I wonder if Coach is also getting a little "softer", as he moves toward the latter part of his coaching career.  Is that better or worse in terms of reaching the CWS end point ??  Dont Know!  I really think they miss Pitching Coach Risley, who was outstanding 

Wheaton And Western New England have always been fine programs, however they have to win the Walnut and Bronze for the program to be at the USM/ECSU level.  Keene, and, I believe, St Josephs need to get to a CWS and wrt Tufts, they have not been to a CWS since, I think, 1950, although Coach Casey has really done a nice job with the team over the last couple of years. Not sure what is going on with Coach Flaherty and USM, not getting the pitchers, hitters they have been accustomed to.

Ultimately the program reputatiion has to come down to the following:


1) University overall reputation
2) # of Wins/ Win % in view of SOS
3) # of LEC, NCAA NE, and CWS titles
4) # of All America/All Academic players
5) # of Draft picks/A,AA,AAA, MLB players
6) Quality of Facilitiies

I think Eastern is in good standing with respect to above

I actually do agree with your statement about these other schools having to win a WC to be considered on the same level as EConn, but not as SoMaine. Their program has dropped dramatically over the past 10 years. They have failed to win an LEC Title since 1997 (is that right?). They failed to reach the NCAAs for like ever in one stretch (once in six years '02-07) when they had several All-Americans playing for them (Fairchild, DeLorme, D'Alfonso, Burleson, etc.) and have a .671 winning % over the past 11 years. Their program used to be on par with EConn but has dropped below others. The reputation they have in recruiting kids from "away" and then not playing them is too much to be ignored.

St. Joe's is at least on par if not past them in many respects as the go to school in Maine for D-III baseball players. EConn has another advantage beyond their coaching/reputation/past winnings; they have the market in a populace state. But look at rosters of other programs and many i.e. KSC are dipping into the market and coming away with really good talent from the Nutmeg State. It would be a fun stat to look at the population base within 50/75 miles of each programs we listed, my bet is EConn has a distinct advantage there. That coupled with the legend at the helm and it places that program in a strong position each year.

WNEU is the program really on the rise. Has been ever since Matt L. took the reins. Every move this guy has made from building the facility, to his recruiting work, to his coaching style all lead me to believe his program is tops in NE.
EConn is still a great program but it is not yards ahead of everyone else anymore.
Wheaton is a little older version of WNEU, they may have peaked however.
Tufts, well they are attractive as a great institution and a solid program that often, like the Little Ivys, attract kids a shade better than the average D-III bear just because the kid didn't get into his first choice school of Harvard or Princeton.
Keene State's rise to glory seems to have hit a plateau. They have a great school (Josten Award winners), a great set of coaches that I'd put on par as far as teaching and instructional ability with anyone in NE. They can hit with most anyone in the country. They need to get over the Regional title bump in the road to get into the top 4.
St. Joe's - as I've said here many times Coach Will Sanborn is the James Brown of NE D-III baseball - The hardest working man in show business.

Word

Word

[ECSUalum]

Word,
Excellent analysis as always!!!! 

I agree that Keene is pinching a lot of CT kids away from ECSU/WCSU not only in baseball but all intercollegiate sports they play in common. (for example, Eastern has no football, hockey, tennis, golf, wrestling teams)
Eastern primary out of state draw is, as you would expect, the neighboring states, (NY, MA, RI), with a few VG past players from VT and NH. Very few from NJ, however we generally have students from approx 30 states on campus with an 8-10 % out of state population. I think Keene attracts a higher % of out of staters, (maybe 20%??). Eastern has been relatively successful branding itself as a Liberal Arts College, (and that has helped to increase applications about 40% over the last 3-4 years), and getting away from the "Normal School", ( I am dating myself), or Teacher's College lable.  Don't know if that makes any difference, except it may be attracting a higher male population.

Only comment about USM's drought, is that I believe Marietta College  had a bit of a drought re CWS participation until a few years ago, not sure how long, but before that, I believe they had the highest number of CWS wins in D-III.
Anyone else want to chime in