BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[yank52]

Heading to Phoenix Saturday, might get to see some college games if I don't go to any Cubs and/or Sox games, hee! hee!!!!
80 degree days, I'm leaving Chicago in shorts.

Good luck to all you CCIW teams!!!

[REDMENFAN]

Great article in the Kenosha News today about Carthage's upcoming season. A few things I remember about the article is that Augie stated he feels this years team is a bit overrated. The writer stated that Augie never gets into all the preseason hoopla, and normally at the end of every season Carthage is on the verge of winning the conference and competing to make it to the world series.  The article stresses that after Jacob Husing, the staff is unproven, but all 9 starters return in the field. Augie used a great line about David Hermes saying: he hits the ball 9 miles when he gets a hold of one.  Ultimately the article is primarily about two players: Jacob Husing and Boe Baitinger. Augie stated that every single major league team had someone in during fall ball to talk to him, and that he legitimately touched 94 mph on a few separate occasions in front of the scouts. Also, that he compliments his fastball with a curveball, changeup, and slider.  About Boe, Augie said Boe is without a doubt the best outfielder he's ever coached, its not even close, and that includes all the former all conference and all american performers. Augs also mentioned there used to be games you could just pencil in as victories, but the conference is not like that anymore. He said Augustana, Wesleyan, and a much improved Wheaton team should contend for the conference crown. 

[REDMENFAN]

Here's the beginning of the article, for some reason it only gives the first few paragraphs: http://kenoshanews.com/articles/index.php?articleNum=792232

[matblake]

Thanks for the overview Redman.  Sounds like a decent article.

[mwunder]

Carthage wins vs Coe, 3-1, in game 1 of their doubleheader today.  Jacob Husing picks up the win for the Red Men.  Freshman Corey Richardson picks up the save.

[REDMENFAN]

Carthage lost game two 2-0, Jeff Livek was the tough luck loser, don't know any other details

[mr_b]

North Park dropped its season opener, 13-7, to McDaniel College.

[BigPoppa]

Carthage moves to 2-2 on the season. The Red Men split a Saturday DH with Coe College (IOWA) and an Sunday DH with Ohio Wesleyan. This certainly is a disappointing start for the #8 ranked Red Men. It appears that their pitching is doing the job early on, but their bats are unusually quiet to this point. I would expect that to change quickly as Coach Augie Schmidt will have a quick hook on guys that do not produce at the plate.

Per the Carthage Website:

In the opening game, Ohio Wesleyan scored three unearned runs in the third inning, following a one-out fielding error by Red Men shortstop Jose Alba.  The Battling Bishops' A.J. Dote hit a two-run double in the inning.  Carthage got two runs back in the bottom of third on a two-run homer by Boe Baitinger, the first Carthage collegiate home run for the junior centerfielder.  Baitinger hit one home run his freshman year at Chaffey College.  The Red Men tied the game, 3-3, in the fourth on a two-out RBI-single by Anthony Gragnani.  Ohio Wesleyan took a 4-3 lead in the sixth on a leadoff, solo home run by Kyle Sherman.  The Red Men took their first lead of the game in the sixth off Battling Bishops relief pitcher Matthew Struble.  With two outs, Baitinger tripled just inside the rightfield foul line, scoring Seth Romano with tying run.  Gragnani singled up the middle to score Baitinger with the go-ahead run.  Starting pitcher Chris Krepline (1-0) went the distance for the Red Men.  Krepline allowed four runs, only one earned on six hits and a walk, while striking our five batters.  Baitinger went three-for-three with a double, a triple, a home run and three RBI.

In the nightcap, Ohio Wesleyan took a 1-0 lead in the second inning off Carthage pitcher Ryan Roufus on a base-loaded walk to Joey McDaniel.  The Red Men tied the game, 1-1, in the fourth when Mike Hughes led off with his second double of the game, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jose Alba.  Carthage took a 2-1 lead in the fifth when Anthony Gragnani led off with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a double by Chris Sadjak.  The Battling Bishops knotted the game, 2-2, in the fifth on an RBI-double by Sean Ring.  Ohio Wesleyan won the game with a run in the bottom of the seventh.  Kyle Sherman opened the inning with a base on balls and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by A.J. Dote.  Sherman stole third, and with two outs, scored on a throwing error by Carthage third baseman Tyler Yapp.  The loss went to Jordan Williams (0-1), the third of four Carthage pitchers.  Ryan Roufus started the game.  Corey Richardson replace him in the second inning before giving way to Williams in the sixth and Andy Henning in the seventh.

Updated Standings:
Augustana (Ill.) (6-1)
Wheaton (Ill.) (3-3)
Carthage (2-2)
Elmhurst (1-1)
Millikin (1-2)
North Park (0-1)
North Central (0-3)
Illinois Wesleyan (0-4)


IWU at 0-4 is a surprise to me... as is Wheaton at 3-3. I try not to put too much weight into the spring trips as they usually use it to sort out the CCIW line-ups for the conference games, but it could be a very interesting CCIW season this year.

 

[BigPoppa]

Quoting Coach Augie Schmidt IV on the March 11 Ohio Wesleyan Split:  "We played well defensively in the first game, especially after how poorly we played on Saturday.  We got a couple of clutch hits and won the game.  Ohio Wesleyan has a nice ball club, but I don't think they're better than us.  Boe Baitinger did a nice job and hit a home run—he doesn't do much of that.  Chris Krepline pitched seven strong inning, and our one through three pitchers look pretty good right now.  In the second game, Ryan Roufus just didn't have it today.  He no control over anything, so we hooked him pretty quick.  Then we battled back, and it turned into a great ball game.  Corey Richardson did a very nice job in middle relief.  We hit some balls hard—they just got caught.  It was tough losing the game on an error, but we didn't score enough anyway."

Carthage faces Concordia (WI) tomorrow in another DH. I expect the Red Men to hammer the Falcons and get geared up for their showdown with Cortland State on Wednesday.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU really tanked on Sunday against UW-LaCrosse down in Phoenix. 19-1? Yikes. That's a score that's right out of the bad old days at the end of the Vandenbranden era. What the heck happened to the Vikes, Mr. B?

[KYGrizzly]

Actually, I was mistaken, Augustana had one more game left on their trip and defeated Concordia (Minnesota) 18-13 to end the trip 6-1.

NPU's opener at Franklin was snowed out. No word on when, or if, the game will be rescheduled.

Franklins revised schedule shows North Park now playing the Grizzlies on Sunday March 25th @ 1:00pm as a double header.

This is the same weekend that Franklin was to open conference play at home against Bluffton.

[REDMENFAN]

Hopefully the Carthage bats wake up today. A few Augie comments from Sunday's paper:
"The second game might have been the worst game I've ever seen as a coach"
"Even when we won four games in 1988 we at least caught the ball and threw the ball"
"It says we had 5 errors, but it really was eight!"

In today's paper, Augie is very happy with his top 3 pitchers and what they did, and obviously not thrilled about the hitting

[REDMENFAN]

Ex Carthage assistant Jarvis Brown also has UW-Parkside off to a 4-1 start after take 2 out of 3 against Parkside's former head coach Tracy Archuleta who's at Southern Indiana

[BigPoppa]

Hopefully the Carthage bats wake up today. A few Augie comments from Sunday's paper:
"The second game might have been the worst game I've ever seen as a coach"

I heard that speech many times when I was playing for Augie. Carthage always struggles on Day #2 of their spring trip. After a huge game on Wednesday with Cortland, they could be set up for another let down on Thursday. Hopefully not

[REDMENFAN]

Carthage won game 1 today 4-0 on a 3 hit shutout by Brian Keefer I believe was the name on the hotline, and is currently trailing 3-2 in the second game