BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

REDMENFAN · March 16, 2007, 01:53:24 PM

Carthage won the second game 8-2, Chris Krepline finished with 10 strikeouts, that's all the details the hotline had to this point. Carthage comes home with a 6-4 record, the same as last year so although they shouldn't be thrilled, overall not a bad trip. The good news: Carthage was 5-1 when their 1-3 pitchers started, the only loss was to Coe and Jeff Livek only gave up 2 unearned runs. The bad news obviously: they went 1-3 in games not started by their top 3 guys. Unless those younger guys can pick it up, and the defense and hitters start supporting those young pitchers, Carthage could struggle with the non-conference portion of their schedule, because Augie will NEVER throw one of his top guys in a non-conference game once conference starts, and that's the right thing to do in my opinion. No matter who you're playing or what they're ranked, you save your top dogs for conference games (often times teams will throw their best at Carthage during a non-conference game)

bataviapete · March 16, 2007, 04:30:11 PM

North Park team ERA is 5.79. So if Carhtage is 6-4 and Auguie is 6-1 (not sure what they did yesterday) than the rest of the CCIW is 5-20. That is bad.

mr_b · March 16, 2007, 05:01:10 PM

North Park defeated a hot Macalester team, 10-8. Macalester upset the College of New Jersey yesterday and were putting up huge run totals on all their opponents, but the Vikings clawed back and played much better defense today. Evan Berns picked up the win in relief.

yank52 · March 16, 2007, 05:11:17 PM

It looks like this recruiting season is starting to show promise, Berns is a freshman. It is great to see NPU not fall down after a heartbreaking loss to such a good team as Montclair.
I am still concern about the 8 runs but if it shows as a majority of unearned, I'll not be surprised.
Great to see them finish strong 2 out of last 3.

mr_b · March 16, 2007, 06:42:36 PM

Quote from: yank52 on March 16, 2007, 05:11:17 PM
It looks like this recruiting season is starting to show promise, Berns is a freshman. It is great to see NPU not fall down after a heartbreaking loss to such a good team as Montclair.
I am still concern about the 8 runs but if it shows as a majority of unearned, I'll not be surprised.
Great to see them finish strong 2 out of last 3.

Actually there was only one unearned run charged to the Vikings on a freak play -- the Macalester runner was caught in a rundown between second and third, and a throw glanced off his helmet. He later scored on a sacrifice fly.

augie28 · March 16, 2007, 07:03:58 PM

North Park's team ERA might be an average 5.79, but with 16 errors and 20 unearned runs against through 5 games, it doesn't look so good anymore. It is good to see they are scoring at a decent rate (around 6/game) and even at 2-4 have been very competitive so far given the recent NP history, but we all know you can't win without defense.

It seems as if the NP defense and the Carthage bats are the two things to watch as conference play gets closer.

knarocky22 · March 17, 2007, 12:51:59 AM

Augustana defeated Wisconsin-La Crosse yesterday 8-4 and Monmouth today 7-4 to move to 8-1 on the season. Here is the link to the Augustana site with the articles from the games.

http://www.augustana.edu/athletics/baseball/

REDMENFAN · March 17, 2007, 01:49:11 PM

Just a couple quotes from Coach Augie about the Redman's trip in today's paper:

"Our top three pitcher threw great the first time around and all three threw even better the second time around. There aren't many NCAA Division 3 teams with three pitchers like Jacob Husing, Jeff Livek and Chris Krepline. We're going to be in every game this year with that kind pitching."

"I felt a lot better about how we ended this trip than I did earlier in the week. We swung the bats pretty good today in tough, windy conditions and we played good defense. Most importantly, we finally got some RBI-Hits."

knarocky22 · March 18, 2007, 11:20:39 AM

Augustana defeated Wisconsin-La Crosse again yesterday 12-11 in extra innings to move to 9-1 on the season.

Gregory Sager · March 19, 2007, 01:48:42 AM

Quote from: augie28 on March 16, 2007, 07:03:58 PM
North Park's team ERA might be an average 5.79, but with 16 errors and 20 unearned runs against through 5 games, it doesn't look so good anymore. It is good to see they are scoring at a decent rate (around 6/game) and even at 2-4 have been very competitive so far given the recent NP history, but we all know you can't win without defense.

It seems as if the NP defense and the Carthage bats are the two things to watch as conference play gets closer.

The report I got is that NPU coach Luke Johnson is pretty livid about the poor defense exhibited by the Vikings on their spring trip. That is definitely one area that will need to be cleaned up if the Vikes are going to be competitive in the CCIW. Given the dismal start to the season for just about everyone around the league (except for Augustana) it's certainly possible that NPU is just one of many teams around the league struggling to find itself at the moment. But that's of limited consolation.

NPU's home opener is Tuesday afternoon against traditional local power Aurora (6-4). This will be a good test of North Park's mettle.

augie28 · March 19, 2007, 07:29:26 AM

Augie beat U of Chicago 17-11 yesterday. They come back from AZ 10-1. The offense continues to be the teams strength at this point, but a lot of runs have been going up against the Vikings.

The four games were started by Engle, Knott and then freshmen Matt Erickson and Steve Plettau. The pitching staff appears to be up for grabs, but Engle and Knott continued to secure their spots and Erickson put up a solid start as well.

Augie faces Monmouth and Aurora this week.

yank52 · March 20, 2007, 07:43:49 PM

Just saw that NPU beat Aurora, in a come from behind 9th inning rally.
Way to go on your 1st home game!!!!

augie28 · March 20, 2007, 08:36:09 PM

Thats a big win for NP and the CCIW...two wins by Wesleyan as well are a nice change from the slow conference start.

Speaking of Aurora, I included a link to the San Angelo Colts of the United League who selected Aurora's SS Aaron Thor 5th overall in this year's draft. Thor is a hometown friend of mine and surely gave every CCIW team their share of trouble over the years.

Does anyone have any updates of other local players from last year who are continuing on this summer?

http://www.sanangelocolts.com/team/?id=1992

Gregory Sager · March 21, 2007, 01:08:59 AM

Quote from: yank52 on March 20, 2007, 07:43:49 PM
Just saw that NPU beat Aurora, in a come from behind 9th inning rally.
Way to go on your 1st home game!!!!

It was a back-and-forth affair. NPU jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but squandered it when a sure double play turned into a two-base error and opened the door to a three-run rally by the Spartans in the fifth. Aurora then added two more runs in the seventh to take a 6-4 lead, but NPU rallied with a run in the bottom of that inning and then, with two out in the bottom of the ninth, picked up a couple of walks and scored the game-tying and game-winning runs on a throwing error by the Aurora shortstop.

It was good to see the opposition falter in the field for a change; Aurora made five errors, including the one that lost the Spartans the game. North Park starter Andy Sherwood, the current CCIW Pitcher of the Week, didn't have a great outing, but relievers Brad DeJong, Steve Kleckler, and Joe DiCristina only gave up one run in 3 1/3 innings of relief.

A good, solid home opener win for the Park. The Vikings are now 3-4 thus far on the season.

NPU travels to Benedictine (5-5) for an afternoon game on Wednesday.

Ralph Turner · March 21, 2007, 01:43:52 AM

Quote from: augie28 on March 20, 2007, 08:36:09 PM
Thats a big win for NP and the CCIW...two wins by Wesleyan as well are a nice change from the slow conference start.

Speaking of Aurora, I included a link to the San Angelo Colts of the United League who selected Aurora's SS Aaron Thor 5th overall in this year's draft. Thor is a hometown friend of mine and surely gave every CCIW team their share of trouble over the years.

Does anyone have any updates of other local players from last year who are continuing on this summer?

http://www.sanangelocolts.com/team/?id=1992

Then maybe Aaron will take a day off and visit Roscoe, Texas, home of the Roscoe High School Plowboys!