BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[knarocky22]

No doubt IWU will be 11-0 in CCIW play after the weekend. They are a team that gets on base and gets timely hits. We will have to see if the pitching will continue to be strong, but before the season started that was where the question marks were.

I sure hope your play this weekend can back up those strong words. 

[benchwarmer21]

No doubt IWU will be 11-0 in CCIW play after the weekend. They are a team that gets on base and gets timely hits. We will have to see if the pitching will continue to be strong, but before the season started that was where the question marks were.

Do not be so sure of that. It's true IWU is 8-0 in confrence but they are 8-0 playing againest 3 teams that have a combined record of 6-21 in confrence play two of which only have one win a piece. NPU has been playing great ball latly and are physically and mentally prepared for the upcoming series. Each game this weekend will be a fight and will come down to who wants it more. U have the battle of the third highest BA(NPU-.316) vs the #1 ERA(IWU-1.24) then also the 3rd ranked ERA(NPU-3.78) vs the 3rd lowest BA in the confrence(IWU-.279). These games will be tight and IWU will not sweep the Vikes.

[knarocky22]

Augie defeated Carthage today 6-2.  Doubleheader set for tomorrow at noon.

[augie28]

Great game to watch today at Augustana. 

Jacob Husing was cruising early on while Eric Knott gave up 2 runs on 7 hits through the first four innings.  After that, Knott settled down and did not allow another hit through the 8th keeping his team close.  Augie finally strung some hits together and put up 3 runs in the 6th and the final 2 in the 8th. 

The Augie offense really looked strong today.  They put good swings on a strong pitcher all game long.  They also came up with the big hit which seemed to have been avoiding them through the last few games. 

If tomorrow's action is anything like today's game, it should make for two good games.

[perfectgame]

Final from Chicago:

Iwu vs NPU

2-1
5-1

Two more strong pitching performances today from IWU pitching dropping their conference era (1 earned). NPU played well and got a strong pitching performance from Di Cristina (7 ip 1 er) but couldnt come up with the victory. Should be a good game tomorrow

[Mr. Ypsi]

Since I'm a newbie to CCIW baseball, I did some catching up on history this evening.  If there exist season-by-season records (or all-time totals) other than championships, I couldn't find them (I only checked the conference site, not school-by-school).  All-time titles:

IWU  20 (including 3 of last 8; last title, 2005)
Carthage  13 (including 5 of last 8; last title, 2006)
N. Central  9 (last title, 1998)
Millikin  8 (last title, 1975)
Elmhurst  7 (last title, 1997)
Augustana  4 (last title, 1974)
N. Park  4 (all from 1983-1990; all coached by Bosko Djurickovic)
Wheaton  1 (1951)
[the only title by a school no longer in the conference was Lake Forest in 1953]

I couldn't find total coaching records, but in terms of 'rings', no one approaches Jack Horenberger, whose 15 titles are more than all of the coaches at any other school.  (Rapidly approaching is the 'tag-team' of Augie Schmidt III (5) and Augie Schmidt IV (8 ), who together have all of Carthage's titles.  How did Augustana let these Augies get away?!)

Although the season is not even half over yet, with IWU's sweep of NPU Saturday, it is looking like the conference champ is likely to be either IWU or Carthage for the 9th consecutive year.

[mr_b]

Since I'm a newbie to CCIW baseball, I did some catching up on history this evening.  If there exist season-by-season records (or all-time totals) other than championships, I couldn't find them (I only checked the conference site, not school-by-school). 

The North Park Baseball Team Website (separate from the Athletic department's version) has an extensive historical section, including coaching records.  the URL is http://www.northpark.edu/baseball/2007/

[Mr. Ypsi]

mr_b,

Thanks for the tip, though alas (as feared) it is only for North Park.  For conference stuff I guess I'm doomed to search school-by-school, though the site did have team-by-team records since 1959.  NPU seems definitely on the rise today, but otherwise seems to have shone only during Bosko's tenure; they have an overall losing record against all conference opponents except (slightly) over Millikin and (overwhelmingly) over Wheaton (which probably makes up for a lot!)

Since I'm far more familiar with football and basketball (where Wheaton was so overwhelmingly dominant in the 50s that they were evicted from the conference for awhile) and soccer (where the Crusaders/Thunder were almost totally unchallenged until the rise of NPU recently), it seems odd to see them as perennial doormats.  Any explanations for why Wheaton and baseball don't seem to fit in the same sentence?

[BTW, Ann Arbor has a fabulous boogie-woogie pianist with the stage name of Mr. B - familiar with him?]

[yank52]

Alas, it looks like NPU woes will continue for another season, I think it time for "Wait until next season" chorus.
NPU dropped 3 straight to IWU, Sunday's final 6 to 0, the weather was grand, the pitching was on but the bats and defense betrayed the Vikings today.

Hope springs eternal every spring, but the spring looks dryer with each passing conference series.

Good luck Vikings this week , make up with Wheaton and a 3 game series with NCC

[bball7811]

My choice of words should have been more carefully written so as not to sound arrogant, for that I apologize however, IWU's pitchers continued to pepper the corners and get people out. I never said IWU was a hitting machine but that they got TIMELY HITS once again this weekend. NPU played some great baseball this weekend as well.

[perfectgame]

yes, next time think a LITTLE before you type bball. regardless, good job out there and it should be an interesting final few weeks in cciw play.

[Mr. Ypsi]

bball,

As a Titan, I for one forgive you - they ARE 11-0!

But arrogance (real or perceived) will raise hackles on the boards.  I took a lot of static on CCIW Chat in 2005-06 for even raising the serious possibility that IWU might run the table (they had two first-team all-Americans in Dauksas and Amelianovich, and a future first-team AA in Freeman).  I never even predicted they would, but my 'odds' of it rose gradually from 10% to 40% as they swept what was arguably the toughest non-conference schedule in the country (and were unanimously #1 in the d3hoops poll); I still received plenty of ridicule (and DID eat plenty of crow since they not only didn't go undefeated, Augie won the conference).

Anyone got the Augie-Carthage results?  I'm ambivalent whether to hope that the Red Men all-but-eliminated the Vikes, or that the Titans are now 3 (or 4) games up on everyone!  (Not arrogance, just hopeful thinking!)

[mr_b]

Carthage took two from Augustana this Sunday, 10-8 and 11-4.  The standings as of today are:

Illinois Wesleyan	11-0
Carthage	8-2
North Park	6-5
Augustana	5-6
Elmhurst	5-6
Millikin	4-6
North Central	2-9
Wheaton	1-8

[mr_b]

Anyone got the Augie-Carthage results?  I'm ambivalent whether to hope that the Red Men all-but-eliminated the Vikes, or that the Titans are now 3 (or 4) games up on everyone!  (Not arrogance, just hopeful thinking!)

It's too soon to be thinking about which teams might be eliminated with half the CCIW schedule (10-11 games) yet to be played.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Obviously, not even North Central or Wheaton have been eliminated, but it is equally obvious that, barring some immediate sweeps, it is (realistically) now a two-team race.  For anyone else to pass both Carthage and IWU would require twin collapses of historic proportions.