BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[matblake]

Wheaton beats Benedictine.  See the story here

[yank52]

Schedule through this weekend, hopefully the weather will allow all the games to take place.


Predicitions:


Elmhurst @ Aurora, 5 p.m.                                 Elmhurst
North Park @ Dominican, 3 p.m.                         North Park

Friday, April 27 
Wheaton @ North Central, 3 p.m.                      North Central
Augustana @ Ill. Wesleyan, 7 p.m.                    Ill. Wesleyan

Saturday, April 28 
Millikin @ Carthage (2), 1 p.m.                           Carthage (2)
North Central @ Wheaton (2), 1 p.m.                Split
Elmhurst @ North Park (2), 1 p.m.                     Split
Ill. Wesleyan @ Augustana (2), 2 p.m.              Split

Sunday, April 29 
Clarke @ Augustana, 4 p.m.                              Augie
North Park @ Elmhurst, 1 p.m.                           NPU
Millikin @ Carthage, Noon                                  Carthage "sweep"

Monday, April 30 
Dominican @ Elmhurst, 4 p.m.                           Elmhurst

Tuesday, May 1 
Dubuque @ Augustana, 7 p.m.                          Augie
Aurora @ Carthage, 3 p.m.                                Carthage
Elmhurst @ Concordia (Ill.), 3:30 p.m.               Elmhurst
North Park @ Chicago, 3 p.m.                            NPU

[BigPoppa]

Augustana and IWU this weekend could be a great series. I see IWU winning it 2-1, but the one loss will be a huge blemish on IWU's perfect season.

[WLCALUM83]

In non-conference action, North Park knocks off Dominican 11-1.

[REDMENFAN]

Drove by Carthage's field yesterday and noticed that it wasn't tarped.  Its been raining in the kenosha/racine area for 3 days straight now on and off. It should be okay by tomorrow afternoon, but they'll have to put in a lot more work than if they just had to roll the tarp up

[SouthPaw]

North Central topped Wheaton 11-7 in Naperville. Cardinals bats have been alive the last couple of games. Justin Rezzuto picked up his third win and Ricky Foytik picked up his third save of the year. Cardinals move to 6-10 in CCIW. They finish off the series tomorrow at Wheaton.

[Mr. Ypsi]

What was already a foregone conclusion is now official: the tourney is in Bloomington, as the Titans swept Augie 13-4 and 4-2.  Carthage swept Millikin to all but lock up the second seed at 12-5.  Elmhurst and North Park split, which leaves NP on life-support as they fall to 7-10 (and finish against Carthage), while Augie and Elmhurst are both 9-8.  I haven't checked tie-breakers to see if NC is officially eliminated, but only splitting with Wheaton left them at 7-11 and effectively eliminated.

While they will decide it on the field, I'd call it #1 IWU, #2 Carthage, #3 Augie, #4 Elmhurst (Augie finishes with Wheaton, Elmhurst finishes with IWU).  North Park DOES still have a legitimate shot if they beat Elmhurst Sunday - they would then have the tie-break over Elmhurst (and trail by only one game), and need to do one game better against Carthage than Elmhurst does against IWU.

[Titan Q]

Congratulations to Dennis Martel and the Titans for clinching the CCIW championship.  This has been an amazing year for the Titan baseball team.

Also congrats to Dennis Martel on career win #500 yesterday.  Dennis is now 10 wins from passing legendary IWU coach Jack Horenberger...

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/04/27/sports/doc4631468a0a901439151087.txt

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/04/29/sports/doc46344336025cc871248303.txt

[iwumichigander]

Tremendous accomplishments by IWU Saturday - play a double header against Augustana, win two, win the CCIW, win right to host the conference tournament and career win # 500 for Coach Martel.  Whew!

Great work by the Titans!

[Mr. Ypsi]

The Titans perfect conference season was snapped by Augie today, 7-0.  Meanwhile, Elmhurst downed North Park 11-1, assuring Elmhurst of a berth in the tourney. 

Since North Park has the tie-break over the 'other' Vikings, they are not yet mathematically eliminated, though they would have to sweep Carthage (stranger things have happened!) while Augie was being swept by Wheaton (THAT would be one of the stranger things! )

[Mr. Ypsi]

Just to cover all the bases (however remote), Augie, Elmhurst, North Central, and North Park COULD all finish 10-11.  In that scenario, NP is immediately eliminated (3-6 vs. the other 3), while the others are all 5-4.  With NP out, the three-way tie sees Augie the 3-seed (4-2), Elmhurst the 4-seed (3-3) and NC out.

If NC tied Augie and Elmhurst, they are out (as seen in step two above).

IF NP tied Augie and Elmhurst, they are all 3-3 and I leave it to someone else to solve (unless it seems SO unlikely that no one bothers!)

Bottom line: NC is mathematically eliminated, NP is clinging to life-support.

[augie28]

Although dropping 2 of 3 to IWU practically eliminated Augie from an at-large bid, the weekend series should be a huge boost of confidence going into the tourney.  In game 1, they gave Aronson a run for his money stranding 7 base runners and taking a lead into the 5th needing just one more big hit to pull out a victory.  They managed to put some good swings on the ball, but Aronson has a 0.34 ERA for a reason and used good control to work out of any jams.  Games 1 and 3 also saw very strong complete game outings from Brandon Engle and Eric Knott, the two pitchers the Vikings will be counting on.  Besides another break down by the young pitching in game 2, Augie looked very strong against an impressive IWU team. 

After seeing IWU, Augie, Carthage and Elmhurst play, I have to give a definate advantage to IWU in the tourney (especially at home), although I would consider them far from unbeatable.  It should play out to be a very even tournament and as always will come down to who has the most pitching left after day 1.

[BigPoppa]

After seeing IWU, Augie, Carthage and Elmhurst play, I have to give a definate advantage to IWU in the tourney (especially at home), although I would consider them far from unbeatable.  It should play out to be a very even tournament and as always will come down to who has the most pitching left after day 1.

My heart says Carthage wins it in an upset over IWU, but my head says IWU (and taking IWU crushes my heart... I can't stand the "green weenies").

[REDMENFAN]

In the 1st inning of yesterday's 20-1 victory, Carthage's leadoff man Boe Baitinger was injured in the first inning on a play at home plate.  I was told that he rolled his ankle on the Catcher's foot, and returned to the game on crutches after a trip to the hospital.  The paper today called it a sprain, hopefully its ready to go by the time the CCIW tournament rolls around.  On another note, congrats to Senior Steve Rucks for hitting his first collegiate homerun. Augie also set a Carthage record by sending 8 pinch hitters to the plate in one inning during yesterdays ball game.

[BigPoppa]

Augie also set a Carthage record by sending 8 pinch hitters to the plate in one inning during yesterdays ball game.

8 pinch hitters in one inning means that they were mostly successful at the plate. That bodes well for the depth of the team.

Carthage has been piling up runs since their throttling by IWU. They have gone 6-0 since the IWU series and have scored 83 runs in those games (average of 13.8 runs per contest) and have topped 20 runs twice. Hopefully, the REDMEN hitters have found their groove and can carry it into the CCIW tourney.