BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[augie_superfan]

Is Augustana now at 1-1 on the season?

Yes they are

[augie_superfan]

Word from the guys is that Augie won 21-12 over Alma (MI) today....I didn't get any details but the boxscore will probably be posted sometime tomorrow.  Augie now goes to 2-1.

[REDMENFAN]

Sounds like it was a classic pitchers duel!!

[BigPoppa]

Word from the guys is that Augie won 21-12 over Alma (MI) today....I didn't get any details but the boxscore will probably be posted sometime tomorrow.  Augie now goes to 2-1.

Giving up 12 runs to Alma makes me wonder how deep the Augie bullpen is!?! Unless it was just one of those days...

[augiefan]

Augie lost to Alma yesterday by a 10-6 score. High scoring early spring games do not mean much. Midwest pitchers have no time to get into shape until April at the earliest.

Alma was horrible last year, but they have a new coach who is very good. Formerly coached at Ferris State. Nevertheless, losing a game by any score to a rebuilding Alma team is not encouraging.

[augie_superfan]

Augie split a DH today vs. Dubuque...they are now 3-2 on the season.  Andrew Setter threw a complete game 6 hitter in a game 1 win, 6-2.  They lost the second game 8-6 after leading 5-1. 

So far on the season, Augie is hitting .372 as a team but only have a 5.77 team ERA.

One thing of interest is that 3 freshman have started in the infield so far but they are all swinging the stick pretty well so far.

The catcher situation seems to be a problem as expected.  They already have 7 passed balls in 5 games whereas they only had 24 passed balls al of last season.  Also, opponents are 12-12 on stolen bases so far.  I also wonder if the inexperienced catchers are causing the pitching to be worse off than expected.

Hopefully Augie can get all of their lineups settled and figure out what will work for them so they can start playing some better ball.

[BigPoppa]

3-2 versus the likes of Hanover, Alma and Dubuque does not bode well for the Vikings in the CCIW. All three of those teams would  finish near the bottom of the CCIW.

Augie needs to find a catcher quickly. If they cannot throw anybody out, it is going to be a long year for the pitchers who try to hold runners close.

[Sweetness]

How does Augustana lose a game against Dubuque University?  When Dubuque has 6 errors in the game. 

[REDMENFAN]

I agree. Augustana will win some games this year in conference if they keep swinging the bat like they are, but they won't compete to win the conference if they can't find a descent catcher this year. I would say its  to early to judge their pitching, especially with the catching situation.

[augie_superfan]

Yeah, this is one of the worst spring trips for Augie since I have been paying attention to them.  I think the worst trip when I was there was 8-2 or something like that.  Augie has 2 very solid pitchers in Andrew Setter and Kevin Kuntz.  After that, they don't have many people that have thrown too many innings on the varsity level in previous years.  Last year's closer, Brandon Engle, pitched great last year but has struggled at the start this year.  I don't want to get too worried about things now because it is early on.  The conference season is what really matters.

The one problem that could be manifesting itself is the fact that Augie has only had a few weeks of "official practice".  When I played, we always started the baseball season the 2nd week of January and by the time we went to Florida, the pitchers had 6-7 weeks to get our arms into shape and building up some stamina.  With the NCAA passing legislation in previous years to shorten the season, Augie's practice time is down to something like 3-4 weeks. 

This is obviously not an excuse for a loss becaue the other teams are playing by the same rules too...but it might just show why the Augie pitchers have not pitched so well yet.  Lets hope it all changes by the time they return to playing baseball back at home.

[BigPoppa]

Gotta love the NCAAs attempt to shorten the season, but all it is really shortening is the careers of pitchers... they need the extra time to get in game shape.

[REDMENFAN]

Another tough part about the spring trip is often teams from up north don't even practice outside at all before they play their first game, and only so much can be done indoors in a gym, especially for outfielders. I know that this week for Carthage they have finally started to go out on the football field which has astroplay and take some grounders and fly balls. Take UW-Parkside for example. They are the preseason #16 team in D-2, and went 0-3 down in Kentucky last weekend against teams from down south. This was their first time playing ball outdoors, that defanitely makes a difference when you are playing teams that have the luxury of being able to practice outdoors during february and the beginning of march.

[TitanRailer]

Nice article in the Pantagraph on the IWU season outlook, which begins this weekend...

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/03/03/sports/108094.txt

[REDMENFAN]

It looks like Wesleyan's season will depend on how their 6 senior pitchers perform this year, along with a few others.  Seems like they should still have a pretty solid hitting team, but it will take some getting used to playing and never being able to say "well Lapinski's on the mound we're gonna win as long as we score  2 or 3 runs."

[BigPoppa]

Anybody know how Augie did today? It is not posted on their page yet. They played against Clarke today at 9:30 am.

I am hoping that the CCIW teams all fare well this weekend to help the conference out during selection time (Pool C)