BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mwunder]

Big Poppa, I'm looking forward to seeing your Top 25. Does Trinity (Texas) belong in the 1 spot? How does Carthage continue to move up in the polls? And what has happened to Heildelberg?

Carthage will not move up this week.  2-2 so far in AZ after loses to Luther and Hamline.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park slaughter-ruled Dominican today in seven innings, 14-2, in the home opener for the Vikings.

NPU (11-2) will host Wisconsin Lutheran in a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon.

[BigPoppa]

Carthage is getting throttled 7-0 in the 5th by UW Superior. Not a Good start for the Redmen

[izzy stradlin]

Not sure if any posters here follow Wheaton ,but does anyone know why Trey Martin hasn't seen the mound this season?   He was clearly Wheaton's ace last year.  His bat sure seems fine.   

Wheaton's offense seems to have some pop again.  In 12 games, 116 runs, 15 HRs, .355 average, .552 SLG and my favorite, 67 BBs.   Not bad numbers in the new BBCOR era regardless of the pitching it's against.   Like Augie, the key for the Thunder will be what the arms can do during the CCIW schedule to go with that offense. 

[BigPoppa]

Carthage is getting throttled 7-0 in the 5th by UW Superior. Not a Good start for the Redmen

Now down 10-2 in the 7th:(

[NCF]

North Central closed out their spring break tour witha 9-4 victory over Greensboro College. Next up is a double header on March 25 at home beginning at noon.

[D3Vike11]

Carthage loses 6-8 to a bad Carlton College team. Not a good start for the Red Man as they are about to face off against their toughest opponent of the year, Eastern Connecticut. Carthage continues to struggle defensively having committed 4 errors in their loss to Carlton.

The Red Man are going to have to figure it out very soon.

[Gregory Sager]

Incidentally, it was great to see so many of last year's seniors, and a number of other recent North Park baseball alumni, in attendance at yesterday's DU @ NPU contest. It says a lot about the sense of ownership, pride, and emotional investment in the NPU baseball program that the Vikings take with them even after they've graduated and entered the working world.

[warrior35]

I've wondered the same thing Izzy. It leads me to believe that either Wheaton doesn't have another 1st baseman that Drigger trusts, or Drigger has so much faith in his pitching staff that he has elected to have a stronger fielding defense and offense. I think it's probably the first, and perhaps Trey might be dealing with a little arm trouble? He did make the move to 1B too... not sure if that says anything about an arm issue?

I'm sure Wheaton is a bit frustrated today.  Wheaton loaded the bases in the top of the 8th down 5-3 and the umpires called the game do to unplayable field conditions. It may have been a good call... I'm not sure, I wasn't there... but, knowing some of the field conditions many of us former college baseball players have played in, I'm sure it's frustrating for those boys to have a game called in the middle of an inning like that.

[warrior35]

Wheaton splits today. They get UW Platteville 4-2 but fall again to Wash U. by 1 run in 12 innings.  Would've liked to see Wheaton get at least one of those from Wash U.  That would be a great quality win, but they just fell short.

[D3Vike11]

North Park splits a double header today against Wisconsin Lutheran with an 8-3 win in the first game and 10-6 loss in the second. Nick Soldano put in another solid game with 8 IP 1 BB 11 K's. In the second game, defense was what hurt the Vikings with 5 of the 10 runs being unearned. Garcia gets tagged with the loss, while Boyer works 1.2 innings with 5 K's and 0 BB's on the day. This loss ends their 11 game win streak, and although it was a bad loss, I expect Luke Johnson to get them back on track starting with UW-Platteville tomorrow.

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU split a pair with CUC (or CURF, for those who care about geography!), winning 8-6, then losing 6-9.  Rubber game tomorrow.  Titans currently 8-3.

[BigPoppa]

Thoughts as we head into CCIW play this week:
1. The biggest surprise to me is Carthage at 5-5 in a relatively non-threatening schedule to this point.

2. Can the 11-2 Augustana avoid another collapse in the CCIW? They seem to be here every year and peak in mid-April before falling off the radar at tourney time.

3. As I have said over and over, I think NPU is the team to beat this year. I am confused by their loss to Wisconsin Lutheran yesterday...

4. Still don't know what to make of IWU... Maybe my dislike of the green weenies clouds my judgement, but they don't seem as formidable as recent squads have... Though Callahan scares the bejesus out of me.

5. Driggers looks to have Wheaton pointed in the right direction.

6. Millikan is just awful... Again! I struggle to recall a time when they were relevant.

[Gregory Sager]

3. As I have said over and over, I think NPU is the team to beat this year. I am confused by their loss to Wisconsin Lutheran yesterday...

Yeah, it's a bad loss for the Park. Wisconsin Lutheran isn't nearly as awful as its record indicates, but that's still a team that North Park should've swept. Nevertheless, it's still relatively easy to explain what happened. As I've said before, the early-season fielding for the Vikings has not been sharp, and as D3Vike11 indicated, errors plagued NPU quite a bit in the nightcap -- although you have to give credit to the Warriors for being able to take advantage of those errors. Paul Garcia had a hard time finding the strike zone early on, and the errors behind him made his control problems worse.

It was altogether not that good of a day for the Vikings. Even in the 8-3 win they had to come from behind -- I figured that they'd put WLC away early in both games -- and they got picked off three times in the opener. First time I've ever seen a team get picked off three times in a game and still win! But, like D3Vike11, I expect to see the Vikings snap back this afternoon against UWP. I don't think that the Vikings want to have to face another postgame harangue from Luke Johnson like they got yesterday.

The upside for the doubleheader was that Travis Boyer looked fantastic in both of his appearances, and Nick Soldano battled through some early difficulty and ended up putting in a solid start for NPU.

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU was pummeled today, 8-0, by CUC, falling to 8-4.  Five hits against what is presumably pretty deep in the CUC pitching order just ain't gonna get it done!