BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

This season is already officially nuts.

IWU (17 points in the ORV category of the poll) opened the season at the Birmingham-Southern tournament.  First game: beat #8 Adrian.  Second game: lost to no votes Huntingdon.  Third game: beat #10 Birmingham-Southern on their own field.

Try explaining THAT.

[matblake]

Try explaining THAT.

They won twice and lost once.  Explained! 

[matblake]

Wheaton is now 3-2 on the season after splittling with Bethel, a loss to Monmouth, and sweeping MacMurray 2-0.  Wheaton next takes on Baldwin-Wallace on Thursday.

[Chantastic]

Based on the early returns, I suspect Wheaton does not have the horses to seriously contend for a playoff spot this year.  I don't think they are going to be able to replace the offense they graduated last year and they are going to have trouble generating runs against CCIW wk. end pitching.

It also appears that Trey Martin is not full-strength - playing DH and not pitching.  Anyone know what is going on there?

[BigPoppa]

Carthage dropped to 1-4 last night after being swept by Concordia-Moorehead in the MetroDome. Not a good start for the Redmen. I was hoping that last year's stumble was an anomoly, but it appears this season may be headed in that same direction.

Not sure what the change in the system is, but it has been whispered (privately from those close to the program, but not in it) that the massive increase in tuition recently has really limited their recruiting base.

[D3Vike11]

North Park came back in the bottom of the 6th down 16-5 to take an 18-16 lead. They won 28-17 vs Macalister...and yes I mean in baseball and not football.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU staggers back to Chicago to start the home portion of the schedule this week. The three southern road trips with which the Vikings started the season resulted in a 5-7 record, and, tough competition or not, I think that everyone around the program expected better than that. It seems as though the hitting isn't there on the days where the pitching is, and vice-versa. Yesterday was a case in point; the bats, which really broke through in a big way on Friday against Macalester, had another fine performance against UW-LaCrosse, but the pitching broke down. The one constant is that the fielding hasn't been good at all this season. Yesterday the Vikings made six errors in their 10-9 loss to UWL, and I don't think that there's any way in the world that you can beat a team of the caliber of the Eagles when you make six errors.

Fortunately, NPU gets four home games over the next week and a half to sort things out before starting the CCIW slate on Easter weekend in Decatur. The Park's home opener is Wednesday afternoon against Aurora. It'll be NPU's first-ever live baseball webcast. I'll be doing the play-by-play, and I'm looking forward to calling a win against the Spartans as the Vikings right the ship.

[Ralph Turner]

Congratulations on the live broadcasts for NPU.

Have fun and I hope that it is a success!

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks, Ralph! I'm really looking forward to it.

It's gonna be interesting. Baseball has a much different pace than football or basketball, so it'll take a while to get used to calling baseball. I'm going to be doing the PBP for North Park softball as well.

I'll miss the experience of being with the guys in the dugout, as I've been the scoreboard operator for NPU for the past several seasons. The baseball scoreboard at Holmgren Athletic Complex is operated from the first-base dugout, so I've spent much of the past few springs interacting with the Vikings during home games and have had a lot of fun doing so. The upside is that the press box tends to be much warmer in March than the dugout. Wednesday's predicted high here on the city's North Side is a not-so-balmy 27 degrees. Let me tell you, there is no way to dress for mid-twenties weather when you're forced to stand still for three hours.

[Spence]

This season is already officially nuts.

IWU (17 points in the ORV category of the poll) opened the season at the Birmingham-Southern tournament.  First game: beat #8 Adrian.  Second game: lost to no votes Huntingdon.  Third game: beat #10 Birmingham-Southern on their own field.

Try explaining THAT.

The way things have shaken out, you may have lost to the best of the 3.

[Gregory Sager]

I haven't checked yet to see if the frigid weather is having an impact upon anybody else's schedule, but it's impacted NPU's. The Wednesday game against Aurora was postponed, and Saturday's doubleheader against St. John's has been called off. Fortunately, the bad weather has also opened up space in Concordia (IL)'s schedule, so the Vikings will add a perennial strong Cougars team as a last-minute addition to the schedule. The Vikings will face Concordia (IL) at noon on Saturday, followed by Aurora at 3 pm in a rather unconventional NAthC @ NPU doubleheader. I'll be doing the online play-by-play for both games.

The temperature will be in the 30s on Saturday, so this will be a test of wills as well as a test of skills.

[Chantastic]

Wheaton's Trey Martin will be red-shirting this season due to injury.

[Gregory Sager]

Dominican @ North Park about to begin. Listen to the PBP here: http://athletics.northpark.edu/sports/2013/3/21/BB_0321131330.aspx?tab=baseball&path=baseball

[Ralph Turner]

Dominican @ North Park about to begin. Listen to the PBP here: http://athletics.northpark.edu/sports/2013/3/21/BB_0321131330.aspx?tab=baseball&path=baseball

Congratulations on the win!  I enjoyed the webcast, Greg.  +1!

[BigPoppa]

Carthage falls to 5-7 after a 10-5 loss to St John's today. Not looking good for the Redmen.