BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Top of the 6th, Titans put men at the corners with no outs, but couldn't score (that may be painful!).  Robert Romano struck out the Vikings in the bottom of the inning.

End of 6, still NPU 6, IWU 4.

[Randy Borow]

Any North Park faithful/former players from back in my time zone or before:

I drove through nasty traffic and ran down Foster from the parking lot at Foster and Kedzie to catch the top of the 9th today at Holmgren (which, by the way, took way longer to complete than I needed to endure).

Just wanted to share how awesome it was to see the CCIW tournament at OUR place.  Some nice upgrades put into place to spruce the joint up.

All North Parkers should be as lucky as I was to experience the strong sense of pride I did in seeing that sight...and get out there to support your Vikings!

I've had the privilege of assigning umpires to work at North Park (I don't assign the conference tournament, however, as that's done in a different manner), and umpire there myself, since Luke Johnson became head coach, and I will be not the first and not the last umpire to compliment your alma mater for its wonderful facility, including providing us with the proper facility in which to change and freshen up. NPU has always taken care of us well. I shared this in an Email to Dr. Jack Surridge last week, thanking him for the many years of service our association has been able to provide and for the support both he and Luke have shown us.

It has been nothing but a pleasure to work at NPU, and I am happy for its players, staff, and alumni that they were fortunate this year to be able to host the tournament. Having had the privilege of working the tournament several years in a row, including as crew chief, I know it's a fun and rewarding event. Lastly, I have also had the privilege of seeing Luke Johnson grow up from a 15-year-old Colt League player, when he played for the Elmhurst team in the long defunct West Suburban Colt League (I was umpiring him way back then) to the successful head coach he has become today.

I often hear from umpires outside of our association how Luke is a not too pleasant head coach, Something with which I do not agree. I see him as a tough but firm head coach who, like the rest of them, wants to win but to do so in a competitive, skillful manner. I admire his accomplishments and respect his achievements.

Disclaimer: my brother is an alma mater of Wesleyan and played for Dennis Martel when Dennis was coaching basketball way back then. I am not a graduate of the CCIW.

To those who are alumni of the other schools in the CCIW, allow me to simply but honestly say that the CCIW is one of the nation's premier D3 conferences, IMHO, one in which I and many of my peers have long enjoyed working.

[Viking Blue]

Can't wait to hear sagers recap of this one. Got a feeling live stats aren't doing it justice
...

[Mr. Ypsi]

The Vikings added 3 more in the 7th and 2 more in the 8th; now up 11-4 entering the 9th.

Aside from Johnson's obvious wildness, I have no way of telling from livestats whether the day was more due to good Viking hitting or bad Titan pitching - any thoughts?

11-4 is the final; complete game victory for Soldano.

[voiceofseason]

Poppa-the cryptic discussions regarding the NP-IWU series earlier this year revolved around an incident that took place PRIOR to the actual game, and involved pre-game infield.  That's why I'm wondering if there were any incidents today.

Gotcha... I must be out of the loop on that one. Feel free to fill me in.

That isn't the only reason the discussion between Martel and Johnson took place, but the fact that North Park lined their team up along the left field line was discussed.  I've never understood why that is done - assume they (NP) were scouting the arms in the outfield?  At any rate, they didn't do that the next day (game 3) of the series.  Not sure if they've continued to do that in future series.

I just got back from the IWU softball game in the NCAA, so have limited knowledge of today's IWU-NP baseball game?  Sounds like the Vikings must have hit the ball well!

[Mr. Ypsi]

In the middle of the fourth, IWU and Elmhurst all tied at 1.  (Blue Jays are the 'home' team.)

Loser goes home; winner plays NPU for the AQ tomorrow (twice, if necessary).  By most prognostications, Elmhurst has essentially no chance of a pool C; without at least one more win, Titans would be very nervous, but hoping to get in.

[BigPoppa]

I think Elmhurst needs to win it to get in.

[D3Vike11]

With a win tomorrow, Luke Johnson will have had an improving record for 7 straight seasons. If I am not mistaken, I believe that would be an NCAA record.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I went out to dinner, so know no details - but IWU won 4-1.

[Gregory Sager]

I just spent a loooong, interesting day in the first-base dugout running the scoreboard. I have a lot to report:

* Balls went flying out of the yard today at a breakneck pace -- but only one of them (a 290-footer onto the walkway in right-center by Elmhurst's Brian Evans off of Augie's Seth Davis in the first game) was a cheapie. There were some serious bombs hit today. Augie's Mike Barker hit two taters in his team's losing cause in the first game, and the second one traveled about 380 feet to left-center. In the second game, Wesleyan's Mark McDermott hit one in almost the exact same spot in left-center off of NPU's Nick Soldano. Not one, but two bombs went crashing through the press-box windows today: Josh Levy of Wesleyan broke a window on the left-hand side of the press box in the IWU @ NPU game, and later in the game Vikings rightfielder Kyle Williams broke one in the main area of the press box, bouncing it off of the stadium's sound system and silencing it for an inning. North Park SID Kevin Shepke was hit by flying glass on that one, and is lucky that he didn't get hurt. And, in game three, the big hit was a Bobby Czarnowski bomb for Wesleyan that broke a 1-1 tie late in the game; it flew over the stands and the trees and into the North Shore Channel.

* The biggest homer of the day, though, by far, was the ball launched by NPU catcher Tony Sanchez in the fifth inning. Wesleyan had all of the early momentum, and was up by a score of 4-2 when the Vikings led off by getting their first three batters -- Matt Rice, Zach Worsley, and Ryan Javech -- aboard against IWU reliever Matthew Conrad. Conrad got a quick 0-2 count on Sanchez, and then decided to get cute by throwing him a curveball over the plate. The curve hung, and Sanchez deposited it into the upper rows of the stands in right (the Wesleyan fans who were sitting up there threw it back onto the field, probably figuring that this protocol covers all North Side baseball teams ). In one swing of the bat, NPU went from 4-2 down and biting its nails to 6-4 up and screaming with jubilation. After that, Soldano bore down, giving up only a few scattered hits but no runs, while the Vikings bats continued to notch runs off of the IWU staff. It was about as big a one-pitch momentum swing as I've ever seen. And a real novelty, too; how many 0-2 grannies do you ever see?

* The play immediately before the Sanchez granny was what got Luke Johnson tossed out of the game. He'd already antagonized the umps by arguing at length about two calls in the field; one a force play at second base in which he claimed that IWU 2b Anthony Lopez came off the bag before he caught the ball, and the other a tag play following a Mike Coduto single in which IWU rf Kevin Sullivan threw the ball in to first, where Czarnowski tagged Coduto and the ump called Coduto out for making an aggressive turn -- a highly questionable call, since Coduto was basically retracing his steps back to the bag after running through the bag and straight up the line. So Luke was already on thin ice. On Javech's single in the fifth, right before the Sanchez granny, Matt Rice rounded third and was bumped by Wesleyan 3b Kevin Callahan. The ump at third called out, "Interference!", but decided not to award Rice home plate, because he claimed that Rice had not been aggressive in heading home (sort of the opposite of the Coduto play at first a couple of innings previous). Luke argued that one pretty vehemently, and it got him the thumb. Assistant head coach Kevin Tomasiewicz took over running the game for NPU, and, as he tells it, promptly instructed Sanchez to run up an 0-2 count and then hit a grand slam.

* The second game was easily the most expensive baseball game in NPU history. Not only did Levy and Williams break windows in the press box (only the second and third time anyone's hit balls into the press box during a game in the last eight years, according to Shepke), but Callahan broke a window in the condo building on the other side of N. Albany Ave. with a rocket of a foul ball.

* Soldano didn't have his best stuff today, and the Titans are a team that can certainly swing the bat, but he really soldiered through it all for nine innings. Sometimes the most impressive win that a pitcher can get is one in which he doesn't have his best stuff, but still manages to beat a good-hitting team. The key was that he didn't allow many extraneous baserunners; Wesleyan only got one walk and one HBP out of him. The Vikings, by contrast, worked five walks and two HBP out of the four Titans pitchers, although only one of those runners ended up scoring.

Fun day at the ballpark. Gotta turn around and do it again tomorrow.

[Gregory Sager]

Any North Park faithful/former players from back in my time zone or before:

I drove through nasty traffic and ran down Foster from the parking lot at Foster and Kedzie to catch the top of the 9th today at Holmgren (which, by the way, took way longer to complete than I needed to endure).

Just wanted to share how awesome it was to see the CCIW tournament at OUR place.  Some nice upgrades put into place to spruce the joint up.

All North Parkers should be as lucky as I was to experience the strong sense of pride I did in seeing that sight...and get out there to support your Vikings!

Amen. The NPU athletic department staff has really done an excellent job of putting this weekend together, too. Kudos to each of them, including the various coaches from other Vikings sports who have acted as team hosts for the three visiting teams this weekend.

I'm hoping it's a trial run for many more CCIW tournaments at Holmgren to come.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg, I wondered earlier if the NPU/IWU result was more a matter of good Viking hitting or poor Titan pitching - any thoughts?  (Titan starter Johnson was clearly wild - he walked 3, and the first two Viking runs came from a WP and, a couple batters later, a HBP with the bases full; but otherwise livestats sheds little light on the action.)

[TitanPride]

Thoughts on a potential pitching matchup for tomorrow?  Who does Martel have ready to go?

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, I wondered earlier if the NPU/IWU result was more a matter of good Viking hitting or poor Titan pitching - any thoughts?  (Titan starter Johnson was clearly wild - he walked 3, and the first two Viking runs came from a WP and, a couple batters later, a HBP with the bases full; but otherwise livestats sheds little light on the action.)

I'd say it was a combination of both. NPU belted the ball around the park pretty thoroughly today, and some very good Titans fielding kept the damage from being even more severe. But the Titans pitchers were pretty wild, and were consistently behind on the count for the last two-thirds of the game.

Thoughts on a potential pitching matchup for tomorrow?  Who does Martel have ready to go?

I have no insight into whom Luke Johnson's going to hand the ball to tomorrow, but my guess is Paul Garcia. He's a senior, and he has a lot of experience. Your guess is as good as mine as to whom Martel will use tomorrow. I, and a lot of other people, were surprised that he turned to Johnson today against NPU rather than Bobo. As it turned out, Bobo was much more effective against Elmhurst than Johnson was against NPU, even though Bobo got yanked early as well. (The best pitching performance by far that IWU's had this weekend was from John Munyon, who relieved Bobo and went most of the way, getting the win without giving up a run to the 'jays.) Seems like Martel's got a whole raftload of pitchers who all seem to be about the same level.

[D3Vike11]

Thoughts on a potential pitching matchup for tomorrow?  Who does Martel have ready to go?

Wouldn't be surprised to see Sweeney come back. Only threw 6 innings on Thursday, and the Titans need a win.