BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Can't recall every seeing this before: Titan reliever Pat Domke hit FOUR Millikin batters in the bottom of the fifth (in addition to getting two outs) - making it 13-3 before (to the relief of both the Titans and Big Blue, no doubt!) being relieved for the third out.

Don't know if he was just wild, or has anger issues!   Can't recall ever seeing a run produced with no hits, no walks, no wild pitches, no nothing but a surplus of hit batters.

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU wins in seven, 16-5 (I assume the CCIW must have a mercy rule?).

Despite a fairly lackluster 3 innings, starter Snedeker gets the win - I assume the rules about length of a start are different if the game is mercied?

Some impressive stat lines for Titans:
  Czarnowski  5-3-4-4
  Idstein        5-3-3-3
  Hahn          5-2-1-3
  Coonan       5-3-3-1
  Frericks       4-1-2-3

The Titans are 5-0.

[BigPoppa]

Carthage pulled it together to salvage a split with NPU, but they CANNOT keep giving up double-digit runs and expect to compete. Gave up 25 run to NPU and somehow didn't get swept.

The Redmen have already allowed double-digits 7 times(in just16 games), including 4 games in a row.

[Jim Dixon]

Can't recall every seeing this before: Titan reliever Pat Domke hit FOUR Millikin batters in the bottom of the fifth (in addition to getting two outs) - making it 13-3 before (to the relief of both the Titans and Big Blue, no doubt!) being relieved for the third out.

Don't know if he was just wild, or has anger issues!   Can't recall ever seeing a run produced with no hits, no walks, no wild pitches, no nothing but a surplus of hit batters.

William Paterson's Vanderbush hit four in an inning in the 1994 World Series.  I do not think it was Shannon's team on the hurting side of that feat.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage pulled it together to salvage a split with NPU

Carthage did a nice job of taking advantage of shaky pitching from NPU's first two moundsmen, BP, as the Red Men hit effectively in the early part of the game until Matt Peterson came in and shut them down. But the Park definitely handed the Red Men that second game on a silver platter. Six of the 16 runs that Carthage scored in the nightcap were unearned, including the fatal one in the top of the tenth.

North Park has got to get it together in terms of making the routine infield plays. That, to me, has been the team's biggest weakness to date. Don't get me wrong; the Vikings are very effective at turning double plays, as can be seen by this chart:

team	opp DPs	games	ODP/G
North Park	28	20	1.400
Carthage	14	16	.875
Illinois Wesleyan	11	17	.647
Wheaton	12	19	.632
Augustana	10	17	.586
North Central	9	17	.529
Millikin	7	17	.412
Elmhurst	3	15	.200

... and yet the NPU team fielding percentage is only .953, which ranks fifth in the league. The Vikings have got to shore up their defense. On Tuesday evening, their inability to make routine plays cost them a ballgame.

[BigPoppa]

I once had a veteran coach tell me that teams that turned a high number of double plays were letting too many men on first base in the first place.

[mr_b]

I once had a veteran coach tell me that teams that turned a high number of double plays were letting too many men on first base in the first place.

I bet your coach was a big believer in no-hitters and perfect games!

[Gregory Sager]

I once had a veteran coach tell me that teams that turned a high number of double plays were letting too many men on first base in the first place.

True in theory, but not in context. NPU ranks third in the league in team WHIP, and is not that far out of second place:

Augustana	1.379
North Central	1.406
North Park	1.475
Wheaton	1.517
Illinois Wesleyan	1.519
Millikin	1.556
Carthage	1.563
Elmhurst	2.157

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yesterday, IWU's Jeff Johnson threw a complete-game 2-hit shutout at Wheaton.  Today, Wheaton's T. Martin did the same to the Titans.  In the first game of the DH, things were very different - each team had 17 hits as the Titans prevailed 9-8.

So, the Titans got to 7-0, but now are 7-1.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park split with North Central today, with the Vikings taking the opener, 6-3, and the Cardinals owning the nightcap, 5-2.

NPU had scored in double digits for four straight games, the longest double-digit scoring streak that the Park's bats have put together in 18 seasons, but it was pretty obvious coming into today that that streak was going to come to an end before the day was over. The question was whether or not it would matter, as the Vikings were clearly stepping up in competition today. It made for an interesting afternoon of baseball.

NCC has a decent but unexceptional roster of position players. But their starters are something special; coming into today's action, the three Cards weekend starters -- junior Ben Krusen, senior Chris Singh, and sophomore Andrew Houser -- had, in ten starts and 69 innings pitched, assembled a collective ERA of 1.70 and WHIP of 1.000. That kind of starting pitching, if it holds up for another month, will keep North Central right in this thing.

The Vikings got to Krusen in Game One, doubling the number of both runs total and earned runs that he's given up this year. Nick Soldano was solid if not spectacular for the Vikings and raised his record to 4-1, and Matt Peterson came on in the ninth to pick up his first save of the season. But in Game Two, Kris Singh was dealing for the Cards. He came into today's second game ranked second in the league in strikeouts, with 31 in 20 innings pitched, and he now leads that category by a healthy margin after whiffing a dozen Vikings today. North Central nibbled away at Alex Silverthorne and reliever Kenny Blanchard, giving Singh more than enough of a cushion to come away with the win.

The Vikings are going to have to bear down tomorrow against Houser.

[Gregory Sager]

Augie swept Elmhurst pretty easily at Butterfield Park in Elmhurst, 10-1 and 9-6. Meanwhile, down in Decatur, Carthage came away with a 6-1 victory in the opener, but lost the nightcap, 7-6 in 11 innings. Carthage took a 6-5 lead in the top of the tenth, but gave up a game-tying homer to Keith Askins in the bottom of the inning -- only the third dinger launched by a Big Blue batter this season -- and the winning run the next inning. It snapped a ten-game losing streak for MU.

[Gregory Sager]

Some notes from Mr. B on today's games, re: Nick Soldano:

With today's win, Soldano moves into 2nd place all-time with career victories (21), surpassing Don Mason.  Pete Zajac holds the all-time lead with 24 career wins. Nick has 224 career strikeouts, third best, and needs 23 to tie Mike Giovenco and 24 to tie leader Jeff Hanson.

[Gregory Sager]

Looks like the Vikings may have found their third weekend starter. In his first-ever collegiate start, freshman lefty Alex Vannucci went the distance as North Park defeated North Central, 5-2, in Naperville. Vannucci scattered five hits and walked only one, striking out five as he upped his record on the season to 3-0 and lowered his ERA to 2.38 in 22 2/3 innings of work.

Luke Johnson had some nice praise for the youngster. As quoted on Mr. B's website: "I thought Alex pitched with a lot of poise, which is hard for a first-year guy to do, especially with a series on the line.  Our starting shortstop [Eric Sousanes] made a couple of big-time plays to end some innings."

He was also upbeat about taking the season series from North Central.  "I feel like our team did a very good job of executing, playing against three very good starting pitchers who showed why their numbers are as good as they are.  I feel like our offense worked very hard to the plan we had set.  I thought we got quality starting pitching, and when our bullpen was called upon, they did what they needed to do."

The Vikings stayed tied for second with Augustana, which swept its' series with Elmhurst with a 15-8 win today in Rock Island. Both NPU and AC are 6-2, a game behind Illinois Wesleyan at 7-1, while NCC falls to fourth at 5-3.

Carthage won the other game today, annihilating Millikin in Decatur by slaughter rule, 15-2, on the strength of an eight-run eighth inning.

[BigPoppa]

I have a bad feeling that Carthage dropping one against Millikin could come back to haunt them. They will likely be in a battle for the final CCIW playoff spot(NEVER thought I'd say that... let alone three years in a row).

[Mr. Ypsi]

Not that it matters for the conference, but might matter for pool C: IWU downs Knox, 9-2.

After a rough early going, the Titans have won 8 of their last 9.  And Millikin at home tomorrow.