BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

It is beginning to feel like I am all alone on this board. Does ANY one have a feeling the CCIW?

I follow as best I can, but baseball doesn't get the coverage (or broadcasts) of basketball and football.  It's hard keeping up from 400 miles away!  Greg sees a lot of games in person; maybe he'll chime in more often.

I've only seen my team to date, Chuck. I don't have a feel for the other seven teams in the league, although, based upon what I've seen of the league in past years, I'm not sanguine about North Park's chances this season.

(That doesn't mean that I'm not rooting for a turnaround, though, and I'm certainly looking forward to broadcasting tomorrow's CCIW-opening doubleheader between NPU and Carthage.)

[mr_b]

Today's twinbill between Carthage and North Park has been postponed until tomorrow afternoon due to inclement weather.  First pitch tomorrow is scheduled for 5 PM at the Holmgren Athletic Complex.

[BigPoppa]

Today's twinbill between Carthage and North Park has been postponed until tomorrow afternoon due to inclement weather.  First pitch tomorrow is scheduled for 5 PM at the Holmgren Athletic Complex.

Can we assume the final game of the series would move to Monday at Carthage?

[mr_b]

Today's twinbill between Carthage and North Park has been postponed until tomorrow afternoon due to inclement weather.  First pitch tomorrow is scheduled for 5 PM at the Holmgren Athletic Complex.

Can we assume the final game of the series would move to Monday at Carthage?

Yes, game three will be in Kenosha. I see a 3.30 PM start on the North Park website.  This will no doubt have an impact on pitching for the midweek games (North Park travels to Bloomington on Tuesday) and Carthage hosts Wheaton.

For the games that are being played, two of them are slugfests -- IWU 9, Elmhurst 3  in the 6th (Live Stats lists "wind 34 mph") and Wheaton is leading Millikin 15-9 in the 6th.  Augie is hosting North Central, also reporting 37 mph winds, but it's a much closer affair with Augie up 5-4 in the 6th.  Not ideal conditions for lowering that team ERA.

[mr_b]

Early Saturday results:

Wheaton-Millikin, suspended in the 6th with the Thunder leading, 15-9.  Play will pick up at that point on Monday.
Augie hands North Central its first defeat, 10-8, on a two-run homer by Trace Gingerich in the bottom of the 10th.
IWU took game one from Elmhurst, 15-5 in 7 innings.
The North Park-Carthage twinbill has already been postponed to tomorrow afternoon.

[mr_b]

Elmhurst rebounds in game 2 with a 4-2 victory over IWU.

[Gregory Sager]

Tomorrow's going to be a long day behind the mic for me. North Park is hosting Olivet in a softball doubleheader at Holmgren prior to the CC @ NPU baseball twinbill, and I'm broadcasting all four games.

The Vikings and Red Men will probably get in a lot of their pregame work over at the Helwig Rec Center while the softball games are going on.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I think IWU just eliminated Elmhurst's 5 points in the poll.  Tied 2-2 after 2 at Elmhurst, the Titans scored SEVENTEEN runs in the third!  They coasted home for a 21-7 win, moving to 2-1 in conference play.  IF the pitching comes around, they obviously have the batting power to be title contenders.  (Although their hitting is either streaky or can be contained by good pitching - yesterday they won game one 15-5, but were stymied in the second game 4-2.  So they outscored Elmhurst 38-16, but only won two of three.)

Exhibit A that pitching/defense is more important than offense - I just realized that the Jays only win on the weekend was the game where they scored the fewest runs!

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage routed NPU in game one, 18-6, in a game in which the Vikings did almost nothing right after the first inning -- with the exception of a Caleb Layden homer that almost killed me as it shattered the press box window right in front of me. Fortunately, it didn't come through the window but bounced back into the stands, but there was glass everywhere. I can't believe that neither I nor Mr. B (who was scoring the game in the press box next to me) got cut by flying glass.

It appeared as though the Vikings were going to sleepwalk their way through game two as well, as they trailed 6-0 going into the bottom of the sixth and 7-1 going into the bottom of the seventh. But at that point the North Park bats awoke, as the Vikings put up six runs in the bottom of the seventh. It stayed 7-7 until the bottom of the 11th, when Greg Grana hit an infield single with one out and Jacob Woolsey on first. The Carthage third baseman, who wouldn't have beaten Grana with the throw, anyway, threw the ball away ... and as it skittered off in foul ground past the right-field line, Woolsey got on his horse and came around to score without a throw, giving NPU a dramatic 8-7 come-from-behind win and the split.

Both teams look very, very flawed. Neither had any consistent pitching today, and the defense was somewhere south of atrocious, as the two teams combined for 15 errors in the doubleheader.

I had to broadcast a softball doubleheader at Holmgren today prior to the baseball twinbill, so, all told, I was on the air from noon until 11:30 today.

[mwunder]

Carthage routed NPU in game one, 18-6, in a game in which the Vikings did almost nothing right after the first inning -- with the exception of a Caleb Layden homer that almost killed me as it shattered the press box window right in front of me. Fortunately, it didn't come through the window but bounced back into the stands, but there was glass everywhere. I can't believe that neither I nor Mr. B (who was scoring the game in the press box next to me) got cut by flying glass.

It appeared as though the Vikings were going to sleepwalk their way through game two as well, as they trailed 6-0 going into the bottom of the sixth and 7-1 going into the bottom of the seventh. But at that point the North Park bats awoke, as the Vikings put up six runs in the bottom of the seventh. It stayed 7-7 until the bottom of the 11th, when Greg Grana hit an infield single with one out and Jacob Woolsey on first. The Carthage third baseman, who wouldn't have beaten Grana with the throw, anyway, threw the ball away ... and as it skittered off in foul ground past the right-field line, Woolsey got on his horse and came around to score without a throw, giving NPU a dramatic 8-7 come-from-behind win and the split.

Both teams look very, very flawed. Neither had any consistent pitching today, and the defense was somewhere south of atrocious, as the two teams combined for 15 errors in the doubleheader.

I had to broadcast a softball doubleheader at Holmgren today prior to the baseball twinbill, so, all told, I was on the air from noon until 11:30 today.

One, I'll call him rowdy, fan of NPU totally ruined the live broadcast of the game with his loud mouth.  Turned it off after just two innings because I couldn't stand his constant "stinky cheese" comments.

[mr_b]

The rubber game between North Park and Carthage has been postponed until Wednesday, 4 PM, in Kenosha.

[Gregory Sager]

One, I'll call him rowdy, fan of NPU totally ruined the live broadcast of the game with his loud mouth.  Turned it off after just two innings because I couldn't stand his constant "stinky cheese" comments.

At some point North Park's AD showed up in the stands and forced him to tone it down.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg, I note that NPU plays a DH in Bloomington tomorrow.  Will you be broadcasting, or do you only do home games?

[Gregory Sager]

I only do home games for baseball. The only sport for which I travel with the team and broadcast road games is football (although I did do a couple of road men's basketball games this past season and may do so again in 2016-17, circumstances allowing).

[BigPoppa]

Today will be a good test to see if Wheaton is for real... their 3-0 start is slightly tainted by a weak Millikin sweep, but today will be a test to see if they have the pitching tpo make a run at the top of the CCIW. Doubt they'd bring back Friday's starter today on short rest this early in the season.