BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Live by the big inning, die by the big inning?  NCC stole a page of the Titan playbook, scoring 7 times in the bottom of the sixth to turn a 4-5 deficit into an 11-5 lead.  That is still the score entering the bottom of the 8th.

[mr_b]

Final score, North Central 13, IWU 5

Maybe someone has some insights on the Titans' choice of starting pitcher (Banaitis, no previous starts) rather than Huskisson, Coonan, Goll, or Brune, each with five or more starts this season.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I haven't a clue on the starter decision, but I'm in no position to second-guess the coach. 

Carthage @ Augie should get underway shortly.

In other news, the d3 national golf tourneys finished up today - IWU finished 10th in the nation in men's, 11th in women's (both down a bit from usual).  But considering the obvious disadvantage compared to schools who can golf pretty-much year 'round, anything in the top 20 is still rather pleasing.

[mr_b]

Game two: Augie 3, Carthage 0. White scattered 4 hits and fanned 8 over 8 innings of work.

Elimination game tomorrow between Carthage vs. IWU, starting at noon, then North Central vs. Augie at 3.30.

[Augie6]

Augie beats Carthage 3-0.  Walter White goes 8 innings of 4 hit baseball with Kyle McKinley getting the save with a 1,2,3 ninth inning.  Augie had 12 hits in the game, but could only push across two runs in the first and one in the third.  Should be a good match-up between the co-champs tomorrow to see who gets to the championship game. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

Game two: Augie 3, Carthage 0. White scattered 4 hits and fanned 8 over 8 innings of work.

Elimination game tomorrow between Carthage age IWU, starting at noon, then North Central vs. Augie at 3.30.

And winner of the first game against loser of the second game at 7.

IWU has a proud history, but it does NOT date to the age of Carthage!  Despite BP's allegiance, Carthage was destroyed (and salted to never recover) in 146 BC!

Perhaps someone should alert the Schmidt's that Carthage disappeared 2,062 years ago?!

[BigPoppa]

Game two: Augie 3, Carthage 0. White scattered 4 hits and fanned 8 over 8 innings of work.

Elimination game tomorrow between Carthage age IWU, starting at noon, then North Central vs. Augie at 3.30.

And winner of the first game against loser of the second game at 7.

IWU has a proud history, but it does NOT date to the age of Carthage!  Despite BP's allegiance, Carthage was destroyed (and salted to never recover) in 146 BC!

Perhaps someone should alert the Schmidt's that Carthage disappeared 2,062 years ago?!

Carthage destroyed? You must be mistaken. Don't believe everything you read

Redmen vs Green Weenies today... one team heads home... the playoffs officially begin today!

[mwunder]

How do we not get a video stream of the CCIW playoffs?  Weak sauce Augustana.

[Mr. Ypsi]

With the score tied at one and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, the Titans broke thru for four runs.  5-1 IWU up entering the 8th.

[mr_b]

... and the live stats just crashed with the score tied in the bottom of the ninth, two outs, winning run on third.  But according to the Twitter feed on the CCIW Tournament website, IWU won, 7-6.

[BigPoppa]

To say this season was a MASSIVE disappointment is an understatement. I thought the late season run in 2015 had the return of the Carthage swagger all over it and it would carry over to 2016. Take out the 2015 post-season run and the Redmen are on an unprecedented slide that has not happened in the Augie Schmidt era.

Not sure what the issue is with Carthage baseball lately... but it seems tied to the departure of pitching coach (and former Carthage All-American) Cory Everts. I am baffled at their inability to beat the likes of Concordia-Wisconsin, Rockford, (By no means are these perennial power programs) and their complete inability to sweep a CCIW opponent. They need to get back to their blue-collar roots of recruiting Wisconsin kids. They had a total of 8 on the roster this year. Roster was full of kids from the wealthy Chicago suburbs... Look at the years they steam-rolled the CCIW (and the region) and they were full of kids from further north than Milwaukee... they loaded up on players from the Fox Valley, Stevens Point area, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Green Bay and Wausau... these areas are now controlled by UWSP, UWW and St. Norbert. (It should be no surprise that those programs are riding that talent to season and playoff success.

Stepping off my soapbox now to see what I can do to help get players there once again.


***I'm certain I'll take a Karma hit for this post, but I am too passionate about Carthage Baseball to not say anything. It's not about the Xs and Os.... it's about the Jimmys and Joes. Find the players to return to glory ***

[mr_b]

According to the CCIW Tournament page, it looks like the North Central-Augustana game has been moved to Saturday at noon.  My guess is that they decided against starting now with a fairly sizeable storm approaching.

[Gregory Sager]

To say this season was a MASSIVE disappointment is an understatement. I thought the late season run in 2015 had the return of the Carthage swagger all over it and it would carry over to 2016. Take out the 2015 post-season run and the Redmen are on an unprecedented slide that has not happened in the Augie Schmidt era.

Not sure what the issue is with Carthage baseball lately... but it seems tied to the departure of pitching coach (and former Carthage All-American) Cory Everts. I am baffled at their inability to beat the likes of Concordia-Wisconsin, Rockford, (By no means are these perennial power programs) and their complete inability to sweep a CCIW opponent. They need to get back to their blue-collar roots of recruiting Wisconsin kids. They had a total of 8 on the roster this year. Roster was full of kids from the wealthy Chicago suburbs... Look at the years they steam-rolled the CCIW (and the region) and they were full of kids from further north than Milwaukee... they loaded up on players from the Fox Valley, Stevens Point area, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Green Bay and Wausau... these areas are now controlled by UWSP, UWW and St. Norbert. (It should be no surprise that those programs are riding that talent to season and playoff success.

Stepping off my soapbox now to see what I can do to help get players there once again.


***I'm certain I'll take a Karma hit for this post, but I am too passionate about Carthage Baseball to not say anything. It's not about the Xs and Os.... it's about the Jimmys and Joes. Find the players to return to glory ***

Cry me a river, BP. At least Carthage played past the fortieth game.

North Park has not only failed to make the CCIW tourney the past two seasons, the Vikings weren't even able to manage a .500 record in either campaign. There's no pretty way of saying this: The NPU baseball program is in a bad way right now. Although the rotation was adequate (albeit unspectacular), the bullpen couldn't get anybody out all season. All told, NPU finished dead last in the league in ERA, hits allowed, and walks allowed. The defense was abysmal, as the Park was, again, dead last in the league in fielding percentage, made 25 more errors than the next-worst team in the league made (16 more in CCIW play), and opponents ran on the Vikes to the tune of 79 steals over the course of the season (the next-worst CCIW team in opponent steals surrendered 45) and half again more than the next-worst team in CCIW games. The offense came around after the midpoint of the season enough to allow NPU to climb to the middle of the pack in runs scored in CCIW play (the Vikes led only Millikin in terms of runs scored over the course of the full season) as well as in batting average. But the team lacked punch; NPU finished in last place in slugging percentage, and, with the running game basically nonexistent (in sharp contrast to seasons past, in which Luke Johnson's teams have been the most aggressive squads on the basepaths in the league), this meant lots and lots and lots of Vikings baserunners getting left on base over the course of the league schedule.

As both a fan and the team broadcaster, I have a lot of faith in Luke Johnson. There isn't anyone I'd rather have running the program, and I'm very sanguine about his ability to turn the past two seasons into just a temporary bump in the road of a long and successful tenure as North Park's head coach. He pulled the program out of a much deeper hole when he arrived than the one it's in now; NPU went 1-39 the season before he was hired, and the Vikings had only won a total of three CCIW games in their last three seasons combined under his predecessor ... but they made it to the CCIW tourney in his first year at the helm and won the school's first CCIW title in a generation in his sixth.

But even the most casual observer can see that the current team needs an overhaul. This year's team either tuned him out or lacked the ability to execute what he asked of them -- I won't speculate as to which. I think it's going to take a pretty big infusion of new talent for Luke Johnson and Jake Upwood to turn things around.

[Gregory Sager]

As for your Red Men, BP, I think that you answered your own question, at least in part. If the departure of Cory Everts to Wittenberg has coincided with a downturn in the Carthage baseball program, then one can at least speculate that he was an important cog in the program's recruiting efforts. As for where Carthage is getting its baseball players, again, I think that your answer is right in front of you. If Wisconsin was where the Red Men got most of their good players in the past, then that was a recipe for an eventual decline as private colleges grew ever more expensive. Over the long haul, Carthage simply can't compete on an even playing field with WIAC schools for the best players who reside in l'etat de fromage, regardless of sport, and with tuition prices spiraling ever-upward, that grows more and more true every year. From what I've been told by Carthage athletics staff, the school's previous administration frowned upon Carthage coaches scheduling WIAC teams because of that tuition discrepancy.

If you're a Wisconsin student-athlete who knows that he or she is going to be paying his or her own way to play sports in college (i.e., as a D3 player), are you going to choose the outstanding league of state schools in your own state, or are you going to choose the outstanding league of nearby private schools where you'll pay three or four times as much money for your classes? Sure, some of those student-athletes will opt for the CCIW school (and Carthage and Carroll will get the lion's share of them, due to location and state aid) ... but, let's not kid ourselves, most of them won't. They'll choose the WIAC school.

That's less of a problem for a small-roster sport such as basketball or volleyball. But for a large-roster sport like football, soccer, or baseball, it's a pretty serious concern. That, plus the fact that Chicagoland has a population that dwarfs the number of people who live north of the Cheddar Curtain -- heck, Cook and Lake counties combined have more people than does the entire state of Wisconsin -- means that it's really a no-brainer that Carthage coaches in various sports have to look south of the border for student-athletes.

The one advantage that Carthage baseball has, vis-a-vis Wisconsin, is that the WIAC is smaller in baseball than it is in other sports. Only six of the eight schools in that league offer the sport, and, things being what they are in that state, I doubt that UW-Eau Claire or UW-River Falls will add baseball anytime soon.

[Mr. Ypsi]

BP, I fully understand your displeasure with the Carthage season - not what has come to be expected.  But I do want to tip my cap to the pluck of the players today - not very often can a team enter the ninth down by five runs and rally to tie!  It turned out not to be enough, but kudos for not throwing in the towel.

And the conference commissioner owes the Titans and RedMen a thank you note for knocking Wheaton out of the tourney.  The revamped schedule would have been impossible if a 'NO Sunday' team was there.  [I wonder if Wheaton - and Hope, Calvin, Messiah, etc. - might consider the possibility that God would enjoy watching a Sunday D3 game?! ]

Saturday noon: NCC vs. Augie (no indication on the website which will be the home team).
Saturday c. 3:30: IWU vs. loser of earlier game (again, don't know which team leads off).

Sunday 10 am: winner of early Sat. game vs. winner of later Sat. game.
(if necessary) re-match of morning game for the AQ, about 30 minutes after morning game ends.