BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mr_b]

North Park and Carthage split, with the Redmen escaping with an 8-7 victory in game one and the Vikings clawing back in game two, 12-10. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

North Park and Carthage split, with the Redmen escaping with an 8-7 victory in game one and the Vikings clawing back in game two, 12-10.

ALL EIGHT teams that played today (with it being Sunday, Wheaton of course did not play) split their double-headers.

CURRENT STANDINGS:
TEAM       RECORD     GB
   IWU          12-5         --
   NCC          10-5          1
   Augie        10-7          2
   Elmhurst   10-8          2.5
   Wheaton     9-8          3
   Carthage    9-8          3

   Millikin        6-12        6.5
   NPU            5-11        6.5
   Carroll        5-12        7

I haven't checked carefully the schedules to see if the bottom three are mathematically eliminated from the conference tourney, but, realistically, they are goners.  But a close six-team fight for the tourney, and several teams could still host it.
 

[Gregory Sager]

Augie takes game one over IWU, 14-5.  The Vikings battered Jonathon Vik early (1 in the first, 2 in the second, 3 in the third), before he settled down and shut them out for the next two.  In the top of the 6th, the Titans got four to climb back within one, 6-5.  But once Vik left the game, the floodgates opened on the Titan bullpen.

It's "Vlk", Chuck, not "Vik". Seriously. He forgot to tell Pat Sajak that he would like to buy a vowel.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Augie takes game one over IWU, 14-5.  The Vikings battered Jonathon Vik early (1 in the first, 2 in the second, 3 in the third), before he settled down and shut them out for the next two.  In the top of the 6th, the Titans got four to climb back within one, 6-5.  But once Vik left the game, the floodgates opened on the Titan bullpen.

It's "Vlk", Chuck, not "Vik". Seriously. He forgot to tell Pat Sajak that he would like to buy a vowel.

Geez, you're right.  My eyes are not what they once were.  I've gotta wonder what the origin is for a name with NO vowels whatsoever?  And how are we outsiders supposed to guess whether it is Valk, Velk, Vilk, Volk, or Vulk?  (It's Velk.)

[Gregory Sager]

Mr. B's theory is that it's of Czech origin. That sounds like a plausible guess to me.

[mr_b]

Mr. B's theory is that it's of Czech origin. That sounds like a plausible guess to me.

the Surnames website.  It's a Czech word meaning "wolf."  Czech has several words with no written vowels but with resonants (l, r, ř), sounds that contain vowel-like qualities.

[BigPoppa]

Carthage is in trouble... they have NCC and Augie left on the schedule... plus a game w Elmhurst. Tough road ahead for the Redmen (which is why losing one this weekend will be the dagger in their season).

[matblake]

Here's a follow up article from the Daily Herald re: the death of Ethan Roser at Wheaton:
http://www.dailyherald.com/news/20170423/family-wheaton-college-community-lean-on-faith-after-studentx2019s-death

[BigPoppa]

Here's a follow up article from the Daily Herald re: the death of Ethan Roser at Wheaton:
http://www.dailyherald.com/news/20170423/family-wheaton-college-community-lean-on-faith-after-studentx2019s-death

Kind of puts baseball in perspective, doesn't it?

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage is in trouble... they have NCC and Augie left on the schedule... plus a game w Elmhurst. Tough road ahead for the Redmen (which is why losing one this weekend will be the dagger in their season).

They should've lost two. NPU outhit Carthage in the opener by a pretty large margin, 16-11, and all of the extra-base hits -- a double and two homers -- came off of North Park bats. The Vikings did themselves in by committing a couple of costly infield throwing errors that led to four Carthage runs, and even in spite of that the Vikings had the tying run at second when the Red Men finally closed out the game in the bottom of the ninth.

I was not impressed by Carthage. The Red Men do have decent hitting, but, heck, everybody in this league seems to be able to hit well this season ... or perhaps it's more a matter of what I suspect is a serious lack of pitching ability in the CCIW. Granted, NPU missed seeing two of Carthage's better pitchers in Tim Sulik and Chris DeRue, but the Vikings roughed up Carthage ace Kevin Tibor pretty badly, and I didn't see anyone among the half-dozen relievers that Augie Schmidt trotted out to the mound yesterday who looked anything like a reliable out-getter.

To be fair to the Red Men, the only CCIW team that I've seen all season that's really looked better than decent is Wheaton -- and Wheaton's been largely indifferent in CCIW games against everybody other than North Park. I haven't seen Augustana yet, but, that caveat aside, this doesn't look like a year in which the league really has any better-than-average teams. (That actually makes me even more upset that NPU is performing so badly this season.)

The nightcap of yesterday's seven-hour marathon at Holmgren involved the first game that I've ever seen in which a team blew a seven-run lead and then came from behind to win. I've never even seen that in church-league softball or Little League. North Park scored five in the bottom of the fifth to boost the hosts' lead to 8-1, and then, amply demonstrating that no lead is safe in the hands of the NPU pitching staff, the Red Men erupted for nine runs in the top half of the sixth to wipe out that huge Vikings lead and put Carthage ahead, 10-8. The Vikes got one back in the bottom of the seventh, and then added three more in the bottom of the eighth to move back out in front, 12-10. Josh Smith, who got hit pretty hard by Schmidt's boys in the opener, came out of the pen again in the nightcap at the end of that nightmarish top of the sixth -- and this time he was dominant, as the only two Carthage batters who reached base in Smith's 3.1 innings of work got there via Vikings errors. Smith and Andrew Davis were the only two relievers for either team who saw more than an inning of work who acquitted themselves well.

I will say this: North Park showed great fortitude in sticking with it and pulling out that comeback win, as it would've been all-too-easy to just shut down mentally and emotionally after that sixth-inning disaster, especially in the wake of a season that has involved so much losing. It was very encouraging and gratifying to see the Vikings go to work on offense and do what was necessary to reclaim the ballgame while Smith did his thing on the mound. Still, a lot of that comes back to the inability of the Carthage bullpen to do its job, an inability which seems to be widespread around the league this season.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I just noticed a truly bizarre stat (which has eased any worries about where the CCIW tourney will be held) - in conference games, IWU is 3-4 in B'town, 9-1 on the road!

Obviously largely a factor of WHO they played WHERE, but still jaw-dropping.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Carthage walloped  Elmhurst, 16-8.  IWU handled Augie, 5-2.  Wheaton jumped out to a 9-1 lead over NCC, but NCC plated five in the top of the 7th - now 9-6 in the bottom of the 7th. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

NCC rallied, but Wheaton held on for a 10-8 win.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU smashed Carroll up in Waukesha, 19-13. It was basically what I expected, given that one team had an ERA barely under 7.00 and the other team had an ERA well over 7.00 going into the game. The Vikings probably had an uh-oh-here-we-go-again moment when Carroll started plating runs to cut into what looked like an insurmountable 19-4 Vikings lead in the bottom of the fourth. But as ugly as it got for the North Park pitching staff, a 15-run lead is still too big to blow.

The Vikings bats have been absolutely tearing it up over the past two weeks (three games vs. Illinois Wesleyan, three games vs. Millikin, two games vs. Carthage, and Tuesday's game against Carroll). Leadoff hitter Jared Cantu hit .439 over that stretch; #3 hitter Seth Dvorak hit .410 with 13 RBI in those nine games; cleanup hitter Anthony Bragg hit .537 with six doubles, two homers, and 13 RBI; and DH Tyler Woolbright hit .459 with four doubles, three homers, and 18 RBI.

[BigPoppa]

Can ANYBODY in the CCIW pitch this year? Watching these scores roll in and I wonder if I could help someone's pitching staff with my 63mph heater (it fools hitters as they think it's a change-up)and my JV curveball?