BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[BigPoppa]

North Central gets off to a good start in CCIW play, taking two from Wheaton, 10-0 and 8-2.

And two more from Millikin 15-1 (7 inns), and 8-1. Michael Mateja had 5 hits on the day, and Mike "Wizzer" Wisz, who used to play a (very  ) little basketball, had 5 RBIs. ⚾️

Although in nowhere near the dominating fashion of their first four conference victories, the NCC Cardinals chalk up another W by outlasting Millikin 13-10.
The Cards are now 5-0 in conference play. Are they just slow starters, or do they just prefer conference play? Maybe both?

Cortland State is a notoriously slow starter as well. Sometimes is just takes a week or two for the cold-weather programs to find the right combination for wins.

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats to NPU freshman Michael Pritts upon being named CCIW Pitcher of the Week for his complete-game shutout at Carroll on Friday.

[Jim Dixon]

North Central gets off to a good start in CCIW play, taking two from Wheaton, 10-0 and 8-2.

And two more from Millikin 15-1 (7 inns), and 8-1. Michael Mateja had 5 hits on the day, and Mike "Wizzer" Wisz, who used to play a (very  ) little basketball, had 5 RBIs. ⚾️

Although in nowhere near the dominating fashion of their first four conference victories, the NCC Cardinals chalk up another W by outlasting Millikin 13-10.
The Cards are now 5-0 in conference play. Are they just slow starters, or do they just prefer conference play? Maybe both?

Cortland State is a notoriously slow starter as well. Sometimes is just takes a week or two for the cold-weather programs to find the right combination for wins.

Concordia-Chicago had a must win game in just their fourth game of the season last year and look where they ended.

[mr_b]

North Park won a real back-and-forth contest against IL Wesleyan, 6-5, on a Dean Emanuele walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth.  The Vikings move to 5-1 in CCIW play and 10-11 overall. 

[Gregory Sager]

It was a very satisfying win. The Vikings had to come back from three different deficits in the game, but they never stopped hitting. They cranked out 13 hits, three of which left the ballpark, and forced the Titans pitchers into one jam too many from which to extricate themselves. Considering all of the close losses that the Vikings took early on in non-conference play, it's good to see them squeaking out wins when they have to, now that they're playing CCIW teams.

[BigPoppa]

It seems that North Park is not a bad as their early record would indicate (Same for North Central).

[Gregory Sager]

It's a team whose #1 and #2 pitchers are a freshman and a sophomore, and almost every one of the position-player regulars is either new to the team, hasn't played much before, or is playing a new position this season. It took time for NPU to gel.

[BigPoppa]

It's a team whose #1 and #2 pitchers are a freshman and a sophomore, and almost every one of the position-player regulars is either new to the team, hasn't played much before, or is playing a new position this season. It took time for NPU to gel.

The CCIW will be a fun race to watch this season if NPU can push itself into the mix. Looks to be a 5-6 teams race:

NCC
Carthage
IWU
Augie
NPU
Wheaton/Elmhurst

Does the CCIW move to a 6-team postseason this year or next year?

[Gregory Sager]

Next year.

[duckfan41]

It's a team whose #1 and #2 pitchers are a freshman and a sophomore, and almost every one of the position-player regulars is either new to the team, hasn't played much before, or is playing a new position this season. It took time for NPU to gel.

The CCIW will be a fun race to watch this season if NPU can push itself into the mix. Looks to be a 5-6 teams race:

NCC
Carthage
IWU
Augie
NPU
Wheaton/Elmhurst

Does the CCIW move to a 6-team postseason this year or next year?

From the first pitch today, Wheaton took it to Illinois Wesleyan, topping the Titans 12-1 in 7 innings. The IWU starter came into this contest with a 1.50 era and got jumped for 11 runs (10 earned). After starting off with two terrible games against NCC, and overcoming a series of fielding errors topping Augie twice, it seems Wheaton might be figuring things out. Time will tell!

[Mr. Ypsi]

It's a team whose #1 and #2 pitchers are a freshman and a sophomore, and almost every one of the position-player regulars is either new to the team, hasn't played much before, or is playing a new position this season. It took time for NPU to gel.

The CCIW will be a fun race to watch this season if NPU can push itself into the mix. Looks to be a 5-6 teams race:

NCC
Carthage
IWU
Augie
NPU
Wheaton/Elmhurst

Does the CCIW move to a 6-team postseason this year or next year?

From the first pitch today, Wheaton took it to Illinois Wesleyan, topping the Titans 12-1 in 7 innings. The IWU starter came into this contest with a 1.50 era and got jumped for 11 runs (10 earned). After starting off with two terrible games against NCC, and overcoming a series of fielding errors topping Augie twice, it seems Wheaton might be figuring things out. Time will tell!

And IWU follows up that home humiliation by Wheaton by losing (again at home) to Millikin, 6-1.

Big Poppa, unless the Titans can right the ship really soon, you may want to drop them from your contenders list.  For at least the immediate future, I'm switching my attention to softball, where the Titans are 13-3, on an 11-game winning streak (6-0 in conference), and ranked 6th in the country!

After the 'Miracle of 2010", I'll never throw in the towel completely until they are officially eliminated, but you can't have a miracle finish if you don't even make it to the post-season at all.  And right now the IWU baseball team does not look like a CCIW tourney team.

[Gregory Sager]

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg, it's a bit of a stretch to condemn me for mentioning 2010 to explain a cry of pain.

In 2010 I never in my wildest dreams expected a title, but always had the feeling they were better than their record.  This year I'm just not getting the feeling.

[Gregory Sager]

Stretch? I read it as a self-induced feel-good moment in the midst of a bad week for your team ... just like the Sheldonian mention of the IWU softball team that immediately preceded it.

I don't think that anybody begrudges you the right to look for a silver lining -- Lord knows I've done my share of silver-lining-hunting as an NPU fan -- but just how many times can somebody go to the well to dredge up that particular silver lining and then post it here?

I actually held off posting about it all of the times that you used the 2010 analogy over on the basketball boards this past month.

Look, I don't want to seem like I'm persecuting you. I'm not a bully by nature. But this 2010 stuff never stops, and it just doesn't seem like you see that, no matter how much we needle you about it. Please, Chuck ... can we just give 2010 a rest, already? Please?

[titanalum94]

The 2018 Titans have more than a handful of issues to work out, a massive one being that there are arguably only two dependable pitchers on the entire staff. Brune is a solid starter, but prone to an outing like he had against La Crosse (7 ER). Becker needs a longer look too I think, he went a very solid 4 1/3 against Elmhurst last week. All other starters have had more bad than good.

On the offensive end, Skopick (a Central Michigan transfer) has been the only player to hit in CCIW play, but he's presumably been out with an injury for the last three games forcing Nick Figus to transition from center to shortstop.