BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mr_b]

Wheaton swept Augie, 4-3 and 1-0, so the standings as of right now are:

North Central   12-3    22-7 Augustana   11-3    22-7-1 North Park   9-6    16-11 Wheaton   10-7    20-10 Millikin   9-8    14-15 Illinois Wesleyan   7-7    14-14 Carthage      4-12    14-17 Carroll   3-11    11-19 Elmhurst   3-11    9-19

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton beat Augie in Moline, 4-3, and North Central defeated Carthage in Kenosha, 3-1, to push NCC a game and a half ahead of Augie.

Wheaton's sweep of Augie has brought the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance back into third place, a half-game ahead of North Park and a game and a half behind Augie -- but both NPU and Augie have three games in hand as compared to Wheaton.

Millikin, which looks like it's on the verge of sweeping Illinois Wesleyan, is very much in the middle of the pack as well, and even though IWU is fighting just to tread water in the standings, Carthage, Carroll, and Elmhurst are doing so poorly that the Titans look very much like the favorite to take the sixth and final playoff spot.

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin swept Illinois Wesleyan with a 9-4 win in Decatur, and Carroll took the series against Elmhurst with a 14-12 win at Butterfield Park.

Updated standings:

North Central	13-3	--	23-7
Augustana	11-4	1 1/2	22-8-1
Wheaton	11-7	3	21-10
North Park	9-6	3 1/2	16-11
Millikin	10-8	4	15-15
Illinois Wesleyan	7-8	5 1/2	14-15
Carroll	4-11	8 1/2	12-19
Carthage	4-13	9 1/2	14-18
Elmhurst	3-12	9 1/2	9-20

[mr_b]

North Park takes down #1 Concordia-Chicago, 9-7, in 12 innings, handing the Cougars just their third defeat of the season.  Tyler Banks, the fourth Viking pitcher, worked five innings of one-run relief with nine strikeouts for his fifth victory.  Ranko Stevanovic went 3-for-6 with four RBIs, while Jared Cantu and Anthony DiNardo had three hits apiece.  In the top of the 12th, Richie Silva and Logan Peters hit back-to-back sac flies to drive in the go-ahead and winning runs following Justin Woolbright's double with one aboard. Not to be lost in the shuffle was Matt Pizur's four-inning relief stint, one run, no hits, four K's.  Glad to see him returning to form after a long layoff.

Tomorrow, the Vikings travel to Waukesha for a CCIW contest against Carroll.

[Gregory Sager]

That's a very nice win for NPU to have in its back pocket. Here's hoping that it becomes relevant in about three weeks or so.

I do recall North Park getting a win over Marietta when the Pioneers were defending national champions, back when Bosko coached the Vikings baseball team, but -- unless Mr. B says otherwise -- I'm pretty sure that this is the first time that NPU has beaten #1 in the d3baseball.com/NCBWA era.

[mr_b]

That's a very nice win for NPU to have in its back pocket. Here's hoping that it becomes relevant in about three weeks or so.

I do recall North Park getting a win over Marietta when the Pioneers were defending national champions, back when Bosko coached the Vikings baseball team, but -- unless Mr. B says otherwise -- I'm pretty sure that this is the first time that NPU has beaten #1 in the d3baseball.com/NCBWA era.

In the 1984 Regional in Ada, OH, North Park defeated defending champs Marietta 11-7.  The Vikings would then lose consecutive 8-7 contests to the Pioneers. Marietta made it to the championship game that season, but lost to Ramapo, 5-4.  Marietta finished the '84 campaign with a 53-7 record and had two first-team All-American pitchers, Jim Kennedy and Terry Mulholland.

[Ralph Turner]

That's a very nice win for NPU to have in its back pocket. Here's hoping that it becomes relevant in about three weeks or so.

I do recall North Park getting a win over Marietta when the Pioneers were defending national champions, back when Bosko coached the Vikings baseball team, but -- unless Mr. B says otherwise -- I'm pretty sure that this is the first time that NPU has beaten #1 in the d3baseball.com/NCBWA era.

In the 1984 Regional in Ada, OH, North Park defeated defending champs Marietta 11-7.  The Vikings would then lose consecutive 8-7 contests to the Pioneers. Marietta made it to the championship game that season, but lost to Ramapo, 5-4.  Marietta finished the '84 campaign with a 53-7 record and had two first-team All-American pitchers, Jim Kennedy and Terry Mulholland.

Oh, that Terry Mulholland!

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=mulhote01

[Gregory Sager]

Yep, Terry "Suitcase" Mulholland, who pitched for eleven different MLB teams, several of them multiple times. He was one of my favorite Cubs of the Jim Riggleman era, due to his D3 background.

[Jim Dixon]

Yep, Terry "Suitcase" Mulholland, who pitched for eleven different MLB teams, several of them multiple times. He was one of my favorite Cubs of the Jim Riggleman era, due to his D3 background.

There will always be a spot for a lefthanded pitcher

[npbaseball40]

Wanted to share this - first week of central region rankings:

https://d3baseball.com/playoffs/2019/regional-rankings-week1

1   Washington U. in St. Louis
2   Spalding   
3   Coe   
4   Webster   
5   North Central (Illinois)
6   North Park   
7   Luther   

[mr_b]

Wanted to share this - first week of central region rankings:

https://d3baseball.com/playoffs/2019/regional-rankings-week1

1   Washington U. in St. Louis
2   Spalding   
3   Coe   
4   Webster   
5   North Central (Illinois)
6   North Park   
7   Luther

Very interesting... this ranking does not include North Park's win over Concordia.  Surprising is the absence of Augustana, which sits at 22-9-1 after this afternoon's loss to Illinois Wesleyan.

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU scored in the bottom of the ninth to edge Augie, 6-5.  The Titans get back to .500 both overall (15-15) and in the conference (8-8).  OTOH, Augie has now lost four straight games.

[Gregory Sager]

Wanted to share this - first week of central region rankings:

https://d3baseball.com/playoffs/2019/regional-rankings-week1

1   Washington U. in St. Louis
2   Spalding   
3   Coe   
4   Webster   
5   North Central (Illinois)
6   North Park   
7   Luther

Very interesting... this ranking does not include North Park's win over Concordia.

Speaking of which, the Cougars beat North Central today, 3-2, at Zimmerman Stadium in Naperville.

[Gregory Sager]

Well, that didn't last long. North Park dropped an 8-6 decision to lowly Carroll up in the Pios' Waukesha bandbox, deflating all the hubris accumulated over the past 24 hours by the win over #1 Concordia (IL) and the regional ranking.

The only bright spot is that Wheaton got skunked by likewise-lowly Carthage, 10-0 in seven innings, so the Vikings don't lose any ground in the race for third place. The problem, though, is that this is supposed to be a race for second place, since in a six-team tournament it's the top two seeds -- the two teams that get opening-round byes -- that matter. And, since NPU has already lost the season series to both NCC and Augie, catching one of those two teams and passing it is tough enough without dropping games like tonight's.

Baseball is a very humbling game.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Elmhurst made the final score respectable by scoring 3 in the top of the ninth, but IWU wins 6-4.  I'm not sure it is official yet, but the CCIW tourney participants are now known - only the order of NCC, Augie, NPU, Wheaton, Millikin, and IWU to be set.