BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mr_b]

On Senior Day in Chicago, the host Vikings treated the fans to two exciting wins over visiting Elmhurst. In game one, The Bluejays' Fred Birr kept North Park at bay after being staked to an early 4-0 after two frames.  The Vikings managed to scratch out single runs in the second and third on RBI hits by Justin Woolbright and Cullen Gilbertson, but after North Park rallied for one in the bottom of the ninth, Birr exited in favor of Elmhurst closer Alec Berry.  He walked Niko Buck and hit Jared Cantu to load the bases, and Jake Reinhardt lashed a double to left-center that cleared the bases and wrapped up a 5-4 comeback win in game one.  In game two, North Park scored five unearned runs in the first on just two hits and three Bluejay errors.  The two teams traded three-run outputs in the fourth before the Vikings added three more in the 6th and on in the eighth for a 12-3 victory.  It was really nice to see appearances by seniors Nolan Lux and Roman Orozov, both four-year players who saw their first action (actually, Roman played one inning of outfield defense his first year before transitioning to the mound).  Nolan ended up with two at bats -- one resulting in  walk -- along with a putout in left, while Roman worked a scoreless, hitless inning of relief in the ninth, ending the game with a flourish on a looping curve that caught the batter looking.  I'll go out on a limb to say that Roman is the first Bulgarian pitcher ever to work a CCIW game.  They are two of the really great guys on a team of really great guys.  A nice touch was the playing of the Bulgarian national anthem prior to the U.S. anthem, since Roman's parents were both in attendance and will be here to see their son graduate this week.

[Gregory Sager]

I'll go out even farther on that limb than Mr. B and guess that Roman Orozov is the first Bulgarian pitcher ever in D3, if not the entire NCAA. And I honestly can't remember a CCIW student-athlete in any sport who hailed from Bulgaria prior to the appearance of Roman on the NPU roster four years ago.

(Bulgaria's got a nice national anthem, by the way.)

North Park truly has the most international sports teams around. Everybody knows about our polyglot men's soccer program, and our golf, tennis, and track teams have had lots of Swedes and Norwegians over the years as well. But over the past few weeks we've seen a Vikings pinch-hitter from New Zealand rap out a base hit to right field and a Vikings reliever from Bulgaria (who snapped off some really nasty curveballs today) end a game by striking out an opposing batter. And all while our English midfielder from the soccer team did the P.A. announcing in the press box.

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin and North Central split, so here's next Thursday's schedule:

Game 1: Wheaton vs. Illinois Wesleyan
Game 2: North Park vs. Millikin
Game 3: NPU/MU winner vs. Augustana
Game 4: WC/IWU winner vs. North Central

Game times TBA.

[Gregory Sager]

This new six-team, three-day tourney format is going to be tricky to pull off this year, because Zimmerman Stadium doesn't have lights. There's going to be about fourteen and a half hours of daylight on Thursday, with sunrise at 5:35 am and sunset at 8 pm, but nobody's going to force anybody to play baseball at 6 am. Realistically, I can't imagine games starting before 8 am. Even if Thursday's and Friday's games start at 8 am pronto, that's only three hours allotted per game. If one or more games run into extras, or there's plenty of big-inning baseball with a lot of runners on base and a lot of pitching changes, that fourth game of the day could be finishing in something less than ideal visibility conditions.

Plenty of CCIW baseball games run over three hours. I'm not sure how they're going to pull off this four-games-per-day format.

[duckfan41]

This new six-team, three-day tourney format is going to be tricky to pull off this year, because Zimmerman Stadium doesn't have lights. There's going to be about fourteen and a half hours of daylight on Thursday, with sunrise at 5:35 am and sunset at 8 pm, but nobody's going to force anybody to play baseball at 6 am. Realistically, I can't imagine games starting before 8 am. Even if Thursday's and Friday's games start at 8 am pronto, that's only three hours allotted per game. If one or more games run into extras, or there's plenty of big-inning baseball with a lot of runners on base and a lot of pitching changes, that fourth game of the day could be finishing in something less than ideal visibility conditions.

Plenty of CCIW baseball games run over three hours. I'm not sure how they're going to pull off this four-games-per-day format.

They could have the games later in the day in the early rounds at Lee Pfund Stadium. Turf would account for the potential rain issues, and lights would allow for might games. Would the conference office even consider a contingency plan like that?

[Gregory Sager]

Turns out that they are, indeed, going to play some of the games at Pfund. Two of Thursday's four games and two of Friday's four games will be in Carol Stream, with both committed games (and the if-necessary game to follow) on Saturday all scheduled for Zimmerman.

[mwunder]

Congrats to the 6 teams that continue to play baseball for a CCIW school.  Hopefully one of them makes it to Cedar Rapids!

Can Vince Schwartz win CCIW Hitter of the Year without winning the weekly award once this season?  Or, is it between Figus and Marinec?  Based on the piss-poor showing by the Red Men this season, I'll say No to my first question, and go with Marinec as the odds on favorite.

Is this the first season in memory that a Carthage hitter, or player even, has not won a weekly award?

Anyone know what happened to Colton Klein?  He played in the first game of the 4/26 doubleheader with Carroll and hasn't been heard from since.

[Gregory Sager]

If awards were handed out strictly as individual achievements -- and baseball and softball are the two sports in which individual achievements should definitely trump team finish in the standings, since hitting and pitching are so uniquely individualistic within the world of team sports -- then Schwartz would be the CCIW Player of the Year. But coaches just don't think that way. Zach Hofer of Elmhurst was the last player to win the award who played for a team that didn't make the CCIW tourney, and that was all the way back in 2009. And Hofer didn't even win the award outright, as he had to share it with a player from CCIW champion Carthage. The last player to win the award who didn't play for a team that was in the tourney was Dave Phillips of Wheaton all the way back in 1993.

Because of that, I've been saying for the better part of a month now that the award is Marinec's to lose.

[AndOne]

While it's just one play among thousands in an entire season, Rob Marinec may have cemented his selection as the POY on Sunday when, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 11th inning in the first game of a DH vs. Millikin, he scored the winning run by stealing home.
He had earlier tied the game with a 2 run homer in the 6th. The homer being his league leading 9th of the season. ⚾️ 😎

[mwunder]

While it's just one play among thousands in an entire season, Rob Marinec may have cemented his selection as the POY on Sunday when, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 11th inning in the first game of a DH vs. Millikin, he scored the winning run by stealing home.
He had earlier tied the game with a 2 run homer in the 6th. The homer being his league leading 9th of the season. ⚾️ 😎

Not to pick, but a steal of home in a game that didn't matter due to the fact that NC had already locked up the CCIW title is not cement.  Your second point about leading the league in dingers was more cementing historically however as the league leader in HRs has won the POY 15 times since 1980.

[AndOne]

While it's just one play among thousands in an entire season, Rob Marinec may have cemented his selection as the POY on Sunday when, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 11th inning in the first game of a DH vs. Millikin, he scored the winning run by stealing home.
He had earlier tied the game with a 2 run homer in the 6th. The homer being his league leading 9th of the season. ⚾️ 😎

Not to pick, but a steal of home in a game that didn't matter due to the fact that NC had already locked up the CCIW title is not cement.  Your second point about leading the league in dingers was more cementing historically however as the league leader in HRs has won the POY 15 times since 1980.

Well, a steal of home with 2 down in the 11th inning instead of just hoping the batter would drive him in is still pretty impressive. Maybe we can reclassify it as glue instead of cement? 😉
As far as leading the league in homers being somewhat of a tighter seal, I'm happy with a .500 batting average. ⚾️ 

[AndOne]

Looks like the weather might play havoc with the conference tournament, especially tomorrow. It's forecasted to start raining at about 10:00 tonight, and continue until 11:00 AM or noon tomorrow. Fortunately, things are looking up for Friday and Saturday. In light of tomorrow's forecast, my understanding was that the suggestion was made to begin the tournament under today's ideal conditions, but that was nixed by the Commissioner. Accordingly, there are any number of contingencies in place depending on whether one, two, or no fields are available tomorrow. One of those—I think it's about Plan D—even involves the slight possibility of playing a couple of games at North Park due to their field being turf. Lastly, should the finals have to be pushed back to Sunday and Wheaton is one of the two remaining teams, evidently they, in line with their philosophy, would forfeit with the other team automatically advancing.

[Gregory Sager]

The advantage of playing at Holmgren is that the field dries exceptionally fast, no matter how hard and for how long it's been raining. It never puddles. And, like Pfund, it's all turf -- even the mound and the home-plate area. It's a useful backup if Zimmerman is unplayable.

[mwunder]

Still no live streaming of games for the tournament?

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin beats North Park, 10-3. There's never been any doubt that the Big Blue can hit, but I'm very disappointed in the performance of NPU's pitching.