BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Spence]

Carthage falls to UW-Stout on Saturday night 6-3.

Jacob Husing was roughed up for 4 earned runs. Couple that with 4 Carthage errors and the loss was inevitable. The Red Men drop to 6-5 on the season.

IIRC, Stout's beaten a few good teams (St. Thomas?) in the early going...perhaps they're taking a step up toward competing with the heavies in the WIAC?

[Pat Coleman]

The first game of the season was played on Carthage's field yesterday, only it wasn't the redmen playing! Parkside and former Carthage assistant Jarvis Brown had to have their first "home game" against Lewis at Carthage because Parkside's field wasn't ready.

I prefer to think of him as "former Kenosha Twin" -- he batted leadoff and played center field on my only trip to Kenosha of any kind.

[BigPoppa]

IIRC, Stout's beaten a few good teams (St. Thomas?) in the early going...perhaps they're taking a step up toward competing with the heavies in the WIAC?

Spence- I hope so... Carthage cannot be this bad. The Central region is a mess except for Augustana right now.

Thanks for the info on Stout. (Gotta love a school named after a beer!)

[RichK]

An updated ABCA poll is out. 

http://www.muhlenberg.edu/sports/abcapoll.html

[augie28]

Congrats to Augie on jumping to #6...now is the time to validate that ranking in conference play. 

Predictions for Week 1:
Augie 12-1 vs. Elmhurst 3-7 (2 @ Augie);     Augie 3-0
Carthage 7-6 vs. NC 5-6 (2 @ NC);              Carthage 3-0
IWU 5-7 vs. Wheaton 5-4 (2 @ Wheaton);  IWU 2-1
North Park 5-7 vs. Millikin 3-9 (2 @ Millikin); North Park 2-1

It will be intersting to see how Augie's pitching plays out as they are down to only 2 set starters, but I think their offense will be too much for Elmhurst to handle either way.

[BigPoppa]

Congrats to Augie on jumping to #6...now is the time to validate that ranking in conference play. 

Predictions for Week 1:
Augie 12-1 vs. Elmhurst 3-7 (2 @ Augie);     Augie 3-0
Carthage 7-6 vs. NC 5-6 (2 @ NC);              Carthage 3-0
IWU 5-7 vs. Wheaton 5-4 (2 @ Wheaton);  IWU 2-1
North Park 5-7 vs. Millikin 3-9 (2 @ Millikin); North Park 2-1

It will be intersting to see how Augie's pitching plays out as they are down to only 2 set starters, but I think their offense will be too much for Elmhurst to handle either way.

Agree with most of what you are saying, Augie28, but I think Carthage only takes 2 of 3 from North Central.

[yank52]

Predictions for Week 1:
Augie 12-1 vs. Elmhurst 3-7 (2 @ Augie);     Augie 3-0
Carthage 7-6 vs. NC 5-6 (2 @ NC);              Carthage 3-0
IWU 5-7 vs. Wheaton 5-4 (2 @ Wheaton);  IWU 2-1
North Park 5-7 vs. Millikin 3-9 (2 @ Millikin); North Park 2-1

Augie 2 -1
Carthage 2-1
Wheaton 2-1
North Park 2-1

[knarocky22]

Augustana beat Loras tonight 10-0.  They scored four runs in the first inning and the game was pretty much over.  Freshmen Mike Pagano (8 innings) and Matt Erickson combined for the shutout.  The Vikings hit the ball ok, but Loras definitely didn't help themselves with 4 errors.

[vmax48]

NPU has 3 games at Millikin next weekend & then has 2 games against Wheaton the following Tues.  5 conference games in 4 days is going to be hard on the pitching.  (Wheaton is going to have the same problem too: 5 conf. games in 4 days).

[yank52]

During this 1st weekend and weekday schedule, each team looks to be pressed to perform.
I can see and will watch how the pitching staffs are managed, now is the time for the freshman to start contributing.  It should give us a look at what the future holds for the teams and maybe we can seem someone take that next step. 

[BigPoppa]

NPU has 3 games at Millikin next weekend & then has 2 games against Wheaton the following Tues.  5 conference games in 4 days is going to be hard on the pitching.  (Wheaton is going to have the same problem too: 5 conf. games in 4 days).

I think the entire CCIW is play three this weekned and a DH on Tuesday. Everyone will be in the same boat. Tuesday could bring some very high scores if Saturday's starters do not recover in time to throw on  Tuesday.

[vmax48]

NPU drops to 5-8 with an 11-5 loss to Western Il. in Macomb.

[yank52]

NPU threw a freshman at Western, Richards from Lake Zurich, it was his 3rd outing of the year, another freshman followed, Turnbull from Elmhurst, I can see the logic in getting more reps for the younger ones for the conference.
It looks to be a battle for 4th place between (Wheaton, North Central, NPU).

[matblake]

Wheaton ties Concordia IL 6-6.  Game was called due to darkness. 
http://www.wheaton.edu/Athletics/baseball/index.html

[knarocky22]

Predictions for this weekend:

Augie 3-0             Bats are just too much for Elmhurst
Carthage 3-0       Offense finally heats up
Wheaton 2-1       This could go either way, just a hunch
North Park 2-1     Millikin is really struggling