BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mr_b]

Carthage falls to St. Scholastica, 9-4.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Well, conference hopes now reside solely on third-place Augustana - but last year second-place Carthage made the WS (and IWU has been to Salem in basketball after finishing third).  Go Vikings!

[augie28]

Webster eliminated UWSP today 9-7.

Right now, Linfield (1-1) is playing Wartburg (1-1)
Tonight, Augie (2-0) plays Webster (2-1)

If augie wins, they will need to win 1 of 2 tomorrow to advance.
If augie loses, they will play the winner of the Lin/Wart game for the chance to play Webster in a one-game championship.

After the three pitchers Webster has used already, their next best options with more than 1 start on the year have a 5.29, 6.12 and 6.48 ERA and no more than 33.1 IP on the season. 

Augie still has Engle who been average this year (5.14 ERA in 61.1 IP) but has a lot of experience over four very succesful years.  Hopefully he and the Augie offense can get after Webster early tonight and save some pitching for tomorrow, but a win tonight will put them in a great situation so they will have to use whatever it takes.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Webster has beaten #1 seed IWU and eliminated #2 seed UWSP, but they are still the freakin' 6th seed!  Go Vikings!   Protect home field, and the rep of the CCIW!

[mr_b]

Webster prevails 14-13 in a wild game against Augustana.

[mr_b]

Webster prevails 14-13 in a wild game against Augustana.

http://www.augustana.edu/athletics/baseball/stats/2008ncaabase/08ncaa09.htm

[mr_b]

The last CCIW rep is eliminated from the regionals as Augustana falls 10-1 to Linfield.

[CCIW Bird]

Who were the hardest throwing pitchers (velocity) in the CCIW this year?

[REDMENFAN]

I didn't get to see very many games at all this year because of coaching a HS baseball team, but I know Husing and Krepline (before he got injured) were consistently in the upper 80's and could touch 90 on a good day.  That's not a guess, that's knowing from playing with one, and being around last year and looking at the gun when the scouts came around.  I'm sure there were a few other pitchers who threw hard as well from other teams, I just didn't get to see them as in years past

[augie28]

Congratulations to Augie on another impressive season.  They continue to improve year after year and once again they will return the majority of their team with now two years of NCAA tourney experience.

Their three seniors, pitchers Eric Knott and Brandon Engle and OF Marc Blakeley will be greatly missed as all three have been regulars since they came to Augie.

As far as the velocity question goes...it is a tough thing to gauge in D3 as radar guns are few and far between at games.  But I would agree that Husing is probably tops from seeing him first hand.  Augie also has a freshman, Vince Frede, who I heard (although didn't see personally) was up over 90 on occasion as a pretty succesful late-inning reliever in the second half of the season.

[nocryinginbaseball]

starters Mike Pagano and Matt Erickson are both in the low 90s as well... If augustana finds a legit pitching coach they would be unstoppable.  The bats produce 10 runs a game.  What is going on with that staff?

[LWC23]

All of Linfield's top 3 starters are can throw upper  80's.
Brian Clark, 89 , Garett Dorn 89  and Reese McCulley has hit 92.
Kyle Mossbrucker, who closes games can hit 91.
Really though- the top three starters are control pitchers who throw strikes and mix up their pitches well.
Clark, who is the number one starter on the staff and was Northwest Conference pitcher of the year faced  Matt Aronson of Illinois Weslyan in Linfields second game. Clark throws a 4 seam, Cutter, Slider, change and his out pitch is a splitter tha can drop off the table.

Dorn is rock solid.  He started two games for Linfield - including the final on 3 days rest.  in 17.1 innings he gave up 3 earned runs.

Linfield's pitching staff had a 1.94 era for the central region tournament in 5 games.  When you combine this pithcing staff with the number one ranked defense in division 3- I am not surprised at all they won the regional.
They basically shut down some outstanding offensive teams.

Linfield has not gotten much national respect this year at all- being up in the Pacific Northwest in Oregon.

Linfield first year head coach and 3 time World Series champion Scott Brosius- and the rest of the coaching staff have the team mentally focused and ready for the finals in Appleton.
Brosius knows what it takes to win at the highest level and I think this is rubbing off on his team.

This is a great story with a world series champion bringing his team to the national championship in his first year as head coach.

[CCIW Bird]

I was curious because the games I saw three Wheaton games ( I believe they have a gun at every game), and was told Urbanowicz hit 90 and Weaver hit 92,  both of whom were consistent at 87-88. I was also told freshman Dennsion hit 89 as a 6'8" lefty.   Kudlavik sat around 87 topping out at 88 in the tourney and Ruffie was about the same.
Just curious.

[letsplay2]

starters Mike Pagano and Matt Erickson are both in the low 90s as well... If augustana finds a legit pitching coach they would be unstoppable.  The bats produce 10 runs a game.  What is going on with that staff?

Blaming the pitching coach seems to be a bit of a cop-out in this situation.  Augie's pitching staff had some talent, but overall was very mediocre.  A pitcher could be given the best instruction from a coach and still go out and have a terrible outing.  His performance is his responsibility far more than it is his pitching coach's responsibility. 

Moving on... Josh Weaver hit 92 in the conference tournament, but usually works in the mid to upper 80's.     

[norfrank]

All region awards contain several CCIW players.

http://cciw.org/spring_baseball/abcaallregion08.php