BB: IIAC: Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[doolittledog]

BV was up 10-6 heading into the bottom of the 8th last I was able to see the live stats.  Way to go UD!!!  Just goes to show the worm can turn and the sun will shine on other teams from time to time.  I hope this can keep up for the Spartans.  They seem determined to bring all of their sports up a notch or two. 

It is just one game, but like I said earlier, there will be some more losses for UD now that the conference season has started, but UD will no longer be penciled in for a sweep and teams will have to work against them now. 

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Wow, the nine-inning games can get pretty crazy with the pitching!  I wonder what the bullpen situation is for the Beavers?  Congrats to the Spartans though!

Cornell and Dubuque were swept a lot last year, but that isn't the norm for two teams to have that kind of conference season since the league expanded to 24 league games again in 2007.  Three game sweeps are usually very hard for most teams and not to be expected.

Congrats to Wartburg on righting the ship in league play like normal.  Watson looks like he pitched well in the 5-2 win over the Dutch.

Luther also got good pitching from Augie Lindmark as they beat Coe, 7-5.  I was only watching on the computer, but it looked like the wind was helping each offense.  Lindmark went 8 innings and gave up 1 earned run as the Norse kicked it around some today and still were able to win.  Lindmark also threw like 145 pitches or so!

The Norse are going to have to get better defense and keep swinging if they are going to win the series.

[upandin]

Big win Martin. Good to see UD mustard up more than one hit this series. Jokes and bad BV defense aside that is a good win for the Spartans. That Lindmark kid must be good. He held the kohawks bats down. Sounds like it was even a hitters day with the wind.

[bbplayer]

Big win Martin. Good to see UD mustard up more than one hit this series. Jokes and bad BV defense aside that is a good win for the Spartans. That Lindmark kid must be good. He held the kohawks bats down. Sounds like it was even a hitters day with the wind.

[/quote

Hugh?

[bbplayer]

Big win Martin. Good to see UD mustard up more than one hit this series. Jokes and bad BV defense aside that is a good win for the Spartans. That Lindmark kid must be good. He held the kohawks bats down. Sounds like it was even a hitters day with the wind.

[/quote

U sir seem to be callin out names without any clue as to whom you are typing to, shows NO CLASS! If you had a life congrats....you just may have proven it was all low.

[upandin]

I didn't call anyone out. I said nice win. That had to be the nicest thing I have ever said about UD.  I will always give credit when it is due.  Keep winning and you will get more love. I am sorry I should have addresses you by your screen name rather than your real one.  Go get em today vs BV.  bbplayer I hope you have a good game.

[ballfan55]

After beating Dominican 8-4 for their first win of the season on Monday, Carroll took two from Cornell today - 5-0 and 9-7.

After Drew Volkmann and Cale Ross combined for the shut out in the first game the second game turned pretty wild at the end.  Sam Mulkey got the win, throwing 6 innings in relief.  Carroll fell behind 7-1 before a wild bottom of the sixth gave them the lead.  With the score 7-4 and bases loaded PH Tyler Fitzsimmons hit a ball that the RF tried to dive and catch but missed.  The runners on 2nd and 3rd scored easily, but the runner from 1st stopped at 3rd.  Fitzsimmons wasn't aware of this and headed for 3rd.  With both runners off the base the throw to 3rd went wild and both runners scored making it 8-7.  The next batter was George Simons who had a pitch sail behind his back.  He took a couple of steps out and the umpire went out and talked to the pitcher.  Two pitches later Simons doublerd.  The pitcher moved toward him at second and was ultimately ejected.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Congrats to Coe today for winning the series against the Norse.  Game 1 of the doubleheader saw Coe hit the ball better than the Norse (there were a couple swing moments in the bottom of the 2nd and the top of the 3rd) and just deserved it.

Game 2 also saw Coe swinging the bats well in the 7-4 win, but it was painful to watch Luther leaving 13 on base while Coe left 1.

Coe is now 5-1 in the league and has to feel really good about where they are.  I did think Coe swung the bats as well over a weekend as anyone I have seen in league play against the Norse over the last 8-9 seasons, but I missed the B.V. fiasco last year.

Luther is now 4-2 and about where most had them to this point going into B.V. next week.  Luther needed to be 5-1 so that a B.V. series loss would leave them at something around 6-3.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Congrats to Wartburg.  Things don't change as they rebounded from last weekend to sweep the Central series.  Both teams are now 3-3 in the IIAC.  I said this series would be huge, and I think it really was as Central now has a more difficult road.

B.V. came back today to win the Dubuque series by sweeping the Saturday doubleheader.  The Beaver bats are going to be tough as the weather improves.

Simpson is now 5-0 in the league and Loras is now 0-6 after the series sweep.  The Storm and Coe really have to be happy with how league play has started.  Simpson's schedule will get harder, but you can't do better than 5-0 so far.

Cornell lost again today as was posted above.

[TheSportsFan]

Through two weekends:

Simpson has to be the feel-good story up to this point.  Predicted middle of the pack and leading the way at 5-0.  Nobody would have said they couldn't see it, but I'm sure they are feeling very good about themselves in Indianola.

Loras on the other hand must be scratching their heads sitting at 0-6.  While they have played Central and Simpson, two good teams, they still have Buena Vista, Coe, and Wartburg waiting in the wings and licking their chops.

-Dubuque gave BVU quite a run this weekend, is it fair to say that UD will give this tournament a run?

-Coe appears to be the best offensive team in the conference, hands down (yes, better than BVU).

Who is your pick to win the conference at this point?  I'll put my money on the Kohawks of Coe College.

Tuesdays matchups:

Central at Simpson
Loras at Coe
Wartburg at Buena Vista
Cornell at Dubuque
(Luther off until the weekend series at BVU)

[upandin]

From my point of view I don't know how I could possibly pick a winner at this point.  This topic could be argued in the regional boards, but I think the IIAC is as competitive as any league in this region.  Just look at the weeks matchups.  Midweek:  Central at Simpson Toss Up!  Wartburg at BV Toss Up!  Cornell at Dubuque Toss Up!  Loras at Coe is the only one that looks bad on paper and Im sure Loras will have something to prove being 0-6.   Then on the weekend:  Simpson goes to Wartburg Toss Up!    Luther takes their 4-2 record to BV.  Loras has some must wins on the road at Cornell.  Coe will travel to UD where BV just got a run for their money.  Man this is some good stuff.   At weeks end this is how I see it.  But I wouldn't bet on it. 

Coe 9-2
BV 6-2
Simpson 7-3
Wartburg 6-5
Central 4-4
Luther 4-5
Loras 4-7
UD 3-7
Cornell 0-8

[Swing4theFences]

Totally agree, it is tough to tell who is the best team in the conference right now. Wartburg came with a strong showing this past weekend as they took games from Central and we will see how they do tonight when they take on BV. Luther looks like a solid team with some good pitching after Lindmark was able to slow down Coe in game 1 of their series. Simpson with a strong start but still have Central, BV, Wartburg, and Coe to play. The clear cut best team is hard to tell right now! IMO it will come down to who is the hottest going into the tourny and can keep that momentum going. We could be set up to watch an exciting tournament if Coe, BV, Wartburg, Central, Simpson, and Luther were to make it!

[doolittledog]

Dubuque Telegraph-Herald with an article on Loras' split with Coe and UD sweeping Cornell yesterday.

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=317145

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Simpson is now 7-0 after sweeping Central in the doubleheader yesterday.  With Coe losing one to Loras, the Storm are now the biggest positive surprise to me so far.

Congrats to Wartburg for getting the split with B.V. after losing 15-4 in game 1.

Central maybe needed the break from conference games this weekend as 3-5 is not the conference start that they were looking for.

Coe split with Loras and now gets to play Iowa today.  When was the last time Wartburg or some other Division III school not in the Cedar Rapids area played Iowa?  I have always thought Iowa should play whoever won the Iowa Conference the previous year.

Even rotating Iowa Conference schools each year with Iowa would at least get all the parents of the Iowa Conference team to drive down to Iowa City and help the crowd numbers.

[doolittledog]

I like your idea of Iowa playing an Iowa Conference school.  I think a rotation method would be better.  One reason I wouldn't want to see the defending champion get to play the Hawkeyes is that school could have been loaded with seniors the previous year, and the next year be rebuilding, but all you would hear is how Iowa steamrolled the Iowa Conference Champion.  Plus, you might find 1 school getting to play Iowa more often than others and it might be nice for each school to get a shot at the Hawks from time to time. 

Wasn't there a time when Luther played Iowa pretty regularly???