BB: IIAC: Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Congrats to Simpson and Dubuque for the Spartan win over Loras this week.  Simpson just has to one game in the Cornell series this weekend to clinch the last spot in the IIAC tourney.

The Storm can climb in the standings by sweeping Dubuque and watching the 2-5 teams beat up on each other.

The midweek Central win over B.V. finished up a very good regular season by the Dutch.

[TheSportsFan]

Tournament Seeding

#1 Central

#2 Coe (unless Cornell defeats Coe AND Wartburg defeats Luther on monday)

#3 Winner of Luther/Wartburg matchup

#4 Loser of Luther/Wartburg matchup

#5 Buena Vista

#6 Simpson

It's setting up to be a pretty decent tournament, all teams have an arm or two that could beat any of the other teams.  I'm looking forward to catching a few games in CR next weekend.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Luther had to win three games today to stay alive in the IIAC tourney.  They put themselves in that position after losing 8-5 to B.V. on Thursday and making 5 errors.

Thanks to Augie Lindmark and some big hits by Bradley, the Norse beat Simpson 8-2 to avoid elimination.  Lindmark is now 9-1 on the season!

Thanks to the Norse bullpen and some late hitting, the Norse beat Central 8-7 to avoid elimination.  Bradley and Larson had big games.

Thanks to Danny Smith for throwing a complete game shutout and the Norse Offense for scoring more than enough runs, the Norse beat Wartburg 11-0 to avoid elimination.  Reynolds, Erickson, Larson, and Pittman all did big things on offense.

The reality is that Luther needs to beat B.V. and then beat Coe twice on Saturday to win the Iowa Conference tourney.  The odds were not good that they would win three games today.

Knop, Matt Reynolds, and everyone else should see if they can pitch on Saturday.  Coe is in a great position though as someone has to beat them twice.

[Kohawk Krazy]

Congrats to the Kohawks on the title.  Back-to-back titles and six-straight tourney wins.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Congrats to the Kohawks on the title.  Back-to-back titles and six-straight tourney wins.

Good luck in the NCAA Regional and congrats on winning the tourney again this year!  Can Coe have a B.V. 2011-type postseason?

The Beavers success last year still makes things look better for IIAC Baseball.

Like Coe last season, Central this year was the clear winner of the regular season.  That still means the most to me even if the automatic bid doesn't go with it.  Good season Dutch!

[Floyd in Iowa City]

After the dust settles, the Iowa Conference All-Sport trophies will be with the same schools that had them last year.

Great to see Luther officially listed as the 2012 IIAC Men's All-Sports Champions again as the Knights had won that award too many years in a row before 2011.  Luther has won the most titles all-time (22 times in 50 years?) and has won the last two.  Central and Coe were right behind the Knights this year.

The Luther Women finished 2nd behind Wartburg in the IIAC Women's All-Sports Championship.  I think Wartburg broke the tie with Luther all-time and now has won this trophy the most (10 for Wartburg, 9 for Luther).

Luther and Wartburg then shared the overall all-sports title for a 2nd consecutive year as both schools finished 1st or 2nd in each race.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

The Luther Softball team will be making its 3rd straight appearance in the Division III Softball Finals after winning its regional today.  Central, Coe, St. Thomas, and River Falls were all there this weekend to make it a very tough regional.

Coe Baseball has to travel much further to win an NCAA Regional this year, but hopefully they can send an IIAC rep in the Baseball WS as well!

[RubeBaker]

Congrats to the Kohawks on the title.  Back-to-back titles and six-straight tourney wins.

Good luck in the NCAA Regional and congrats on winning the tourney again this year!  Can Coe have a B.V. 2011-type postseason?

The Beavers success last year still makes things look better for IIAC Baseball.

Like Coe last season, Central this year was the clear winner of the regular season.  That still means the most to me even if the automatic bid doesn't go with it.  Good season Dutch!

Central won but Coe is a more talented team. Inconsistency was their enemy this year.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Congrats to the Kohawks on the title.  Back-to-back titles and six-straight tourney wins.

Good luck in the NCAA Regional and congrats on winning the tourney again this year!  Can Coe have a B.V. 2011-type postseason?

The Beavers success last year still makes things look better for IIAC Baseball.

Like Coe last season, Central this year was the clear winner of the regular season.  That still means the most to me even if the automatic bid doesn't go with it.  Good season Dutch!

Central won but Coe is a more talented team. Inconsistency was their enemy this year.

Coe had a more dangerous lineup when I got to see them, but I only saw Central and Coe on the computer this year.  The Central-Luther series was pretty tight when I was watching.  In fact, the last Luther-Central game in the tourney was pretty crazy as well.

The IIAC teams that I got to see in person this year were Luther, B.V., Cornell, Dubuque, and Wartburg.  Coe had a deeper lineup than those teams, but B.V. I thought underachieved a little bit.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

From the IIAC website-

McMINNVILLE, Ore. --- Coe College outhit No. 10 Trinity University (Texas), 6-5, but left eight runners on base and went a combined 0-for-11 with RBI opportunities and fell to the Tigers, 2-0, in an opening round game at the McMinnville (Ore.) regional of the 2012 NCAA Division III Baseball Championships. Box Score | West Regional

Trinity starter Ben Klimesh (13-2) pitched a complete-game six-hit shutout with one walk and 12 strikeouts to get the victory. Coe starter Wade Morris (7-3) went the distance as well, allowing two earned runs on five hits while walking one and striking out four.

The Trinity offense was held to just five hits in the game, but four of those came in the third inning. Trinity had three straight hits with two outs in the frame, capped by an RBI double by Christian Muscarello that put the Tigers up 2-0. Kevin Clements also drove in a run in the inning, which turned out to be the game-winner.

Coe had runners on second and third in the fourth, seventh and eighth innings, but were unable to push any runs across against Klimesh. In the Kohawks' final at-bat, Sean Raisch led off the ninth with a double to center field, but was stranded there as Klimesh mowed down the next three batters on strikes to end the game.

Raisch ended the game 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles. Tyler Leadley, Nick Stein, Adam Nisenson and pinch-hitter Michael Goerdt all had one hit for the Kohawks (27-16), who face Saint John's, Minn. (29-15) at 2 p.m. Central Time Thursday in an elimination game

[Floyd in Iowa City]

http://www.iowaconference.com/news/2012/5/16/BB_0516120016.aspx

Congrats to Luther's Chris Reynolds for not only making the all-conference team for the 4th year but also being named the 2012 IIAC Position Player of the Year!  I actually felt like the senior carried the Norse team more last season, but 16 doubles and 5 triples is a pretty good offensive year even if his batting average was down this year.

Senior Augie Lindmark was also named 1st team all-conference for the 2nd straight year for the Norse.  He was very deserving again this year as he was 9-1 overall on the mound.

Senior Kevin Bradley made 2nd team and that made a lot of sense to me as he was solid on offense and threw very well from behind the plate.

These three seniors will be tough for the Norse to replace.  Ryan Bahnemann was all-conference last season but did not make the team due to his conference game numbers being down compared to his overall numbers.  Ryan was very good on defense in the regular season.

Junior Chris Erikson was also 1st team for the Norse as he led the league in batting average in league games.

Congrats to Central for earning the IIAC Coach of the Year and IIAC Pitcher of the Year.  Pulliam had a good year as did the Dutch.

http://www.luther.edu/sports/men/baseball/headlines/?story_id=394304

[CaliRamRL6]

http://thegazette.com/2012/08/15/wartburg-grad-watson-continues-pitching-brilliance-in-c-r-beat-kernels/

Even though he's a Knight, it's still nice to see someone from the IIAC do well at a higher level.

[putmeincoach]

before a pitch has been thrown!

2013 Conference Standings
1) Coe
2) Wartburg
3) BV
4) Central
5) Luther
6) Dubuque
7) Simpson
8) Loras

[BigPoppa]

before a pitch has been thrown!

2013 Conference Standings
1) Coe
2) Wartburg
3) BV
4) Central
5) Luther
6) Dubuque
7) Simpson
8) Loras

I can really see all of the top five as almost interchangeable. I have always found the IIAC as the toughest conference to predict in the Central Region. While it generally lacks an elite team (on a national level) it often has 4-5 VERY good squads. If we were to lump the entire region into a 32 team round-robin (hey... there's an idea) I could easily see 5 IIAC teams finishing in the top 12-15 slots. Their middle teams could compete for top slots in other conferences.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

I would think Wartburg has to feel pretty good about this season as they were full of underclassmen in key spots last season.

Coe and Luther are having to replace some significant people, Central as well to a lesser extent.

It is good that baseball is back and spring "might" be around the corner!