BB: IIAC: Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[youcantseemestill]

Carroll Stadium is a little bit of a homer dome with the way the field sits.  Not trying to take anything away from him, but just adding some perspective that UD hit 5 homers as a team in the two games.

[youcantseemestill]

Are all the games on for today still?

[Kohawk Krazy]

Coe picked up a big 6-5 win over Luther today.

[Klopenhiemer]

The young Beaves picked up 2 wins in 3 games over in Mt Vernon this weekend.  They are now 5-3 in the conference for the year and look like they could make a little noise down the stretch. 

I can not say that I think they are ready to take the conference crown, but I think they will be a team to keep you eye on. 

The young pitching staff looks to be holding their own, and they should have a nice building block for future seasons considering everyone stays healthy. 

[SLP-O-8]

BV has beaten everyone they played at least once except St Scholastica, which is a very good ball team.  They split with D2 Northwest Missouri State team.  Every starting pitcher this year has been a freshman or sophomore.  They are a very young but talented team that i think will just get better as these kids get used to college baseball.  Could be a dangerous team come tournament time.

[youcantseemestill]

BV is off to a great start.  This is shaping up to be a HUGE week in regards to the conference race.  #3 BV vs. #4 Simpson in mid-week.  And then this weekend #1 Wartburg vs. #5 Central, #2 Coe vs #3 BV.  A lot could/should be clearer following this week. 

[youcantseemestill]

It was a very exciting weekend with no underdogs taking a series despite 3 of the 4 series openers being taken by the lower ranking team.  Coe is the only team that could split on the Saturday after winning Friday night.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Congrats to Coe on winning the series against Luther this past weekend.  The Norse team batting average has not risen enough as of yet following the Wartburg series, and they still have not won any real close games.  Luther is 8-2 when the game is decided by more than two runs either way (8-0 loss to Wartburg, 8-2 loss to Coe), but are 0-6 in games decided by two runs or less.

I haven't seen the Norse play since the games in the Dome, but I hope to see them play against Augsburg on Sunday and against Central the following Friday.

Considering the youth on the team, congrats to B.V. for the solid start!  Too bad that the Norse-B.V. series did not take place.

Wartburg and Coe are now clearly ahead of Luther.  I am not ready to mail in the conference race, but the Norse clearly have to make a move in terms of playing better.  It will be tough to win the league title, but I will really be disappointed if the team hangs around .500 all year (barring injuries). 

[Kohawk Krazy]

Coe just added a game against Iowa in Iowa City tomorrow night at 5 p.m.

[BVer10]

The young Beaves picked up 2 wins in 3 games over in Mt Vernon this weekend.  They are now 5-3 in the conference for the year and look like they could make a little noise down the stretch. 

I can not say that I think they are ready to take the conference crown, but I think they will be a team to keep you eye on. 

The young pitching staff looks to be holding their own, and they should have a nice building block for future seasons considering everyone stays healthy. 

I watched Dekker pitch Friday night.  In all honesty, he probably should have gotten the win that night.  Yeah he gave up 11 hits (all singles) and 5 earned runs but most of those were ground balls that had eyes or other hits that just fell in.  He still holds a 2.42 ERA in 26 innings and 32 k's.  Didn't realize that he had 12 k's on the night until I got home and looked at the box score, considering the first inning he didn't have any strike outs.  I was sitting around the other players that were out keeping a chart and saw that he was 91 in the first inning and still 88 in the 7th after a 100+ pitches.  He will definitely be one to watch for the future as he gains more experience.

Wasn't able to make it back for the second game but heard that they played really well Saturday with Dupic picking up his 4th win in the process.  A great asset for their team as a middle relief guy.  Hopefully this kids keep playing well, there will be some games that go wrong, that comes with youth, but like others have said they will surprise this year.  Hope to make it to the Simpson series tomorrow night and then the Coe series this weekend, weather pending of course.


Wow Coe picks up Division 1 Iowa.  Whats up with that?

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Coe just added a game against Iowa in Iowa City tomorrow night at 5 p.m.

Everything is going well for Coe right now!  Luther used to play Iowa quite often, but the last time they played I think was around 10 years ago.  The Norse stopped being competitive at all with Iowa in some of those 1990s games (used to play Iowa all the time and gave them troubles at times as well) and they changed the Division I rules about counting non-Division I wins towards the overall win total.

I believe the Hawks traveled to Luther in 1997 and were in a tight game in bad weather conditions when Iowa Head Coach Duane Banks had a major blowup with someone on the Iowa team.  The fallout from that caused the retirement of Coach Banks.  If I remember right the Iowa captains refused to travel with the team if Coach Banks were still coaching the team that season.  That caused Bob Bowlsby to intervene and force a compromise settlement.

Good luck playing the Hawks!  I am a Iowa fan as well as a Norse fan, so I would like a good showing from an IIAC member with a Hawk win!

I really wanted to play well against the Hawks going into my senior year, but the game against Iowa was snowed out.

[SLP-O-8]

BV and Simpson split.  Dekker pitched well again to get the win.  5.2 IP 5 KS 3 walks 2 unearned runs, 4 singles and one double.  BV won that game 4-2.  BV blew a 10 run lead in the Bottom of the 4.  Up 10-8 in the 7th too and couldn't finish the game.  Very disappointing loss as the sweep was in their hands.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Good to see Coe play somewhat tough against Iowa yesterday.  Coe has a bunch of games this week and it looks like the main pitchers all got some time on the mound yesterday against the Hawks.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

I have seen that Hiatt isn't on the same pace as last year.  Do you think that he has come back to earth a little this season, or is he just struggling right now?

Jeff appears to be putting the numbers up again as he is now up to .333 with 5 2Bs, 1 HR, and 19 RBIs in 18 games.  He was hitting cleanup yesterday in the doubleheader as the Norse split with Viterbo.  I believe Viterbo is now 21-7 on the season or something like that.  Luther is still at .500 at 9-9.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Joe Nelson had his first good start of the year yesterday in the Norse win as he gave up 2 runs on 2 hits.  Bigger than the hits for him was that he only walked 2 while striking out 8.  Hopefully Joe can get hot here in the 2nd part of the season.

Cody Hyland got off to a great start this year at 3-0 with great numbers, but he dropped to 3-2 yesterday after he gave up 5 hits and walked 5 in less than 3 innings.  His other loss was last Friday when he gave up 2 runs in relief against Coe.

Paul Pichelmann pitched very well in relief of Hyland and is now 1-1 with a 1.64 ERA in 22 innings.  A solid starter during his freshman year, Paul has done very well in various relief roles and one start.

Kohls and Todd are clearly the #1 and #2, but that #3 spot is still up in the air in my mind right now between Nelson, Flaig, Hyland, and even Pichelmann.  The pitching staff still has been very good this year as the team ERA is 3.68, but I am still hopeful that the pitchers can be even more consistent as Kohls and Todd start to get on a more normal routine and perhaps the offense can help get the whole team on a role.