BB: USAC: USA South Athletic Conference

[LynxCat39]

Any word on Huntingdon? I'll be heading down to watch tonight's game v. Rhodes and probably catch some of the games tomorrow.

[narch]

Any word on Huntingdon? I'll be heading down to watch tonight's game v. Rhodes and probably catch some of the games tomorrow.

i don't recall seeing any hc posters on the baseball boards, although there are some on the football boards - per the pre-season preview on their website, they are replacing 15 seniors and the stud catcher (who was drafted) and have just two returning starting position players to go with 3 experienced arms (one of them is one of the best closers in the country...of course, he was unable to shut the door vs. the monarchs in the regionals last year )

something tells me the cupboards aren't as empty as they might seem on paper with them, though...i would be surprised if hc didn't win 25-28 games

[LynxCat39]

Any word on Huntingdon? I'll be heading down to watch tonight's game v. Rhodes and probably catch some of the games tomorrow.

i don't recall seeing any hc posters on the baseball boards, although there are some on the football boards - per the pre-season preview on their website, they are replacing 15 seniors and the stud catcher (who was drafted) and have just two returning starting position players to go with 3 experienced arms (one of them is one of the best closers in the country...of course, he was unable to shut the door vs. the monarchs in the regionals last year )

something tells me the cupboards aren't as empty as they might seem on paper with them, though...i would be surprised if hc didn't win 25-28 games

thanks for the input. I know all about Odom, had to pitch against him in high school, and thankfully I didn't have to throw against him in college as well, pitching against Maxwell was fun though. Replacing 15 seniors will be hard for them to do, but they usually have a solid group of transfers and young guy.

[LynxCat39]

RECAP OF TONIGHTS RHODES V. HUNTINGDON GAME

Rhodes wins 4-3 in a cold, sloppy game. Huntingdon took the lead 1-0 in the first inning after 2 ground outs, followed by two consecutive dropped third strikes where both batters made it to second on each one, with the inning ending on a 3rd strikeout. Rhodes took the lead scoring single runs in the next few innings, and Huntingdon tied it up 3-3 on a bloop single with the bases loaded and 2 outs off the relief pitcher Thomas Beamish who came in with the bases loaded. RS Freshman SS Bill Munson drove in the game winning run after a leadoff single, steal, and sac bunt to advance the runner. Here's my impressions (after one game, so take with a grain of salt) on both teams:

First, Rhodes, since I am more familiar with them. It appears as if once again Rhodes' backbone will be a solid pitching staff, led by a core of young arms and upper classmen relief pitchers. So. LHP Blake Glauben pitched a solid game tonight until he had to be taken out of the game with the bases loaded. RP Thomas Beamish picked up the win after giving up the 2 run single.

Rhodes offensively will be more of a station-to-station team, with a decent amount of team speed on the bases. Only sources of a real home run threat look to be Sr. Pat Kilkenny and Jr. Andrew Wallis.

Player to watch: Bill Munson. Absolute defensive machine at short with a very good arm, and was batting .357 and leading the conference in doubles last season before getting injured and redshirted.


Huntingdon: After losing 15 seniors last year and 2 other players as well, it looks as if Huntingdon is a VERY young team, returning only one starter from last year, and it showed both on the mound and in the field. Pitchers were struggling to throw strikes all night (could be attributed to southerners playing ~40 degree weather and early season jitters though), and made a couple costly errors fielding and throwing. Offensively, they were shut down, and if the box score from their first game is correct, they have been held to only 8 hits in their first 18 innings of play, with little to no solid contact against Rhodes tonight. Huntingdon also had two runners thrown out at second base attempting to steal in tonight's game.

[narch]

Josh Howard got the nod in the opener vs rc and went 7 with 4 hits, no runs and 11 k's...not a bad first outing - Inman pitched well in the second game, but did have 4 walks in 6 ip - mu wins 4-2 and 2-1

[narch]

the monarchs finished the weekend 1-1 in a pair of 1 run games this weekend, losing 4-3 to lynchburg and winning 7-6 vs. cnu - howard pitched well vs. cnu, going 7 with 3 er and rett lee had a solid day on the hill vs. lynchburg, giving up 1 er in 5 ip  - solid results for the monarchs against good competition

[stafford]

Did anyone watch the college games on MLB network on Sunday afternoon? University of New Orleans vs. Southern and LSU vs. Grambling. There were several pitchers from UNO, Southern and Grambling sitting in the low 80's. Aside from pitching, Southern looked particularly bad. Multiple base running blunders and poor outfield play despite tons of speed on the bases and in the outfield.

For those of you who are knowldegeable, how would good D3 teams stack up against lower level D1 teams like UNO, Southern, and Grambling?

[PNeal7]

Stafford - I'll do my best to give my perspective on the DI, DII, and DIII differences.

In my humble opinion, the top D3 schools in the country could compete, and beat on occasion, with some of the lower level D1 schools. When I played at CNU, we had the then D3 National Pitcher of the Year Kenny Moreland, and with him on the mound I strongly believe we could have competed with some of the D1's in VA (Longwood, W&M, Liberty, etc.). I see a good mix across all of the divisions with the summer league team I help run (Strasburg Express - Valley Baseball League) and to me the major difference in the divisions is pitching. We sign a slew of D3 pitchers every year (4 signed this year) and do so without hesitation, but we are always hesitant to sign D3 hitters given the adjustment to pitching they will have to make. If it takes them 3-4 weeks to adjust, they've just burned half of our season. We had Connor Madden (CNU) a few years back, and he was the only D3 hitter we've had come in and be successful offensively from Day 1.

On a one game basis, some of the top D3 teams could without a doubt knock off some of the lower level D1's; however, if forced to play multiple times (such as a regular schedule) against those lower level D1 teams it would be much tougher as D3 hitters are not used to facing that pitching over and over again. Most D1's, even some of the lower level teams, have pitching staffs full of arms that would be weekend starters, weekday starters, or key relievers at the D3 level. My assumption would be the pitching you saw was due to it being a Sunday so the teams already used their top 2 starters and more than likely their top guys out of the bullpen. It's early in the year, and given the games are not conference games, not many teams will throw their top relievers 2-3 times over the weekend as the would later in the season.

One other key point to note: A lot of this has to do with their geographic location. For example, if a player is from VA, there are very few quality D2 programs around. If they do not want to go D1 and sit for a few years or redshirt, they then ultimately go D3 to CNU, Bridgewater, VWC, Randolph Macon, etc. thus ultimately making the D3 schools in the area better. That is exactly the opposite in some states, such as SC where there are numerous D1 and D2 programs for players to attend (USC, Furman, Presbyterian, CofC, USC Upstate, North Greenville, Winthrop, etc.)

Sorry for the length, but wanted to do my best to thoroughly answer.

[Spence]

I've seen guys go D-II and D-I that I didn't think were good enough for a top D-III program. I've been wrong about that before too! haha. One of them is in the Majors!

Until you get maybe into the top 40 or 50 in D-II, I don't think there's enough difference between D-II and a competitive D-III program, one that actually tries ot be good, to matter.

I think the very best D-III teams we've had over the past decade (like national champions) could probably play with 100+ D-I teams on a regular basis. Marietta's 2011 team had 3 players drafted from it (not all the same year), and several other players that weren't draftable because of measurables, but were about as good as you can be in college (like Alex Toth)...that's as much as you'll get on a lot of mid-majors. The last team I think the South has had like that was when Fox was at NCWC.

Some D-I programs have NEVER had a player drafted and are really D-I in name only. Some don't offer many scholarships. Some of the teams you saw may be in that boat and yes, a good D-III could probably compete and win against them.

[narch]

well...that's an ugly loss...hsc uses a 7 run 7th to win 11-5 vs. the monarchs...

[narch]

despite an ugly loss for the monarchs, yesterday was still a pretty good day for mu - the largest capital campaign in mu history was announced and over $23 million of the $35 million goal has already been raised

baseball is getting a new fieldhouse that can be found at http://www.campaignformu.org/athletic-facilities/#baseball - this should help the monarchs with recruiting and retention!

[narch]

mu bounces back, beating emory 1-0 to improve to 4-2...lee started the game, but only faced three batters (he gave up a hit and 2 k's... i'm not sure what happened) - travis johnson stepped in and pitched 5.1 ip and ayers finished out with a 3 inning save - mu only mustered 5 hits, while mu pitching scattered 13 emory hits

[narch]

mu finished off a sweep of emory with a 12-9 win today - freshman lucas scott had a nice 4 rbi day and 3 pitchers combined for the win - the monarchs got the sweep despite the fact that howard and inman did not pitch - i'm hoping that they didn't pitch because coach austin decided not to pitch them, rather than injury

the monarchs are now 5-2

[stafford]

Does anyone have any info on Greensboro College? Specifically baseball, but also football and the college in general?

[narch]

mu goes to 7-2, 2-0 with two wins vs. au - the monarchs pitching was great giving up just 2 runs on the day...and Inman/Howard didn't throw...pithching depth looks good for mu early on - mu scored 18 runs in the second game