BB: USAC: USA South Athletic Conference

[baseballfever]

Yes monarchs are hot.  Inman did a good job. Glad to see him coming around. He did walk 5 , 4 in the 6th inning. ThatIis the most innings in one game since his injury last year. Looking forward to the weekend series with Averett. Pitching staff is very deep. And they are getting the job done.

[Ralph Turner]

Welcome to the boards, baseballfever!

+1!

[narch]

good to see the monarchs in the top 25 this week...still confused about some of the teams above them (i'm looking at you, goldglove ), but i'll take being ranked...now they've got to back it up this weekend

[narch]

au broke the monarch win streak in a big way today, giving up just one hit and winning 4-0...mu came back in the night cap and won 7-3 - rubber match tomorrow is big for conference title implications

[narch]

HUGE pitching performance by inman today, going 8 and giving up just 1 er while collecting 6 k's - the monarchs are two ahead of huntingdon in the loss column and control their own destiny - ncwc and lagrange are all that stands between mu and a return to the regionals...go get it, boys!

[narch]

the monarchs move up one spot to 22 in the latest d3baseball.com poll - it won't help them win vs. ncwc this weekend, but it's nice to see them being recognized - i'm still a bit confused about how rmc is ranked higher than mu...lower win%, lower sos, higher rank...go figure - hopefully when the regional rankings come out, the committee gets it right

how about peace taking 2 of 3 from pc and getting a stellar pitching performance out of christian neal (17 k's!)...i was a lot shocked when i saw those results on saturday...

[narch]

the monarchs got off to a nice start in the ncwc series tonight, pounding the bishops starter for 9 hits and 8 runs in 2.2 innings in an 11-1 win - howard improves to 7-1 with a solid 8 inning start and the monarchs improve to 27-8 on the season

[narch]

inman goes 7 strong and leads mu to the sweep of ncwc - 2 wins against lagrange next weekend can wrap up the usasac championship for the green & gold...3 great pitching performances this weekend and a total of 27 runs...nice work boys!

[narch]

the monarchs move up to #19 nationally in the d3baseball.com poll

i hope the regional ranking committee looks at mu a little more favorably than the d3 polls do, though - right now the d3 pollster's have shenandoah ranked #8 nationally, 11 spots above mu

here are the numbers:
su sos: #246
mu sos: #220

su regional win %: .750
mu regional win %: .806

su vs. teams above .500: 8-3-1 (.708)
mu vs. teams above .500: 16-5 (.762)

personally, i would have mu ahead of su based on those numbers alone...stronger schedule and higher winning % against said schedule - the monarchs have played almost twice as many games against teams above .500 and have a higher win% in those games, but shenandoah has recent history on their side

[narch]

just looking at some statistics...the monarchs lead the nation with 321 runs, they are first in the country with 71 sacrifice bunts, they are 11th nationally in runs/game, they are 35th in the nation in batting average and 3rd nationally in hits - they are also 21st nationally in era

not bad...

[baseballfever]

MU stats are not bad. Just not getting the recognition nationally.  We will have to prove it on the field. Go MU.

[narch]

good article in the fayetteville observer about small ball and the monarchs offense

[baseballfever]

Narch I don't understand regional rankings.  Please explain why MU is not ranked.  Thanks

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Narch can probably give more input, but at first blush it is probably their Strength of Schedule.

http://www.d3baseball.com/seasons/2015/schedule?tmpl=sos-template

MU comes in with a 222 SOS. I believe SOS is one of the primary criteria.

[baseballfever]

Ok thanks. I will evaluate it more thoroughly.  Yes narch that is a good article on MU.