BB: E8: Empire 8

[John McGraw]

Ithaca vs. Cal Lutheran is on live.

www.kadytv.com

Great video feed. I watched the first inning or so of the game.

[John McGraw]

So far so good for Ithaca out west.

Cal Lutheran 8-3 W
Pomona Pitzer 10-6 L
Occidental 4-0 W

In today's win over Oxy, sophomore Aaron Sapp tossed a complete game four-hit shutout and David Ahonen had three hits and drove in one run. The Bombers play nationally-ranked Chapman tomorrow and then are off on Thursday before closing out the week with CMS on Friday, Whittier on Saturday and then a split doubleheader Sunday with Pomona-Pitzer and Menlo.

[John McGraw]

This afternoon...

Ithaca 6 Gettysburg 4

The Bombers rally from a 4-1 deficit with a five-run outburst in the top of the ninth. Gettysburg allowed only two hits in the ninth but committed three errors.

[John McGraw]

The home opener this afternoon at Freeman Field.

Ithaca 12 New Paltz 1

Matt Streich 2x3, 4 RBI, HR, 2 R
Matt Samela 2x3, RBI, R
PJ Niedzwiecki 2x4, R
Kurt Bednarcyk 1x2, RBI, 2 R

Five pitchers combined to allow one run on six hits. Andrew Wall allowed the lone New Paltz run in the ninth, it was unearned.

Big pair of doubleheaders on the road for the Bombers this weekend against conference favorite RIT.

[WrongArm]

Ithaca spanked RIT pretty hard last spring. Wth all the players everyone knew Ithaca would lose from last year and the ones no one expected, on paper, RIT has a good chance for a little payback. But Ithaca has played well so far and RIT has struggled.

I'd enjoy following a tighter E8 race this spring.

[Bob Maxwell]

I think your going to get that tighter race this year... 

[John McGraw]

Today in Rochester,

Ithaca 6 RIT 5 [8]
Ithaca 5 RIT 3 [8]

RIT was the selected to finish first in the conference by the league's coaches.

[WrongArm]

Pulling Ithaca back to the pack if they get out to a fast start will be pretty tough in a 5-team conference. I continue to be impressed by Stevens' ambitious schedule. But for all their early schedule quality, they weren't an impressive team last year. Maybe they'll be improved this spring. And Utica ... though they manage to play other conference teams tough for at least a couple of games each weekend, they haven't put a scare into anyone except Cazenovia.

I think the best chance for a dog fight in the E8 is for Stevens to upset the established hierarchy of the conference and start to put some hurt on Ithaca, St. John Fisher and RIT.

[John McGraw]

FYI,

I'll be live blogging tomorrow (Tuesday) from SUNY Cortland's Robert H. Wallace Field as #19 SUNY Cortland hosts Route 13 rival Ithaca College in a non-league game. The first pitch, weather permitting, is scheduled for 4:00 pm EDT. The live blog will be available through the front page at D3baseball.com. Blogging coverage begins at 3:45 pm.

If the game is rained out, there's an outside chance that I may head down to Freeman Field on Sunday to catch Ithaca's twin bill with Stevens.

[WrongArm]

John,

I hope you get to see a little of Stevens at Ithaca this weekend. Stevens split with Saint John Fisher over the weekend and you'd have needed the fingers on both hands to count the homeruns. Anyone know the dimensions of the field in Hoboken? On google maps the right field line looks like less than 300 feet. I watched some of the free webcast on empire8.tv -- pretty crappy camera position but way better than silent live stats! The Fisher bullpen had a pretty sad weekend; Stevens came back to win in the third game from an eleven run (I think) deficit.

[Bob Maxwell]

I don't know the field... but there have been some discussions in the past on the boards of the Skyline and CUNY conferences about some fields with ridiculously short fences.  I wonder if the games were played on one of those fields?  Or if the wind was blowing out...  or if the pitching was just off.

Either way, just glad I wasn't pitching... LOL.  At my age, they would have been driving a lot of my 75 MPH fast balls out.  LOL...

[WrongArm]

Bob,
The games were played at the Stevens home field, Dobbelaar Field -- a multipurpose, plastic grass complex. From the less than detailed web broadcast, left and center field look like "normal" distance marked by a temporary fence. Right and right center are marked with a straight permanent fence that looks to be very short down the right field line -- my estimate from a google satellite view (I know, too much time on my hands) looks like less than 300 feet (I was too lazy to try to measure the right center gap). I saw homers hit to all fields, but I think more to right and right center. I'm sure I could match your 75 mph fastball --  I'd just need a strong tailwind :-)

[Bob Maxwell]

LOL....

thanks for the good laguh...

So you know, there is a lot of downward movement on that fastball too!!!  In fact sometimes it even bounces through the strike zone... so I guess I throw a rise ball too!!!  LOL   

[John McGraw]

No live blog today, the game between Ithaca and cortland was rained out.

[ECSUalum]

Bob,
The games were played at the Stevens home field, Dobbelaar Field -- a multipurpose, plastic grass complex. From the less than detailed web broadcast, left and center field look like "normal" distance marked by a temporary fence. Right and right center are marked with a straight permanent fence that looks to be very short down the right field line -- my estimate from a google satellite view (I know, too much time on my hands) looks like less than 300 feet (I was too lazy to try to measure the right center gap). I saw homers hit to all fields, but I think more to right and right center. I'm sure I could match your 75 mph fastball --  I'd just need a strong tailwind :-)

Perhaps you know this web site, maps.live.com, it provides very clear close up birds eye views of any address you type in and in addition you can rotate the view in 4 directions.  Check out Stevens Tech Dobbelaar Field