BB: E8: Empire 8

WrongArm · April 02, 2009, 08:50:58 AM

Thanks for the suggestion... I'll try that map site. I see that ECSU hit four dingers against Stevens when they played in Hoboken on March 11.

ECSUalum · April 02, 2009, 10:22:12 AM

Wrongarm,

Yes, ECSU has a pretty decent offence this year, however against Manhattenville's freshman Levine this week, you would not have seen it. Kid had them so off balance it was frustrating!

Anyway, this birds eye view on maps.live is pretty cool for checking out D3 baseball team facilities, buildings etc, with the rotation option to look at all angles.

Good luck to Ithaca this year, they have had a long tradition of great college baseball, ( gave ECSU all kinds of problems in NCAA regional tourneys in the past), really a great program.

Bob Maxwell · April 05, 2009, 08:02:33 AM

With RIT not playing at the level they were "projected" to and the ohter E-8 teams not having been "predicted" to be among the top in the state, it looks like Ithaca has its fate in its own hands. St John Fisher looks to be the team that will be the big series this year. Stevens looks better then they did last year, but don't know if they are at that caliber this year...

The leage games just starting so it will be something to watch. And the weather looks good today so we should get some games in.

John McGraw · April 05, 2009, 10:31:08 AM

**LIVE BLOG ALERT**

I'll be live-blogging this afternoon's Empire 8 doubleheader between Ithaca and Stevens. The games will be taking place at Cornell's University's Hoy Field in Ithaca. First pitch is set for 1:00 PM. As long as there is wireless there, the blog will be up at 12:45 PM.

John McGraw · April 05, 2009, 08:13:43 PM

Around the E8 today...

Ithaca 9 Stevens 0
Ithaca 3 Stevens 1

St. John Fisher 14 Utica 0
St. John Fisher 6 Utica 5

Some thoughts from today's twin bill between Ithaca and Stevens (other thoughts on the Daily Dose. This is more in-depth.)

*Ithaca should win the Empire 8. They're geared up with their starting rotation of MacDaniel, Fishback, Sapp and Lynch to be very tough in a four-game weekend series. Ithaca's remaining league schedule includes Utica on the road, Fisher at home and two more against Stevens at home in May. That being said, come regional time, I'm not sure how far this team can go with just seven pitchers having seen regular action. The loss of Gardner and Brown really hurts the staff's numbers because there just aren't enough pitchers to make it through a four-to-five day tournament unless you get complete games out of MacDaniel and/or Sapp and Fishback and they can come back later on short rest.

*Matt Streich is the real deal. The transfer from St. Mary's (Md.) is a huge help to the offense. He wasn't overwhelming today but his speed and power were very evident. And he covers a lot of territory in left field. A healthy Kurt Bednarcyk is also a boon to the team with his bat and speed. Ithaca could have really used him last year to help boost the offense.

*I liked what I saw for the most part from Stevens. Spending an entire day at the hotel on Saturday sitting around and then playing on Sunday probably didn't help them. Rasulo is a great little lead-off hitter and has good speed (didn't get a chance to see his power). The middle of the line-up struggled and when it did come to life, the Ducks scored. Ken Meerendonk is a solid two-way player but he needs help in the line-up from Russ Grimes and Tom Phillips if the Ducks are going to score runs.

*Note to Stevens, maroon numbers on black jersey's, not good. Names on the back of the jersey's, not bad.

WrongArm · April 07, 2009, 08:49:49 AM

While there's still lots of E8 baseball to go, I wonder if the coaches in the league would like to take back their votes picking RIT ahead of Ithaca. I imagine that poll would have made for some serious motivation hanging on the wall in an Ithaca locker room.

John,
I enjoyed reading your blog from the Cornell field. I watched the Utica/Ithaca games there last year. Before arriving, I took a quick look at the field online and thought the brown areas were clay. I was surprised to find green and brown carpet and no cutouts around the bases. Got my first "northern" sunburn at the Saturday games. As much as I'd prefer grass, with the typically lousy northern spring weather, plastic and rubber rule!

WrongArm · April 13, 2009, 09:29:16 AM

After four more E8 wins on Friday and Saturday in Utica, Ithaca has almost disappeared over the horizon. Stevens has turned out to be Ithaca's best friend, putting two losses on Fisher earlier in the season. Fisher will have to take 3 of 4 from Ithaca this weekend just to draw even in the loss column.

Utica came away empty handed on the weekend. Pitchers Chris Pallas and Mike Sadallah in separate games each took Ithaca into the seventh innings tied 1-1 only let the games slip away. Utica's bullpen weakness hurt them, but hats off to the Bombers for closing-out those games. I thought Ithaca's pitching looked a little thin after McDaniel, Sapp and Fishback -- something to watch at tournament time.

John McGraw · April 13, 2009, 12:38:34 PM

Lack of pitching depth has been Ithaca's achilles heel come playoff time for a while. Though, with the parity in the region being what it is this year, everyone that goes to Farmingdale I think has a shot at the trip to Wisconsin.

wordsmith · April 13, 2009, 03:23:12 PM

Eye noticed Dylan Perez has not been in the Ith-ah-ker (new England pronunciation

) Line-up the past several games.

Dylan is a NuHampsha boy from Peterborough. My son played Legion ball with him and I got to coach him ever so briefly early in his Legion career. Nice kid, great family.

He was hitting .393 with a couple of HR. Any ideas. Injuried?

Thanks,

Word 8)

John McGraw · April 13, 2009, 03:35:13 PM

Quote from: wordsmith on April 13, 2009, 03:23:12 PM
Eye noticed Dylan Perez has not been in the Ith-ah-ker (new England pronunciation ) Line-up the past several games.

Dylan is a NuHampsha boy from Peterborough. My son played Legion ball with him and I got to coach him ever so briefly early in his Legion career. Nice kid, great family.

He was hitting .393 with a couple of HR. Any ideas. Injuried?

Thanks,

Word 8)

No clue.

Smithers · April 14, 2009, 11:51:25 AM

It's great to see Ithaca doing well. I was worried that we lost to much last year, but Coach V did a great job filling in the gaps. Great pitching by MacDaniel and Sapp. Hopefully they can continue there winning ways and make some noise in the Regionals

Big Louie · April 14, 2009, 12:09:58 PM

Coach has done a great job, but when is he going to realize 7 arms are not going to win you an eight team regional. They may have had the most talent but with 7 arms they wont come out of a regional

John McGraw · April 14, 2009, 12:11:51 PM

Yeah, I have to admit, I'm real surprised that the team has had the season so far that it's having. A lot was lost to graduation with the great class of '08 that included Raux, Sottung, Smith, Ferguson, Wolf etc etc plus the non-graduation losses of Brown and Ash.

And this season you have a team that's young with no real big superstars though lots of players that can hit the ball well and come up with timely hits.

I think in the end, the Bombers will definitely make some noise in the regionals after getting roughed up by Ohio Wesleyan and Montclair State last year in Auburn. How far they can go depends on their pitching.

WrongArm · April 15, 2009, 08:45:59 AM

John, don't forget losing the other drafted pitcher, Gardner. :-)

In the four games against Utica last weekend, McDaniel and Sap looked pretty sharp. I think Fishback will have trouble with patient teams that refuse to chase his slow, off-speed stuff. I'd have liked to see more of freshman reliever Tucker Healy. He closed the 6-2 game but faced only one or two batters. He's got a low arm slot and he threw well. I checked the Ithaca site and saw that he's got 13 K's in 9 innings and the lowest batting average against on the staff. Relievers after Healy were unimpressive. Lynch looked like a sizable step down from McDaniel and Sapp; but to be fair, it was just one 5-inning appearance on a cold and windy day and I was shivering too.

Against tournament competition, I don't think Ithaca has 7 arms to count on.

Big Louie · April 15, 2009, 09:31:48 AM

wrong arm i guess that just proves my point a little bit more, I may have been generous with the 7 arms. They will have McDaniel,Sapp, Fishback, Lynch, Healy and Eggleston who can get them some outs. That isnt going to win you a regional unless the top 4 guys are lights out and all pitch complete games.