BB: LL: Liberty League

[AlleyCat]

Looks like RPI had a stinker losing to Castleton 5-3. They might have been overlooking them for their matchup with Clarkson this weekend in the league.

[Ron Ron]

Skidmore lost to Vassar in game 1 today 4-3, uh oh. RPI lost to Clarkson in game 1, 5-0.  Couple surprise results to start conference play.

[airball55]

Interesting day indeed for the conference openers.  Clarkson and RPI split, Vassar and Skidmore split and the Jackets sweep St. Lawrence.  SLU commits 10+ errors on day (yikes).  Double digit unearned runs.  RPI up early on Clarkson on day two, nice to see a school have the in game technology on their website. 

[BoomerIL]

Interesting day indeed for the conference openers.  Clarkson and RPI split, Vassar and Skidmore split and the Jackets sweep St. Lawrence.  SLU commits 10+ errors on day (yikes).  Double digit unearned runs.  RPI up early on Clarkson on day two, nice to see a school have the in game technology on their website. 

It is interesting to say the least.  Rochester takes 4 from St. Lawrence, RPI splits with Clarkson 2-2, and Skidmore takes 3 of 4 from Vassar.  I know Rochester has been hitting well as a team, and the pitching has improved.  I'm surprised that RPI struggled with Clarkson considering that everyone was saying that Clarkson lost a lot of pitching.  RPI's pitching, 1 - 4 are really good.  And, Skidmore seems to have improved a lot.  Nobody is safe in this league from a potential breakdown.  I worry about a teams high and low points during a season.  What's going to happen when Rochester faces off against RPI, Clarkson, and Skidmore, not to take anything for granted with Vassar and Union.  UR has a lot to prove this year.  We'll see, its still earlier.

[airball55]

Clarkson just couldn't get going on that southern trip.  Besides, the Golden Knights tend to play better as the season winds on.  They can hit, especially in the top 5 of their order and if the pitchers don't give up to many freebies, they will be in the mix at the end.  I think with St. Lawrence the weak southern schedule bit them a bit for their return north.  Rochester is a tough place to play though and it is never easy to take 4 on the weekend.  Vassar may be improved a bit, they could have had another one from Skidmore.  Weather looks good in the long range forecast next weekend, let's see what week two brings from the LL.

[John McGraw]

Clarkson always plays RPI tough or at least has in recent memory.

[AlleyCat]

John you are right. It always seems that Clarkson and RPI play to the end. Someone at the game said the left fielder made a great catch running into the wall with the bases loaded and 2 outs to save the game. One of the best catches they had ever seen. Did anyone see the Catch! Other than that not much of a surprise on the opening weekend. RPI always seems to drop a couple of league games early on.  Rochester took care of business as expected as well as Skidmore.  Should be a nice season to keep track of.

[Ron Ron]

Heard that Vassar's defense (especially up the middle), is vastly improved and can be attributed to how they played Skidmore.  However, still don't have too much depth with the pitching staff, which may cause some problems in the future.

[RochesterBaseball10]

Rochester took 4 from Union. Senior SS Nate Stein hit two grand slams over the course of the weekend.

3 of 4 Rochester starters (including two freshman) looked strong on the mound. This Kowal kid is legit, 4-0 with a sub 0.50 ERA and better than a 3:1 K:BB ratio.

[BoomerIL]

Rochester took 4 from Union. Senior SS Nate Stein hit two grand slams over the course of the weekend.

3 of 4 Rochester starters (including two freshman) looked strong on the mound. This Kowal kid is legit, 4-0 with a sub 0.50 ERA and better than a 3:1 K:BB ratio.

Welcome "RochesterBaseball10"!!!

Nice wins to say the least.  Big test coming this week with a single game against St. John Fisher, and a four game series against conference rival RPI next weekend.  A good test for the Yellowjackets.  With freshman Kowal and Menke fitting nicely in the starting rotation, along with that bulldog Ludwig and senior Guzski, the Yellowjackets should have a fun week.  How about our middle relief and new closer, and please don't forget about our offensive monster.  This week should prepare UR for three other tough teams, Ithaca, Skidmore, and Clarkson.  It could be a big year for Rochester if they can knock down the wall that has kept them from winning conference, or gaining a pool bid to the regionals.  A fun time to say the least!!

[Ron Ron]

Just what we need... more Rochester homers... Just kidding guys.

Anyway, St. Lawrence was able to come back after a tough weekend to sweep Union.  Looks like Union had 10 errors in one of the games today, not going to win playing like that.  Skidmore was able to take 3-4 from Clarkson with good pitching coming from both sides.  Really looking forward for the match ups between the big teams (RPI, Rochester, Skidmore, Clarkson, St. Lawrence).  Should be exciting.

[baseballislife]

Good morning, Liberty league fans.  Sorry Ron Ron, here's another "newbie" Rochester fan.  This weekend will be a good test for the Jackets as RPI seems to be the measuring stick for LL teams.  I have caught parts of UR's four game sets vs. ST. Lawrence and Union these last two weekends.  From what I have seen, they have little trouble putting up runs (except against Brockport, who seems to have their # in recent seasons).

Nice to see King slam the door in game #2 vs. Union after the other reliever struggled some.  Kowal indeed does seem to be legit

The Jackets have taken care of business in LL play so far and can really position themselves in the drivers seat if they have a successful weekend @ RPI.  Good luck UR!

[RochesterBaseball10]

Thanks for the welcome BoomerIL!

Couldn't agree with you more about the offensive "monster" that UR looks like this year. Speed up and down the lineup and power in the 2,3,4 & 5 slots. Stein and Just have both shown gap to gap power already, and Caghan is basically a five tool player.

From the looks of it King is going to be taking over the closer role. I actually like that move because Chanatry can be stronger for more than one inning when given the chance, which is what UR's bullpen needs to find right now. In the seven inning games you can run a stater out there and go right to your closer, but with the full-9's you HAVE to have an arm to go eat up multiple innings (To all of you loyal UR fans, i'm talking about the Gabe Chodaks of the world).

Like Boomer said, this is the part of the schedule in the Liberty League where things heat up. The St. John Fisher-UR rivalry guarantees you a game, and the RPI weekend is always a battle to say the least. The Jackets will need to be firing on all cylinders to come out on top.

[magicman]

St. Lawrence falls to visiting Plattsburgh State 11-4 on Tuesday afternoon. Saints record is now 9-8 while Plattsburgh extends their winning streak to 18 games. Plattsburgh is now ranked #23 in the D3baseball.com Top 25 poll and has the best record in Division III at 18-1. The write up for this game can be found here:

http://www.d3baseball.com/

[baseballislife]

Plattsburgh is off to a good start, but don't get too far ahead of yourself.  The only poll that matters is the LAST poll.  Do you play RPI?  I know your not on U of R's schedule.....