BB: LL: Liberty League

[BBFan62]

Also, what happened to UR at the end of the year?  Yikes!

The Freshmen did not perform as anticipated. All season there were usually 4-5 freshmen starting. A total lack of timely hitting all year. The defense killed them in a couple of critical games, particularly down the stretch.  For example, against St. Lawrence they had the SLU ace on the ropes, leading 3-1 going into the bottom of the last inning. UR allows the first hitter to get on by throwing away a routine grounder. Then, with 2 on and one out, a tailor made game ending double play is botched; SLU went on to win 4-3. We lose another to SLU 1-0. Against SLU the Jackets had 29 hits in 3 games, yet only scored 4 runs. The week before, against Clarkson, the same thing happened. A game ending double play was mishandled and UR went on to lose in extra innings.
This week, against RIT, same ol' story - lack of timely hitting. Too many left on base. The UR ace hadn't been able to pitch for 3 starts due to shoulder soreness. He started the last game yesterday, despite not being 100%. He went 7 innings and left with the game tied 1-1. Several UR runners left stranded. The Jackets scored 2 in the top of the eighth to take a 3-1 lead. The Freshman reliever promptly gave up 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th to help the Jackets go down.
In that last game 6 of the position starters were Freshmen.
However, the Freshmen are talented and will be a force when they are Juniors, if UR is able to replace the 3 senior pitchers - Menke, King, and Sullivan. They have some good pitchers left, particularly Cool, Mabee, and Diller. King ended up 4-5 but lost 3 games by UR being shutout. Menke ended 3-2 but, like King, was a victim of run support. The most he gave up in a game was 3 runs, which was in his second start of the year. Both Menke and King had sub 3.00 ERA's but combined to go 7-7. But, that's baseball. A very disappointing year!

[AlleyCat]

This is going to be a great tourney and any of the 4 can win it. Hopefully the weather holds up so they can actually play the whole tourney and crown a champion. Weather in the Albany area looks wet for the next 4 days.

Any thoughts on who might take home the title?

[LLbaseball]

I really think this tournament is wide open for any of the 4 teams.  Vassar is a scary team to play in a tournament like this, and they are hot right now.  Only team to beat Union twice in the regular season, too.  Union is obviously a top team, but maybe are on the down side of their peak?  I think RPI and St. Lawrence will have to keep their offense going to stay in it.  Evenly matched and very competitive. 

Should be a good one. 

[AlleyCat]

Any predictions on today's games?

St Lawrence vs RPI - noon
Vassar vs Union - 3:30pm

[AlleyCat]

RPI 8
St Lawrence 0

Union 3
Vassar 2 in 10 innings

Vassar vs St Lawrence - 9:30am
RPI vs Union - 1pm
TBD - 4:30pm

[BBFan62]

RPI 8
St Lawrence 0

Union 3
Vassar 2 in 10 innings

Vassar vs St Lawrence - 9:30am
RPI vs Union - 1pm
TBD - 4:30pm

Good night SLU; so much for the experts predictions. I didn't think SLU would capture first place nor win the conference tourney. They only had one tough pitcher and he almost lost to UR and did lose yesterday. They have the bats but as we know, good pitching usually wins out. Hats off to RPI, they're going to be tough to beat. Prior to conference games I mentioned Union and Vassar as the dark horses, now one of them will go home tomorrow while the other has the tough task of knocking off RPI. Good luck to all.

[BBFan62]

RPI 8
St Lawrence 0

Union 3
Vassar 2 in 10 innings

Vassar vs St Lawrence - 9:30am
RPI vs Union - 1pm
TBD - 4:30pm

Good night SLU; so much for the experts predictions. I didn't think SLU would capture first place nor win the conference tourney. They only had one tough pitcher and he almost lost to UR and did lose yesterday. They have the bats but as we know, good pitching usually wins out. Hats off to RPI, they're going to be tough to beat. Prior to conference games I mentioned Union and Vassar as the dark horses, now one of them will go home tomorrow while the other has the tough task of knocking off RPI. Good luck to all.

Well hush my grits; I did not know Vassar & Union played later. Congratulations to Union, Vassar has been eliminated. So, it's Union with the uphill battle.

[BBFan62]

RPI 8
St Lawrence 0

Union 3
Vassar 2 in 10 innings

Vassar vs St Lawrence - 9:30am
RPI vs Union - 1pm
TBD - 4:30pm

Good night SLU; so much for the experts predictions. I didn't think SLU would capture first place nor win the conference tourney. They only had one tough pitcher and he almost lost to UR and did lose yesterday. They have the bats but as we know, good pitching usually wins out. Hats off to RPI, they're going to be tough to beat. Prior to conference games I mentioned Union and Vassar as the dark horses, now one of them will go home tomorrow while the other has the tough task of knocking off RPI. Good luck to all.

Well hush my grits; I did not know Vassar & Union played later. Congratulations to Union, Vassar has been eliminated. So, it's Union with the uphill battle.

Congratulations to RPI - go get 'em in the Regional. Too bad for Union; this must be at least 6 years in a row where the host team has not advanced to the regional. Back to the long cold winter for the rest of the teams.

[AlleyCat]

RPI did really well in the Regionals representing the LL in a good way. Pitching was superb. Very young team and played without Erickson and Rio basically the whole tournament. Anybody know what happened to Rio? Hopefully this will give the LL the respect it deserves. Good league deserving of more than one bid. Union would have been better than Neumann.

Nice year RPI.

[AlleyCat]

Liberty League with a nice day. Rochester finally getting on the win board with a nice 3-2 decision on Case ranked #24 and RPI thumping St Joes from Maine 18-8. Clarkson gets it going today. St. Lawrence starting off pretty well, Vassar off to a 3-0 start beating NCAA team Franklin and Marshall 16-7. Skidmore struggling playing a pretty weak schedule.

[airball55]

Clarkson split with oneonta...I am digging my earlier picks on here....what does union have coming back?

[AlleyCat]

Rochester off to a tough start playing in the UAA (2-5)
RPI off to a nice start (8-2), hammered by Cortland and then a tough one to TCNJ, pretty good schedule
Skidmore may have a tough year (3-6) not playing a very tough schedule in Florida
St Lawrence (4-4), right where everyone thought they would be with 1 stud starter
Clarkson (2-3) looking pretty good against tough schedule
Vassar (3-3) looks like they may be able to make some noise this year. All depends on pitching!
RIT - not out of the gate yet
Bard - 1st year
Union - Not out of the gate yet

Any predictions??

[baseballislife]

Rochester took their lumps in the always competitive UAA tourney (actually 2-6, but four one run losses), but the experience should help them up north.  Playing a deep Emory team twice (out of Atlanta and 15 games into their season before UR even practices outdoors) is never an easy assignment.  Good win over #25 Case Western and had them on the ropes a second time, suffering one of those one run losses.  Young team (again), but better than anticipated pitching last week.  A couple of their main bats started slow in Fla., but once they get going, they should be okay.  Important early season series vs. SLU this weekend on the turf field in Rochester.  Other early thoughts:

RPI is the obvious front runner and early favorite in the LL.
I agree Skidmore looks to be in a down cycle,
SLU - One ridiculous starting pitcher, but seems to be a drop-off after that.  The opposite of UR, who played six one run games in Fla., SLU seemed to either breeze to a win or get blown out.
Clarkson 2-3 vs. SUNYAC in Fla. and split against Grinnell today....can't get a good read just yet,but competitive against some good teams.
Vassar has lost three straight in large fashion and with wins over Medaille and Franklin and Marshall (lost to Case 18-3), I am not buying that stock.
Bard is still building their program and will likely take their lumps in league play this year.
RIT has some scrappy leadership and always seems to come up with some good wins.  The problem has been they are just as likely to drop series' and games they look like they should possibly win.  Will this year be different?
Union seems to look much like SLU after sustaining some significant pitching losses and a couple of top bats.  One very good starter in O'Neil, though. 

Here are my four play-off teams, in no particular order:

RPI
Union
Rochester
Clarkson

Clarkson gets in on the final weekend, besting Skidmore while RPI helps them by taking 3 of 4 in SLU.

[airball55]

I will take a shot at this. 

RPI is pretty easy.
Clarkson looks pretty solid as well as a pick.

Now it gets a bit cloudy.  I would have had Vassar in there, but, the last couple losses including a 16-2 loss to Utica scares me.  Pitching depth could be a big problem.  I never know what to do with Rochester.  I think the league in general is ready for someone to make a jump, just don't know if its them.  So I will go with:

Union by default
Flipping coins with St. Lawrence, Vassar, Rochester, RIT (who returns a bunch of players)...I will take St. Lawrence on the strength of the ace pitcher. 

[baseballislife]

I couldn't help but notice today that my top 4 is the exact same as the pre-season coaches poll.  Unintentional, but interesting.