BB: Regionals (Midwest) Oshkosh '08, '09, Whitewater '10, '11

[BaseballFan]

CSS beats UST 7-1 advances to championship game through the losers bracket

Steve Gerten CG
Blake Eller 3-5 4 rbi HR

[BaseballFan]

Oshdude did you make it to the games today? sounded like CSS pitching was pretty good today

And wasnt it a little weird having Leslie for UST pitch since he only threw 3 innings all year

[OshDude]

Random Day 3 observations:
--If you start at 10 a.m., the host may not need lights. Never came close to turning on the lights in Oshkosh.
--I thought St. Thomas had the most pitching going into the tourney, but Kramer wasn't unavailable. In that case, I think all five top seeds had about equal pitching.
--On the Harwich board, Southern Maine has wowed fans with its size. Whitewater is the Oshkosh Regional version of that. I probably heard it said about 50 times in three days how large the WW guys are.
--The yard played small again today, with a lot of carry in the two later games.
--The truck that had its back window destroyed the first day by a UWO foul ball was a UWO player (I'm 97% sure).

UST/WW
--Jake (Jacobson) vs. Schuld was a treat. If you didn't know, Jake is a Jaime Moyer clone – "slow, slower, uh oh there went the fastball" kind of guy. He'll turn it over on you and get the ground ball when he's on.
--Leslie? Schuld was fine when he left. Leslie? Tough spot to put that guy. "I know you have not pitched since Florida, but could you get us to the championship?" The UST fans were hoping for the best while scratching their heads.
--WW isn't too shabby against the heater, either. That's Leslie – fastball. Schuld had a sweet change (and a less-than-stellar, show-me breaking ball) to go with the hard stuff. Leslie's fastball wasn't great. And how could it be? It was a shocker to me at least. Maybe a Tommie fan could shed more light on the Leslie decision.
--The 9 hole – Kenseth gets it done after Johnson failed to make a good bunt. Bullis made a huge mental error IMO on that play. He played a bloop single into a double after diving for a ball he had no chance to get. Play it on one hop and WW has bases loaded, no runs and one out. It appeared Vode was holding the runner at 3rd. And he should have; Bullis would have thrown him out easily IMO. It was 30 feet into the RF grass.
--Dominick is plenty available after throwing 50 pitches against Carthage. Only a matter of which game WW starts the WIAC pitcher of the year.

CSS/CARTHAGE
--CC's Perez may be the slowest worker ever. About 20 seconds between pitches and more than 2 seconds to home. CSS could have stolen as many bags as they wanted against Perez.
--Kummet never left the outside black all day. He came in just enough to keep CC honest. CC got to him late, but the CC approach took too long to adjust. If Perez is the epitomy of a slow worker (there's nothing wrong with working slow), Kummet is the opposite. CC asked for time quite often to get Kummet to slow down.
--CC's Hodges hit a pinch-hit, 2-run HR the opposite way to left that literally brought rain. There was a smattering of rain drops when he was up. When that ball landed, it was pouring. Kinda cool, anyway.
--The CSS radio guys are troopers. I'm sure they mentioned it on the broadcast, but they were the only guys on press row, which is basically a section of seating exposed to the elements, during the drizzle. No protection, either. After the Hodges HR, they busted out one of the larger umbrellas I've seen. It may be fairer to call it a parasol. But they still called the game in the rain, with garbage bags covering their boards. They should get hazard pay for going the extra mile.
--After a 15-minute (ish) steady rain, there was intense sunlight everywhere. It was like a film edit how quickly it changed.
--I'm sure the radio guys talked at length when Perez hit Kraushaar in the face. Scary stuff. Sounded gross – like throwing a piece of meat hard on the sidewalk. His shoulder caught it (and a bit of helmet) first, but no one breathed for a couple minutes. He was down for a long time, but he didn't get knocked out or anything. Sure sounded like it was worse than it was. Nothing was broken except for some skin near his nose and lip, which was bandaged. Between games Kraushaar got stitches and only missed the top of the first of the last game. Ah, technology. Of course Perez then missed his spot by four feet on the first pitch after the delay, hitting Claugherty in the middle of the back. I felt sorry for everyone involved. Perez looked stunned and didn't move the whole break. He appeared a bit shaken up.
--Eller's HR to left almost landed in a boat that was being towed down the street.
--CC's LF and RF play was amazingly bad. When they didn't drop pop flies, there were plays like when the RF broke hard, with a purpose, to his right. The correct play would have been to break hard to his left. He misjudged the path by a good 30 feet.

CSS/UST
--Olson very good. Gerten better (after he settled in; 5 straight balls to start). CSS clutch. UST sloppy.
--Who stole the UST unis and played CSS today? For three full games, UST played extremely well, nearly flawless. This one? Not at all, big and small things:
McQuillan thrown out at 2B after changing his mind on going to 3B. Out by a mile.
Schmitz dropped a towering flyball in LF. He could have made a phone call during the ball's flight.
Salmen didn't advance to 3B from 2B on a grounder up the middle.
McQuillan and Boland didn't communicate and a flare fell in.
Pexa forgot to tag Eller at home. Eller and the ump even hung out for a good 6-7secs before Eller knew what was up and touched home.
Salmen booted a routine grounder to lead off the inning Eller hit his laser drive 3-run HR. A "one-backer" if there ever was one.
Pexa tried to backhand a ball in the dirt with a runner on 2B, who advanced to 3B.
Leslie didn't get a jump on a pitch in the dirt that squirted 6ft from the catcher. No advance with no outs after his leadoff 2B.
Salmen had one go through the 5 hole.
Collins had an odd PB on an easy pitch (but that's after he destroyed a ball for a 2-run jack).
CSS made the last out by doubling a runner off second after a snared liner.
Every team has bad games, but UST had played so well that I didn't think regionals was the time to play so poorly.
--Kraushaar's LF replacement for the top of the 1st while he was getting stitches made two nice plays in his brief appearance. Funny how the ball finds the new guy.
--Denning didn't coach 3B the last five innings. Is that common?
--Lewis's HR landed across the road in LF. I estimate it at ~375ft. 

Sorry these are so long ... hope someone gets something out of them. If not, they're easy to skip over. My last one like this anyway; I can't make it tomorrow. I like WW to win the second game, but I must say I'd be happy if CSS goes on. It's just a tough hill to climb. Those are the two best teams this week at the regional. That's all we can ask for. Either way, I seriously think we have a contender. Yes, I think CSS is that good and capable. I think both have the four SPs necessary to stay in the winner's bracket.

[janesvilleflash]

Thanks Dude for your "reports". I've found them entertaining and informative, and enjoyed them more than newspaper articles. If I could have a personal writer for baseball games, the job would be yours.

[OshDude]

Thanks Dude for your "reports". I've found them entertaining and informative, and enjoyed them more than newspaper articles. If I could have a personal writer for baseball games, the job would be yours.

It's too bad you're not someone in charge at the Chicago Tribune or MLB.com. My dream job (I'm graduating tomorrow with a journalism degree) is the Cubs beat writer, although I suppose I'd start out at a minor league team like the Brewers if I had to work my way up  . I'm on my way. But I'm having a hard time getting in the MLB.com door even though a UWO grad is the NL East chief editor.

This whole week I was wishing I had WiFi. Would have been fun to blog along with the games and answered questions from folks who couldn't make it (or some other ideas ... there's really no end to the possibilities) instead of recapping a day of stuff you may not gleen from a box score or hear on a broadcast. Whenever I listen to a game, I always have questions that only people at the game could answer. And they're rarely answered because there's too much info to give and, to get sentimental about it, there's too little time to aurally describe everything that your senses take in during a game. You need a companion piece for even the best baseball broadcasters (radio or TV) to get a better, if still incomplete, picture.

I was thinking about doing that at the World Series (if I'd get paid and credited, of course), but I won't be able to attend more than a game or two this year. First time since Appleton got the gig that I won't see every pitch. Bummer when life gets in the way of baseball.

[Z71Warhawk]

Ditto Osh Dude.... Your writing is awesome and look forward to it.... Now can you go to Green Bay and to Packer training camp reports.....?

[Z71Warhawk]

CSS 2 UW-W 0 WW coming to bat at the bottom of the 1st.

[dukes]

UWW 2 CSS 2 in the bottom of 2.

They just said the All-Region teams were announced, does anyone have a list to post?

[Z71Warhawk]

Bottom of the 3rd UW-W 8 CSS 2 NO outs

[Z71Warhawk]

Through 3 complete innings... UW-W 8 CSS 2

[Z71Warhawk]

UW-W 8 CSS 3... UW-W coming to bat at the bottom of the 4th.....

[Z71Warhawk]

Through 4 complete... UW-W 10  CSS 3

[dukes]

CSS now put up 7 runs in the top of 5 to make it tie game, 10-10.

[Z71Warhawk]

Can you believe that? I can't.

[dukes]

At the way that it is going from listening on the radio, I will not be surprised by much at this time. I dont think either team would think this would be this type of game. A slugfest, yes, but not the errors and throwing the ball around. Sounds to me like some guys are trying to do a little too much with extra throws. We shall see...