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

[OshDude]

Some random notes from today
• Was sitting near a guy doing book. He had Schuld at 185 pitches. For comparison's sake the Beloit SP Rick Krajewski threw well under 100 in game 1.
• Word is UST SP Brandon Stone is injured and is expected to miss the regional. There's supposedly another UST P who's iffy.
• Crazy bad at-bats all day. UST/UWSP was like an extra-inning Olympic softball game. Seemed like there was a runner on 2B with no out quite often. Of course it took a dong to get the mother over.
• Wind was blowing in hard from CF during the first game. Anything in the air was an out.
• Koback and Arch made some spectacular diving catches in the OF.
• Agneberg and Krajewski had awesome mixes. Neither light up guns, but Krajewski's fastball even look like it broke and Agneberg's curve tilt was nasty.
• Very little wind in game 2. The little wind that blew was toward the LF corner. Guess what? There were two oppo wall scrapers to LF (Arch's and Schmitz's HRs went about 325 apiece). Rahm's walkoff was a bomb – 380-ish to LF.
• UST turned some gutsy DPs, the most impressive of which was 1 out with runners on 1st and 3rd in the 8th. Thomas hit a semihard one-hopper to Schuld 5 feet in front of the mound. The runner broke from 3rd and was meat, but Schuld wheeled and got a bang-banger at 2nd and then another at 1st. Another was after Koback was on 2B with 0 outs in the 10th. And that was one after UWSP had a leadoff 2B in the 9th and failed to score (Spurney 5-3 ... not a bunt, Surman F9, Rennicke F9). UWSP had soooo many opportunities.
• To say UST had problems with the bats is understating it. Williams was just blowing batters away. Some guys, even in the middle of the UST order, were not even close to touching him, except when Schmitz dropped the barrel on one pitch of course. Was fairly certain the game would end whenever Point decided to clutch up and/or play situational ball. I'll be wrong again sometime soon.
• The matchup in game 3 was going to be Burg vs. Hillesheim. Pretty sure it was Hillesheim, anyway. Water in my face doesn't help my vision. Burg for sure, though.

Oshdude have you EVER seen the type of pitching performances as yesterdays Point/Tommies game? Given the turnover on the Pointer team from last year, very proud of what they have accomplished this year. Hate to see it come to an end, but the offense has got to show up or they are done. Error free baseball wouldn't hurt either. Pitchers can only do so much, and I think Williams and Zielke went above and beyond what should be expected. Here's hoping the bats show up today.

Prophetic. Bats were MIA against UST.
As the marathon kept going I thought "Here is everyone's chance to see what Zielke would be like as a SP."

[OshDude]

Heading to the park now, but if my internal compass is correct, the wind should be blowing out today. And it's blowing pretty hard. After days of hitting into head winds, today could finally be the hitters' day.

[dukes]

Interesting that St. Thomas bounced back Schuld...bold move. Anyones thoughts?
My opinion is he is your best pitcher (by far) and he wants the ball. If he feels able, let him go. For those of you that will jump on the fact of pitch counts and ruining his future, remember that no one is forcing the kid out there. I am sure it is his choice. And there is a certain psych boost for a team when you know you have your number one on the mound. Granted, I believe it is a coaches job to judge whether it is best for the team and the player, as I am sure everyone would agree no number one pitcher should want to give up the ball in the big game.

[supermiac]

Not surprising at all considering Stone and Olson are out for the year. Pretty impressive pitching 19 innings in 3 days and contributing to 2 big wins though. I'm really interested in seeing how this second game goes. Leslie pitching?! geez, there's a pitching name from the past.. it's obvious the Tommie staff is running thin now considering he hasn't really pitched in 2 years.

[dukes]

I agree, it was interesting to see. But, with the momentum obviously on their side, put the ball in a seniors hand and say get after it. Comfortable 5-0 after 2nd for St. Thomas.

[OshDude]

Random notes from today:
• Schuld threw 120 pitches today after 185 in the opener.
• SOC was unlucky all day. Fuerst hit a ground rule double in game 1 that kept a runner at 3B. Didn't score. Leadoff doubles were robbed by outstanding catches in the UST OF. The biggest one, though, was top 2, runner on 1st with two outs. Score was 2-0. Liner to Fuerst. Everyone but the ump saw it as a catch. Fuerst didn't throw to first because it was too late. Next batter hit a no-doubter 3-run bomb. 5-0. There were six umps in the championship. Third base ump blew the initial call. He talked to the second base ump who wrongly concurred with the original sin. Home plate ump didn't see it. Turning point to say the least. You can say if Mathison doesn't groove one there's no harm done, and I'd agree with that. But man, was that huge.
• Two-out magic won two games again today. Unreal how many runs were scored after two this whole regional.
• Some other questionable calls throughout the day. I think the umps got many of them right, but the biggest ones (the one mentioned above and in game 1 on a play at the plate in which the throw beat the UST runner by 5 feet yet called safe) went against SOC.
• Wind was howling out to CF all day.
• Last time Leslie pitched was at the '08 '07 (got a kind reminder that it was '07 and Leslie pitched a handful of innings in '08. Didn't take long for me to be wrong again) regionals. He was better this time.
• Scary moment top 9 of game 1. 3B Fuerst and 1B Nelson slammed into each other on a towering pop up. Huge thud. Nelson left the game. After the game medics were called. Nelson DNP game 2.
• I'm aware everyone knows how good UST plays D, but nearly every team played amazing D during the regionals. There were a few horrible errors, but most of them, including today, were on tough plays like backhanded one-timers that hit a heel or something.
• Rahm beat out Schuld for regional MVP? Interesting ... although as I posted yesterday, Rahm was stroking it.
• I'd really, really like UST's chances if the two injured pitchers were available. Now I merely like them. Just solid baseball.

[BoBo]

Pretty impressive pitching 19 innings in 3 days and contributing to 2 big wins though.

Have you read about this guy? His feat is probably more impressive than the impressive performance you described.  I read on ESPN or CNNSI that the guy "sacrificed his arm" for the team since it would be the last games he ever pitched!!

[Just Bill]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this little bit of trivia...

The last time St. Thomas won the national title (2001), they won their first game of the Regionals with an extra-inning, walk-off home run at E.J. Schneider Field.  That year Edgewood was the victim in the 11th inning.

An omen, perhaps.

[Ralph Turner]

Midwest Regional - Hosted by Wisconsin-Whitewater at Prucha Field
http://www.uwwsports.com/news/2009/8/18/bball_081809_Prucha_Renovation.aspx

[Just Bill]

That page is just the facility page.  Here's the link to the actual Regional Website:

http://www.uwwsports.com/custompages/baseball/2010/2010%20NCAA%20Baseball%20Regional%20Website/index.htm

[wsrings]

Wow... that place is legit!  Should be a great event!

[badgerwarhawk]

We're really happy with the renovations.  It's a fantastic facility.  I think the teams are really going to like playing on the turf surface.  You never get a bad bounce.  Spectators will like it too because the view is completely unobstructed. 

[Just Bill]

We're really happy with the renovations.  It's a fantastic facility.  I think the teams are really going to like playing on the turf surface.  You never get a bad bounce.  Spectators will like it too because the view is completely unobstructed. 

Conversely, if it rains they are completely unprotected. 

[BoBo]

We're really happy with the renovations.  It's a fantastic facility.  I think the teams are really going to like playing on the turf surface.  You never get a bad bounce.  Spectators will like it too because the view is completely unobstructed. 

Conversely, if it rains they are completely unprotected. 

...that's one of the reasons why the Chinese invented the umbrella...to protect us from the rain...!!  

[badgerwarhawk]

I'm happy to report that the fiber optic upgrade to Miller Stadium has been completed and SIDs will have the ability to offer live stats during the regional tournament.   Everything is up to date in Kansas City.