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

[BaseballFan]

I am actually interested in the people who were there, or the people who know the CSS team best. And also just posing a question to see opinion....dont mean to second guess anyone. Obviously, there is never a right/wrong answer. Just ask Terry Francona and Pedro!

My next question though: who is in best position now? Olaf with 2 wins without a ton of pitching? St. Thomas who has used a lot of pitching through 2 games but playing well? Or someone from the backside of the bracket?

Its a tough decision on whether to keep him in or take him out. Obviously being there would of helped because you dont know if he was laboring or anything or if his pitch count is excessively high. I believe this was Kummets longest outing of the year.

Me personally would of left him in which doesnt mean it would of turned out any different. Just my personal opinion and coaching philosophy is I am either going to win or lose with my best pitcher on the mound.

Have to like Olaf over Thomas, remember Olaf still has Mathison who has only pitched 3 innings and Sommer left.

Gotta like CSS to come through the losers bracket.

[Gustie13]

Big question to me is if/when Denning tries to bring Schuld back after going 12inn on Wednesday.

[BaseballFan]

Big question to me is if/when Denning tries to bring Schuld back after going 12inn on Wednesday.

I dont think so, probably tomorrow

[biggio34]

St. Olaf 5, St. Thomas 1 in the 7th....

Gibbs vs. Sommer

[biggio34]

Final - StO 5, USt 2.

[Brewers20]

Wow, this could be the year St. Olaf makes it through the regional and heads to Appleton! Whoever makes it to tomorrow will definitely have a tough task beating Olaf twice especially the way they've been playing.  But I've seen it happen before, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[Brewers20]

Well, it appears errors have plagued the Pointers again, two errors in a row resulting in an RBI double and an RBI groundout.  Clean it up boys!

[biggio34]

The D is not looking good for either side right now...

[Brewers20]

Looks like Point pulled the old "Double Steal"

[brewcrew2008]

Gotta love seeing a 5 run inning all with 2 outs for the Pointers!!

[Brewers20]

Gotta love seeing a 5 run inning all with 2 outs for the Pointers!!

Huge momentum boost for Point...Looks like JD is throwing a gem, hopefully he can go the distance!

[Brewers20]

It would be nice if Richter started hitting like he can, he's been pretty cold so far this regional (2 for 14 w/6 k's).  Hopefully he starts raking in the next few games, they will probably need all the runs they can get with the limited pitching they have left.

[titan2000]

Hope Point makes it to Appleton so we can see all the Point hotties   

[Brewers20]

Hope Point makes it to Appleton so we can see all the Point hotties   

It's not looking good...5-0 St Thomas in the bottom of the 8th.  Looks like the MIAC will send a team to the Series this year, it's been awhile, I guess they were due.

[OshDude]

Tis a longer post than I expected. Feel free to skip this.
Random notes from yesterday and today. Too tired last night. I gotta get in better baseball watching shape before the WS.

CSS vs. SNC
• Wind blowing toward LF corner again. Marshik eked out his leadoff oppo HR. If you didn't know it's only 318 down the LF line.
• Pitchers were ahead all day but struggled to put hitters away.
• The Yost HR in the 9th is due for reentry next Tuesday. Jeez, was that first-pitch FB crushed. If you know the park surroundings, it flushed the condo in LF about 2/3 of the way up. Probably 410-425 feet.
• Bot 11 Peterson's scorcher went in and out of 3B glove for a single. Then Claugherty drove him in when the LF had one go in and out on a diving attempt. Ballgame. Fraction of an inch on either or both and it's likely headed to the 12th.
• Yost was the best hitter at the regional, IMO. Dude can rake.

UWSP vs. BC
• Brisk wind toward LC all game.
• Top 2 Spurney hit one 400 feet foul. Only hit the next pitch 375-ish to LC, but it was fair.
• I think Surman's bomb to LC came down with some cloud on it.
• UWSP should just cede two outs every inning and start from there. All 8 UWSP runs were after 2 outs (I think ... that's what I wrote anyway). I didn't keep track of all, but I know the first 4 were after 2 outs and bases empty. It was obviously a case of BC not being able to get off the field.
• Barry was on cruise until the 7th. He was very sharp until a roped 1B and a destroyed oppo HR to LF.
• Koback's jack was a one-back lazer, almost Dante Bichette-like in quality.

SOC vs. SNC
• Hillesheim was nails early. Pretty deuce was working.
• Ever play anywhere on the left side at EJ during twilight hours? Fuerst got a nice introduction to it. Hughes had Yost looking at strike 3 with 2 outs and a runner on 2B. Called a ball. Two pitches later Fuerst lost a chopper in the sun. A while later Fuerst looked like he had more sun trouble on a smashed liner. The result was a hit and a dinged up throwing hand. It's scary at 3B when the sun is behind the stands for that 90 mins or so. Anyway, the pitch after trainers counted all five fingers on Fuerst's hand was a Gusick 3-run shot that barely cleared the LF wall.
• Top 5 Johnson got momentum back for SOC with his no-doubter to LF on a belt-high hanger.
• Bot 5 the mo really swung toward SOC. SNC had 1st/3rd with 2 outs. Gusick ripped one to the right side. Woulda been huge for SNC if it didn't hit the runner on his way to 2B. Inning over. SNC coach out of the dugout. SOC back in the dugout to eventually tie the game and score in every subsequent inning.
• SOC really got to Hillesheim the third time through. Many ropes thereafter.

UST vs. CSS
• Wish I would have made a post regarding the bleachers and bolded it in 25 point type. Last year a retaining board cracked on the top of the bleachers on the 3rd base side. Luckily the man saved himself from falling. Two years ago a seat board snapped on the 3rd base side, and after a few nervous moments all we had was a head-shaking moment. This year a UST father was leaning against the back railing and the board snapped, sending him about 18 feet to the ground on his back. I heard today that he somehow didn't break any bones or suffer a severe injury. Well, he was concussed. But man, that was scary and tense.
• As for the game, I'm assuming everyone tuned into Joe and Kenny for the detes. If you didn't, c'mon, what were you thinking?
• But I saw a Q, and my A is, IMO, Kummet had plenty left. Then again my opinions at regional games have never mattered.
• Murphy's Law in the 8th. Dunkers, flares, not catching the ball, not throwing the ball, a solid hit or two ... all that stuff.

SOC vs. UST
• Wind blowing in from CF again.
• Textbook baseball for the most part. The errors didn't much matter in the grand scheme. Great situational hitting and the coaches were pushing buttons. You could tell it was a game between conference rivals in that way. Seemed like runners were in motion most often in this game, and I'm guessing it was because of the familiarity.
• Bot 3 second batter after the pitching change and Nelson Sommer some room with a 360-foot 2-run shot to LF. The two-out magic – like Nelson's dinger – has decided most of these games.
• SOC squared up on a lot of balls against Gibbs.
• Top 5 the carpenters are in the house, placing new boards on the bleachers where the fan fell. A nice extra touch (as if the intermitent sounds of a cordless circular saw  wasn't enough of a reminder of when our hearts were in our throats) was that nobody bothered to clean up the debris from last night. Granted, there was caution tape around the section of bleachers without backing, but there were hillbilly-toothpick sized pieces of wood on the ground where the accident took place.
• Sommer was in charge with his curveball.
• A few moments there when the game coulda swung to UST ... top 8, 1st/3rd no outs. Mathison got out of his/Sommer's mess with just one run.

UWSP vs. CSS
• Wind blowing hard from CF.
• Did you listen to Joe and Kenny?
• Once again CSS gives up a big inning. Bot 4 Arch flipped a one-handed dumper over SS on a 3-2 pitch to plate 2. Then it's 1st/3rd and Arch got picked, but he got in a rundown and Claugherty was late throwing home. Then CSS had a PB on a strike, etc. In all, I counted UWSP with six outs to work with that inning. It actually took a bailout call for CSS to get out of that one. Surman was "thrown out" at home after a WP went to the backstop. So safe ...
• I don't know the preferred diet of pointers, but I know Pointers like fastballs. They featsed on those today.
• Just a general observation from the three days: the faux hawk appears to be the bastard child of the playoff hockey beard, although there were some sweet beards on the field in Oshkosh this year. On the latter, SNC's Vater definitely won the "Most lLike Peter Griffin's Chin Full of Birds" award for his mass of manliness.

UWSP vs. UST
• UST shook up its lineup. It needed to be, and it worked.
• Rahm continued his lazer show. Dude gets the barrel on it more often than anyone at the regional not named Yost.
• Licht was the man. Knowing how UWSP appreciates fastball pitchers, Licht's consistent outside-FB performance was all the more impressive.
• I bet the UST 3B coach can do the best Willie McGee impersonation. I know it's a bizarre reference, but if you remember McGee, you know what I mean. It was uncanny.
• Bloom was a walking bobblehead in the Pointer coach's box. Whether it was toward the umps for blowing pitches/calls or toward his hitters for dumping ABs, his head was shaking all day.
• I don't claim to know what Tommies are, but I know they like to eat the same thing as Pointers: fastballs. Nix wasn't allowed to make a mistake with #1.
• Licht (and it must be stated, many of the Pointer bats) made sure that only one timely Nix mistake was needed.