BB: SCIAC: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

Started by Ralph Turner, December 31, 2005, 09:33:55 AM

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Sluggerdad

Quote from: Teddy_Ballgame on February 01, 2016, 08:22:15 PM
Expect healthy contributions from a few new left-handed swinging starters as well (names escape me at the moment).

Was Kelleher one of the new left-handed swinging starters? That would be good to see.  Good kid, very good player, from my neck of the woods.

Purple Heys

Redlands represents over NAIA #22 Vanguard

http://www.d3baseball.com/seasons/2016/contrib/201602025svmxz

Never hurts to see a D3 beat the "Scholarship" folks from the other side of the fence.
You can't leave me....all the plants will die.

purplefan

Hello Purple Heys and purplebaseball.  I'm new to the board and a new freshmen parent at Whittier.  Made it to my first game of the season today and it was tough to watch us give that game away today!  I thought the pitchers threw well and the defense let them down today.  Routine plays that have to be made at this level were not and ended up costing us the game.  Seems like you two have been around Whittier baseball for a bit, is this the norm?  I know they had a tough season last year. 

Purple Heys

Quote from: purplefan on February 08, 2016, 02:49:43 AM
Hello Purple Heys and purplebaseball.  I'm new to the board and a new freshmen parent at Whittier.  Made it to my first game of the season today and it was tough to watch us give that game away today!  I thought the pitchers threw well and the defense let them down today.  Routine plays that have to be made at this level were not and ended up costing us the game.  Seems like you two have been around Whittier baseball for a bit, is this the norm?  I know they had a tough season last year.

First, welcome to the Board!  More of us on here is a good thing, IMHO  ;D

I think this is a new year/new team, I don't see any carryover.  Not a diss at last year's squad - just sharing my observations...

I think we have better, (somewhat deeper) pitching, better hitting through the lineup, we have more pop in the lineup, we have more overall team speed, and I think we will be a better fielding team (other than the catching position - how can you really expect to replicate a D3 Gold Glover?).  Plus we are younger across the board than last year and to me that means room for improvement.

My sample size for that is Game 1 and Game 3 - it looked to me that Game 2 was a throwaway.  We competed quite well in those two games.  The way we lost those games speaks to what we need to work on to be in a position to win games against the good teams we will face this year.

Whitworth is a pretty darn good team - maybe as good as we will see all year.  Their hitters were disciplined, hit deep into counts, and hit it hard through most of the lineup.  They hit remarkably well with 2 strikes, or we pitched remarkably poorly with 2 strikes, but I think it was more the former than the latter.  Whitworth's pitching did not dominate us.  We had numerous well hit balls directly at waiting defenders.  On the balance that should even out over a season.

In Game 1, we walked way too many hitters and that put pressure on the pitchers (self-imposed) and defense.  With our well struck balls not dropping for hits early in the contest, all it took was one big inning by the Pirates to take advantage.  I think some of this was first game jitters.  Giving up 9 walks, 9 hits to this team and only allowing 6 runs...we held on admirably.  Last year we tended to let games like this get away from us.

In Game 3, we hit well enough to win, pitched almost well enough to win, and ill-timed fielding flubs proved costly at the time.  However, my opinion is that we could have hit a bit better, had more runs, and pitched somewhat better to where we might have withstood the errors - only 3 earned runs, and I think we can do better.  We had wasted opportunities to stop more runs, wasted opportunities to finish 1-2 and 2-2 counts, that would have ended threats.  On offense, we had some trouble putting 3 or 4 good AB's together to really fuel big innings.  So that is the space where we need to improve...in my opinion.  We went toe to toe with a darn good team that probably would have blown us out in at least 2 of 3 last year.  Game 3 was more about us losing it than them winning it (not to take credit away from the fact that they put pressure on us all game long - which had something to do with the outcome - but the fact is that to win at this level you have to withstand that). 

I don't see the errors that were made in Game 3 being made again, and in fact they may have a positive effect over the long haul in teaching the level of concentration and technique that is necessary to win at this level.  The things I look at are what wins games over the long haul...the things that good teams do.

So, my assessment is, we were closer to winning games against a team of this caliber than we generally were last year.  We've got a lot of work to do.  We need to hit better.  We need to pitch better.  We need to field better.  Who doesn't, right?

But if we can do that, and I think we will, we will make teams have to beat us, and that could prove to be tougher on our opponents than last year.


You can't leave me....all the plants will die.

Purple Heys

Next up we have to face Redlands in the leage openers (again?) and their pitching staff.  Tall task, good thing we have an extra week to prepare.
You can't leave me....all the plants will die.

Purple Heys

Quote from: Purple Heys on February 08, 2016, 03:59:29 PM
Next up we have to face Redlands in the leage openers (again?) and their pitching staff.  Tall task, good thing we have an extra week to prepare.

I thought the schedule revolved.  Why are we playing the same opening team that we did last year?  Anyone?   ???
You can't leave me....all the plants will die.

purplefan

Thanks for the info Purple Heys sounds like you know the team.  My question is why don't we schedule some scrimmage games before the season starts?  Then we can work all this stuff out before it counts and lose some of those jitters.  The world is full of great BP hitters and fielders at practice but when the real games start things speed up very quickly.  Some guys can handle some can't.  It would be nice to find out before it counted like on Sunday!   

Bishopleftiesdad

D3 limits the amount of scrimmages against other teams andbthey are restricted to the fall or non championship season.

Lets Play Two

PH - this is the 2nd year of a 2-year schedule, where the home and aways are flipped.  Next year's schedule will have a different order.  Hope this is helpful!

Purple Heys

Quote from: Lets Play Two on February 08, 2016, 06:56:24 PM
PH - this is the 2nd year of a 2-year schedule, where the home and aways are flipped.  Next year's schedule will have a different order.  Hope this is helpful!

I got it...never knew that...that makes sense!  Thanks!
You can't leave me....all the plants will die.

Purple Heys

Quote from: purplefan on February 08, 2016, 05:12:14 PM
Thanks for the info Purple Heys sounds like you know the team.  My question is why don't we schedule some scrimmage games before the season starts?  Then we can work all this stuff out before it counts and lose some of those jitters.  The world is full of great BP hitters and fielders at practice but when the real games start things speed up very quickly.  Some guys can handle some can't.  It would be nice to find out before it counted like on Sunday!

D3 has more limitations on off season activities.  Trial by fire is fine...we are all in the same boat.  I think we'll be fine.  We will have to battle for every win.  Accepting that it is an every play/every pitch sort of thing for us because we are not good enough to coast, makes us grinders.  Baseball loves grinders.
You can't leave me....all the plants will die.

Purple Heys

Nice wins for the SCIAC teams earlier today

Redlands 7-2 over #14 Linfield

PP 11-0 over #11 Rhodes
You can't leave me....all the plants will die.

Whatagame

So, Redlands is middle-of-the-road program, then, Redlands HC leaves Redlands to take HC position at traditional powerhouse Chapman, Redlands improves and starts beating powerhouse programs, Chapman quickly becomes mediocre program.

Purple Heys

Quote from: Whatagame on February 12, 2016, 07:57:21 PM
So, Redlands is middle-of-the-road program, then, Redlands HC leaves Redlands to take HC position at traditional powerhouse Chapman, Redlands improves and starts beating powerhouse programs, Chapman quickly becomes mediocre program.

Wait...are you using math?
You can't leave me....all the plants will die.

Teddy_Ballgame

Quote from: Whatagame on February 12, 2016, 07:57:21 PM
So, Redlands is middle-of-the-road program, then, Redlands HC leaves Redlands to take HC position at traditional powerhouse Chapman, Redlands improves and starts beating powerhouse programs, Chapman quickly becomes mediocre program.

?? Redlands was not middle of the road while Laverty was there. In fact they were garbage when he arrived and he turned the program around. He won two conference championships and was always in contention. The juniors and seniors on the current Redlands squad are Laverty recruits. Also, while his first two years may have been disappointing by Chapman's lofty standards, I would hardly call a 53-29 record "mediocre". Chapman's been known to get off to slow starts, so this year's 1-3 should be taken with a grain of salt. I'd give him a few more years to escape the Coach T shadow before we judge what he's doing over there. I'm certainly not saying he's an all-world coach, but your comment is completely ignorant of what he's actually done.