BB: NEWMAC: New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference

Started by Ralph Turner, February 11, 2006, 03:02:30 PM

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gobeavers2011

The Unofficial 2011 NEWMAC preview:

           Babson is likely the preseason favorite with a number of talented players back and word on the street is that Aizenstodt was healthy and in the low 90's at the end of fall workouts.

          Wheaton returns the best position player in the league in Danny Haugh, and a top pitcher in Nolan Corr.  Although they lost a lot from last year's team, they always do a great job recruiting and tend to reload instead of rebuild.

          WPI lost a huge senior class and will be impacted by no longer having a home field as their new athletics center is being built on the site of their old field.  It will be interesting to see how they fare offensively with the loss of some great senior hitters and the new bats. 

        MIT could be a beneficiary of the new bat regulations.  The Engineers finished second in the conference in pitching in 2010 and return their entire pitching staff along with senior catcher Danny Hyatt.  The Engineers will have to replace Stewart Park, who created a lot of offense for them.

       Coast Guard made a deep run in the NEWMAC tournament last year.  Pitcher Tyler Viera and shortstop Tyler Babkiewicz both had award winning freshman campaigns in New London.

       Clark had a tough lineup last year and figures to be strong offensively again, but will have to replace LHP Jon Merritt, who was their ace last year.

       Springfield will have a veteran team, with nine seniors on this year's squad.  The 2010 Pride were very athletic, and this year's squad will need to rely on some young arms to help get them to the NEWMAC tournament.

       There are two major changes in the NEWMAC this year.  First, the conference has shifted to a 3 game series format, with each team playing 18 conference games.  Also, only the top 4 team will qualify for the conference tournament.  It should be a great year!

willows478

The Beavers certainly look to be strong this year. But I don't know if you can mark them as favorites just yet. Lots of guys coming off major injuries that will need to be healthy for them to be successful. If fully healthy though, the 1-2 punch of Aizenstadt and Ahern will be tough to beat in a 3-game conference series.
Until then though, have to think Wheaten, the reigning champs, should be favored again in the NEWMAC.

3rdgenerationnation

I agree that Wheaton has to be the favorite in the NEWMAC until April 1 & 2nd when Babson and Wheaton meet.  They have had too good a track record of bringing in talented players and have a dominating #1 in Corr. 

Babson returns the conferences' rookie pitcher of the year in Lyon.  They will miss the conferences' pitcher of the year O'Brien but Lyon and the lefty MacNeill threw the 2nd and 3rd most innings on the team.  If Aizenstadt and Ahern are healthy, they figure to be one and two. 

Offensively the Beavers graduated there 3rd baseman Bartlett who lead the team in BA at .379, their lead off hitter O'Toole and one of there two starting catchers Scanlon, who has joined the coaching staff.  Still their lineup figures to be strong 1-9 with the return of Ahern and a full year from So. Kucher, who led the team in OPS.     

I love that they are playing a three game conference series this year but with games just about every day in season it will be a grind.  Can't wait for the season to begin!

pgapro

MIT's pitching was ranked 2nd in the conference last year? I bet you can't name one of their starters. That they can be competitive at all amazes me. Their school workload is extremely difficult to say the least and it is a very tough school to recruit.. I saw where they had the 20th toughest schedule in all of D3 last year and they finished above 500.

Hobbesy

MIT sweeps Wheaton today with 1-0 and 5-3 finals.  Great start for MIT (5-1, 2-0)...they are a very gritty team that does everything the right way

363dp

Nice sweep by the Lyons today over Babson and the big A. Getting themselves back in the hunt for the newmac regular season title. Still a big game tomorrow.

wildthngvaughn

Wow who is the brain trust that came up with this tournament schedule.  Play the first round, then take a day off, play the next round, then get rained out, and postpone the rest of the tournament an entire week.  Basically this tournament decides who has the best two pitchers.

Hobbesy

Wildthng-

I could not agree more! It makes no sense.  Even if they played yesterday and the winner of the Babson/MIT game beat Wheaton in the 2nd game, the "if" game would not have been played until monday!  It hurts Babson and MIT because now they will have to face Wheaton's ace on full rest.  With the NECC earning an automatic bid this season, at-large bids are going to be few and far between (I would assume). 

It will give us one heckuva pitching matchup in that Babson/MIT game though.  Should be Aizenstadt or Ahern against Dama you would assume.  Ahern went all 10 innings, struck out 14, didnt walk a batter and had three hits, including the game-winning hit in the 10th.

I think you'll see Ahern go against MIT

363dp

Wheaton will once again return to Harwich hoping to return to Appleton. Looks like they have the players and coaching to do that! Go Lyons.


Ralph Turner

Quote from: DickWhitman on November 15, 2022, 08:09:26 PM
Anybody still post here?
Welcome to the Boards. The boards in Region 1 and 2 begin to pick up in mid to late February.

The most active board in New England is the Little East Board. I encourage you to start posting on this board.

We will follow you.

Gray Fox

Quote from: DickWhitman on November 15, 2022, 08:09:26 PM
Anybody still post here?
I look at all he boards from time to time.
Have fun.  COVID has affected all boards, Things will get back to normal soon.
Fierce When Roused