BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

Started by Ralph Turner, January 09, 2006, 11:38:52 PM

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Spence

Not sure anyone is out here, but Heidelberg at Marietta is postponed to tomorrow at 1 p.m.

Dr. Acula

Spence,

Since you seem to basically be the entirety of the OAC baseball posters I figured you are the only person to pose this question to.  I am listening to the Etta/Berg DH on the radio (thanks for the heads up) and it got me thinking what a nice job Matt Palm has done with the Princes.  While they haven't won a pile of conference titles, they are consistently competitive.  And I am not talking about just over .500 competitive like the bulk of the conference.  I'm talking about competing for an OAC championship.  So my question is who has the best chance of emerging as the next Berg?  Obviously Otterbein has put together a very nice little run the last few years, so I guess I was thinking about that group of mid-pack squads that seem to bounce between 3rd-4th in one season and 7th-8th the next.  Can any of them become another Heidelberg, establish consistency and become a conference tourney regular?     

mideastfan2

I'll throw my 2 cents in, although Spence may or may not agree.

I would say Capital.  Spense may be able to give the reasons, or come up with another team, but it's pretty much Marietta, Otterbein, Heidelberg...and then everyone else.  But Capital has a chance to turn it's program around, which ws seen last year.


*****  By the way, Marietta took game one 3-2 over the Berg, and the bats are now alive and they are leading the second game 9-4.

Good start to OAC action for the Etta Express.

Dr. Acula

Thanks mideastfan2.  Your 2 cents are much appreciated.  I didn't want to throw any names out, but Cap was my initial thought as well.  My only concern about Cap is that you already have a number of good programs in the Columbus area you will be competing for talent with.  Namely Otterbein, Ohio Wesleyan, Denison and Ohio Dominican.  All of those schools have solid to very good programs.  Also, do you know if Cap has moved their baseball field on campus?  When I was in school in the early 00's it was off campus in an area that can politely be described as not high rent.  Bexley is a very nice area, but that field was not in such an area (when Cap's coach tells you as a visitor to send 2 guys and take bats w/ you to chase foul balls that's probably not a good sign).


Dr. Acula

Etta ended up finishing them off 10-6 in that 2nd game. 

JCU swept Cap today as well.  7-6 (9 inn) and 5-0.  Any time you're not one of the top 3 and you can get a sweep that's a nice job.  Especially on the road.  Good start for the Streaks at 10-3.

Dr. Acula

I answered my own question regarding Cap's field.  As soon as I saw "turn left on Main St." in the directions I started having flashbacks.   

mideastfan2

Quote from: Dr. Acula on March 23, 2008, 06:03:36 PM
Thanks mideastfan2.  Your 2 cents are much appreciated.  I didn't want to throw any names out, but Cap was my initial thought as well.  My only concern about Cap is that you already have a number of good programs in the Columbus area you will be competing for talent with.  Namely Otterbein, Ohio Wesleyan, Denison and Ohio Dominican.  All of those schools have solid to very good programs.  Also, do you know if Cap has moved their baseball field on campus?  When I was in school in the early 00's it was off campus in an area that can politely be described as not high rent.  Bexley is a very nice area, but that field was not in such an area (when Cap's coach tells you as a visitor to send 2 guys and take bats w/ you to chase foul balls that's probably not a good sign).



the other school I would maybe throw out there (if they can get the right coach) is Wilmington.  If they can get a coach with ties to the Cincinnati area, and start recruiting out of there, they could turn that program around.  There is a lot of talent in Cincy, and many of those kids end up in the Columbus area, or walking on at UC, Miami, XU, or some other MAC schools.


Spence

Quote from: mideastfan2 on March 23, 2008, 06:58:29 PM
Quote from: Dr. Acula on March 23, 2008, 06:03:36 PM
Thanks mideastfan2.  Your 2 cents are much appreciated.  I didn't want to throw any names out, but Cap was my initial thought as well.  My only concern about Cap is that you already have a number of good programs in the Columbus area you will be competing for talent with.  Namely Otterbein, Ohio Wesleyan, Denison and Ohio Dominican.  All of those schools have solid to very good programs.  Also, do you know if Cap has moved their baseball field on campus?  When I was in school in the early 00's it was off campus in an area that can politely be described as not high rent.  Bexley is a very nice area, but that field was not in such an area (when Cap's coach tells you as a visitor to send 2 guys and take bats w/ you to chase foul balls that's probably not a good sign).



the other school I would maybe throw out there (if they can get the right coach) is Wilmington.  If they can get a coach with ties to the Cincinnati area, and start recruiting out of there, they could turn that program around.  There is a lot of talent in Cincy, and many of those kids end up in the Columbus area, or walking on at UC, Miami, XU, or some other MAC schools.



I'm a little late but my answer would have been John Carroll (easy to say now). Good coach after Brewer built a foundation, renovated field, decent success of late.

There are a lot of really good players around Cincy and I wish MC could start getting some players from over there again. Remenowsky and some of the other Otterbein players are from over there as well.

Dr. Acula

Thanks for the feedback.  I guess my thoughts are as follows, and please feel free to agree/disagree.  I'm just throwing these out since I have to be at work and this kills time.

Cap--My choice based mainly on their location and the apparent upward trend the last 3 yrs. 

JCU--My second choice based on a younger coach, quality facilities and the opportunity to tap the Parochial pipeline outside their immediate geographic location (see Sean McCarthy).  They are usually in the hunt for that 4th slot.  The question is how long do you give Thibeault to build it?  I believe he was hired while I was in school and that was 7 years ago.  I still think he can do it.

BW/MUC--I lumped these 2 together because they both have pretty good facilities, both are in NE Ohio and both pretty much bounce around .500 every year it seems.  Their Head Coaches are by all accounts great guys, but as long as both are in charge I don't see a sudden ascent to the top on the horizon based on past performance.   

Musky--No offense, but I think Gregg Thompson should have a job for life.  Being .500 at Musky is an accomplishment (unless it's softball).  I don't see how they can consistently be much more than that.

Wilmington--I will have to defer to you guys.  I don't know much about them at all.

ONU--Not sure what to think.  Their record the last few years is all I've seen and it's not good.

a spectator

I do know that the coach at ONU is new, 2007 his first year.  I believe he is from Indiana somewhere.  He is hungry and this year should be a better test from him as last year he had a late start as far as recruiting and inherited the previous coach's team.  We'll see, he seems to be pretty driven.

lhpdiggy

I am new to this site and looking forward to a great spring baseball season in the OAC.  Do you know who the premier pitchers are in the league and what are the critical success factors to achieve good results?  I am sure command  is criticial, but do many of the kids have a lot of velocity and is that something that prevails in the OAC.  Just wandering and thanks for your time.

Dr. Acula

Welcome aboard lhpdiggy.  To answer your question, I think most people would point (not surprisingly) to the top 3 teams when you're looking at the best returning pitchers.  Obviously Remenowsky is back for Ott and he was the Tekulve award winner last year.  Stevens is also back for Ott and he is a 2 time all-conference guy.  Paddock and McFarland are back for Heidelberg.  Paddock pitched very well at Etta on Sunday.  And like every year, Etta has the arms.  This year it's probably Knowlton, Eschbaugh and Merryman for them, but Spence is much better qualified to talk about that.

I think for the most part the top guys have good velocity.  Etta's top guys are usually bringing it pretty good every year.  But I think one thing I noticed is that with VERY few exceptions the top guys seem to have at least 2 good pitches (i.e. they're not just going to blow it by you all day w/ fastballs).  The example I always think of was a kid at JCU in the late 90's named John O'Rourke.  He had pretty good velocity, but what made him good was that he had a very good slider to go with it.  He had confidence in both and changed speeds effectively.  The fact that he could throw either one (and locate it) in any count made him very difficult to face.   

lhpdiggy

Thanks for the welcome....my wife and I attended our first OAC DH in brutal conditions....both teams played well considering the weather....having watched my son in pretty competitive leagues it is great to see the level of play in the OAC....very good athletes....it should be a great year.  I really look forward to the effort of the kids....no doubt they love the game.

Based on what I have seen so far...my bet is that defense will win the day this year...plus decent pitching...no surprise I'm sure for you folks that love baseball.

Take care and I look forward to sharing the news in the OAC

Thanks

Dr. Acula

Which DH did you take in lhpdiggy?  Regardless, enjoy the season.  My dad still talks about OAC baseball games and I graduated years ago.  He still misses those road trips.  Best of luck to your son and safe travels as you follow him. 

I guess the sayings "Good pitching beats good hitting" and "Defense doesn't slump" are around for a reason.  I recall back in the early 00's Heidelberg had a ridiculous line up.  They were top 5 in the nation in team batting average (something in the neighborhood of .375 as a team)...and I believe they finished 3rd in the OAC tourney.  Mount and Musky also had mashers and didn't even make the tourney most of those years.  I actually remember that Heidelberg and Mount tied that year 21-21!!  In baseball!!  I guess the point is that when the dust settles the reason teams are there at the end is good pitching.  And in Etta's case, superior depth of good pitching (oh, and usually a potent offense as well).     

ScotsFan

Congrats to Wooster on a nice win yesterday down in southeast Ohio.  Hats off to Marietta for making a game out of it as well!  I was listening in every other inning or so and when the Scots stretched their lead to 6-0  with Adam Samson yet to come on through 5 innings, I figured the game was as good as over.  My thought was that Samson would come in and pitcth the 6th and 7th and then Warren in the 8th and Miller in the 9th.  Instead, Samson came in and let Marietta right back in the ballgame with his 2nd shaky outing of the spring. 

I really can't figure Samson out.  He's been a very hot or cold pitcher this year.  Just to show what I mean, he's pitched a total of 25 innings this season and allowed 16 runs.  Twelve of those runs were allowed in just 5 innings of work.  He allowed 8 runs in 4 innings vs. UWSP and then yesterday he gave up 4 runs in just one inning.  That means in the other 20 innings pitched, Samson has only given up 4 runs?!

I happened to catch the pregame interview with Coach Pettorini and he mentioned something about a lot of the returning pitchers have lost velocity from where they were last year.  He didn't really expound on it very much at all either fwiw.  I know that Trapuzzano has been dealing with arm issues, but I haven't heard of any others on the Scot's pitching staff dealing with any injuries.  Right now, I'm just hoping that Samson can start to string together some solid outings to get some confidence back.  He was so lights out last year and that is not the case this year...

BTW, I agree with everyone in that Marietta will definately be around come post-season time.  I think the Pios definately garnered the rest of the OAC's attention with their sweep of Heide to open conference play that they are still, more than likely, the team to beat despite their slow start down south.