BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

BW overtakes JCU for the outright lead at 8-2 now.  JCU, Berg and Ott right behind at 7-3.  Etta at 6-4 knocking on the door.

Mount's chances of making the OAC tourney effectively ended yesterday at home.  They would have to sweep out to have any shot.  I don't like their chances against JCU considering JCU rakes and Mount's young staff has been shaky at times.  Mary went yesterday (and pitched well yet again) so it'll be on the shoulders of the youngsters Tuesday.  Mount continues to juggle the starting 9 and the order trying to get something to click.  They had a great team BA, but they struggled against decent or better pitching.  Case in point they were 9th in the OAC in runs scored in OAC games.  That's a tough spot when your team ERA is 5.

As we're deeper into the season it's safe to say this OAC tournament is going to be a battle royal.  There's definitely no clear favorite this year.  BW probably has the inside track because their pitching has been so good all year.  They just seem to have the most quality arms including the presumptive Tekulve winner as their #1 guy.  Aukerman has been excellent as the #2 too.     

[D3baseballparent]

ONU sweeps Etta, with 4 games left against Wilmington and Musky, they should get into top 4. 12 wins should guarantee a top 4 finish, 11 wins probably, 10 wins probably out. Otterbein and Marietta could both be out.

[Ralph Turner]

Updating the board with a discussion we had earlier in the season.

The OAC does a full round robin regular season with a single DH format.  The reason the math is important from day 1 is because only the top 4 teams (out of 10) make the conference tournament.  Leaving 6 teams out coupled with the way the OAC is typically aligned competitively often means there is very little difference between #4 and #5-7 or even #8.  There are ups and downs for most of the schools, but nearly every year the conference is a dog fight just to make the top 4.  The "math" not to oversimplify it is basically you need to sweep #9 and 10 and go .500 against everyone else.  11-7 nearly always lands you in the top 4.  So my point with JCU today was that most years Cap is in the bottom 1/3 so at WORST you have to split with them.  Likely you need to sweep them.  So you may be 2 games back of the top 4 out of the gate.  That's not a great spot.

Many years ago the regular season was just an 18 game corination for Etta, but those days are gone.  The conference is top to bottom much more competitive.  As a fan I can't complain about that!

Thanks. Makes sense and I now have a metric to follow the season...  11-7.

No. 1 Otterbein (14-4), No. 2 Marietta (12-6), No. 3 Baldwin Wallace (11-7), No. 4 Ohio Northern (11-7)
Sounds like his advice was pretty accurate.   

See above

So who is the favorite in the OAC this year?  BW and Otterbein appear to have a lot of talent returning.  Any besides those two or perennial contender Marietta going to make a run at the OAC title?

I would say Otterbein, BW then ONU.  The OAC as usual will be a meat grinder again this year.  Etta is always tough.  Berg has a couple nice SP.  The lone layup in Wilm may not be for long with the long-time UD HC taking over there.  That'd make what seemed impossible, possible...the conference somehow becoming more competitive from top to bottom.

We have talked before about the magic number of conference wins to earn the number 1 seed in the OAC.

How many will it be in 2019?

Thanks

Each team has 2 series left with the exception of John Carroll and Otterbein whose series was canceled.

ONU should finish 12-6 (0.667), but the fact that there will not be 2 losses to inflict from the JCU-Ott series might leave ONU out of the tourney.

Ott  (7-5) has BW and Etta. I think that they do not get in unless they sweep both series to finish at 11-5 (0.688). Going 10-6 leaves then at 0.625. (Ott split the series with Heidelberg and lost the series to ONU.)

JCU (8-4) probably needs to reach 11-5 (0.688) to get to the playoffs. They play Etta and BW.

The magic number this year is "( > .667)".

[D3baseballparent]

Wonder why JCU and Otterbein can’t find time to play the two cancelled games? OAC games should take precedence over any non league commitment. Still a week and a half left and pretty good weather forecast this week.

[Dr. Acula]

If JCU and Ott don’t play that DH that’s just silly.  Plenty of time to do it.

Also, if you wanna know the definition of depressing it’s reading the phrase “Mount hangs on to salvage a split at Wilmington.”  RIP 2019 season.

[D3baseballparent]

Three most disappointing teams have to be Etta, Mount, and Otterbein. Etta and Mount just didn’t find any pitching depth and I’m not sure what to make of Otterbein.

[D3baseballparent]

Looks like Otterbein and JCU now rescheduled for Monday the 29th.

[Dr. Acula]

Three most disappointing teams have to be Etta, Mount, and Otterbein. Etta and Mount just didn’t find any pitching depth and I’m not sure what to make of Otterbein.

Mount has had bullpen issues all season.  Not surprising with the youth out there.  It's tough to get away with using so many freshmen across the board on the pitching staff.  Hopefully it pays dividends in the future when they have a slew of experienced arms.

[Dr. Acula]

What a final game at 23rd Street Field for Phil Mary.  He 1 hits Cap in his final start on that mound.  9 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 13 K. So fitting for a kid who has been so good for Mount over this year and his career.  Mount won the game 8-0, but they scored 7 in the 8th so it was a pitcher's duel basically the entire game so Mary was locked in.  Mount scored 2 in the 8th and 1 in the bottom of the 9th to win game 2 on a walk off BB 3-2.

BW gets a big sweep over Ott to keep the pressure on Berg.  Berg was ppd against Wilm yesterday.

[Dr. Acula]

Tough loss for Mount in their final home game.  Up 7-1 on Wooster in the 8th they surrender 6 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to fall 9-7.  I'd like to see a video of the 9th because somehow both runs scored when the Wooster batter hit a ball back to the pitcher and ended up scoring on the play.  E1, E9.  I assume the pitcher made a bad throw to 1st and then the RF made a bad throw getting it back in?  Regardless, that would be a first.  Don't think I've ever seen a college kid hit one back to the mound and run around the bases Little League style and score!

JCU at Ott was pushed back to today.  It's definitely not sunny outside here so hopefully they can get it in.

Coming down the home stretch it seems the Tekulve and Rafeld winners might be a foregone conclusion.  I'd think it's Danny Cody and Patrick Keohane.  Keohane became JCU's all-time leader in career hits and runs.  He leads the OAC in hitting at .466 a ridiculous 51 pts clear of the 2nd highest BA.  He's also 1st in slugging, 2nd in homer and 3rd in RBI at 39...from the leadoff spot.

[Pops33]

Tough loss for Mount in their final home game.  Up 7-1 on Wooster in the 8th they surrender 6 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to fall 9-7.  I'd like to see a video of the 9th because somehow both runs scored when the Wooster batter hit a ball back to the pitcher and ended up scoring on the play.  E1, E9.  I assume the pitcher made a bad throw to 1st and then the RF made a bad throw getting it back in?  Regardless, that would be a first.  Don't think I've ever seen a college kid hit one back to the mound and run around the bases Little League style and score!

I was listening to the game online .... Wooster batter bunted the ball, the pitcher fielded it and slipped before or during his throw.  The ball got past the first baseman and the batter was heading to third when another errant throw occurred and got past the 3rd baseman and allowed the batter to score.  The Mount announcer even called it a Little League Home Run when he scored.

[Jim Dixon]

Tough loss for Mount in their final home game.  Up 7-1 on Wooster in the 8th they surrender 6 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to fall 9-7.  I'd like to see a video of the 9th because somehow both runs scored when the Wooster batter hit a ball back to the pitcher and ended up scoring on the play.  E1, E9.  I assume the pitcher made a bad throw to 1st and then the RF made a bad throw getting it back in?  Regardless, that would be a first.  Don't think I've ever seen a college kid hit one back to the mound and run around the bases Little League style and score!

I was listening to the game online .... Wooster batter bunted the ball, the pitcher fielded it and slipped before or during his throw.  The ball got past the first baseman and the batter was heading to third when another errant throw occurred and got past the 3rd baseman and allowed the batter to score.  The Mount announcer even called it a Little League Home Run when he scored.

Happens all the time.  It was this type of play that led to La Verne winning the 1995 title instead of the powerhouse team UWO came with.

[Dr. Acula]

JCU and Ott split yesterday.  Powell pushed the correct button in game 1 going with his closer to start the game.  Hoffman went 7 IP allowing only 1 run.  Ott cruised 9-1.  JCU bounced back and took the 2nd game 9-6.

Current OAC race:

12-4   Berg
12-4   BW
10-6   JCU
9-7    ONU
8-8    Etta
8-8    Ott

Berg and BW are in.  JCU just needs a split against BW and they're in.  Ott and Etta play each other and one of them likely needs a sweep to have any shot because ONU is at Wilm.  Anything is possible, but you have to assume that absolute worst case scenario is ONU finishes 10-8.

As a side note, knowing that Mount freaking split with Wilm and is sitting there at 7-9 with Musky this weekend is painful.  They should have had a legit shot at ending up 10-8 and at least having a shot to get in. 

[D3baseballparent]

Any idea how tiebreakers work for OAC tourney? BW sweeping JCU yesterday leaves JCU at 10 wins. Either a sweep by Etta or Otterbein puts either at 10 wins. Assuming ONU sweeping Wilmington to get to 11 wins, could be a 2 way tie for 4th. JCU split with both Etta and Otterbein in regular season.

[Dr. Acula]

For two teams tied it's H2H then results vs. first place, then second place, etc.  If 3 or more are tied it's run differential in OAC play.  The latter happened a couple years ago and it was a surprise to even some of the coaches.