BB: MIAC: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

Welcome to the Baseball Message Board for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC).

[BigPoppa]

Check out this interesting list on the Carthage web page:

Do any of the teams listed surprise you?

http://www.carthage.edu/athletics/index.cfm?page=325

[miacmaniac]

Check out this interesting list on the Carthage web page:

Do any of the teams listed surprise you?

http://www.carthage.edu/athletics/index.cfm?page=325

No one in the MIAC cares, Poppa 

[BigPoppa]

Based on the number of messages posted on this MIAC board, it appears that nobody in the MIAC cares about baseball either.

[Willy Wonka]

Baseball? What's next, a soccer board?? 

[miacmaniac]

Baseball? What's next, a soccer board?? 

or god's sake, willy, don't even say that out loud!!

Preseason MIAC prediction:
1. UST--- top staff, good hitting
2. Cord-- Schumacher & Carbo is a solid 1-2 punch
3. GAC-- can Scherer repeat last year's numbers?
4.Olaf-- program's overall depth and strength

5. Augs-- Ginther's solid, team chemsitry is good....wont sneak up on people this year
6. SJU-- pitching is solid....can a case be made for Casey Haugen for MVP?
7. Bethel-- great team chemistry, no weaknesses (and I LOVE their ball field-- easily the best in the league)
8.SMU- could be the sleeper Augs was in 05

9.Mac-- hitting is their forte, word is pitching is much improved
10. Ham-- lost a lot to graduation, but could sneam up o n people
11. Carleton-- nice core of players...need to find a Tony LePge-type inning-eater

[miacwatchmen]

Wow the MIAC has baseball.....never knew 

[cobbernation]

ST. Thomas barely snuck by the cobbers in yesterday's 2nd game.  A terrible 3rd strike called on Schumacher in the 6th cost the cobbs the game when they had 2 runners on.  Worst call ever, I even heard one cobber spectator yell to the umpire, "Hey Blue, does your wife know you're screwing us?"  I'll have to say, it was quite amusing at the time.  But the tommies did win 3-1.  Thats all I got.

[BigPoppa]

ST. Thomas barely snuck by the cobbers in yesterday's 2nd game.  A terrible 3rd strike called on Schumacher in the 6th cost the cobbs the game when they had 2 runners on.  Worst call ever, I even heard one cobber spectator yell to the umpire, "Hey Blue, does your wife know you're screwing us?"  I'll have to say, it was quite amusing at the time.  But the tommies did win 3-1.  Thats all I got.

Spoken like a true homer....

[Ryan Coleman]

Any thoughts on the UST/UMN game tomorrow evening at Midway?

I'll be there, look out for the dork with the camera

[Ryan Coleman]

Any thoughts on the UST/UMN game tomorrow evening at Midway?

I'll be there, look out for the dork with the camera

Wow, we're talkative. Here's a link to the photo album: http://www.pictureprints.net/albums.php?gallery=869

[Ryan Coleman]

Saturday's matchup between St John's and St Thomas:

Game 1: http://www.pictureprints.net/albums.php?gallery=874
Game 2: http://www.pictureprints.net/albums.php?gallery=873

Thanks!

[Gustie13]

Its usually pretty easy to pick the top 2 teams in the MIAC, and this year was no different with St Olaf and UST. However, at the beginning of the season a number of teams looked as if they could slide into the playoffs in #3 or #4 playoff spots. Augsburg and Concordia returned large numbers from their 2005 playoff squads, while GAC, BU, and HU all had post season aspiration. The most dissapointing team this year has got to be Augsburg: having only 1 loss of any consequence in Sr. Jeremy Nelson the Auggies looked prime to challenge StO and UST, especially with the addition of transfers Evan Almeroth and Patrick Gornick. However, Augsburg will most likely end up 9-11, having not been a playoff threat for about 3 weeks.

The thing I'm most looking forward to with this years playoffs is the extremely level playing field because of the wealth of pitching talent. #2 seed StO is my pick to win it all because they have 4 top flight pitchers in Sr Eric Tobias (who has already beaten Ham and UST), Sr Dan O'malley (0-2 vs MIAC playoffs teams), So. Paul Johnson (1 win v GAC) and Fr sensation Todd Mathison (1 win v Ham and an incredible 31 conf innings pitched with 0 earned runs). StO will undoubtedly start Mathison or Johnson vs GAC in the first round, confident in having Tobias ready to go in the second game vs UST or Ham. GAC is my pick to finish second. Sr Josh Spitzack, who will go out #1 or #2 in every major career pitching statistic at GAC, is 2-1 over the past 3 years vs StO with 2 complete game shut out gems and will most likely get the nod in the opening round. This will leave fellow Sr. Andy Schmidt to face UST or Ham next. Schmidt is 2-0 in his career vs UST and Ham and his era against UST is quite impressive (0.46 with 10 hits in 15 innings). The Gusties will have to get 2 wins out of these 2 Seniors in the first games of the tournament if they hope to win it all. UST has some flexibility with its decision on who to start vs Ham: start Fr Dan Leslie, whom the Piper havent seen yet, Fr Erik Olsen, victorious against Ham already this season, or Jr Riley Bosch or So Chris Bullis. Bosch shut down StO when they played this year, so Coach Denning may save him for StO, while Leslie and Olsen combined to throw 13 1/3 scoreless innings vs GAC already. My guess: Look for Olsen to pitch v Hamline, saving Leslie in case GAC wins and Bosch in case StO wins. UST will also need 2 win on the first day of the tourney if they hope to supplement their reg season crown with the tourney championship; they simply don't have the pitching to come up through the losers bracket. Last but not least comes Hamline. Staff leaders Sr. Kyle Foster and So. Josh Roiger are 2-2 vs the other MIAC playoffs teams this year and will have to win their games for HU to be successful; beyond these two the HU hurlers aren't nearly as capable of knocking off top flight teams like UST, GAC, & UST.
The only team I see capable of coming up from the losers bracket would be StO, with its 4 awesome pitchers, and don't overlook GAC's league-leading offense if it can get to an opponents bullpen.

[Gustie13]

Well I can't say I agree with Ripon on the top of todays NCAA Midwest regional rankings, but I do think they got the rest pretty close to right. I'd flip flop Gustavus and UW Whitewater at #5 & #6, but still pretty close considering how off I think these rankings usually are.

Big Poppa~ I know the UMAC doesn't get an automatic bid to regionals, but do the LMC or MWC? The Midwest regional is a 4 team tourney correct? I know they've had 4 in the past but I thought I heard somewhere that might change to 6 this year. How much will regional rankings play into bids if it is a 6 team region?

If there weren't any Auto bids I think the regional should be UST, StO, UWW, & CSS if its a 4 team tourney and UST, StO, GAC, UWW, UWO, & CSS if its 6 teams.

[BigPoppa]

ALL 8 regionals move to 6 or 7 teams this year with the expansion to 53 teams.

MWC and LMC both have automatic qualifiers. It should make for an interesting selection process.