Just saw on the MIAA board that according to Whitnable Trine is hiring VanderWal.  Massive blow to the Pios.  With JCU leaving and VanderWal heading north Fuline is licking his chops moving forward.

Great hire for Trine.  I don't know that you could do better hiring from the D3 ranks.

That's a tough pill to swallow losing that many close games.  I say it every year, but it's true...the OAC is so competitive that making the conference tournament is an accomplishment.  That is not the case for a lot of conferences, but it definitely is for this one.  Krupar will be hitting the recruiting trail hard this summer now that he knows exactly what he thinks he needs to push them to the next step.

This year has been an anomaly with Etta and Ott being out of contention.  Even with JCU leaving those two will be back to normal sooner rather than later.  I was looking and at 3-13 currently Ott is having their worst season since Powell's first season in 2000 when they went 4-12 in OAC play. 

It's going to take some interesting results for the top 4 to end up outside the aforementioned Denison, Witt, Wabash, Wooster group.  Denison will be the heavy favorite, but it's going to be a really competitive group from the little bit I've watched of NCAC ball.  When JCU joins next year the NCAC is just going to continue to trend in the right direction as a baseball conference.

Mount got great pitching all weekend.  Split in Ada.  Lost 1-0 in the opener on an anticlimactic back to back BB w 2 outs in the 7th producing the lone run for ONU.  Breeden threw 6 SHO IP fanning 9.  Mount bounced back 6-2 in the 2nd game w Hansen throwing a CG w very little drama holding ONU to only 3 hits.  That positions Mount to hopefully lock down the regular season next weekend.

Lehman returned to the mound today after his injury absence.  Seemed a little rusty early but ended up only allowing 2 unearned runs over 5.2 IP against Thiel in a 12-2 win.  All four of Mount's SP are under 3.50 ERA.  Team ERA is sitting at 3.57 now.  They're hitting .327 as a team.  They're a solid team so I really hope they get a crack at the NCAA.  Work to do before they obviously, but this is a deep, veteran squad so I'm hopeful they get a chance.

BTW BW and JCU play a day ahead of everyone else so it could take the drama out of things early. 

Quote from: Dr. Acula on April 22, 2025, 07:13:28 PMDistrict POY Massillon SG Chris Knight committed to Mount.  That's a big recruiting win.  Kid can play and the kid can shoot.  He'll help them immediately.

To add some additional background here after I was able to do some Googling.  Very impressive kid.

21.3 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.7 apg, 2.0 spg
54% FG, 41% 3 pt, 83% FT
1st team All-Ohio, 1st team All-County, NE Inland District POY
3.8 GPA, awarded best teammate award and sportsmanship award at their team banquet.

Knight finished his career as the 2nd leading scorer in Massillon history (1265 pts).  His 21.3 ppg this year were 2nd best in the state in D2.  His 73 made 3pt were the most in the state in D2 and 14th most overall.

Turnarounds can happen quickly if you can get multiple All-OAC players to transfer in together.  Not sure if that's a sustainable model at this level though.

District POY Massillon SG Chris Knight committed to Mount.  That's a big recruiting win.  Kid can play and the kid can shoot.  He'll help them immediately.

I think the tiebreaker after H2H is that they start at the top of the standings and move down until there is a difference.  JCU was swept by Mount and split with ONU.

I checked out some of the Mount DH against Wilm on Friday.  There is no way to sugar coat it, but Wilm is not very good.  The pitching is just not there.  They have a couple solid bats, but that's about it.  I have a hard time seeing how JCU doesn't sweep on Saturday.  That would move the Streaks to 11-5 and all but secure their spot.

Muskingum is hosting Otterbein in an absolute must sweep situation.  BW has Cap which I will now officially chalk up as a possible split although I still think BW finds a way to sweep.  JCU and BW play each other to end the season as they should.  Musky finishes up with Mount who could be playing for the regular season title.  If BW sweeps Cap and moves to 11-5 also that puts Musky in a rough spot since BW swept them.  It's definitely not over, but BW and JCU are certainly in good position as it stands today.

Unrelated but one thing that I noticed in person that doesn't come through as well on video is how hard Tsouras hits the ball.  He smoked a couple balls that in person I was left shaking my head.

Big DH in Ada this weekend.  Cap storming back to shockingly split w ONU is not what I had on my bingo card.  Mount needs to do the conference a solid and not fall apart this weekend bc the conference tourney being hosted on a mediocre HS field in Ada isn't good for anyone. 

OWU lost at home to Wilmington who was 8-18 and last place in the OAC.  8th straight loss for the Bishops dropping to 8-21.  This will never stop shocking me for that once great program. 

That went pretty much as I expected.  Mount beats W&J 10-8.  Nice win to move to 20-7. Tsouras homers again.  His 5th in the last 3 games.  If not for the Raiders kind of gifting the Pres a 4 run inning with walks it could have been worse.  But you have to throw strikes.  Can't walk the first 3 batters of the inning and also walk in a run later in the inning.

Mount and W&J are playing today.  W&J took the pre-Florida meeting 5-4 at their place.

I have only seen them play once online, but Wabash seems to be pretty good this year so we're going to learn a lot about the Scots the next couple weeks. 

Looking at the schedules remaining I think it's Denison, Wabash, Witt and Wooster as the top 4 for the conference tournament.  I don't know anything about Kenyon, but they have a tougher road ahead so I think Witt overtakes them as soon as this weekend.  If you're Witt you need to take care of business between now and the season-ending DH with Denison.  I wouldn't want to be in a must win spot going into that.