BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

Trinity has an infielder named Tinker (Kai Tinker). He should be playing shortstop not third base. We probably need to talk to Coach Scannell about that.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity finally figured out SUNY Cortland over the weekend after dropping the initial games on in the series 3-11 and 5-8.  Yesterday saw the Tigers out to a 9-4 lead only to have the Red Dragons tie it up with 4 in the top of the seventh and an unearned run off a throwing error in the eighth.  In their half of the inning the Tigers got four runs, with the eventual winning run in the 13-9 win being scored by the aforementioned Kai Tinker.  Today, in their ninth game in ten days, Trinity trotted out Jace Clay who went 7 1/3rd innings in a comfortable 7-2 victory.  The only Red Dragon to figure out Clay was DH Marc Stockhausen, who hit solo shots in his first two appearances at the plate to give the visitors their only runs on the day.  Mr. Tinker (2-4) had the only multi-hit effort for Trinity (edit) in the second game.  Surprisingly, the two Red Dragon victories last week were the first in program history against Trinity (now 2-6).

With three losses in the six games this week, I'd expect Trinity to drop out of the top 15 and end up in the high teens.  Maybe lower, don't really know what else happened since last week.

[Ralph Turner]

There are 3 weekends remaining in the regular, but the big games for the post-season tourney occur in Abilene with TLU coming to Driggers Field.

I think that Trinity and CTX have clinched berths (for intents) and St Thomas looks in pretty good position.
The winner of the TLU-McMurry series probably can control their destiny.

[Ralph Turner]

Deeper review of the SCAC post-season tourney

TUTx is 18-3, likely to clinch #1 seed

CTX is 16-5, but has U Dallas, then host TLU and St Thomas.

St Thomas is 14-6.  At UOz, they go to Southwestern for a single game on 04/15, host Trinity and go to CTX

McMurry is 14-7. They go to TLU, then go to UOz and finally host Centenary.

TLU is 13-8. They host McM, go to CTX and go to Schreiner.

I think that 21 wins gets you into the SCAC Tourney.

[Ralph Turner]

McMurry (16-8) won the TLU series 2-1. They are 16-8 and can finish 22-8 by sweeping at UOz and hosting Centenary.

TLU at 14-10 can probably earn a spot in the playoffs if they sweep CTX and Schreiner, both on the road and get help from St Thomas.

CTX  (17-6) finishes the UDallas series tomorrow. They host TLU and St Thomas.

St Thomas (16-7) has a game against Southwestern and then Trinity and CTX.

I still say 21 wins is a lock on a SCAC playoff bid. I think 20 wins will require some tie-breakers.

[Ron Boerger]

After the penultumate regular series weekend:

1. Trinity 24-3 (defeated StT 3x)
2/3. Concordia 21-6 (defeated TLU 3x)
3/2. McMurry 19-8 (defeated Ozarks 3x)
4. StT 17-10 (lost to Trinity 3x)
elim TLU 14-13 (lost to Concordia 3x)

With tiebreakers, Trinity clinched the regular season championship, and StT has clinched the last spot in the championships with a 2-1 H2H against TLU, who are eliminated from championship qualification after their losses this week.

McMurry has the 2-1 H2H on CTX, so would need Concordia to lose two of three next weekend against St. Thomas while winning out against Centenary (or CTX losing all three while winning at least two) to clinch the second seed. 

Theoretically, StT could overcome McMurry, but the War Hawks are at home against Centenary while the Celts play three at Concordia so it seems highly unlikely with McM holding the 2-1 H2H advantage.

[ILVBB]

Was todays win over Southwestern Tim Scannell's 800th win?

[Ralph Turner]

McMurry does finishes the regular season the way that it must, sweeps of UOz and Centenary LA.
They are the 3rd seed. They need to see how much boost going 17-3 in the second half of the season gives them in the NPI. I still believe that they need to go at least 2-2 in the SCAC tourney to earn a Pool C bid.

[Ron Boerger]

Was todays win over Southwestern Tim Scannell's 800th win?

No, the record shown on his bio is [edit: at least] two years old.  According to his NCAA stats page, he is now 870-327-0 (.727) in his 27th season at Trinity, and could reach 900 next season if they have a decent run the rest of the year and again next. 

[Ron Boerger]

SCAC championship games at Round Rock's Dell Diamond:

G1: St. Thomas (19-18/17-13 SCAC) v Trinity (33-7/27-3), 1pm Friday
G2: McMurry (31-9/22-8) v Concordia (31-9/24-6), 4:30pm Friday

G3: Winners play noon Saturday
G4: Losers play 3:30 Saturday
G5: Loser G3 plays winner G4 7pm Saturday

G6: Winner G3 plays winner G5 at noon Sunday
G7: same teams if necessary (if G5 winner wins G6) at 3:30pm Sunday

Unfortunately despite living outside of Round Rock I won't be able to attend either Friday or Saturday as there's an election Saturday and I'll be setting up the polls Friday and pulling a 14-hour shift Saturday.

I think anyone but St. Thomas can win this.  Trinity has one good starter; middle and short relief along with offensive firepower has delivered most of their wins.  McMurry and Concordia have both played very well down the stretch (nine and eight game winning streaks, respectively) so it could just come down to who gets hottest this weekend.

BA: 1)TU .331 2)McM .327 3)CTX .322 4)STT .313
SLG: 1)TU .520 2)CTX .502 3)McM .488 4)STT .457
ERA: 1)TU 4.09 2)McM 4.74 3)CTX 4.81 6)STT 6.92
FLD: 1)CTX .970 4)McM .961 5)TU .958 10)STT .941

L10: TU 10-0 McM 9-1 CTX 8-2 STT 3-7

[Ron Boerger]

Due to the threat of inclement weather later in the day, tomorrow's games have been pushed up:

G1: St. Thomas (19-18/17-13 SCAC) v Trinity (33-7/27-3), 10:00am Friday
G2: McMurry (31-9/22-8) v Concordia (31-9/24-6), 1:30pm Friday

Other games are unchanged as the weekend looks beautiful. 

Edit:  this is why the games have been moved up.  This is supposed to start impacting the region in the early afternoon hours and continue into the evening so the second game, at least, will be at risk of being pushed to Saturday.

[Ron Boerger]

In a game stopped in the top of the ninth Friday night with St. Thomas at bat, two outs and bases loaded tied 8-8 (after a two-out Tiger error led to three unearned runs), Trinity got a swinging K to end that threat Saturday morning, and after the Celts to took a 9-8 lead in the top of the eleventh (after yet another unearned run courtesy the fourth error of the game) loaded the bases themselves in the bottom half of the innings with two outs, and earned the game one win when Will Baker lofted a double to left center.  The Celts' Alex Trinh caused problems all game with five hits in six at bats before finally being walked in the top of the ninth to load the bases.  Baker's double was the only extra base hit for the Tigers, who were fortunate to get the win after being outhit 19-10. 

In the other half of the bracket, Concordia spotted McMurry a 4-0 lead (during which the War Hawks touched SCAC Pitcher of the Year Otto Franz in the second inning for those runs) but came back with three of their own in the bottom half and four more in the fourth on their way to a 9-4 victory.  Franz ended up getting the win, pitching seven innings and allowing no more runs on seven hits.  Concordia outhit McMurry 15-7.

The War Hawks then eliminated the Celts 12-2 in a run-rule shortened game (seven innings).  Hunter Poe started and got the win, allowing only four hits and two runs to go with seven strikeouts in six innings of work to improve his record to 9-1, and Johnathan Enriquez held the Celts hitless in one inning of relief to secure the win.  The War Hawks opened the game with a five spot in the opening stanza and closed things out with another five runs in the top of the seventh.  Colin Bruning led the way for McMurry with his 3-of-4, 3 run, 2 RBI performance as Blake Beach also brought in three runs.  None of the 17 hits in the game went for extra bases. 

In the final game of the evening, Concordia and Trinity went back and forth all night with no team taking more than a one run lead.  Despite Tornado home runs from  Kalen Clark and Colby Christian, the hero of the game would be once again be Will Baker, whose single to left center combined with an error from the CF would plate two and resulted in the final 7-6 margin that put the Tigers into today's championship against the winner of McMurry-Concordia in today's final elimination game.  Nick Lazzara and Kaleb Woodward were both 3-of-5 for Trinity, who earned two chances to win the SCAC championship in their final season of membership. 

[Ralph Turner]

Thx. In the race to Pool C, that McM win over St Thomas may earn a bid. McM was roughly Pool C Bid #13 out of 23. They should not fall too far going 1-2 or 2-2 in the Tourney. The same for CTX.

I believe the SCAC gets 3 bids.

[DickWhitman]

I'm hopeful there aren't too many conference upsets taking extra bids. I'd love to see some of the these deeper conferences (like the SCAC and SCIAC) get 3 teams in. When does the next NPI come out?

[Bmo]

The new NPIs are now being reported daily.

https://stats.ncaa.org/selection_rankings/nitty_gritties/44556?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Submit