BB: OAC: Ohio Athletic Conference

[BobcatQB]

Yes, they have to apply to host.  Rowan has hosted before..several higher seeds have, just weird.  Good for Mount though.  Grove City would never host, facilities wouldn't qualify.  Their new field probably would though..new turf for next year.  Surprised BW hosted last few years with no concession stand, lack of good streaming and tiny restrooms..similar to Mount.  Restrooms are nice but a mile away, streaming stinks and lack of concessions/parking.  I'm sure they will provide some type of food option like BW did w/ food trucks.

[BobcatQB]

If I didn't have a golf tourney this weekend, I'd be headed to Mount or Denison..I think both those regionals will be good.

[Dr. Acula]

Schedule for today for teams of interest.  Looks like all games have video.

BW vs. Ramapo 10am
CWRU vs. North Central 10am
ONU vs. Wash U 11am
Denison vs Manchester 12pm
Mount vs. Catholic 1:30pm

[Pops33]

Thank you for posting this!  It saves me from scouring the schedule. 

[Dr. Acula]

BW is battering the Ramapo staff so far.  15-5 Jackets in the 6th after Kilbane was IBB and Nirider hit a 2 out 3 run bomb a couple pitches later.  Kilbane had already doubled and homered hence the IBB with 1st base open.

ONU is down 4-1 in a game that has yet to see an earned run.

[Dr. Acula]

BW cruised 19-7.

ONU battled back to tie it 9-9 with 3 in the top of the 9th, but WashU walked it off 10-9 in the bottom half.

Denison and CWRU also won handily so Ohio is off to a pretty good start.

Mount is in a battle with Catholic.  Raiders lead 6-5 going to the 8th.  Breeden allowed 3 in the 1st, 2 in the 2nd and then settled in and has thrown 5 straight shutout innings including retiring 12 straight.  Regardless of the outcome that was big to preserve arms for tomorrow.

[Dr. Acula]

Mount suffers a second straight late inning bullpen implosion as they surrender 5 runs in the top of the 9th and lose 11-10 to Catholic.  It wasn't as bad as that sounds as it was 6-6 when they allowed the runs.  They scored 4 in the bottom of the 9th.  So they didn't blow a multi run lead in the 9th.  Hansen came in and had his second straight shaky outing after the JCU game last weekend.  BB, sac bunt, BB set the table today to start off the 9th.  The chances of navigating multiple walks against good teams is not good.

[Dr. Acula]

Rowan left zero doubt they were the class of that regional hanging 20+ runs in both wins over Catholic.  Grove City was overmatched losing 9-1, 10-0.  Mount and Catholic played two pretty good games unfortunately Mount fell short 11-10 and 10-8. 

This Mount team pushed the bar up by winning the program's first ever NCAA tournament game in the 10-0 win over GC.  Mount has had some good teams over the years, but this team was also a lot of fun to watch.  They could hit, they could run 1-9 and they never gave in when they were down in games rallying late numerous times.  And best of all you could tell they loved playing together.  Thank you RAIDERS for a fun ride this season!

Lastly, I saw this quote from Jaired Lehman in the paper and it touches on why I am such a proponent of D3 athletics as an experience for kids.  Yes, you get to compete and keep playing after HS, but you also meet people that are going to be some of your best friends the rest of your life.  "Baseball is kind of just the cherry on top," Lehman said. "I think the biggest thing the past five years has just been the relationships all the memories we've had.  At the end of the day, the numbers don't matter. The stats, the wins, even the trophies, none of that matters. It has always been about us. It has always been about the team. I wouldn't trade that for the world."

[BobcatQB]

Lehman certainly finished his career on a high note..chance to be a 1st team region selection at UT.

Denison and Case still fighting for a shot at the WS.  I think Denison will make their first trip but I think JH is the eventual WS Champ in Babb's last trip.

[J3FB2BB]

Exciting season all around. Good to see the OAC get three teams in the NCAAs. Congrats to Mount on the regular season title and to BW on their back to back OAC championships! The cream eventually rose to the top. Next year will be interesting as they return two stud pitchers in Kostura and Moscarino ( and hopefully Heatherington who needed surgery), plus Nirider and Kolenich but lose two thirds of the best OF in the league in Marousek and Carinci and Kilbane at 1b, all who were at the top of the league in offense and defense.

[Dr. Acula]

I'd say BW will be the preseason favorites next spring.  At this point you have to trust in their recruiting and development.  After them who knows. 

Etta should start to see the rewards of playing all those young guys this year and they have Ziance back. 

ONU should be solid.  If you're starting off with Saylor, Morris and Armstrong that's not a bad foundation. 

Mount has a ton to replace on the mound and in the field.  They're going to have a ton of new faces, but Tsouras is a good power bat to build a lineup around. 

Muskingum loses Teke and Melick, but I think Krupar is going to continue to get the recruiting cranked up in New Concord. 

Sneakily, Cap will be returning 4 All-OAC position players.  But can they find any arms?

Otterbein I just don't know.  They lose all 3 of their All-OAC players from a team that struggled.  Powell normally recruits well so we could see a lot of new faces as some to-be sophs or even incoming freshmen potentially battle for spots.

[J3FB2BB]

That's a very solid analysis Dr.

[Dr. Acula]

Pretty nice haul for the OAC in the All-Region awards.  Valentine picked up the regional ROY for Muskingum and Hesse was named COY for Mount.  Deegan just won COY last year which I'm sure didn't hurt Hesse's chances this year. 

The OAC also swept the 1st team MIF with Palmieri and Stegman earning those spots.  The 2nd and 3rd teams include the usual suspects from this year.  Bonnizzio, Teke, Tsouras, Kostura, Ritlinger-Nirider, Dolcemaschio and Ziance. 
   

[J3FB2BB]

ABCA Rawlings All-Region team still to come. For the last two years I've ranked the top offensive players in the league over 15 categories in order to look at who ranked as the most productive all around players. For each category (Ave, Hits, Runs,RBIs Slg, OBs,OPS, SB,Sac etc), the player receives 25 points if he lead the league, 24 if you were 2nd in that category all the way to 1 point for 25th. As an example, last year Perebzak was OAC POY by the media (?) but I had Richter of Marietta as the highest rated all around offensive player, Kilbane of BW 2nd, McVicker of Heidelberg 3rd and Perebzak 4th.

Teke is OAC POY this year- my rating of the top ten(based on the scale above) are as follows:
1) Justin Carinci       BW      216
2) Alex Stegman         Mount   198
3) Toby Teke            Musky   185.5
4) Mally Kilbane        BW      184
5) Jared Lehman         Mount   180
6) Dennis Nirider       BW      168
7) Chris Tsouras        Mount   164.5
8) Weston Melick        Musky   164
9) Sam Palmieri         Musky   158
10)Joey Marousek        BW      148
   Devin Morris         ONU     148

Looking at the last two years, there were three repeat top 10 players, Kilbane 4th in '25, 2nd in '24, Palmieri 9th in '25, 7th in '24 and Marousek 10th in '25, 6th in '24.

The All-region team for D3 aligns fairly well with my ratings with the exception of Carinci who I think was clearly deserving of All-Region. ABCA may be more inclusive to my list.

[Dr. Acula]

That's interesting stuff.  When you're ranking them do you use their stats from conference play only or overall?

Only because of the question mark in your post I'll add that the OAC special award winners are voted on by the coaches when they vote on the All-OAC teams the week of the OAC tourney.  Your system landed where I would have last year.  I thought Richter was the best player in the conference and he played MIF adding a premium defensive spot to his resume.