BB: SCIAC: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[DickWhitman]

Huge series win for CMS over La Verne. Had a chance to sweep but had to settle for a split on Saturday. CMS is doing it all right now.... Elite hitting, great pitching, and great defense.

[Ralph Turner]

As of this weekend, it will take 17-7 to clinch a playoff bid, but there are 2 weekends left.

La Verne    14-4    0.778    159    65        26-6    0.813    284    110    7-3    Won 3
Cal Lutheran    14-4    0.778    132    84        24-9    0.727    267    151    7-3    Won 1
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps    12-6    0.667    179    98        23-8    0.742    288    138    6-4    Won 1
Redlands    13-8    0.619    160    112        24-13    0.649    279    238    7-3    Won 2
Pomona-Pitzer    11-7    0.611    143    126        21-11    0.656    279    204    8-2    Won 5
Chapman    7-11    0.389    92    129        8-25    0.242    150    237    3-7    Lost 2
Whittier    6-15    0.286    120    164        12-21    0.364    186    249    4-6    Lost 1
Caltech    4-14    0.222    47    159        8-25    0.242    111    258    1-9    Lost 3
Occidental    3-15    0.167    64    159        10-24    0.294    173    295    1-9    Lost 8


CMS -- 1A 2H Cal Tech  Cal Lutheran 1H 2A (Redlands 2-1, but 1-2 to PP)
Redlands 1A 2h LaVerne (Tie breaker 2-1 over PP, but 1-2 vs CMS)
PP -- 1A 2H vs Cal Lu; 1H 2A vs Oxy as per PP web page (1-2 vs Redland, but 2-1 vs CMS)

[DickWhitman]

Seeding for the SCIAC will be interesting these last couple of weeks. La Verne has a 2 game lead over CMS who would hold the tie breaker. They have some tough games against the Chapman and Chabot, 3 against a good Redlands lineup, and 1 against PP which I can't tell is a mistake on the website. Cal Lu tied with La Verne has 6 very tough conference games to go.

My prediction is:
1. La Verne
2. CMS
3. Cal Lu
4. PP
5. Redlands

[Ralph Turner]

1 PP loss and Redlands clinches 4th.

[DickWhitman]

Redlands has three to play and PP has 5 to play. Redlands holds the tie breaker

[DickWhitman]

With two games to go, the top 5 seeds are completely up in the air. LV takes the 1 with 1 win, the rest is up in the air. CMS or CLU can still take the 1 if LV loses both today. All teams are fighting to avoid the 4/5 play in game. One thing is certain, the SCIAC tournament will be an exciting tournament as usual and any of the 5 teams are capable of taking home the trophy.

[Ralph Turner]

What a mess! The SCIAC is a mess. ULV at 18-6. Three teams at 16-8 and Redlands at 15-9!

[DickWhitman]

Exciting day to watch SCIAC baseball! Looks like Cal Lu and Redlands need to win the SCIAC tournament to advance. CMS and La Verne should be fine. Pomona probably needs to win at least one game to get a bid. Any of these 5 teams can get hot and win it all. CMS and Pomona probably have the best shot at winning, IMO. They both have hitting to make it through a slugfest.

[DickWhitman]

5 teams in the NPI top 50 is pretty impressive. I don't see 4 teams making the NCAA, but 3 teams should be a lock by Saturday. Redlands or Pomona will win 2 games and get in.

[Teddy_Ballgame]

SCIAC Tournament is double elimination, with a 4 v. 5 "play-in" game. Dumb format every year but this one, IMO, when we have one game separating 2 through 5 and a big drop-off from 5 to 6. I can definitely see this backfiring in a future scenario with a very strong 4 seed losing a game to a mediocre 5 with a great Friday arm. More likely year-to-year than having 5 teams who can actually still be competing for playoff spots.

Wednesday (play-in):
G1 (5)Redlands at (4)CLU

Thursday:
G2 (5)Redlands/(4)CLU at (1) ULV
G3 (3) CMS at (2) PP

Friday:
G4 Winner G2 v. Winner G3 [higher seed hosts]
G5 Loser G2 v. Loser G3 [higher seed hosts]

Saturday [all games at ULV]:
G6 Loser G4 v. Winner G5
G7 Winner G6 v. Winner G4

Sunday [if necessary, at ULV]:
G8 winner take all

My Sagehens keep defying expectations; incredible what they've done without their top 2 starters (Hilton and Seo) who are all-region if not AA quality arms. Not to mention a lot of star bats spending chunks of time dealing with their own injuries. Love their chances given the resiliency* they've shown. Though they'll need to lean heavy on the bats if they have to come through the loser's bracket.

*No mention of it on this thread, but two weekends ago against Cal Lu, in the biggest series of the year, they blew a 4 run lead in the bottom of the 9th and lost 9-8 on Friday. They were looking like the 5 seed at that point unless they could basically run the table. They came out Sunday and threw a no-hitter en route to an 18-1 win in the morning, and followed it up with a walk-off bomb to win the afternoon. Then took care of business this last weekend against Oxy to sneak into the 2 seed.

Will the east coast D3 media industrial complex have the balls to acknowledge the work the PP staff has done this year?  Will the fancy new NPI algorithm have the courage to do the right thing and give the SCIAC four at-large bids? Not holding my breath.

[DickWhitman]

SCIAC Tournament is double elimination, with a 4 v. 5 "play-in" game. Dumb format every year but this one, IMO, when we have one game separating 2 through 5 and a big drop-off from 5 to 6. I can definitely see this backfiring in a future scenario with a very strong 4 seed losing a game to a mediocre 5 with a great Friday arm. More likely year-to-year than having 5 teams who can actually still be competing for playoff spots.

Wednesday (play-in):
G1 (5)Redlands at (4)CLU

Thursday:
G2 (5)Redlands/(4)CLU at (1) ULV
G3 (3) CMS at (2) PP

Friday:
G4 Winner G2 v. Winner G3 [higher seed hosts]
G5 Loser G2 v. Loser G3 [higher seed hosts]

Saturday [all games at ULV]:
G6 Loser G4 v. Winner G5
G7 Winner G6 v. Winner G4

Sunday [if necessary, at ULV]:
G8 winner take all

My Sagehens keep defying expectations; incredible what they've done without their top 2 starters (Hilton and Seo) who are all-region if not AA quality arms. Not to mention a lot of star bats spending chunks of time dealing with their own injuries. Love their chances given the resiliency* they've shown. Though they'll need to lean heavy on the bats if they have to come through the loser's bracket.

*No mention of it on this thread, but two weekends ago against Cal Lu, in the biggest series of the year, they blew a 4 run lead in the bottom of the 9th and lost 9-8 on Friday. They were looking like the 5 seed at that point unless they could basically run the table. They came out Sunday and threw a no-hitter en route to an 18-1 win in the morning, and followed it up with a walk-off bomb to win the afternoon. Then took care of business this last weekend against Oxy to sneak into the 2 seed.

Will the east coast D3 media industrial complex have the balls to acknowledge the work the PP staff has done this year?  Will the fancy new NPI algorithm have the courage to do the right thing and give the SCIAC four at-large bids? Not holding my breath.

Great post. I thought the play in game change was dumb, but this year Redlands has a chance to really benefit from it. And they do have that kid that gives you a chance to win every time he steps on the mound.

PP would easily be #1 right now if they had Seo and Hilton. At least IMO. I expect to see a CMS/PP final in the SCIAC this year. Both have the bats to hammer the second and third pitchers of the other teams. While winning Thursday obviously helps, I don't think either team is going to be hurting by going through the loser bracket.

I think the problem with the D3 media is they don't really look at teams and results in great detail. I doubt many of them had any idea Seo and Hilton were out. I'd love to see 4 SCIAC bids. Unfortunately, we're going to need to hope for fewer conference upsets. Did you see that post on X a couple weeks ago about an east coast conference record against other conferences? They dominated others but got smoked by the SCIAC.

[Teddy_Ballgame]

Great post. I thought the play in game change was dumb, but this year Redlands has a chance to really benefit from it. And they do have that kid that gives you a chance to win every time he steps on the mound.

PP would easily be #1 right now if they had Seo and Hilton. At least IMO. I expect to see a CMS/PP final in the SCIAC this year. Both have the bats to hammer the second and third pitchers of the other teams. While winning Thursday obviously helps, I don't think either team is going to be hurting by going through the loser bracket.

I think the problem with the D3 media is they don't really look at teams and results in great detail. I doubt many of them had any idea Seo and Hilton were out. I'd love to see 4 SCIAC bids. Unfortunately, we're going to need to hope for fewer conference upsets. Did you see that post on X a couple weeks ago about an east coast conference record against other conferences? They dominated others but got smoked by the SCIAC.

Well said.

I think I missed that X post but would love to see it. I'm sure the east coast machinery would hem and haw and attribute those results to early season rust after a hard winter spent indoors. But our lads chose to pursue their post-secondary educations at institutions in climates better suited to year-round access to the baseball diamond; who are any of us to hold their dedication to constant improvement against them?

Nevertheless, four teams would be a coup. At least two SCIAC bubble teams will have 15+ losses, and it'll be difficult to garner too much sympathy for them in that regard if and when they're left out.

[DickWhitman]

I'll look for it. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it was a MIAC post. I think it was either the SCIAC baseball hub account or the Regio 10 guy that pointed it out how bad they were against the SCIAC.

[Ralph Turner]

The thing about D3 media is that the D3 media is very very very strongly supported by the college's SID. If you have a good SID sending in content then those players will have greater chance to be noticed among the 360 schools playing D3 baseball. You can especially see that in the weekly players of the week. No SID? Then it is hard to fault the 2-3 guys who are the media for D3 to overlook a good performance.

I moderated the Message Boards from Dec 2005 until the reconfiguration. I started many of the message boards along with some really solid D3 fans across the country. The message boards were the opportunity for fans to help each of us keep abreast of our teams of interest. Message board activity has slowed over the last 3-5 years.

If you want a 10-20 hour a week job with D3baseball.com for no pay and then pay your own way to the national Championship, Jim Dixon will invite you to sit in the Press Box.

[Ralph Turner]

A stellar example of "citizen reporting" is jdex on the SUNYAC board. I read the SUNYAC almost daily.