BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

I am baffled at how the once-mighty Carthage program has become an also-ran. Is it the changes in the roster make-up? While Carthage is a WI school, the majority of their rosters lately have been composed of Northern Suburb kids from Chicago, and a lot fewer players from the Fox Valley Area in Wisconsin (admitting my own bias here as a Fox Valley kid). The powerhouse World Series teams of the 90s/00s were loaded with blue collar players from that area and I see very few of those on the roster anymore.

Is this an intentional choice? Are they recruiting a different type of player? Is it financial? The Northern Suburbs are much wealthier than the Fox Valley and that seems to coincide with the HUGE tuition increase at Carthage in the 2010s...

UGH! Just so frustrating to watch this program struggle to even find wins at this point.

The Carthage student body, for as long as I can remember, has consisted of about one-third Wisconsin natives and two-thirds Illinoisians, with the vast majority of students from south of the Cheddar Curtain hailing from the suburbs of Chicago, especially the suburbs north or northwest of O'Hare Airport. And this has been reflected in Carthage's student-athlete population as well, as for many years most of Carthage's sports rosters have had roughly the same proportion of 1/3 Wisconsin to 2/3 Chicagoland suburbanites, give or take ten or so percentage points.

This is entirely understandable when you consider that: a) the Carthage campus is a stone's throw from the Illinois border, and from Chicagoland's northern suburbs in particular; b) the population of Wisconsin as a whole is only 6 million people, while the Chicagoland metro region as a whole has 9.5 million people, with 6.8 million of them in the suburbs and only 2.7 million of them in Chicago; c) Wisconsin is geographically vast, and large sections of the state don't have close access to an Interstate highway, whereas Chicagoland is much smaller and has a much more concentrated system of freeways, making travel to and from Kenosha infinitely quicker for Chicagolanders than it is for most residents of the Badger State; d) Carthage was located in downstate Illinois (Carthage, IL, to be precise) until 1962, so up until the last couple of decades the school's alumni base was even more heavily Illinoisian; and e) in terms of NCAA D3 schools, Wisconsin has nine state schools that are D3 members, while Illinois has zero -- and of those nine Wisconsin state schools in D3, eight are large and heavily-resourced institutions that are members of a league, the WIAC, that is a powerhouse in just about every sport sponsored by NCAA D3.

Given all that, it only makes sense that Carthage is an Illinois-centric school in terms of student population, as the school's administration wisely followed up on that logic by matching Illinois state student aid until it was no longer financially feasible to do so (I'm not exactly certain when that aid policy changed, but I'm pretty sure that it was within the last 20 to 25 years). Aid-matching or not, take a look at the rosters of the various Carthage sports today. Illinois is still the most heavily-represented state, with Wisconsin second.

You've said many times here that Fox Valley (Wisconsin) players dominated Carthage baseball rosters in the program's heyday, which is understandable if Augie Schmidt III had recruiting connections up in that area that made that possible. But recruiting connections don't last forever; high-school coaches retire or change schools, and if a critical mass couldn't be maintained in terms of having inroads with enough of the various high-school baseball programs clustered around Lake Winnebago, it likely became less worth Schmidt's while to devote so much time and effort to working that area. Likewise, as he grew older he probably delegated more and more recruiting responsibility to his assistant coaches, especially if one of them was specifically designated as "recruiting coordinator" -- and they may have focused their attentions somewhere other than Wisconsin's Fox Valley (how irritating is it that both Wisconsin and Chicagoland have a Fox River running through them, so you have to specify which state's Fox Valley you're talking about when referring to Carthage?).

I think it's possible that Carthage baseball's no longer being dominated by Fox River (Wisconsin) players has something to do with tuition increases, as you alluded. The fees for youth baseball travel teams aren't getting any cheaper, and WIAC schools are probably becoming even more and more enticing for Wisconsin families with modest household incomes who are looking to send their kids off to college to play baseball. But mostly I think it's simple demographics and location, as I outlined above, that are causing Carthage baseball to revert to the norm of the rest of the Carthage athletics department and of the school as a whole.

[Gregory Sager]

We're another week deep into the season, and the CCIW portion of the league slate has begun. Among the three teams that entered this past weekend with winning records, Augustana burnished its bona-fides this past weekend down in Florida, winning two of three while continuing to demonstrate that its pitching is for real. Millikin, on the other hand, got exposed a bit in terms of its gaudy team piching stats, as the Big Blue split a doubleheader against Wheaton at Lee Pfund Stadium in which MU gave up 18 runs (nine in each game), all but one of them earned, and the league's pre-eminent pitching star coming into this weekend, the Big Blue's Caleb Akins, got hit hard by Wheaton bats and took his first loss of the year. I'm sure that Millikin is still a very good team that will probably be in the CCIW race, but it also seems clear that the Big Blue's rather lightweight non-conference competition has been distorting their numbers.

The third CCIW team with a winning overall record as of last Thursday, North Park, had a very good weekend. The Vikings exclusively played CCIW games, opening the league slate at Holmgren on Thursday with a solid 4-1 victory over preseason favorite North Central behind six shutout innings from starter Jackson Nuese. The Vikings then consolidated that good start with two wins over Carthage, a 3-1 Friday triumph in Chicago in which starter Sam Jackson threw 8.1 innings of two-hit ball and struck out 11 Firebirds, and a wild 14-11 affair in Kenosha in which NPU sophomore shortstop Taylor Joseph hit for the cycle -- I hope that Dennis Bricault steps in here at some point when he's not traveling and lets us know the last time that a Viking hit for the cyle -- and senior closer Ethan Condit picked up his third save in as many days and his fourth of the season. At 3-0 in CCIW play the Vikings are off to a great start and are clearly setting the pace.

The two CCIW preseason favorites generally had good weeks; NCC bounced back from the Thursday loss on the North Side by sweeping a three-game series against Calvin in the western suburbs Friday and Saturday and then dispatching Illinois Tech at Zimmerman yesterday by a 10-3 score. The pitching for the Cardinals looked really solid all weekend, including in the loss to North Park, and I think it's likely that we can set aside North Central's 7-8 record and conclude that Ed Mathey's team is for real, if not quite the powerhouse that the preseason votes in the D3baseball.com poll seem to imply. And Illinois Wesleyan took two of three from the other Titans from UW-Oshkosh at Horenberger Field this weekend; especially gratifying for IWU Titans fans, no doubt, is the fact that in yesterday's game IWU actually got a decent pitching performance for a change, as Marshall Ingold and Brennan Tomhave teamed up to hold UWO to two runs.

As for everybody else, Carroll had a really good weekend, pounding UW-River Falls pitching to the tune of 14-11 and 15-5 (8 innings) at Frame Park on Saturday and then taking two more, this time from Beloit, at Frame on Sunday by 6-5 and 6-3 scores, as the Pios joined Augustana, Millikin, and North Park in getting their heads above water; they're now 11-7 on the season.

Wheaton continues to be up and down; one day the Orange and Navy Blue are pitching like a contender, the next day they can't get anybody out, while the bats as well seem to come and go for Matt Husted.

Carthage is licking its wounds after the two fairly close losses to North Park. The bright side is that Brendan Roberts gave the Firebirds a really strong outing on Friday and clearly looks like a legit CCIW #1 starter, while Nate Turpin and Ryan Kosiek look like reliable bullpen arms for first-year head coach John Lequia. He has one of the top hitters in the league in Zander Tubbs, and some decent bats in Ossenfort, Ston, and Zuleger to put in front of and behind Tubbs in the three slot. I'd say that the Firebirds have a decent shot at a middle-of-the-pack finish and perhaps a fifth- or sixth-seed appearance in the CCIW tourney this spring. Nothing's for certain, though.

Elmhurst took a pounding this weekend, giving up 51 runs in four losses down in Florida this weekend. It doesn't look like there's much cause for optimism where Joe Heller's crew is concerned.

[BigPoppa]

I am baffled at how the once-mighty Carthage program has become an also-ran. Is it the changes in the roster make-up? While Carthage is a WI school, the majority of their rosters lately have been composed of Northern Suburb kids from Chicago, and a lot fewer players from the Fox Valley Area in Wisconsin (admitting my own bias here as a Fox Valley kid). The powerhouse World Series teams of the 90s/00s were loaded with blue collar players from that area and I see very few of those on the roster anymore.

Is this an intentional choice? Are they recruiting a different type of player? Is it financial? The Northern Suburbs are much wealthier than the Fox Valley and that seems to coincide with the HUGE tuition increase at Carthage in the 2010s...

UGH! Just so frustrating to watch this program struggle to even find wins at this point.

The Carthage student body, for as long as I can remember, has consisted of about one-third Wisconsin natives and two-thirds Illinoisians, with the vast majority of students from south of the Cheddar Curtain hailing from the suburbs of Chicago, especially the suburbs north or northwest of O'Hare Airport. And this has been reflected in Carthage's student-athlete population as well, as for many years most of Carthage's sports rosters have had roughly the same proportion of 1/3 Wisconsin to 2/3 Chicagoland suburbanites, give or take ten or so percentage points.

This is entirely understandable when you consider that: a) the Carthage campus is a stone's throw from the Illinois border, and from Chicagoland's northern suburbs in particular; b) the population of Wisconsin as a whole is only 6 million people, while the Chicagoland metro region as a whole has 9.5 million people, with 6.8 million of them in the suburbs and only 2.7 million of them in Chicago; c) Wisconsin is geographically vast, and large sections of the state don't have close access to an Interstate highway, whereas Chicagoland is much smaller and has a much more concentrated system of freeways, making travel to and from Kenosha infinitely quicker for Chicagolanders than it is for most residents of the Badger State; d) Carthage was located in downstate Illinois (Carthage, IL, to be precise) until 1962, so up until the last couple of decades the school's alumni base was even more heavily Illinoisian; and e) in terms of NCAA D3 schools, Wisconsin has nine state schools that are D3 members, while Illinois has zero -- and of those nine Wisconsin state schools in D3, eight are large and heavily-resourced institutions that are members of a league, the WIAC, that is a powerhouse in just about every sport sponsored by NCAA D3.

Given all that, it only makes sense that Carthage is an Illinois-centric school in terms of student population, as the school's administration wisely followed up on that logic by matching Illinois state student aid until it was no longer financially feasible to do so (I'm not exactly certain when that aid policy changed, but I'm pretty sure that it was within the last 20 to 25 years). Aid-matching or not, take a look at the rosters of the various Carthage sports today. Illinois is still the most heavily-represented state, with Wisconsin second.

You've said many times here that Fox Valley (Wisconsin) players dominated Carthage baseball rosters in the program's heyday, which is understandable if Augie Schmidt III had recruiting connections up in that area that made that possible. But recruiting connections don't last forever; high-school coaches retire or change schools, and if a critical mass couldn't be maintained in terms of having inroads with enough of the various high-school baseball programs clustered around Lake Winnebago, it likely became less worth Schmidt's while to devote so much time and effort to working that area. Likewise, as he grew older he probably delegated more and more recruiting responsibility to his assistant coaches, especially if one of them was specifically designated as "recruiting coordinator" -- and they may have focused their attentions somewhere other than Wisconsin's Fox Valley (how irritating is it that both Wisconsin and Chicagoland have a Fox River running through them, so you have to specify which state's Fox Valley you're talking about when referring to Carthage?).

I think it's possible that Carthage baseball's no longer being dominated by Fox River (Wisconsin) players has something to do with tuition increases, as you alluded. The fees for youth baseball travel teams aren't getting any cheaper, and WIAC schools are probably becoming even more and more enticing for Wisconsin families with modest household incomes who are looking to send their kids off to college to play baseball. But mostly I think it's simple demographics and location, as I outlined above, that are causing Carthage baseball to revert to the norm of the rest of the Carthage athletics department and of the school as a whole.

Thanks Greg. Your entire response makes 100% sense to me... it's just beyond frustrating as a "Redmen" alum to log in these days for what used to be:
"How much did we win by?" then to "Did we win today?" and now to "Did we get swept this weekend?"

While there have been pockets of resurgence (Like 2025's 30 win season) that offer glimmers of hope only to be followed another down season to this point.

[mr_b]

...a wild 14-11 affair in Kenosha in which NPU sophomore shortstop Taylor Joseph hit for the cycle -- I hope that Dennis Bricault steps in here at some point when he's not traveling and lets us know the last time that a Viking hit for the cycle...

I sent a message to SID Tyler Woolbright after the game to tell him I don't recall any Viking batter hitting for the cycle in the time that I spent traveling with the team (i.e., 1998 to 2019).  I was not at every single game during those seasons, but I did keep the scorebook for most of them. I told Tyler that the most likely candidate for hitting for the cycle would have been during the Randy Ross era, when several players in the early 1980s put up some pretty gaudy extra-base hit totals.  Unfortunately, the scorebooks of earlier seasons are long gone.

For what it's worth, two other stats I have yet to see by the Vikings are a triple play and a no-hitter.  I've seen a few one-hitters, but never a no-no.

[Gregory Sager]

I'll ask Dennis Prikkel if he remembers a Viking ever hitting for the cycle. Maybe I'll ask Randy Ross as well, as I'm sure he'd remember if he ever cycled. That's not the kind of accomplishment that a baseball player ever forgets.

John F. Kennedy was in the White House the last time that North Park threw a no-hitter. In fact, North Park wasn't even an active member of the CCIW yet when Ray Maize, Joe Mango, and Wes Nordlund teamed up to no-hit the Trojans of now-online-only Trinity International University (which back then was called Trinity College).

Long, long, long time ago.

[cubs]

I am baffled at how the once-mighty Carthage program has become an also-ran. Is it the changes in the roster make-up? While Carthage is a WI school, the majority of their rosters lately have been composed of Northern Suburb kids from Chicago, and a lot fewer players from the Fox Valley Area in Wisconsin (admitting my own bias here as a Fox Valley kid). The powerhouse World Series teams of the 90s/00s were loaded with blue collar players from that area and I see very few of those on the roster anymore.

If I didn't know better, you could be describing another Wisconsin school that just got swept at home by Eau Claire (yes, the same Eau Claire squad that didn't even field a team as recently as 2020) today... The similarities are downright eery at this point!

[BigPoppa]

I am baffled at how the once-mighty Carthage program has become an also-ran. Is it the changes in the roster make-up? While Carthage is a WI school, the majority of their rosters lately have been composed of Northern Suburb kids from Chicago, and a lot fewer players from the Fox Valley Area in Wisconsin (admitting my own bias here as a Fox Valley kid). The powerhouse World Series teams of the 90s/00s were loaded with blue collar players from that area and I see very few of those on the roster anymore.

If I didn't know better, you could be describing another Wisconsin school that just got swept at home by Eau Claire (yes, the same Eau Claire squad that didn't even field a team as recently as 2020) today... The similarities are downright eery at this point!

Indeed.

[mr_b]

Congratulations to North Park head coach Luke Johnson for recording his 400th victory. In 2006 he took over a team that had just finished 1-39.  He quickly turned the team around and has guided the Vikings to numerous CCIW tournaments, three conference championships, and one NCAA Regional appearance.

[Gregory Sager]

Early returns on the CCIW season thus far show a lot of balance. North Park's win over Wheaton in the western suburbs yesterday flips the lead in the standings from WC to NPU, with North Park (5-2) now a half-game ahead of Augustana (4-2) and Wheaton (5-3). But the distance between NPU and the two .500 teams tied for sixth (preseason favorites North Central and Illinois Wesleyan) is only a game and a half.

The only two teams that aren't competitive are Carthage (sorry, BP) at 1-7 and Elmhurst at 0-4. And that's my opening to gripe about the CCIW's unbalanced schedule: Wheaton gets to play three games apiece against Carthage and Elmhurst, while North Park and Augie each get to play only two games apiece against the Firebirds and the Bluejays.

[BigPoppa]

Early returns on the CCIW season thus far show a lot of balance. North Park's win over Wheaton in the western suburbs yesterday flips the lead in the standings from WC to NPU, with North Park (5-2) now a half-game ahead of Augustana (4-2) and Wheaton (5-3). But the distance between NPU and the two .500 teams tied for sixth (preseason favorites North Central and Illinois Wesleyan) is only a game and a half.

The only two teams that aren't competitive are Carthage (sorry, BP) at 1-7 and Elmhurst at 0-4. And that's my opening to gripe about the CCIW's unbalanced schedule: Wheaton gets to play three games apiece against Carthage and Elmhurst, while North Park and Augie each get to play only two games apiece against the Firebirds and the Bluejays.

This is as painful as a season as I can remember...

BLOW. IT. UP. Definitely not a good start to the post-Augie Schmidt era...

[cubs]

This is as painful as a season as I can remember...

BLOW. IT. UP. Definitely not a good start to the post-Augie Schmidt era...

While you're blowing it up, hire former North Park associate Head Coach Kevin Tomasiewicz away from UWO... Since he likes to recruit Illinois so much despite being right in the center of the Fox Valley region, he should feel right at home down in Kenosha. 

It comes as no surprise (at least to me) that the Fox Valley kids have been going to Whitewater and La Crosse as of late and they've been the two most successful WIAC teams.

[BigPoppa]

This is as painful as a season as I can remember...

BLOW. IT. UP. Definitely not a good start to the post-Augie Schmidt era...

While you're blowing it up, hire former North Park associate Head Coach Kevin Tomasiewicz away from UWO... Since he likes to recruit Illinois so much despite being right in the center of the Fox Valley region, he should feel right at home down in Kenosha. 

It comes as no surprise (at least to me) that the Fox Valley kids have been going to Whitewater and La Crosse as of late and they've been the two most successful WIAC teams.

Not a surprise to me at all.

[Gregory Sager]

Some clarity has arisen in the heretofore-jumbled CCIW race, as two teams at the top have achieved some separation while two teams at the bottom have likewise achieved (the wrong kind of) separation.

Millikin (12-5) has kept on chugging along all season long, and the Big Blue maintained their hold on first place last night with a 13-3 run-rule curb stomp of preseason favorite North Central in Naperville. The Big Blue have by far the best four-man rotation in the league in Caleb Akins, Brayden Saling, Matthew Brummer, and Joey Ross, and on the back end Nolan Reiman and closer Gavin Houchins are the toughest and most versatile reliever duo in the league. I had thought that Millikin's pitching would get exposed to some degree in conference play, given MU's usual lighter-than-air non-conference schedule, but it hasn't turned out that way at all. If anything, the Big Blue are pitching better in league play than they did in non-con action, even though the numbers are slightly less impressive. Millikin hits more than adequately enough to support the staff, as the Big Blue run a ton and keep the line moving with a team OBP over .400. They're the odds-on favorite to win the league and host the tourney in Decatur.

North Park (9-4) is the other team up at the top, just 14 percentage points behind Millikin. The numbers for the Vikings aren't nearly as shiny as MU's, and, truth be told, there is a noticeable gap in ability between the pitching staffs of the two teams. But NPU has managed to persevere, with a doubleheader sweep of would-be-contender Augustana this past Saturday in Chicago thus far being the signature performance of Luke Johnson's team. Weekend starters Jackson Nuese and Sam Jackson have been a solid 1-2 punch atop the staff, if somewhat less consistent than their MU counterparts, and lefty transfers LeBaron Lee and Jason Schmierer appear to be settling in as the third and fourth arms, although neither one's proven able to stay effective deeper than the sixth inning. The bullpen's been a sore spot, but senior Ethan Condit, who leads the league in saves and has appeared in more games on the mound than any player in North Park baseball history, can shut the game down if the Vikings can give him a lead in the late innings. The Vikings have pure dynamite at the top of the order in Joe Perona, Taylor Joseph, John Greenwood, and Reyn Matsuzaki, but the lower half of the order's been AWOL for most of the season. What's encouraging about that doubleheader sweep of Augie and the 14-6 crushing of hapless Elmhurst yesterday is that the bottom of the order is showing serious signs of coming around, as it appears that Luke Johnson won't have to keep playing musical chairs in an attempt to find bottom-third hitters who can get on base better than three times out of every ten trips to the plate.

Millikin and North Park square off this weekend, with a doubleheader at Holmgren on Saturday and the finale at Workman on Sunday, and that series should decide the CCIW champion. That's not a 100% certainty, as MU will conclude its conference slate while NPU still has a weekday game remaining at Elmhurst and then a three-game set with Illinois Wesleyan weekend after next to finish the regular season, but the separation the two teams have achieved, combined with the utter parity in the middle of the CCIW pack, should make this weekend's duel between the Big Blue and the Vikings the functional equivalent of a playoff series.

And speaking of that utter parity in the middle of the pack ... it's still a mess, standings-wise. Illinois Wesleyan at 8-6 is ahead by a sliver, but the team right behind it, Augustana (8-7), is the team that the Titans will face in a Saturday twinbill -- and the doubleheader will be played in the Quad Cities. The Titans really hit well and keep the line moving, but pitching's been a serious problem in Bloomington this spring; in particular, the long ball has really bit IWU pitching badly. Augustana is a total mystery. You look at Augie's numbers, and they blow you away; Greg Wallace's boys have some of the best hitting in the league and a top-two pitching staff, as Chance Carruthers and Blake Nettleton have been close to untouchable, Brian Fischer and Jack Buckalew have been very good, and Wallace has gotten serviceable innings out of Ethan McGraw, Zach Bachochin, and Aidan Connors as well. But for some indefinable reason Augie just hasn't been able to put together a W-L record that matches what the team is doing on the field. Someone get Pythagoras on the phone and see if he can figure it out.

Right behind IWU and Augie are North Central (8-9), Carroll (7-9), and Wheaton (7-9). NCC can mash; table-setters Yukhi Yamada and Luke Wallace are solid, while the middle of the order with Parker Wyatt, Caleb Coberly, Jackson Bland, and Payton Diaz may be as good as any heart of a batting lineup in the entire region. The problem is that if Ed Mathey doesn't send Diaz to the mound for the first inning he's operating on a wing and a prayer. Camden Loomis was a serviceable #2, but he hasn't pitched now in 11 days, and one must wonder if he has health issues. All you need to know about NCC's situation is that last night the Cardinals hosted Millikin in what was their biggest game of the year, and, despite the fact that NCC has nothing but non-conference games coming up for the rest of April -- and then the Cards finish with three games against last-place Elmhurst -- Mathey nevertheless tried to get away with a bullpen game, and ended up losing that round of Russian roulette in spectacular fashion. Carroll? Fairly weak offense by comparison to the rest of the league, generally decent pitching -- but it's not really a team designed to thrive in the bandbox that is Frame Park. Wheaton? Well, WC can generate offense (the Orange and Blue are particularly adept at drawing walks and hitting doubles), and Matt Husted has two of the league's better hitters in Jack Gill and Tyler Burr, but the pitching has been not been there in 2026. The #1 and #2, David Levengood and Alex Bagley, have been inconsistent, and it falls off from there.

Only two games separate the top of the pack from the bottom, and the top (IWU) even plays the bottom (WC) in a midweek game next week, so anything can happen in this wild scramble among five teams for four playoff spots.

Then there's the bottom. Neither Carthage nor Elmhurst are officially eliminated yet, but they really have a lot of teams to climb over to get to the #6 spot in the standings at the end of the regular season, and very few chances left to do it. Their one consolation is that they play each other this weekend in a three-game set, so if one of them gets hot and sweeps the other it could make itself a viable contender for that sixth and final playoff spot. If they split the series, then forget it for both teams.

Sorry to say this, BP, but your Firebirds are really playing awful baseball right now, and it's just as potent a brand of awful as what they were demonstrating when you were bemoaning their weak start back in March. They likely reached the low point in all of Carthage baseball history yesterday; the Firebirds traveled to Ripon and took on a 4-22 Red Hawks team that was dragging a seven-game losing streak behind them, and yet that same Ripon team brutalized the Firebirds to the tune of 17-1 in seven innings. I can't remember a CCIW non-conference loss that ugly. Elmhurst has lost one of its best hitters in Rock Smith for unknown health reasons, and the Bluejays just don't have any pitching at all; their best arm is veteran reliever and two-way player Marty Fraga, and North Park rocked him in the late innings last night.

This isn't a great year for CCIW baseball. The league's .540 non-conference winning percentage is no great shakes, and nobody's really jumped out and looked like a national contender. Millikin, which has hovered at the edge of the national polls all season, is the best bet for postseason success, but I don't really think that the Big Blue have "Cleveland" written all over them. But at least we should get a couple of entertaining series (Millikin vs. NPU, Augustana vs. IWU) in the regular season's penultimate weekend come Saturday.

[BigPoppa]

Some clarity has arisen in the heretofore-jumbled CCIW race, as two teams at the top have achieved some separation while two teams at the bottom have likewise achieved (the wrong kind of) separation.

Millikin (12-5) has kept on chugging along all season long, and the Big Blue maintained their hold on first place last night with a 13-3 run-rule curb stomp of preseason favorite North Central in Naperville. The Big Blue have by far the best four-man rotation in the league in Caleb Akins, Brayden Saling, Matthew Brummer, and Joey Ross, and on the back end Nolan Reiman and closer Gavin Houchins are the toughest and most versatile reliever duo in the league. I had thought that Millikin's pitching would get exposed to some degree in conference play, given MU's usual lighter-than-air non-conference schedule, but it hasn't turned out that way at all. If anything, the Big Blue are pitching better in league play than they did in non-con action, even though the numbers are slightly less impressive. Millikin hits more than adequately enough to support the staff, as the Big Blue run a ton and keep the line moving with a team OBP over .400. They're the odds-on favorite to win the league and host the tourney in Decatur.

North Park (9-4) is the other team up at the top, just 14 percentage points behind Millikin. The numbers for the Vikings aren't nearly as shiny as MU's, and, truth be told, there is a noticeable gap in ability between the pitching staffs of the two teams. But NPU has managed to persevere, with a doubleheader sweep of would-be-contender Augustana this past Saturday in Chicago thus far being the signature performance of Luke Johnson's team. Weekend starters Jackson Nuese and Sam Jackson have been a solid 1-2 punch atop the staff, if somewhat less consistent than their MU counterparts, and lefty transfers LeBaron Lee and Jason Schmierer appear to be settling in as the third and fourth arms, although neither one's proven able to stay effective deeper than the sixth inning. The bullpen's been a sore spot, but senior Ethan Condit, who leads the league in saves and has appeared in more games on the mound than any player in North Park baseball history, can shut the game down if the Vikings can give him a lead in the late innings. The Vikings have pure dynamite at the top of the order in Joe Perona, Taylor Joseph, John Greenwood, and Reyn Matsuzaki, but the lower half of the order's been AWOL for most of the season. What's encouraging about that doubleheader sweep of Augie and the 14-6 crushing of hapless Elmhurst yesterday is that the bottom of the order is showing serious signs of coming around, as it appears that Luke Johnson won't have to keep playing musical chairs in an attempt to find bottom-third hitters who can get on base better than three times out of every ten trips to the plate.

Millikin and North Park square off this weekend, with a doubleheader at Holmgren on Saturday and the finale at Workman on Sunday, and that series should decide the CCIW champion. That's not a 100% certainty, as MU will conclude its conference slate while NPU still has a weekday game remaining at Elmhurst and then a three-game set with Illinois Wesleyan weekend after next to finish the regular season, but the separation the two teams have achieved, combined with the utter parity in the middle of the CCIW pack, should make this weekend's duel between the Big Blue and the Vikings the functional equivalent of a playoff series.

And speaking of that utter parity in the middle of the pack ... it's still a mess, standings-wise. Illinois Wesleyan at 8-6 is ahead by a sliver, but the team right behind it, Augustana (8-7), is the team that the Titans will face in a Saturday twinbill -- and the doubleheader will be played in the Quad Cities. The Titans really hit well and keep the line moving, but pitching's been a serious problem in Bloomington this spring; in particular, the long ball has really bit IWU pitching badly. Augustana is a total mystery. You look at Augie's numbers, and they blow you away; Greg Wallace's boys have some of the best hitting in the league and a top-two pitching staff, as Chance Carruthers and Blake Nettleton have been close to untouchable, Brian Fischer and Jack Buckalew have been very good, and Wallace has gotten serviceable innings out of Ethan McGraw, Zach Bachochin, and Aidan Connors as well. But for some indefinable reason Augie just hasn't been able to put together a W-L record that matches what the team is doing on the field. Someone get Pythagoras on the phone and see if he can figure it out.

Right behind IWU and Augie are North Central (8-9), Carroll (7-9), and Wheaton (7-9). NCC can mash; table-setters Yukhi Yamada and Luke Wallace are solid, while the middle of the order with Parker Wyatt, Caleb Coberly, Jackson Bland, and Payton Diaz may be as good as any heart of a batting lineup in the entire region. The problem is that if Ed Mathey doesn't send Diaz to the mound for the first inning he's operating on a wing and a prayer. Camden Loomis was a serviceable #2, but he hasn't pitched now in 11 days, and one must wonder if he has health issues. All you need to know about NCC's situation is that last night the Cardinals hosted Millikin in what was their biggest game of the year, and, despite the fact that NCC has nothing but non-conference games coming up for the rest of April -- and then the Cards finish with three games against last-place Elmhurst -- Mathey nevertheless tried to get away with a bullpen game, and ended up losing that round of Russian roulette in spectacular fashion. Carroll? Fairly weak offense by comparison to the rest of the league, generally decent pitching -- but it's not really a team designed to thrive in the bandbox that is Frame Park. Wheaton? Well, WC can generate offense (the Orange and Blue are particularly adept at drawing walks and hitting doubles), and Matt Husted has two of the league's better hitters in Jack Gill and Tyler Burr, but the pitching has been not been there in 2026. The #1 and #2, David Levengood and Alex Bagley, have been inconsistent, and it falls off from there.

Only two games separate the top of the pack from the bottom, and the top (IWU) even plays the bottom (WC) in a midweek game next week, so anything can happen in this wild scramble among five teams for four playoff spots.

Then there's the bottom. Neither Carthage nor Elmhurst are officially eliminated yet, but they really have a lot of teams to climb over to get to the #6 spot in the standings at the end of the regular season, and very few chances left to do it. Their one consolation is that they play each other this weekend in a three-game set, so if one of them gets hot and sweeps the other it could make itself a viable contender for that sixth and final playoff spot. If they split the series, then forget it for both teams.

Sorry to say this, BP, but your Firebirds are really playing awful baseball right now, and it's just as potent a brand of awful as what they were demonstrating when you were bemoaning their weak start back in March. They likely reached the low point in all of Carthage baseball history yesterday; the Firebirds traveled to Ripon and took on a 4-22 Red Hawks team that was dragging a seven-game losing streak behind them, and yet that same Ripon team brutalized the Firebirds to the tune of 17-1 in seven innings. I can't remember a CCIW non-conference loss that ugly. Elmhurst has lost one of its best hitters in Rock Smith for unknown health reasons, and the Bluejays just don't have any pitching at all; their best arm is veteran reliever and two-way player Marty Fraga, and North Park rocked him in the late innings last night.

This isn't a great year for CCIW baseball. The league's .540 non-conference winning percentage is no great shakes, and nobody's really jumped out and looked like a national contender. Millikin, which has hovered at the edge of the national polls all season, is the best bet for postseason success, but I don't really think that the Big Blue have "Cleveland" written all over them. But at least we should get a couple of entertaining series (Millikin vs. NPU, Augustana vs. IWU) in the regular season's penultimate weekend come Saturday.

Yeah... Carthage is UGLY right now. It is painful to watch (from a distance). Something HAS to change soon before it spirals so far it cannot be saved.

[cubs]

Yeah... Carthage is UGLY right now. It is painful to watch (from a distance). Something HAS to change soon before it spirals so far it cannot be saved.

This might be a rhetorical question, but can it really get much worse than a 17-1 mercy rule loss to a 4-22 Ripon team? 

If this was still a traditional Gordie Gillespie led Ripon Redhawk team that would be one thing, but I don't know if I've ever seen a worse Ripon team than this 2026 version.  Their series against Knox to finish out the MWC slate will likely determine who finishes in the MWC cellar this season.