BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mwunder]

Carthage opens their 2025 campaign at noon today vs Centre College in Kentucky, Augie Schmidt's 38th and final season. As usual, I'll be following every pitch as often as I can.

Last ride with The Chief. Let's Go, Boys!

Not sure if you saw this BP, but I definitely thought of you when your former teammate passed this onto me!  (Yes, I know it's outdated, but for old guys like me I just saw it for the first time last week!  )

https://www.instagram.com/dodgersnation/reel/C-3jJ-DyE2n/?hl=en

This might be the most awesome thing I've seen

[Gregory Sager]

The CCIW's collective ERA right now is 6.35. That's not an indication of the strength of opposing non-conference hitters, either, because after one weekend of CCIW play the league's collective ERA through nine games is 6.29.

The league's overall ERA is up around eight-tenths of a run over last season, and the CCIW-only ERA is up about a run and a half.

Either the recruitment of position players has improved, or it's getting harder and harder to find good pitching for this league.

[mwunder]

The CCIW's collective ERA right now is 6.35. That's not an indication of the strength of opposing non-conference hitters, either, because after one weekend of CCIW play the league's collective ERA through nine games is 6.29.

The league's overall ERA is up around eight-tenths of a run over last season, and the CCIW-only ERA is up about a run and a half.

Either the recruitment of position players has improved, or it's getting harder and harder to find good pitching for this league.

Torpedo bats.

[mwunder]

The CCIW's collective ERA right now is 6.35. That's not an indication of the strength of opposing non-conference hitters, either, because after one weekend of CCIW play the league's collective ERA through nine games is 6.29.

The league's overall ERA is up around eight-tenths of a run over last season, and the CCIW-only ERA is up about a run and a half.

Either the recruitment of position players has improved, or it's getting harder and harder to find good pitching for this league.

CCIW is 118-129 so far this season with only 3 teams over .500.  What gives?? Lowest Team ERA is 4.97 and the highest is 7.97. Is pitching that bad nowadays?

[mwunder]

In my first installment of "Where are they now", I give you an update of Harrison Boushele, formerly of Augustana, who has transferred to D1 Houston to play out the remainder of his eligibility for the Cougars.

19   Boushele, Harrison   4.91 ERA   3.00 WHIP   0-0   6 appearances    3.2 IP   4H   4R   2ER   7BB   2K   15AB   .267 Avg

[BigPoppa]

CCIW 1-seed comes down to a DH today. Carthage and IWU are tied at 14-4 in league play. IWU beat Carthage yesterday so Carthage needs to win both today to earn the top seed as a split would give IWU the nod by way of the 2-1 series win. DH at IWU today.

Top six seeds gets into the CCIW tourney with a huge logjam for the 4-5-6 seeds as all teams are still alive except Elmhurst. A fun two days of scoreboard watching ahead.

(My biased hope is that Carthage gets to host the tourney in Augie Schmidt's final season as the skipper of the Big Red Machine. CCIW is looking to likely be a one-bid league this season for NCAA Regionals)

[mr_b]

Quite a finish for the CCIW regular season: Illinois Wesleyan sweeps Carthage to take the regular-season title; Millikin sweeps Wheaton; North Central sweeps North Park to take second and bump Carthage to third (based on a tie breaker: NCC had a better record than Carthage against champs IWU); and Elmhurst wins the final game of the regular season, a 9-8 thriller over Augustana in 12 innings. With the game tied at 7-7 going into the bottom of the ninth, Augie's leadoff batter hit a triple but was left stranded there.  Each team scored a run in the 10th, and in the 11th Augie once again left the winning run stranded on 3rd.  Elmhurst scored the eventual winning run in the top of the 12th on a double, a wild pitch, and a passed ball.  The Augie loss created a three-way tie with Augie, Wheaton, and North Park holding identical 8-12 conference records.  Wheaton had the tie breaker over North Park (by winning 2 of 3 games), and North Park held the tie breaker over Augie due to their record against the eventual champs, IWU -- North Park went 2-0 against the Titans, while Augie was 1-1.

The single-elimination play-in games on Wednesday will feature #3 Carthage vs. #6 North Park and #4 Millikin vs. #5 Wheaton. The winners of those contests move into the double-elimination round with #1 IWU and #2 North Central.  Here is a link to the tournament website.

[markerickson]

The semifinals and finals saw a total of 47 runs scored in 54 innings.  Congratulations, #2 North Central.

[mr_b]

North Central goes 0-2 in the Case Western Regional, giving up double-digit runs in each game.  The Cardinals dropped Friday's game to the host Spartans, 19-9, and then Saturday's elimination game against Centre, 13-5.