As anyone who follows DIII baseball knows we tend to ease into the season.
To employ a Sunshine State analogy, this week was akin to wading into the pool from the shallow end. Just kind of easing our way into baseball.
Starting this weekend? Well, this weekend is the hyper kid sprinting across the cement and cannon-balling into the deep end.
While we had just four teams in full scale action this week, we can look forward to over a dozen teams taking the field this weekend. For all intents and purposes, this weekend is the Opening Day of DIII in Ohio.
So let’s gear up by recapping the action this week and previewing the big weekend ahead.
And so it begins…
First year Head Coach Ryan Grice has sewn up a minor victory. His Capital Crusaders will not return to Bexley with a losing record. For a team coming off a 12-26 season and playing a lot of freshmen this is no small feat. The Crusaders sit at 4-3 heading into this morning’s “non-conference” tilt with John Carroll.
Before anyone thinks that Coach Grice and I best friends I will point out that three of the four victories came at the expense of John Jay (NY). The Bloodhounds are not good. But what I liked was the resiliency the Crusaders showed in picking up their last victory against Cedarville. To refresh anyone who hasn’t been keeping up with things on the message board, Cedarville swept Capital on day two of the trip. Not only swept, but shutout. The Jackets bested Capital 4-0 and 6-0.
If you’re a Capital fan you had to be encouraged when Capital bounced back to beat Cedarville 12-11 yesterday on a clutch two out base hit from Zach Byers. Byers put a ball over the centerfielder’s head plating Marty Assmann with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. I, for one, liked the idea that Capital played a team they had yet to score on and scratched and clawed out a walk off win. It shows that Grice has the kids believing in themselves already and that’s a positive thing.
Baby Steps
Howard Jenter may need to watch the old Bill Murray flick What About Bob. Hiram is coming off of a 3-30 season so a good start down south would have been a nice boost for the Terriers’ confidence. After an opening day split it seemed like that was possible. But a sweep by St. Vincent (PA) and a pasting by Mideast regional contender Rose Hulman had the Terriers looking very much the same.
A split yesterday with the Milwaukee School of Engineering had Hiram sitting at 2-5 heading into today’s final doubleheader against Eastern Nazarene (MA).
There’s no way to sugar coat things. Like most teams in this predicament Hiram lacks consistent pitching thus far. The Terriers are giving up almost 11 runs per game. And in their five losses they are scoring less than two runs per game themselves. Their split against MSOE was a perfect example. Win the opener 16-8 then drop the nightcap 17-2. Inconsistent. But this is about baby steps. If you would have told me Hiram would head into their last day down south with a chance to tie or better their win total from all of last year I would have told you that was great news for them. Rome wasn’t built in day after all.
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was…
Not really same as it ever was, but John Carroll’s start is a continuation of 2009′s strong showing (24-12). The Streaks (4-1) opened with a 23-0 route of the aforementioned John Jay (NY) Bloodhounds.
From there Marc Thibeault’s crew swept a pair of nail biters against NC Wesleyan. As far as spring trip competition goes the first week of March, NC Wesleyan is a solid set of wins as they made the NCAA tournament in 2009. It’s always good to win tight games against solid teams.
JCU suffered their first setback at the hands of Cedarville by a score of 10-9. In case you haven’t pieced it together, Capital and JCU are both at the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte and there are not a lot of other teams down there with them this week.
JCU posted their fourth ‘W’ this morning against Capital. Cap jumped out with a 9 spot in the first and led 11-4 after six, but the Streaks touched up the Crusaders’ pen for five runs in the seventh and six in the eighth to salvage a 15-14 victory.
Carroll is seeking revenge on Cedarville right now and will close out with a double dip with Juaniata (PA) tomorrow.
Eating crow?
After completing the DIII previews I will admit that I was not overly high on Ohio Northern (2-0). By far their most accomplished pitcher, Justin Miller, transferred. Their offense had some holes to fill. And what do they do? Go out and beat up on their first two opponents of the season by a combined score of 26-11.
No one was more surprised to see this, especially the 19-8 win in game 2 over Alma (MI). But before I summon the waiter to inquire about the availability of crow I wanted to research who exactly the Bears beat. What I found was that Alma (MI) was not as good as I recalled (15-23 in 2009). And as for the opening win over Eastern (PA)…well, let’s just say they’re hoping to improve on their 3 win campaign last season.
Today’s double header with Wesley (DE) will give us a much better idea of where ONU is right now. Wesley is a solid team and should be a good measuring stick for the Bears.
PREVIEWS: Road trip!
Leading off
Denison leads off our season openers with their weekend trip to Georgia. If they get lost new Head Coach Mike Clark should know his way around since he did come to Granville from Emory. The Big Red will be tested immediately as they face Emory today followed by tough games with Montclair St. (NJ), Piedmont (GA) and NC Wesleyan.
On deck
A trio of teams are almost certainly in transit at this moment in preparation for their openers Saturday. Marietta, Mount Union and Ohio Wesleyan all take the field tomorrow.
Marietta bookends their trip by opening and closing with Rhodes in Memphis, TN. Tomorrow’s opener will actually be played at AutoZone Park home of the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds. The Pioneers continue on to Abilene, TX where they will run the gauntlet of UT-Tyler, UT-Dallas, Hardin Simmons, McMurry and Mary Hardin Baylor.
Mount Union also makes a stop on the way to their ultimate destination. The Raiders will stop in Tennessee to take on host Marysville College in a single nine inning affair Saturday afternoon. Mount begins play in the Russ Matt Classic in Winter Haven, FL the following day against Albion (MI).
Ohio Wesleyan opens the season Saturday evening in Port Charlotte, FL with a huge game against #8 Carthage (WI). The Battling Bishops will face Carthage a second time later in the week. Those games combined with match ups with #2 Wooster, Mount St. Joseph and Muskingum give OWU a very challenging schedule.
Day of rest? Not exactly.
Sunday is far from a day of rest for our DIII teams this week. Seven teams begin their spring trips on Sunday joining the three that started Saturday to give us the most exciting weekend of the year.
Fellow HCAC squads Bluffton and Mount St. Joseph will be at the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, FL. Bluffton opens their season against fellow Ohio school Wilmington. The Beavers also have another OAC squad, Muskingum, on the slate. The big test will be a DH with OWU on Tuesday. MSJ opens with Muskingum and OWU back to back. Luckily the Lions have three games under their belt already.
Joining Mount Union at the Russ Matt will be Baldwin Wallace and Wittenberg. Witt opens Sunday with Trine (IN). Their week wraps up with in-state battles with both BW and Mount as the week draws to a close.
BW opens with Misericorida (PA). I don’t know what to tell you other than I’ve never heard of the school. After a little research I learned they were picked to finish in the middle of the pack in the MAC (the same conference that Eastern, King’s, Wilkes are in).
More Snowbirds
OAC colleagues Muskingum and Wilmington will both be at the Snowbird Classic. I have high hopes for Muskingum and they will get a good test out of the gate when they take on MSJ in their opener. They follow that up with OWU the next day and also play #8 Carthage (WI) twice.
Wilmington has a back loaded schedule as they close out their trip with OWU and Wooster. They open on Sunday with Bluffton followed by Defiance on Monday.
Road to Omaha…err, Grand Chute
National runner-up Wooster starts the year ranked second and undoubtedly itching to play ball. The Scots open their two week spring trip at LaGrange (GA) on Sunday. The following day will be the first of their 12 days in Port Charlotte. The Snowbird Classic starts with #8 Carthage (WI) on Monday and MSJ on Tuesday. Also on the slate is another game with Carthage, a battle with OWU and a couple match ups with #3 Kean (NJ). The trip closes with NCAC games against Kenyon.
Filed under: Division III
Just so everyone knows, Otterbein’s site has the DH with Calvin as cancelled.