MWL Baseball

End of Line or Deja Vu for NE

2011-05-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

End of Line or Deja Vu?

This is the time during the playoffs when 'Pitching Staff' temporarily takes over from 'Ace' in baseball. Unlike football and basketball, where you can keep using your quarterback or point guard game after game, baseball requires a new face to get a school to the finals. Can you imagine Marist pulling Logan Silver out of the starting QB spot in the quarterfinals?  The one and done nature of Oregon baseball playoffs and the 72 hour rule has already killed off 6A Southridge, ranked number two in both RPI and the Coaches Poll. Southridge features OSU bound Jace Fry on the mound.  Fry pitched five on Monday. But, whoops, Southridge lost to West Salem on Wednesday. West Salem is now 15-13 on the season. Southridge finished the season 23-4. Ouch!

North Eugene used up 7 of Andrew Moore's innings in the 5-0 win over Milwaukie, so it's not likely we'll see him Friday on just a days rest. So,who throws for North tomorrow (Friday)? Does North throw their catcher, Kyle DeHaven? Or lefty first baseman, Chris Clayton? Or Boehm, or Harpole?

Wilsonville is in a similar situation. Their official number one is Jackson Luby, who has pitched the last two outings for the Wildcats.   Spencer Cumiford, 5-2 on the season, is their number 2. Both are seniors. Luby won Monday, with a 11 strike out four hitter. So it's bound to be Cumiford vs ? at Swede.

I like this round in the bracket, because this is when teams get rewarded for deep pitching staffs, great fielding and pressure hitting. The way Wilsonville has been pounding teams in their last four games, the favorite role might tilt towards the Warriors a little. If whoever starts for North keeps the ball on the ground, the Highlander defense will keep North in the game. I think it will be close. North needs to get some offensive production out of their entire order for this game. It was a good sign Wednesday against Milwaukie when #8 hitter Cory Shuster doubled and #9 hitter Toby Woods singled him in.

This year's playoff set up is similar to North's run last year, except North had to play one more game in the playoffs last year to get to the quarterfinals. Hopefully, you remember North's "#2" last year was Garret Mills during the playoffs. Mills beat Corvallis 13-2 in the round of 16 and beat West Albany 11-1 in the semis. The Highlander offense took some short breaks during their 6-0 win in the sub round, their 3-2 quarterfinal win behind Moore and the 3-0 win over Ashland on Moore's 3 hit, four strike out craftsmanship. Obviously, the Highlander defense was merciless throughout.

If the Highlanders beat Wilsonville Friday, then Moore could go next Tuesday and again Saturday for the championship, providing North wins in the semis. Interestingly, North had that same option last year. Did coach Nicholsen use Mills in the semi's because Moore was just a young sophomore? I don't think so. Mills had been sidelined for part of the season and was a bit of an unknown to other teams. He could rule the strike zone as he did in his one hitter in the semi's.  Does coach Nicholsen know who can pull a Mills again this year?

Tune in Friday.

Cunningham's 17 k's verus Barlow

A lot of old geezers like me probably were chuckling after Cunningham faced a few batters in the Barlow game. It was obvious that the Bruins weren't ready for Cason's 85 mph fastball. (A Duck had the radar on Cunningham. The Duck clocked Moore at 88 Wednesday). Cunningham's delivery gives his fastball an 'X' factor. If you've seen some of my photos, Cason tilts so far backwards, the batters can only see his legs and feet. Can't see his head, can't see the ball, cant see his arm.... just that right foot, his legs and the underside of his cap bill. Then whoosh, he explodes, and the ball is on you. The Bruins batters were loading up and starting their swings a wee bit early, which didn't help their situation.

A bunch of Sheldon fans, including myself, were jawing with the first base coach. He said their league only had three pitchers who could throw in the 80's, and Barlow had two of them, so they weren't prepared for Cason's heat. I thought that's odd. This is probably outlawed by some rule now, or maybe it turns the stomachs of today's coaches, but why wouldn't you practice against your own pitchers? I know back in a by gone era, some coaches would take two pitchers and have them throw full throttle against their own players. 21 pitches at a time and rotate. That's equivilant to 6 warm up pitches in an inning plus a 15 pitch inning. Do that a couple of times a week during the off season and you'll make men out or boys, and they'll think 80-85 mph is normal. (The pitchers did hide behind screens, the coaches weren't crazy.)

McMinnville 12 Thurston 1

Not the way we want an MWL team to go out, but I'm already looking forward to watching the Colts next year. And let's not forget, Thurston moved up from 5A ball this year. I didn't see Thurston as much as I wanted to this year. The expansion of the MWL from six to nine teams made it hard to get around as much as last year. Why am I excited about the Colts for next year? I was expecting good things out of junior catcher Jarren Goddard and sophomore Kyle Watson and got it. My big bonuses as a spectator came from Stefan Drake, who wasn't on my radar, as he hammered the ball a lot and frosh Aaron Clift, who was good on the mound and looks to have a better future ahead of him. I think I brought good luck to juniors Joey Urness and Aaron Hoover, as both of these guys pounded the ball when I saw the Colts. My thinking is that if Watty takes that big leap on the mound to his junior year, as sophomores often do, and Clift gets better, the Colts are looking more than good for next year. All six of these players made all league, which should make the Colts the favorites for MWL champs next year.

Non-seniors

Non seniors should go watch as much playoff ball as possible and study the players and the team attitude. You can't go to a quarterfinal game where at least one team isn't really focused. There is a lot of down time in baseball. Down time between pitches, downtime between hitting, downtime between innings. It's easy to lose focus. Teams that know how to focus - each pitch and each practice play and each lift or run - are the ones left standing in the semi's and finals. And besides, you get to see some great baseball.

5A MWL play-in Stinkeroo

2011-05-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

5A Play-in Stumble

With the MWL's success in the state playoffs the last four years, the 1-4 record in the second round of play-in games came as quite a surprise to many. I know I'm in that crowd.

I thought North Eugene and Marist were locks, although I was concerned about Marist having one of their defensive blow ups, which they did . I figured Churchill had a good chance with Lessel on the mound. Springfield was a long shot, but not an impossibility, while Willamette suffered a horrible draw against Ashland and had little chance.

It could have been worse. North Eugene's bats were silent against a Woodburn pitcher who threw a lot like Churchill's Lessel. North was down 1-0 going into the bottom of the fourth and there wasn't any reason to think North would be scoring a lot. North didn't score a lot, just enough to secure a 3-1 win.

I think our showing has a lot to do with our league's pitching this year and somewhat to do with the youth in our league. There weren't a lot of 'shut down' pitchers this year. Moore, of course, was ridiculous with a 0.30 ERA in league. Opponents knew they had to shut out North or hold them to one run every time they saw Moore. Lessel was another pitcher who was money game in and game out. Thurston's Tyler Johnson was someone teams definitely didn't want to see take the mound in relief. TJ seemed to turn into the 'Intimidator' in relief.

After Moore and Lessel, we had a few pitchers who could shut someone down on occasion as starters, but opponents could at least hope for an off day or anticipate the pitcher getting tired. These guys were good. TJ as a starter, Eyster, Watson, Cunningham, Schindler, Nielsen and Haskin quickly come to mind. That's leaving out Bates and Waggoner. I was fortunate to see some real gems by Moore, Lessel, Eyster, Cunningham, Nielsen and Schindler. Either I didn't see the others in a start or I caught one of their off games.

I probably missed a couple of pitchers who are very good on a given day, but after the guys I mentioned, the pitching fell off for almost all teams. There just weren't a lot of number two pitchers who could get to a 2 to 1 strike to ball ratio, much less a 3 or 4 to one ratio. Obviously, it isn't good for a team to be without a true ace or two. But it also wasn't good for MWL batters as the hitters didn't see consistently good pitching. The good news is that next year a lot of good pitchers and potentially really good pitchers return: Moore, Lessel, Schindler, Watson, Nielsen, Clift and Waggoner . Others with quite a bit of experience in league who have the potential to shine - Toby Woods, Chris Clayton, Malik Evans and Cooper Stiles. Let me know who I missed. I didn't get to see everybody. Imagine what a great year it would be if a few more of these guys become 'Dominators'.

The youth excuse. I don't like to use the youth excuse because a lot of state finals teams have only four or five seniors. But I think we can use this excuse to some degree. With the exception of Marist, the senior night ceremony was very brief. Not only that, but we had several teams that were heavy with freshman and sophomores. These young players were decent, but don't compare with seniors. Why are seniors important? Senior starters are usually bigger, stronger, more experienced and more baseball savvy than the underclassman. Plus, they've likely seen most of the pitchers they will face. Were most frosh, sophs and juniors anywhere near as good as TJ, Kristian Smith, Bryson Jones, Pomeroy, Silver, Swindling, Eyster, Innouye, Britt, Boehm, Harpole, DeHaven, Herr, Cunningham, Leung, Bates, Helfrich, Dudley, Craig, Larson, Dunlap, Svennson, or Concannon? A few, but not many underclassmen could play like these guys. And these seniors bring a maturity and focus that the underclassmen don't.

So, as spectators, we thought our league was tough. But in effect, we were watching a bunch of young teams developing this year. Next year will be much different. Churchill brings back 6 juniors who played extensively, including Lessel and DeZarn. North brings back 5 heavily experienced juniors and hopefully a healthy Toby Woods on the mound. Sheldon brings back three juniors who were regulars and four sophs who started or got significant experience. Thurston returns five juniors who started or had lots of playing time, plus junior to be Watson and Sophi to be Clift. South returns a lot, but may still be too young next year! Axemen Giland and Morrison will return for their senior year, Schindler and Wectawski will be juniors and four frosh who started or played a lot will be back. Springfield and Marshfield might be facing the same situation as South - more experienced next year, but still too young. Marist bucked the trend, having had 12 seniors on their team.

I'm a little melancholy that the season is winding down too fast. It has been fun watching all of the young teams grow, and it was great fun to watch the 5A MWL teams compete nose to nose with the MWL 6A teams. The MWL season has at least through Wednesday in post season play. I hope we can stretch it to another championship game on June 4.

Photos

New photos are up for several teams since the last post, and I think they were all on sunny days. Sheldon-Redmond, NE-Silverton, Churchill-Corvallis games. Click on the year '2011' on the following page to get to your teams photos. Photos

6A Seeding Sweep

2011-05-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

MWL 6A Seeding Sweep!

Not only did Thurston, Sheldon and South Eugene sweep their Special District seeding games, but they did it in a big way.

Thurston and South Eugene beat their Portland opponents on the road.
Thurston's big bats clobbered Lincoln 11 to 3. The Colts are averaging over 12 runs per game in their last 11 games!
South took a 5-1 lead in the top of the fourth and held on for a 5-3 road win.
In Eugene, Sheldon pounded Redmond 11-1 in five innings. Redmond didn't look like a #3 RPI team.

Interestingly, the Thurston - Lincoln game didn't have much impact on the playoff brackets. Both teams were already assured an automatic berth in the round of 32. Thurston did move up a couple of spots in the RPI ranking and are currently 3rd. 6A teams still have a few games left, so it's iffy if Thurston will end up in the top 4. But it's unlikely they will drop out of the top 8. Once the 6A teams are whittled down to the final 32, the top four teams will be split up among the four groups of 8, then the 5 through 8 rated teams will be split up. If Thurston keeps on winning, they won't meet a top 8 team until the quarterfinals.

Sheldon's game had more meaning. The winner, Sheldon, got an automatic berth to the round of 32. As the loser, Redmond has to win a play-in game to get to the round of 32. Sheldon proved what everyone was thinking - Redmond isn't really a #3 RPI team. It's true, Redmonds high RPI comes on the backs of a lot of games against 5A opponents. Sheldon's win dropped Redmond to #5 in the RPI. Redmond will host Century.  Century has an RPI of 36. That compares to Sheldon's #16 ranking.

Thurston 2011 Undisputed MWL champs.

The MWL championship trophy stays in Springfield for the fourth year. The Millers earned it last year, while the Colts won back to back titles in '08 and '09. It took a nine game MWL win streak by the Colts to close the season to claim the trophy. Who would have thought this could happen after the Colts were no hit on opening day? Thurston followed getting no hit by North with a 2 run output against Sheldon, and quickly went 0-2 in league.

Then came two back to back 9 inning games near the end of the first round. Thurston won the first against Springfield 2-1 and lost the second to Churchill 3-2.  Since then, it's pretty much been bombs away for Thurston. The Colts opened the second round with two 7-6 wins, one of them another nine inning game. Then Thurston ramped up the offense even more in 10-7 and 10-9 wins. The wins weren't pretty, and they were usually late, but they were wins.  Lately, Thurston's defense has stepped up, allowing just five runs in the last four games. Seven different Colts homered in league. A frosh, a soph, four juniors and a senior. Aye-yi-yi. Wait'll next year. The Colts had at least six players with 10 rbi's. Pitching is key down the playoff stretch. Thurston's pitching has been very good over the last four games. If pitching regresses, the bats better stay hot.

Thurston is a fun, never-say-die team to watch.  Just about any player can reach the fence, so they are never out of a game and they know it. If your team gets bumped out of the playoffs early, jump on over to a Colt playoff game. It'll be worth it.

Marist - North Eugene game

I chose to go to the Springfield at Churchill game because the game would determine seeding order and Kameron Bates and Jake Lessel were scheduled to dual. I passed up the North Eugene - Marist game because North Eugene and Marist couldn't change their order of seeding even if Marist won. Plus Marist's Zach Eyster wasn't scheduled to pitch against Andrew Moore. So I go watch an 8-0 ballgame, while I missed "The best high school game I have ever seen." game. I attended the Sheldon-Redmond game the night after the Churchill-Springfield game.  All I heard in the pre-game chatter was what a great game the North-Marist game was and that the paper did not do the game justice. And I thought the paper did a good job with Delaney's catches. But the fans were saying that there were several tremendous infield plays as well as several double plays. Oh, well, I got some good photos.

Fryback story followup.

For those of you who read the Jim Fryback-kielbasa story in my last blog.... There is no truth to the rumor that after I blogged about Jim that he and fellow Irishman Ted Norman got a ladder and tried to remove the asterisk from the baseball banner in Sheldon's gym. (The asterisk by 1968 signifies a co-championship with Marshfield)

League stats

I hope to get league stats from most teams this week. I already have Sheldon's and South's final stats. I think the unofficial final stats ranking all players are pretty close. The big exception being missing RBI's from Thurston's 29-1 win over Marshfield. League unofficial stats all players. Remember, these are for just the 16 league games.

Photos and donations

I added several more galleries of photos. Many were when the sun was out, which makes the photo's 'pop'. I also have a couple of galleries where I typed 'Print at home'. You won't find any copyright marks on those. They are just way too dark to sell because or dark, cloudy, muddy conditions. Remember half of the profits go to your school's booster club. I am pleased to announce I wrote a check for over 50 bucks to Marist last month. Typical prices are 4x6 for $2, 5x7 for $3.50 and 8x10 for $6.99. All photos are guaranteed by the photo service, Smugmug. You can jump off to your school's gallery from this page.
Photos

Donations.

A couple of minutes ago I just received my first donation! And for more than my suggestion of $10. Thanks a million! Well, not quite a million. It brightens up my wife's day when her stay at home husband say's, "Darling, I sold another photo." or "Darling, I received a donation, today."

Facebook page.

I'm not even sure why I am doing this, but I started a Facebook page for the website that you can link to from my home page.   Being an introvert, I don't really understand what the big whoppee is about Facebook.  But I've been told kids will go to the Facebook page before they check the real MWL site, so I'll try it. I posted a few pictures on it. Other than that, I'm not sure what I will be posting. If you know what I should be posting about, let me know. And can anyone tell me who the Miller is who is falling from the sky into an ocean of grass? Facebook link

Follow the playoffs on Twitter.

I'll be tweeting the scores during the playoffs. I'll most likely be at the Willamette playin game Tuesday. A Colt fan texts me Thurston scores that I then tweet out to MWL fans when the Colts play. Same with North. If you would like to text me scores at 541-337-1311, I can tweet those, too.  I assume that if you get tweets, you can add your game scores to the tweet, but I have no idea how to do that. Anyway, here's the Tweet page if you want to sign up. MWL Tweet. I don't tweet a lot, usually just on game days and if anything big happens, like the Red Sox signing one of our players out of high school.  Actually, I wouldn't tweet if it were the Sox. Yankees, Yes. Red Sox, No.

Tie Breaker, RPI and Jim Fryback story

2011-05-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

Tie breaker and seeds

The MWL seeds are mostly set, with Wednesday's Springfield - Churchill game determining the 5A three and four seeds. I'm hoping it's a match-up of Kameron Bates and Jake Lessel. I don't think either pitched Monday.

Several people emailed me and asked why I already had North Eugene as the number one 5A seed and Marist number two. They play each other Wednesday. If Marist wins, North and Marist will have identical 12-4 records and will have split their season series. Each league sets up their own tie breaking rules. This is the current tie-breaker set up.

Check to see if a team won the head to head match-ups.
If the teams split their head to head, then start at the top of the standings and check to see if either team beat the top ranked team. So, ff Marist & North tie, the league looks to Thurston as the highest placing team besides Marist and North.

North beat Thurston once, 5-0. Marist lost both games by scores of 8-5 and 10-9.
Had Marist and North had the same record against Thurston, the league would check the next highest placing team which is Sheldon. North and Marist both split with the Irish.
Just keep going down the standings until you find the first team that one of tied teams beat more than the other tied team and you have found your winner.

If there is a 'perfect' tie, where the tied teams split against each other and beat everyone else the same number of times, then this year I believe the RPI was going to be used as the next tiebreaker.

RPI

Marist is currently ranked fourth in state in the RPI at 575, while North Eugene is 5th at 564. If North beats Marist at Marist, their RPI's should be very, very close. The RPI formula depends on the record of every in-state team that either Marist or North have played. Without adding in all of those teams, their difference is less than one RPI point in North's favor if North wins.

What it all means is that if both teams keep winning they should not see each other until at least the semi's.

Thurston is ranked #6 in the 6A RPI and automatically advances to the 6A round of 32 and should have a good match-up based on the #6 RPI rank.

Does it matter if your team is a co-champion but second seed?

This will lead into a longwinded story involving Sheldon's assistant coach Jim Fryback, so you may want to get back to work and wait until the next blog.

I believe this year the AD's decided that "There will be only one MWL champion". In the case of a tie, the tie breaker process will be used and if there is a perfect tie, the RPI will break the tie. That made sense if the two teams were from the same classification, like Sheldon and Thurston from 6A, or North and Marist from 5A. But this year a tie could be between a 5A and 6A team, and I say a 'co-championship' would be appropriate.

Maybe I'm sensitive to co-championships because my senior year at Marshfield, I played on an 8-1 co-champion football team, a 15-3 co-champion basketball team and a co-champion baseball team. Back in those days only one team went to state in football and baseball, and Marshfield was the odd man out. So I only went to state in basketball, where my awesome 15 inch vertical kept me on the bench most of the time.

But the district co-championship in baseball means a lot now, especially in baseball, as no one thinks Marshfield was ever good in baseball. But if you go into the Sheldon gym, look at their banners, and if Jim Fryback hasn't gotten a ladder and removed the asterisk by 1968 in baseball, you'll have proof that Sheldon and Marshfield tied for the district champoinship.

Adults can do wonderful things to kids, and the Eugene-Springfield schools cooked up a good one to keep Marshfield and North Bend out of the state baseball playoffs. The MWL was set up in two divisions for several years. The Eugene-Springfield schools played in the 'northern league' while Marshfield and North Bend played each other a million times in the 'southern league'. Then there was a playoff. The winner of the southern league played the number two northern team. If the southern team won, then the southern team played the northern team, but had to beat them twice to get to state. It was a diabolical set up. I suppose in response to Marshfield's domination of football and basketball in the 50's.

Here's where Fryback comes in. I didn't know him back them. But I was a 190 pound fullback and he was a much smaller defensive player who I enjoyed flicking off my thigh pads. Fryback was quite the basketball player and as I said, I was vertically challenged, mostly by the weight of my large derriere. We split our basketball series with Sheldon and got to play them in Mac Court to see who would be the one and two seeds in the Rose Garden. I offered my services to Marshfield's legendary coach Bruce Hoffine to go into the game early and, shall we say, 'frustrate' Fryback and Sheldon's big center, but Hoffine told me to go practice my free throws. Coach should have taken up my offer as Sheldon won. Marshfield lost the tourney opener against number one David Douglas by three points, while Fryback and Sheldon handled Baker in their opener. The Irish eventually lost to David Douglas by 9 in a contest for the fourth place trophy.

So then comes baseball season. The Eugene schools really didn't know much about Marshfield because we played our summer ball in the Klamath Falls, Medford and Roseburg legion hotbeds. Old timers will remember the Keck, Brosterhaus, Miller combo's from Klamath and Jim Beamer from Roseburg. Those guys were baseball's LeBron James.

We handled the pesky Bulldogs and we were pumped for our series against North Eugene and Sheldon. We were strong on pitching and felt we could take all three. One of our pitchers, Herb Pryor, would go on to set the NCAA record for complete game victories at UNLV and go on to triple A ball. It rained and rained and we couldn't get our games in. Finally the OSAA said we had to get our games in, so Marshfield, North Eugene and Sheldon headed off to Bend....... Fryback told me the next part of the story when a bunch of Sheldon parents were socializing back in the 90's, but he didn't realize who I was.

Fryback was still seething during the baseball season about me running over him in football. Things were different back in the good old days and not much was out of bounds. So he sends a batch of tainted kielbasa to Marshfield high school, knowing that there were three Polish coaches who would probably take home the kielbasa, my Dad being one of them. I ate it up! It was great! But the next morning when we got on the bus, I had a horrible pain in my side. I thought I was nervous, so I didn't tell my dad (the coach) anything. The pain just kept getting worse. I finally had to tell dad that I was sweating and my gut was killing me. They took me off the bus in Drain and found the only doctor in town, who quickly diagnosed me with appendicitis. Turned out the 'doctor' was an Irish alum. Anyway, I was sent back to Coos Bay, and had my appendix removed by another Irish alum.

The bus travelled the rest of the way to Bend. Marshfield took care of North Eugene 2-0. Then the Pirates beat Sheldon 4-2, earning the co-champion title, and headed to the bus to go to the motel for a good nights rest before playing Sheldon for the tie breaker. But no, the OSAA pulled Marshfield off the bus and said we had to play a triple header. Sheldon won the tie-breaker 5-1. The next year in a similar set-up, Pirate Herb Pryor threw 12 innings of no hit ball in the divisions playoffs, but ran out of innings.

Anyway, the title co-champion does relieve the sting a little bit. And I've mostly forgiven Fryback for the Kielbasa trick. Though when I see him at Courtsports and he thinks I have walked over to his recumbent cycle to talk some baseball, I am really turning on the radioactive isotope under his seat.

Good Luck in the playoffs everyone!

South Eugene spoils pennant race

2011-05-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

After driving through the rains to get home from Thurston Friday night, I opened my email to check on scores from the MWL. The first email title was "South Eugene 9 Marist 1. No Typo!" I wasn't overly shocked by a South upset of Marist, I figured Joe Schindler must have pitched and pitched a beaut of a game. But I was shocked by the score. The Marist bats are good for a few more runs, and the Axemen hadn't had any success holding the better teams down, allowing 10.6 runs per game by the top four MWL teams, including giving up 19 to Marist in the first round.
Indeed, Schindler did pitch a fine game, giving up just two hits, one a bunt single. Schindler was a little shaky in the first, walking leadoff Logan Silver, and two outs later, falling behind clean-up Jake Britt, 3-1, before Britt singled in Silver. But from then on, it was almost autopilot, starting with striking out the side in the second. The third inning was stormy due to two errors, which helped load the bases, but Schindler took care of that with an infield pop up and a strike out of the clean up batter. Three up, three down in the fourth and fifth. A walk with outs in each of the sixth and 7th and Schindler took the Axemen home with a victory.
Meanwhile, South broke the game wide open in the fourth, sending 12 batters to the plate and scoring six. Carlos Larson led off the inning from the 5 slot with a solo shot to left center. The next four batters got on via two singles, a walk and a hit batter. A few batters later, Gus Craig tripled in two runs and scored on a passed ball. With Schindler dialed in on the mound, Marist was headed towards a loss and second place in the MWL.

At the same time, I was at the eastern front of the MWL, where Thurston was hosting Churchill. I prefer pitching duals with small ball and great batting matches between the best pitchers and the best hitters in the league. So I thought about going to South to see if Schindler would be pitching and facing Silver, Swindlling, Britt and company. But I looked out the window and chose the shelter of the mancave at Thurston. I knew the odds of a great pitching dual were slim, but I also knew that a) the Colts are entertaining in a wild and wooly way, and b) the wind would be blowing out 20 knots per hour and the Colt sluggers and Churchill's Bryson Jones might match the five homer game I saw at Thurston last week.
The game was well recapped last Friday, so I won't rerun the game. Instead I'll emphasize how the Colts are living on the edge. Thurston is on an 7 game win streak: Going back six games, here are their scores:

7-6 over North. NE runners on 2nd and 3rd when game ended.
7-6 over Sheldon. 9 innings
10-7 over South. Came back from a 7-3 deficit.
10-9 over Marist. Came back from 4 down, scoring 5 in the sixth.
4-1 over Willamette
8-5 over Churchill. Came back from 0-1 and 4-3 deficits

The Colt players just don't seem to worried about getting behind. I have to believe coach Dube is going a little crazy, though.

Now all Thurston has to do is beat Springfield (6-8) and Marshfield (0-14) and the worst they can do is tie for first with North Eugene. North has to face and beat Churchill and Marist at Marist to force a tie with Thurston.

State Playoff Seeding Picture.

So, right now it looks like the 6A order for the Special District seeding games will be Thurston, Sheldon and South Eugene. Hybrid seeding games are Friday. 6A play-in games are Tuesday. The MWL 6A #1 finisher will get a bye in the play-in round. The 6A #2 finisher has to win it's seeding game to get a play-in bye. South Eugene, our 6A number three team, will have to play both a seeding game Friday and a play in game next Tuesday.

In the 5A, North and Marist are battling it out for first. They have a head to head on the Wednesday, the last day of league play. Marist has to beat Sheldon to stay in the race for the 5A number one seed. Springfield and Churchill are tied for the number three and four seeds and have a head to head Wednesday.

The top four teams are still in it for the title. Can't get much better than that.

PS. Getting back to the "Not a Typo!" email. There actually was a typo. The score was 8-1 rather than 9-1. But I knew what the South fan meant.... We won! And we soundly beat a very good team!

Thurston has the inside track to the crown

2011-05-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

The leaders are in a tight pack as they round the last curve at 190 mph. Marist is 9-2, Sheldon 9-3, North 9-3 and Thurston 9-3. Look to east Springfield to find where the MWL trophy is likely to land. The Colts couldn't have set the table any better.

Thurston hosts Marist in what I hope lines up the Colts Tyler Johnson and Kyle Watson against Marist's Zach Eyster and Kevin Haskin. All four should be available for this Battle Royale. If the Colts can pull out a win on their home field they will be tied with Marist and possibly Sheldon and North Eugene in the loss column. (Sheldon could gain a half game league lead if they beat South Eugene) The schedule then favors the Colts as they finish with Willamette 4-8, Churchill 5-7, Springfield 5-7 and Marshfield. Willamette can throw Waggoner or Svennson at Thurston Wednesday. Churchill could throw Lessel, but he likely won't be available Friday. Springfield has Bates. But I have to believe these teams are going to be maximizing their pitching for wins against other middle of the pack teams.

Pitchers

Speaking of pitching, it's the time of year for pitchers to get dialed in for the playoffs. It looks like the weather is getting better and those arms should be getting livelier. Unless a pitcher is pushing 90 mph, he needs to toss at least three strikeouts for every walk, with four or more likely to get a pitcher deep into the playoffs. Our league's a little thin on pitchers with control this year so far.

Andrew Moore's is tossing over 7 strike outs per walk. That's a Wow! Kameron Bates is over a 4 to one ratio. South's Joe Schindler is a bit of a pitching anomaly. Schindler is striking out batters at almost a 4 k to one walk ratio, but he's giving up a lot of hits. Sheldon's two lefties, Nielsen and Cunningham are 7-2 in the win-loss column, but are walking a thin line in the walk column. Churchill's Jake Lessel has a 3-1 win-loss record, yet not quite 2 k's to every walk.

Thurston' opponent Monday has a steady-eddie pitching duo in Eyster and Haskin. They are a combined 6-1. They're not dominant strike out pitchers, although Eyster is averaging 6 per 7 innings.   The two are masters at not walking a lot of batters and sprinkling mostly harmless singles through out a game. Marist counts on solid pitching and backs it up with a stellar D and a good offense. In Thurston's 8-5 first round win, frosh Aaron Clift started for the Colts and Eyster for Marist. (The game was 5-5 after six, and the Colts took it in the top of the 7th, in a game Marist's D stumbled.) I'm curious who will get the nod tomorrow.

I've been lucky to see several pitchers when they are on for entire games. I've also seen most of them struggle in other outings. Moore has been the only consistently dominant pitcher and has been on every game. The others I have enjoyed when they are on - Lessel from Churchill, Schindler from South, Eyster from Marist, Cunningham and Nieslen from Sheldon and Bates from Springfield. I've caught TJ of the Colts looking great in long relief. Four of these eight will be back - Moore, Lessel, Schindler and Nieslen. And there are lots of others returning next year who I haven't seen much; Watson, Alie, Stiles, Clift, Evans, Woods and Clayton. We should see scores go down next year.

Hitters

Coming into the year, I thought this might be a huge year for hitters.  We've had quite a few dingers so far, but I actually expected more. We had lots of batters returning who had good power years last year, Goddard, Bates, DeHaven, Watson, Long, Harople, Dudley, TJ and Ryan Helfrich to name some. My logic was that there weren't a lot of dominant pitchers returning and these guys should do very well at the plate feeding off of the youngins on the mound.  I thought it would take just a couple of guys on each team to step up at the plate, get on base to set up rbi situations for the veteran power guys and then we would see a lot of high scoring games. The batters I've mentioned are doing quite well for the most part. But I think the high number of pretty good lefties is getting to the younger batters. High school players just don't see enough high quality left handed pitching in their early years. New power players have been Bryson Jones from Churchill, Will Swindling of Marist (new to us anyway), Stefan Drake of Thurston and Jalen Drath of Willamette. The league does have three clutch soph RBI collector's in Watson, Joe Schindler from South and Cooper Stiles from Sheldon.

It's time to sit back and enjoy the dual playoff run. We've got the big four fighting for the title. Then we have the next batch of four fighting to stay out of play in games or just trying to raise their RPI. And don't forget, with the everyone in playoff format, it just takes a five or game win streak to take it all. Just like North did last year out of the number three seed spot.

League scoring
Team              For   Against Differential
Marist            8.4    4.9        3.5
Sheldon          7.7   3.0        4.7
Thurston          7.5   4.4      3.1
North Eugene 6.4    1.6       4.7
South Eugene 6.2   8.5      -2.3
Willamette      4.6   5.8      -1.2
Springfield     4.0    4.4       -0.4
Churchill       3.6     5.1       -1.5
Marshfield     1.8 14.3       -12.5

Photos

Got some great weather at times last week and some took really great photos.

Caught up the photos galleries for one or two games for each of the following teams:

Link to Sheldon Photos

Link to Willamette Photos

Link to Churchill Photos

Link to Thurston Photos

Links to all teams photo pages

Good Luck to everyone this week. Everyone gets at least a playin game, so just keep on getting better. Let's get at least one team to the state championship game for the fifth year in a row! How about one in each classification?!

Shameless Plug

2011-04-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have noticed that I have added a 'Donation' button via PayPal to the home page. Your support would be greatly appreciated. The expansion from six to nine teams, and a huge increase in softball interest, has tripled the number of hits to the website. I'm sure the increased visits to the site are due to the great recaps that are coming in from several teams and perhaps to the tight race at the top and middle of the standings. The great fan support has changed the website from being a 15 hour a week hobby to a 40-plus an hour week test to see if I can keep up. Cheer me up by buying photos. Remember, that half of the profits from photos go to the booster club. I prefer selling photos to donations, but if I haven't quite got the right photo, please consider donating. Or buy photos and donate. You don't need a PayPal account. PayPal accepts credit cards.

Thanks.

First Round Review

2011-04-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

The cold, rainy days of April are almost behind us and the 70 degree days of May are near. Surprisingly, the MWL got all of their league games in prior to the official start of the second round last Friday. Of course, Springfield has been a road team the first round as they wait for their facility to dry out.

At the turn, the teams finshed about where I projected for the end of the season, with the big exception being Sheldon. I grouped Marist, North Eugene and Thurston as locks for the top three spots. I had Sheldon, Willamette, Springfield and South Eugene in the next batch. Churchill just outside of the middle group and Marshfield in a rebuilding year.

Sheldon's defense was phenomenal the first six games, giving up less than 2 runs per game. The two big lefties, Cason Cunningham and Brett Nielsen, were six and one in the first round. The two are a little high on the walk-o-meter, but Cunningham is over 9 k's a game, and Nielsen is sitting down 13 a game. Sophomore Ryan Land has been impressive in the outfield and at the plate.
Injuries may end up playing a big part in the finish this year. North Eugene's lefty Toby Woods pumped up the Highlanders with a 2-0 start and a 1.11 ERA, only to get injured. The Highlander's fortunes have been slipping since. Andrew Moore is 3-1, with a .50 ERA and a league leading 46 k's. But you're going to see more teams get really aggressive like Sheldon did in the first round - attacking the ball early in the count and being willing to take a k here or there in exchange for some very hard hit balls, forcing North to make plays.
Thurston was a little wobbly coming out of the gate. The Colts were skunked in their first league game against North, and scored just two runs against Sheldon in their third game of the first round. Since then the Colt bats have gotten pretty hot, and their defense has been steady for the most part. Sophomore Kyle Watson is 4-0 after Friday's round. Senior Tyler Johnson is getting stronger as the season progresses, and frosh Aaron Clift has been impressive on the mound. Watson, Johnson, Jarren Goddard, and Joey Urness have been hitting the ball well. The Colts seem to have momentum going into the second round.
Marist, my pre-season pick as MWL champions are a half a game out of first. I thought Spartan pitching would be a smidgen better than it has performed and I thought the bats would be hotter than they have been. Marist has won by big margins and had some squeakers. Marist has used four different starters to get them to within half a game of league leading Sheldon: Zach Eyster, Kevin Haskins, Alex Torres and Jerry Rouleau. Eyster has looked very sharp when I've seen him. The Marist D has had it's bad moments, but can put together great games. They'll need to be consistent the second half. Just one homer from the Spartans in the first round. I expected more.
I put a lot of pressure on returning MVP Kameron Bates to carry the Millers to a sixth place finish. Bates is coming off of a fall knee surgery. He's not quite up to speed, but he performed well the first round. However, the Miller O didn't. Bates lost a 2-3 game to South and a 2-4 game to Sheldon. Bates is 1-3 so far.
Willamette is about where I projected.   I think their pitching has improved, but obviously not enough for them to make the big jump. Offensively, Tony Svennson has come off of injured reserve and is making a huge impact on the Wolverines with his bat and presence on the mound.  Getting mileage out of Svennson on the mound would be a bonus. The Wolverines are relying on Trent Waggoner and his 1.8 ERA for now. Not having Svennson's bat was certainly a factor in two early losses last round.  Cole Hathaway is having a year at the plate.   The soph has three triples and a dinger.
South Eugene earns the honor of most injury plagued this year.  Centerfielder Gus Craig has been out. That is a big hurt in the field and at the plate. Max Morrison, another solid stick for South hurt an elbow tendon and has taken a seat. There's more, but you get the picture when South is playing three freshmen.
I cautiously picked Churchill to finish 8th. They have just three returning players. But you can always expect the Lancers to play great D, and that will keep you in a lot of games. Other than getting bombed by South, Churchill has held opponents to five or less in six of their games. That's good enough to finish in the middle of the pack. And who knew Bryson Jones would pop four dingers? I've seen a couple of nice outings by junior Jake Lessel, including the win over Sheldon.
Marshfield is regularly playing one junior, five sophs and three frosh. Given the lopsided losses my alma matre sustained, I was fearful of seeing them play in Eugene.  But when I saw them, and discounted for the youth, I didn't feel as bad. kids are trying hard and they all can play. They just need to hit the weights, play summer ball and work on pitching.  Sophomore Doug Moulzahn is doing most of the Pirate pitching. He'll get better, and if he gets some offensive and defensive support, could end up a good one.

It's been fun getting to know the pitchers from the teams who joined/rejoined the MWL. Cunningham and Nielsen from Sheldon are fun to watch. Eyster has had some great stretches. And South's Joe Schindler has can put it all together. I hope new to the league Toby Woods gets back off of the injury list. The oldies, Bates, Moore, Waggoner are very good to great. Other pitchers I have enjoyed watching are Lessel from South and frosh Aaron Clift from the Colts. I haven't seen 4-0 Kyle Watson yet this year and haven't seen the Miller's Dudley in a start as well as a host of others. It will be interesting to see if the pitchers or hitters get stronger in the second round.

Firefox users.

Make sure you upgrade to 4.0! I had a couple of folks say they were having problems. I hadn't checked Firefox in awhile and I opened the MWL website and it was bonkers. I upgraded Firefox and Voila!

Secret Page for Blog Users
I use this format for a 'MWL At-A-Glance' softball page. Take a peek and see if you find it useful. MWL baseball at a glance.

Arghhhh! I missed an almost Pirate victory

2011-04-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

   Most of you probably weren't planning on going to the Churchill-Marshfield game on Thursday. But here I was, bundled in a turtleneck, sweatshirt, gloves and longjohns ready to go to Churchill. I made a check of the school schedules on highschoolspsorts.net. No postponement. Then I checked the OSAA scoreboard and the game was postponed to Saturday. So I stayed home. As I said, "ARGHH."
  Sorry Churchill fans, but I pull for the Pirates. I graduated from Marshfield in 1968. We tied Sheldon for the league title and had a good baseball run for several years in the early 70's. That was it until I returned in 2003. A soon to be 1st team all state pitcher and his 90 mph fastball, Matt Duryea, moved to Coos Bay and I instantly became a great pitching coach. Marshfield went to state for the first time ever in Duryea's senior year and once more the next year. The Pirate baseball fortunes then dropped off to the pre playoff years level.
My ties to the Pirate baseball program and the efforts of coach Quintin Hall to build the program keep me ever hopeful. So when Churchill's David Doerkson emailed me a score at 9 PM, I let out a giant "No-o-o-o!!". My wife came into my office and asked me if something had happened to my boys. I sheepishly told her the truth.   The yell was a two fold yell. I missed my Pirates AND they pulled off a seventh inning five run rally to take a two run lead and got the first batter out in the bottom of the 7th. Churchill rallied and stole the victory from the Pirates.
Improving baseball in Coos Bay is a tough challenge. It's not because of the weather. North Bend has always had a solid to great program. A long time ago, Coos Bay had a great little league program and the varsity played in the heart of town at Mingus Park. The city booted the high school off the parklands for adult summer league softball and the Pirates moved their facilities 8 miles up Coos River. Out of sight, out of mind. The Pirates made another field move within a mile of the school, but the field was still literally out of sight. The Pirates finally moved to the high school, but if you've been to the facility you know how it compares to North Bend and the Eugene-Springfield schools. It's tough for the kids to look at the football/track and basketball facilities and think that the school cares much about baseball. If I ever win a big lottery, I'll help Q with one of his visions of moving home plate to the northwest corner. Then I'll throw in turf and put in lights.
Two other big issues for the Pirates are kids not staying in school or losing their eligibility and players not playing summer ball. If you saw the 2010 version of the Pirates, you noticed that there were several non seniors who looked like legit baseball players - good strokes at the plate, good footwork turning the double play, a solid catcher and more. But the team lost over half of those potential returnees. The result this year is that the Pirates are throwing a lot of babes into the fire. The good news is that these babes come with good attitudes and their are several skilled ones who just need to grow and get experience. Good Luck, coach Hall.
I haven't seen Churchill or Marshfield this year yet. The Churchill game is already listed as postponed. Marshfield and North have to make a decision soon about Marshfield driving up to Swede. With luck, maybe they'll get the game in. I'm already bundled up.

Photos
I haven't promoted my photos this year. I finally have team pages set up with direct links to the photo galleries. Half of the profit goes to the booster clubs. Purchasing photos helps pay for my gas money, photo gallery hosting, red vines and state playoff tickets.

4x6's are $2.00
8x10s are currently $5.99. Not all pictures can be blown up to 8x10s because I have already cropped them so much.
There are options for collages, calendars, t-shirts, etc.
Buy a lot of photos to spread the shipping cost:)
Smugmug guarantees the photos.
To find galleries for your school, go to the index page, hover over 'Photos', then click on your school
I haven't photographed Churchill or Marshfield yet. Also, I'm behind on uploading pre league games.
Reminder that game recappers get free access to pictures of their son(s) for free printing at home or use as a screensaver. Still could use recappers from Marshfield, South Eugene, and Springfield.

Booster Clubs and Coaches: You can check the status of sales here.

Thanks for your support and encouragement.

NE vs Sheldon, Cunningham vs Moore and more

2011-04-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

In my final preseason prediction I mentioned that I thought Marist, North Eugene and Thurston were a notch above everyone else. I picked Sheldon 4th and among a second tier of teams that include a lot of young teams who need time to mature. Sheldon ripened up in a hurry and has beaten both 6A brothers in games at Sheldon.
We are a quarter of a way through league and the teams are shaking out as expected with the exception of Sheldon at 5-0. Sheldon has yet to play two of my top three picks in the first round, so they still have a lot to prove. Wednesday is their next big test. They will step on the field at Swede to take on the 4-0 Highlanders and Andrew Moore with undisputed possession of first place on the line. And even though Moore hasn't allowed a hit or run in his first two league outings, I think the Irish have a shot at getting hits and getting a win.
Moore brings his 0.00 ERA, 28 k's and two no hitters into the game to face Cason Cunningham. Cunningham is no slouch with a 1.02 ERA, 19 k's and just 5 hits in the same number of innings as Moore. The main difference between the two besides being right and left handed, is that Moore has almost eliminated his walks. Like Moore, Cunningham has a great defense behind him. The Irish outfield might be a little better than North's because of Irish centerfielder Ryan Land. Land can cover a huge territory, plays smart and can make the diving catch.
The bats on both teams have mirrored much of the league - punchless this year, although Sheldon has flexed their muscles on occasion. I don't think you'll see either team break this game open at the plate. Both teams have two players with one home run apiece. For North, that's Garrett Harpole and Shawn Boehm. For Sheldon, Daniel Herr and Cooper Stiles. Ryan Land of the Irish has three triples. Sheldon has six players who have hit doubles while North has two. It's not likely that Moore or Cunningham are going to let these batters light it up.

Near the end of Beltline, Marshfield and Churchill will be playing each other. Each team will be trying for their first league win. I expect to see Marshfield's #1 pitcher Doug Molzahn and expect that Churchill will hold back their #1 for Thurston on Friday.

If I was correct about Thurston being one of the three best teams in the league, then they should win out the rest of the first round. The Colts face Willamette, Churchill, Springfield and Marshfield to finish the first half. Thurston could stumble, but their frosh ace Aaron Clift has done well and will improve. And Tyler Johnson had a good outing in relief against dangerous Marist on Monday.

The Millers need to pick it up if they are to make my #5 pick. It won't be easy with Marist, Thurston and Churchill left this round. Wednesday should see Kameron Bates on the mound for Springfield. But Marist probably won't use Eyster after he went six on Monday.

Willamette has played all five 5A MWL opponents, going 2-3. Now the Wolverines do-si-do with the big boys - Thurston, Sheldon and South Eugene. Great news that Tony Svennson is back for the Wolverines. He carries a big stick and will turn a few games around, if not with the upcoming games with the 6A teams, then against the 5A teams next round.

South gets the bye Wednesday. Then they face Marist and probably Eyster, followed by Marshfield and Willamette.

According to the weatherman five minutes ago, it's not raining at my house, but something wet is coming out of the sky. Let's hope we can squeeze in some games tomorrow, because the Thursday and Friday forecasts are gloomy.

Thanks to the coaches and parents who have forwarded recaps and stats. The website wouldn't be much fun without your help.

Big week for 6A MWL teams and Marist

2011-04-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

I'm hearing talk of North running the table and Andrew Moore tossing more no hitters. Wow. How quickly we forget. It's tough to throw a no hitter. I've been fortunate enough to see both of Moore's gems. A great infield play saved his first no hitter, and he didn't have to face Gus Craig against South. A blooper to the outfield, a grounder two more feet to the right of the glove - that's all it takes to ruin a no-no.
It's early in the season to think a team or pitcher is going to run the table. Team wise, North has only played three games in league - 13 to go. They haven't exactly been killing the ball, although they've shown more power this year than at the same time last year. There are enough good pitchers in this league to keep North within reach throughout a game, and when a team is close, anything can happen.
It's a huge week for Marist (3-0) and a couple of the 6A teams. Marist plays 6A Thurston and South Eugene, with Springfield in the middle. Marist can line up their pitchers however they want, but they could end up seeing their opponents aces in all three games. Spartan power bats have to come out this week.
South Eugene (2-2) gets Sheldon and Marist with a bye in between. Axemen Joe Schindler could be used for both games. Schindler gives South a great shot in both games. We think of Schindler as a pitcher, but he already has 3 doubles and 4 rbis for South. South needs Gus Craig back in their line up.
  Sheldon (4-0) gets South, North and Willamette. Sheldon threw Neilsen for three innings last Friday, so they may not come back with him against South. That would be lucky for South. Will Sheldon see Andrew Moore? North's Moore will probably go Monday and Friday, so Sheldon would see lefties Woods or Clatyon or both. (Note that Sheldon has a lot of left handed batters.) At the plate, Irishmen Daniel Herr shares the league lead in rbis with 5 and Ryan Land shares the lead in trips with 2.
Thurston (1-2) has two of the three undefeated teams behind them. They start the week with undefeated Marist. The Colts have a good shot at putting a blemish on the Spartans schedule. Thurston then finishes the week with Willamette and Churchill. A Colt sweep this week would put them at 4-2 and back in the pennant race. Thurston needs to get their bats going, and should, having played a tough schedule so far. Joey Urness has a couple of triples and Stephan Drake has a homer. But that's about it for Colt power.
North (3-0) has Willamette Monday. Moore is in cycle to throw this one. If North wins and Sheldon beats south Eugene, neither game a lock, North and Sheldon would be undefeated going into their game Wednesday.
Willamette (2-2) has the toughest schedule this week. North Eugene - with Moore likely on the mound, then 6A's Thurston - with Kyle Watson likely on the mound, and Sheldon. Trent Waggoner could get the Monday/Friday starts. Waggoner has 16 k's versus 4 walks in league this year. That's a ratio that should keep Willamette in both games. The Wolverine bats have been pretty solid so far. Drath and Concannon have dingers and the team has 14 doubles in four games.
The Millers have played South, North, Willamette and Sheldon.  This week it's Marshfield and Marist. Bates is on cyle to pitch against Marist.  Springfield has been playing good D, but their bats haven't come alive.
Churchill (0-4) and Marshfield (0-3) face each other Wednesday.  Churchill has a bye Monday, while Marshfield plays Springfield in Coos Bay.  There's a possibility that the Lancers and Pirates are both 0-4 when they play each other.

Pitchers ahead of batters
I'm not a big believer in the theory that pitchers are always ahead of hitters early in the season, however....
they are this year. I thought there might be two or three really outstanding pitchers this year and many solid ones.  At this point, it looks like Moore will be over the top good. Springfield's Kameron Bates may come on and regain intimidator status as he regains his strength from fall surgery. He is hitting his spots with 11 k's to 2 walks, but isn't up to full speed on his fastball yet. Hopefully he'll be stronger at playoff time. There are two or three others who may end up being dominant, time will tell. Sheldon's Cason Cunningham was tough Friday against Springfield. If Cunningham gets his K to Walk ratio up to 3 or 4 to one, he'll be dominant.
Lots of non seniors are looking good. I haven't seen all teams, and if I've seen a team, I usually have seen only one of the team's starters. But here are some non seniors that are looking good. Frosh Aaron Clift of Thurston - and he was sent into Swede against Moore - that's Roman Colosseum stuff.  Sophs Kyle Watson of Thurtson, Britt Neilsen of Sheldon and Joe Schindler of South. Juniors Trent Waggoner and Toby Woods of North. I'm sure there are more blossoming non seniors, but I haven't seen them play yet.

South Eugene, RPI test (did you fail?) ...

2011-04-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

It's early, but South Eugene is out of the blocks in a hurry. The Axemen are 2-0 with a win over Kameron Bates of Springfield and a lopsided 16-4 victory over Churchill. Now comes the meat of their schedule - North Eugene, Thurston, Sheldon, a bye and Marist. South will likely see Moore when they face North Eugene, then they have back to back games against 6A opponents. After the 6A opponents they tackle the veteran team in our league, Marist. I consider Marist the most veteran team in the league because they have 12 seniors, while every other team is lucky if they have five seniors.
Could it be that South's 12-2 win over Cottage Grove got their bats going prior to the Churchill game? Soph Joe Schindler and junior Max Morrison lead the team (and share the league lead) with three rbi's. Frosh Jimmy Grossman and junior Ben Giland have 2 rbis each. How's that for a youth movement? What I really like is the South is getting experience with late inning wins. They pulled one out against Summit and beat Springfield by scoring in the bottom of the 7th. With all the young players in the league not having much varsity batting experience, South might be getting a jump on other teams because their bats are warming up early.

Willamette RPI test
After all of the RPI education I have dispensed, I would have thought people who took the RPI test would have done better. The question was would Willamette's 370 RPI go up (options for how much up) or down?

38% of the respondents said "Go Down". You go back to Algebra I
21% said up by 0 to 50%. Not bad, perhaps you didn't have the guts to move to the right answer, because an increase of 78 points for one game would be too much. I'll give you a C.
21 % said between 50 and 100 points. Correcto-Mundo. You get to brag to other MWL fans.
12% said between 100-150 points. You get a B for positive attitude. Must have been Willamette fans factoring a victory over Marist.
8% said 200 points or more. You get a D. It's just a hair too far into the season to see huge swings in a day.

Class is in session (If you hate math, skip this):
  First you have to know the RPI formula. IF you want to be a pro, click on Frequently Asked Questions on the OSAA site. Here's the overview:
   25% on Willamette's W-L record. Willamette's loss cost them 12 RPI points. Had Willamette won their RPI would have gone up another 22 points from the minute before the Marist game. That's a 32 point spread
   50% on Willamette's opponents W-L record . The opponents records were about .311 before the Marist game. Marist was 8-1 (.899) going into the Willamette game so the Spartans were bound to raise Willamette's score a lot in this criteria no matter who won the game. And this criteria is 50% of the formula.
   25% on Willamette's opponents opponents W-L record. Honest. Willamette's opponents opponents were winning at a 387 clip before they played Marist. Marist opponents record going into the Willamette game was about .525. Again, in this criteria Marist would be raising Willamette's score no matter what the outcome of the Marist-Willamette game. Willamette gained 11 RPI points in this category just by playing Marist.

What does it all mean? It means that early in the season your RPI fluctuates wildly, but after about 20 games there isn't much change. That's because a single loss doesn't change your W-L percentage that much late in the season, doesn't change your opponents W-L percentage much, or your opponent's opponents. Somehow, the RPI is very accurate in the end. The main issue with the RPI at this point is that the RPI does not count out of state opponents opponents records. The RPI does include the opponents record, but that is only 25% of the overall formula.

Reporters.
I'm getting great recaps from Dean Inuoye of Marist and Dave Doreksen from Churchill as well as the Willamette and Sheldon coaches. It would be great to pick up at least two more teams. If we have six of the teams reporting plus myself, it is likely that each game will be recapped. There will be one or two games where neither team has a reporter, but if we have enough reporters that won't happen often. If you would like to be a recapper/reporter please email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com. And remember, you get to shamelessly plug your own child and get extra free photo attention and free photos from me of your child. The recaps don't have to be near as long as you are seeing on the main page. And if you just want to send in just the box scores, that's fine too. Box scores look like this:

Churchill 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 1 2 3

Sheldon 0 1 1 0 0 1 X - 3 5 2

Lessel, Murray(6) and Kearney; Cunningham and D Lewis
WP Cunningham LP Lessel

RBI Jones, Stiles, D Lewis
HR Jones
2B Cunningham, Stiles

Gary

Opening Day Recap

2011-04-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

I picked the right league opener to watch Friday. Andrew Moore threw an extremely well controlled no-no against Thurston. Just one ball left the infield and the two runners who walked were wiped off the basepaths by double plays. Nearly as impressive was Thurston's frosh Aaron Clift. Clift went five full innings before turning the ball over to TJ. Clift had a strikeout in each inning - a nice way to avoid big innings.
Coach Nicholsen had to be happy with laying down a sac bunt so early in league play this year. A batter did not lay a bunt down earlier in the game and I'm sure coach was thinking, "Oh, no. Not again this year." And, of course, Nicholsen had to be elated with Shawn Boehm's 3 run homer and the deep double by Kyle DeHaven - both with two outs!
Thurston coach Phil Dube had to be happy with his Clift. Clift didn't seem fazed by the pressure of opening the season at Swede. Dube couldn't have been happy with the Colt bats, but he knows a buzzsaw (Moore) when he sees one.

Pitchers ruled the day. Only two of the eight teams playing scored more than three runs. Willamette's Trent Waggoner had a nice day in his 7 inning, 2 hit win over Marshfield. One of my pitching keys is when a pitcher is reaching or surpassing a ratio of 4 strikeouts for every walk. Waggoner almost got to the magic 4:1 ratio with 10 k's and 3 walks. Marshfield's soph Doug Molzahn, was pretty efficient himself. Striking out 3 and walking just 1 in four innings. That's not overpowering, but pitchers have to avoid walks, and Molzahn did.
Willamette coach Jon Guldager will be hoping that soph Scott Kuvass's two doubles are a sign of good things to come. Even better, Wolverines Jalen Drath and Ryan Concannon each jacked one out. The Pirates only got two hits, which may be the situation the first round. The youngest team in the league and the Pirates have no seniors. I'm curious if any of the youngin's have started growing facial hair. Give them a round of varsity pitching and things will improve.
Following the pitching theme, the Sheldon - Churchill game had some strong pitching, but also wild pitching. Irishman Cason Cunningham went 7 innings, striking out 9, but walking or hitting 6 batters. Junior Lancer Jake Lessel also struck out 9, but in just 5 and 1/3 innings. But he too walked or hit 6 batters. If they don't get the walks down, teams will start really crowding the plate to take a few more hits on the arm. Time will tell. At the plate, Churchill senior Bryson Jones hit the lone homer in the game.
No recap, box scores or stats from the South Eugene win over Springfield. It was a 3-2 win by South. I heard it was Bates on the mound for the Millers, but no word on who pitched the gem for South.

Monday's round of games oddly don't feature any 1-0 teams facing each other. I'm going to try and make the Willamette 1-0 at Marist 0-0 game. Hopefully, it won't get rained out. The game will be a good opportunity to see what these two teams have on the mound. I've seen most of Marist's pitchers. It will be interesting to see if they can hold the Wolverines to less than the 5 runs Willamette scored against Marshfield. Willamette got seven full innings out of Waggoner against Marshfield, so they can throw anybody. If no one looks like they can go a lot of innings, it might be time for Willamette to only show their pitchers to the meat of the order one time through. Too bad the meat of Marists batting order is from 1 to about 7.
All of the other games are going to be interesting because I assume everyone threw their number one pitcher last Friday, unlike Marist who had a bye. South 1-0 at Churchill 0-1. There will be a total of 7 seniors dressed for this game. So we have two young teams. Pitching will probably drop off from opening day. I haven't seen Churchill, but I'm guessing their infield/outfield play is a little better than South's. The game should be decided at the plate, with both teams being giving the opportunity to hit the ball. If one of the teams' can pound it, they may put some pressure on the young defenses on the field.
North Eugene 1-0 at Springfield 0-1. Springfield's relatively inexperienced players at the varsity level are bound to have problems with the North lefties. High school age kids just don't see enough left handed pitching to catch on to how easy it is to hit them. This is a good opportunity for both teams to establish a solid number two pitcher on their staff.
Sheldon at Marshfield. Maybe Sheldon doesn't know the North Bend bridge is closed and you have to go around the bay. Would the Irish have to forfeit for not getting to the game? Last Friday, Sheldon squeaked by Churchill and Marshfield stayed close to Willamette. This is another game where we don't know what the falloff is in pitching to the number two pitcher. As stated earlier, the extremely young Pirates are likely to make Sheldon's number two look good as the Pirates view varsity pitching this first round of league games.
Thurston has a bye.
Looks like just as last Friday's scores reflected a lot of good number ones throughout the league, Monday's games could turn into some offensive outbursts. Hopefully, some number two's will emerge.

League stats are posted here - league stats. I received recaps or box scores from all but the South Eugene-Springfield game. If you can help out with those stats, please email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com

I haven't done a good job of teaching how the RPI works. Please take the RPI poll on the main page. The poll closes during the Willamette-Marist game.

I just noticed that three of four Monday games are at the three worst draining fields in the league. Can you guess which three?

League Openers - SUNSHINE! Axemen facility improvments.

2011-04-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

Fantastic match-ups for the league openers. And fantastic sunshine!

Three match-ups involve teams that look pretty close on paper.

Thurston at North Eugene. Two of the top three teams in the league. Hopefully, the pitching match-up will be Andrew Moore vs TJ. Both teams have top notch defenses behind their pitchers. The game will probably be determined on the battle between Moore and the Thurston bats.
Springfield at South Eugene. The defending MWL champs lost a lot to graduation, as did South. But the Millers have returning MVP Kameron Bates, who should be on the mound. South has one of the best players in the league in Gus Craig in centerfield. This is a very even match between two good teams that have an opportunity to establish an identity with a win. Miller fans should take note of some great improvements at South. Check out the new drainage system for the outfield! Actually you won't see it because it is under the grass, but the usually swampy South outfield will be bone dry today. Also new is a huge concrete base for the spectator area. Batting cages will soon be in right field, shortening the right field pole from 410 feet to 340. With luck a new scoreboard will be up by the end of the season. Could South be a program on the rise?
Churchill at Sheldon. Two teams in identical situations. Both teams graduated a ton of talent. Both teams have great programs that know how to develop players. Sheldon appears to be a little ahead of Churchill at this point, but Churchill D is always good, and if the Lancer pitcher has a good day, the tide could turn in Churchill's favor.
Marshfield at Willamette. Willamette is my 'program of the future'. Maybe the future is now - as in today. I believe the Willamette program is moving into the world of Churchill, Marist, North Eugene, Sheldon and Thurston and establishing a long term successful program. Marshfield, loaded with sophs and frosh, but no seniors is hoping this young team establishes a new Pirate baseball attitude. The Pirates can show their new attitude by bursting the Wolverine's bubble.
Marist has a bye.

Reminders:

I should have an accurate roster for most teams after today's North-Thurston game. Still need Marshfield's and Springfield. All rosters are on one page for ease of use. Here is the link: Rosters

You can get by inning updates from the game I attend by following mwlnow on Twitter Link to Twitter . Search for 'mwlnow' and click on follow on the right side.

Text me scores while you are at games. My text number is 541-337-1311. I need new texters from most teams. I Twitter out the results as I get them. If you are smart phone savvy, you can sit in the stands and smugly say, 'North and Thurston are tied 1-1 in the ninth and Marshfield is ahead of Willamette in the first."

Check out the new poll. It will close Monday the 4th.

Official League Prediction

2011-03-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

It's time for my final prediction. Due to bad Oregon weather and six teams fleeing the state during spring break, I've only seen three teams - Marist and Sheldon once each, and North Eugene twice. I'm not changing my groupings of teams, but I'm changing the final order a little bit.

Top three group alpha order: Marist, North Eugene, Thurston - throw a blanket over them. It's a three way race to the title for these teams. But here is how they will finish (hopefully, blogs are editable in two months).

1. Marist: Marist bats are hot early. Offense: I saw the Spartans in a losing cause against North Medford. The Spartans were hitting the ball hard and on the button, but right to people. I left between games to dry off my camera and didn't come back to watch Marist hammer three homers (Silver, Swindling and Inuoye) against the Tornado. At least 8 players have tripled!

Pitching: I'm putting a lot of pressure on seniors Zach Eyster and Kevin Haskin, but they have started strong and combined with the Marist bats, should pick up a lot of W's.

Defense:  Defense is what keeps the best teams at the top, and Marist has it all.  Their backstop is catcher Will Swindling, headed toward the University of San Francisco on a baseball scholarship.  The Spartans have some speed in the outfield and are quick in the infield. The gap in the quality of defenses in the league has closed and generally, most teams aren't losing games because of bad fielding.  Still some teams are better than others and Marist will be one of the better D's.

All in all, Marist's defense will keep the Spartans in almost every game. I believe it will be their bats, especially early in the season, that will carry them to the title.

Marist sits out the opening day of MWL league games with a bye.

2. North Eugene.  The Highlanders should be an automatic number one pick as they return six players who played in the state championship game, including the winning pitcher Andrew Moore. I'm betting that Moore will come close to running the table in league. He's just that good at hitting the corners and changing speeds, of which he has a lot of.  In any other year, North's number two pitcher would be good enough to win most of the games that Moore doesn't pitch.  But this isn't just any year because almost every team has an ace who can beat anyone. It looks like the number two will be either of the tall lefties, Toby Woods or Big Cat Clayton.  (Moore, Woods and Clayton will return in 2012). Defensively, Kyle DeHaven returns behind the dish. The Highlander infield is as good as it always is, which is usually the best in the league. There might be a lack of speed at a spot or two in the outfield, but you won't find these guys making mental mistakes, so they'll be fine in the outfield.

North Eugene opens by hosting Thurston, my #3 pick. Gonna be a great league opener. I'll be there.

3. Thurston. I didn't see the Colts in preseason, and they didn't have impressive scores out of Arizona, where the MWL went 9-14 against competition that had a couple of weeks head start on Oregon teams. I'll base my ranking on who is returning for Thurston and the overall program.

Tyler Johnson was listed number 30 on Baseball Northwest's Watch List for Oregon players. His batterymate will be junior Jarren Goddard, ranked number 27 for the class of 2012. Goddard hammered four dingers in Arizona and TJ added one more. Sophomore Kyle Watson is ranked number 19 as a pitcher and 1st baseman for the class of 2013. MWL fans would probably agree with these rankings and agree that the Colt pitching staff is in good hands.

All leaguer Zach Kopczenski, will help anchor down the infield with TJ when TJ isn't on the mound.  Tyler Dumilieu returns as an all-leaguer in the outfield.

I think the Colts bats will be good, but not dominant. Goddard brings the power to the Colts lineup (.413 in league last year). Kopczenski (.326) and TJ (.379) are going to have to be hot in key games if the Colts are going to win the MWL title. Dumilieu (.367) has wheels and will be a pest on the bases. If the Colts don't find power at the plate, they have the speed to play small ball and everyone's favorite, the hit and run.

4-7 Alpha order: Sheldon, South Eugene, Springfield, Willamette - Who will improve the fastest?

4. Sheldon. Sheldon is loaded with potential. Where the Irish finish will depend on how fast they come together as a team. Senior Cason Cunningham will lead the Irish on the mound. He's had a fine spring so far, including a no hitter in Arizona.    The Irish have at least four players on the BBNW watch list - Cunningham, Ryan Land, Cooper Stiles, Brett Nielsen.

Sheldon plays Churchill in the league opener. Two young teams in a very important early season game.

5. Springfield. It appears all league MVP Kameron Bates has fully recovered from his injury. Kameron is not only a good pitcher because he throws strikes, but he and Andrew Moore are among the most focused and intense players in the league. The Millers have only played three games so far, so there hasn't been a chance to develop a number two. Malik Evans, ranked number 16 for the class of 2013 by Baseball Northwest, and senior Blaine Dudley have to develop for the Millers to end up in 4th, or even 5th.

Offensivley, Dudley, Bates and senior Ryan Helfrich will likely provide power at the plate. However, the Millers send a lot of new varsity players into the teeth of a lot of good MWL pitchers. Don't expect much out of the Miller bats early in league play.

Springfield travels to South Eugene, my #6 pick, to open league.

6. South Eugene. South Eugene features two returning all league players who are also listed very high on Baseball Northwest's Watch list. Senior Gus Craig is listed as number 7 in the Oregon class of 2011, while Joe Schindler is ranked number 2 in the class of 2013. Senior Carlos Larson and junior outfielder Max Morrison are also on the watch list. The Axemen are pretty young, but are 3-2 on the season just three days before league starts.

I'm hoping to see them today, Wednesday, to get more info on the Axemen.

7. Willamette. Willamette has all of the pieces to make a run as high as third. It's just a question of whether or not this is the year that pitching finally comes through. The Wolverine MaxPrep roster has 11 pitchers listed, which I assume isn't right, but.....
There are six seniors on the roster. You're sure to remember Ryan Concannon Tony Svensson and Matt Erickson.  Willamette was very young last year, which could have hurt their chances of earning all league honors. But they picked off several all league spots with frosh and sophs. Cole Urioste, Scott Kuvaas and Trent Waggoner were all league and have at least one more year after 2011.

Willamette's bats were up and down in Arizona. But last year in league, Kuvaas hit .372, Urioste hit .349 and senior all leaguer Tony Svennson .356. I'm thinking Waggoner will do well on the mound. Willamette's D has improved tremendously the last four years. If the Wolverine's second and third pitchers come through they will place high in the standings. But I'll let them prove it.

Willamette hosts Marshfield to open league.

8. Churchill. Churchill had just three non-seniors last year. This year they have just three seniors. Do good programs like Churchill really have rebuilding years? Or are they reloading with a good JV team? Churchill's football team has reloaded several times after losing good seniors, and I've always ranked them quite high. It's dangerous ranking Churchill this low, but I doubt they can climb much higher than fifth this year.

Pitchers Jordan Thompson (soph), junior Jake Lessel (number 20 on BBNW, class of 2012) and Brandon Doerkson have all shown glimpses of brilliance at times in pre-league play. You and I know the Lancer D will be good. Good infield play is just built into the Churchill program. The Lancer bats are mostly new to varsity play in a year with at least one very solid pitcher on each team. How fast can these young Lancers get up to speed at the plate? Senior Bryson Jones, junior Chase Kearney and Thompson are also on the BBNW watch list.

9. Marshfield. The Pirates are going into the season with no seniors. Out of nine potentail returnees, only three came back. But coach Hall, has a solid group of sophomores and juniors and has some hungry and talented frosh. The best chance of Marsfield ruining another team's RPI ranking will be when sophomore Doug Moltzan is on the mound pitching to Raymond Jones. Juniors Devon Knowlton and Mason Anderson, sophs Alex Dew, Tyler Johnson, along with Jones and Moltzan will be trying to pull along the hungry, agreesive frosh - Johnny Phillips, Anthony Ross and Drew Jones.

Let me know if you agree or disagree or want to sneak your name (or son's name) in here for a semi-legitamate reason. Gary at mwlnow@yahoo.com

Out of State Wipe Out?

2011-03-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

I don't like to blog without seeing any baseball, but my trips to Springfield this week only ended up in wasted gas. With no more games scheduled locally this week, I may as well make a stab at how our teams are shaping up.

Arizona - Nevada Wipe Out?
It looks like the six teams that went south for spring break will each get in from three to four games. So far, we are 3-10, with Willamette (2) and Marist (1) picking up the wins. But keep in mind that most of our out of state opponents have been playing since mid February. Opponents bats and pitching are undoubtedly a little more dialed in than ours.
My three pre-season league favorites, Marist, North and Thurston all travelled South. Marist picked up a 6-1 win, and I might add they were coming off of a great performance in the second game of a double header against North Medford last Saturday. Marist is holding their opponents under 3 runs per game. Keep pitcher Zach Eyster on your watch list. That's a great sign for the Spartans. Combine the defense with 7 runs per game on offense, including several dingers and I feel good about my prediction of Marist being in the top three. Silver, Swindling and Ryan Inouye all jacked one in the second North Medford game. For those not familiar with Marist baseball, just think football. These guys hit as hard in baseball as they do in football. Matt Beattie and Austin Baird are two more gridiron jocks who have had good games at the plate.
Thurston's defense looks good, giving up three and a half runs per game this year. Colt bats haven't exploded, but they've been playing tough opponents. There are going to be a lot of strong pitching staffs this year, and Thurston's Tyler Johnson and Kyle Watson are bound to generate buzz on the mound. You can expect these guys to be in the top three, too.
North Eugene lost a 2-1 game to a Selby coached Sierra Vista team. Doesn't that sound like Highlander baseball!? The Highlanders have given up over five runs per game; unusual for North. But in the games Moore pitched, North is giving up just 1.66 runs per game. With a league full of really tough pitching this year, North's other pitchers will have to step up. Lefties Chris Clayton and Toby Woods have looked good at times. I think North bats are ahead of where they were last year at this time. True, I'm comparing to an abysmal start last year, but this year's Highlander's are looking much more confident at the plate.
Springfield and Willamette should be very good this year, if.....
If Kameron Bates is full strength. The Millers have only played one game, but 2010 league MVP had a stellar pitching performance and appears to be back to full strength after knee surgery. Blaine Dudley is going to try and be the other stopper.  Soph Malik Evans returns on the mound after a successful W-L year in 2010.   Dudley and Evans are going to have to come through if the Millers are to repeat. I'm curious to see how Ryan Helfrich does at the plate this year after ringing up 10 RBIi's in league last year.
If Willamette's pitchers don't walk batters. Willamette is my surprise team of 2011.  I've said this program is on the rise bigtime, and so far they haven't disappointed. The Wolverines are 2-1 in Arizona. Willamette's Achilles heel has been their pitching, but it looks like that is coming under control. Trent Waggoner, Ryan Concannon and Koleton Williams gave up just three walks over the last two games. Keep in mind that Willamette returns two all league sophs, Scott Kuvaas and Cole Uriste.
South, Churchill and Sheldon are my unknowns.  I haven't followed the 6A schools the last four years and Churchilll only has three players returning from last year's roster. Of the three, Churchill (2-2) and South Eugene (2-2) look to be doing a little better at this early stage.  Churchill scores a lot in it's first three games and defense had a shut out against Elmira before they left for the sunshine. South Eugene's Gus Craig is sure to create some talk and maybe the entire team will, too. South Eugene gave up just four runs in the last two games.  Axemen bats need to get hot as they are averaging just 3.3 runs at the plate. Sheldon has played five games and given up at least 10 runs in three of them, one of which was an Irish win. Let's just say this is a very young team with a lot of potential.  The Irish will progress rapidly as they gel as a team.
Marshfield has lost the only two games it has played. Like several recent years, I expect the Pirates to steal a couple of games and foul up some team's seeding. By the way, Marshfield's softball team has a 4-0 record so far!

RPI fun
Springfield is 1-0 with an RPI of 472. Sheldon is 2-3 with an RPI of 521. Willamette is 2-1 with an RPI of 'NA'.
I don't know why, but the RPI's are swinging a lot, sometimes several hundred points in a day for a team. Sometimes over one hundred points for teams that haven't played. I followed the RPI closely in football and basketball and this type of gyration did not occur in those sports. I know some of the RPI weirdness is due to out-of-state games not counting much in RPI calculations, but that doesn't account for everything. It's a good thing we have 16 league games. The RPI will start to smooth out as we get into league play.

Roster loaded with frosh and sophs
I have four complete rosters and a pretty good list of players from some other teams. I thought the Peach Fuzz award would go to Sheldon with six sophs, but it goes to South Eugene with five frosh!
It will be interesting to watch Churchill, which has only three players returning. The Lancers have three seniors and nine juniors and only two sophs. That might make Churchill, along with Thurston, one of the 'older' teams in the league. I'm betting that their defense will be good and they'll do just fine.
   The Colts are fielding five seniors and six juniors, making Thurston the senior citizens of the league. I love their pitching staff. The Colts may pitch their way to the title in a year with a lot of good pitchers.
North Eugene has about four seniors, but they have four juniors who played on their state champion team last year and several more who were on that roster. The Maine import has a wicked 12-6 curve coming from the left side. North has to have a number two develop into an ace if they are going to take the MWL.
Willamette has five seniors, six juniors, and five sophs. The Wolverines are returning a lot of players of all ages. They looked fundamentally sound last year, but the pitching just didn't come through. The pitching is much better and the rest of the lads are older and stronger.
I haven't been able to scratch together a player list or roster from Marist, Marshfield or Springfield, so other than knowing that Marist is loaded, has a fair number of seniors; and Marshfield is planning on playing several frosh and may have just one senior, I'm in the dark about these teams.
When I lived in DeSoto, Texas, the local high school's goal was to get a two-year or four year off for each senior on the team. They had met their goal seven years in a row. They also had ton's of seniors on their team every year, and the JV team was loaded with juniors awaiting their turn on varsity. What a contrast to seeing so many frosh and sophs on our MWL teams over the last decade. (A lot of people think football when they think of high school sports in Texas, but I can assure that baseball is just as intense.) If you haven't seen the All-Teams-At-A-Glance roster, here is what I have so far. If you can help out on the missing teams pleast do. All Teams One Page Roster.

Thanks to all of the coaches and parents who have texted/emailed recaps this week. I know it's not easy texting recaps on phones or finding computers and wireless access.

Bring some sunshine back, league games start next week.

Arizona here we come, will it rain there?

2011-03-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

Just Monday morning I was in 75 degree weather in New Orleans. My on time flights got me back to Eugene in time to rush over to Swede to watch North Eugene host West Albany. It was a good day for the MWL as three of the four teams scheduled to play got their games in and won. But since then, with the exception of Sheldon getting a win on an artificial turf infield at McMinnville high school on Wednesday, we've had eleven rainouts. At least we haven't lost a game yet.

ARIZONA HERE WE COME
The list of teams not going south is much shorter than the list of those heading to dry country.

Marshfield - North Marion Tourney
South Eugene - Glencoe Tourney
Springfield - Double header at Ashland

The Smart Six

Churchill, Marist, Sheldon, Thurston, Willamette are in Arizona
North Eugene is pulling up short of Arizona with a tourney in Las Vegas

In 1968 I think my team Marshfield went to Brookings for a double header during spring break. Things have changed.

RPI and out of state tournaments
Churchill, Marist, North Eugene and Sheldon are all tied for first in the RPI standings with a .625 score. But winning against out of state opponents won't count much, if at all, in RPI calculations. (The OSAA hopes to fix that in time for the 2011-2012 sports seasons). So if these teams travel all the way to Arizona and end up facing another Oregon team, don't feel too bad. They'll earn RPI points even if they lose to a fellow Oregon team. If you want to feel sorry for a team, you can feel sorry for Pendleton, who is 2-0 on the season, and has an RPI score of "N/A" because both of their wins are against out of state schools which are closer to them than most Oregon schools.

Oddities from the first three games.
There were at least three unusual, if not oddball, events in the first four games and all involved the umps:

One occurred in the North game. This one involved the high school no contact rule. West Albany had been having a horrible day throwing the ball to the bases on routine plays. So when they finally turned an easy to turn double play in the third inning, the first baseman was so happy he forgot that Shawn Boehm had headed over to third. Boehm noticed that the first baseman had temporarily checked out, so Boehm tried the Kidsports steal of home.... The Bulldog bench finally gets the gloveman to throw to home, but he short hops it. The catcher, who is protecting home plate with his tush and knee, knocks the ball down to the ground. Boehm, who would have been out by five feet on a good throw, now finds himself with an easy score, that is, if the catcher isn't blocking the plate without the ball. Shawn Boehm did what I would have done, he instinctively lowered himself to 'nudge' the catcher off of the plate. As soon as the catcher felt contact, he also did what I would have done. The catcher double arm wrapped Boehm and took Boehm to the ground in a great wrestling move. Result and umps call? Boehm was called out at home for making contact, and both players had to take a seat. I'm by no means a rules expert, but I think the umps technically got it right. But what is a runner supposed to do if the ball is on the ground and a player is blocking the base? I guess high school baseball needs to develop a sign for the runner called "The I am being polite and not initiating contact even though it is clear I would be safe because the fielder doesn't have the ball in his hand or glove Rule." (By the way, good job North and West Albany players for not starting a riot after the collision at the plate)
I'd hate to be the ump on this one. Have you ever watched the home plate ump stare at the plate to make sure a player steps on the plate after a player hits a homer? I'm sure no ump ever wants to call this one. But in the Marist game, a Spartan put the rule to the test, and just like the ump in the first game, this ump made the right technical call. I guess. So, batters, touch home plate!
And when is the last time you saw an ump overrule himself? In the Sheldon game, a Sheldon pitcher wasn't stopping out of the stretch before he threw to home. The ump missed it, but was put on the lookout. No biggie, that happens. So, a couple of pitches the later, the pitcher doesn't stop again and the ump calls a balk. Problem being that the pitcher threw to first. The McMinnville runner was sent to second, but the ump realized what he had done and reversed his call.

College Players
The list of MWL players playing baseball in college is quite large this year. My current count stands at 26 players. Thurston leads my list with 7, North follows with 5, Springfield has 4, Sheldon and Churchill have 3. Jeff McKay is coaching at Corban University and has four former MWL players. You can find 10 MWLer's on the Lane CC team. I'm probably a little light on players from Marist, Sheldon and South Eugene as I haven't followed them the last four years. If you know of anyone else, let me know. Here is the list. MWL college players

Pros
I haven't started the update of MWL players in the pros in 2011. But if you know of anyone, please let me know. Here's last year's list. MWL in the Pros

Photos
If you see a great, or not so great, photo in the SmugMug gallery that interests you, please consider buying it.  I recommend waiting until at least halfway through the season if you are thinking of buying photos of just one or two players.  During football, a couple of schools had one person make an order to buy photos of lots of different players, thus keeping shipping costs down. Also, if you have any special requests, such as larger size photos, please let me know at mwlnow@yahoo.com.

Some of you may have noticed that during basketball I did not use the copyright image over the photos on SmugMug. That's because I don't consider myself all that good at basketball photography yet. But there may come a day that I will charge for basketball, too.

Finally, please keep in mind that regular reporters get free access to their sons photos so they can print them at home.

Please let others know about the website.
There are still a lot of MWL parents and players who haven't run across the website yet. Please let them know. In general, the more people who visit the site, the more income I generate. How much income you might ask? Well, since I added Google Ads, it took 19 months to generate the first 100 dollars and I'm hoping to make the next $100 in just six months.  My cost of the photo catalog SmugMug is 150 bucks a year, and I've generated about $150 dollars in profit in photography in one year.  (But half of the photography profits go back to booster clubs.)  Your support helps cover my gas and occasional tickets to playoff games. If I ever figure out to make some real money, I'll buy a new $6,000 camera body, and then you'll see some awesome photos!

PS.
Some of you have known my wife, Jennifer, for many years. The reason I was in Louisiana was to attend her oldest son's wedding. Ben Brink swam in the 2000 Olympic Trials, but was forced out of the sport due to injury just one year later. In 1999 he set the OSAA state meet record in the boys 200 IM. The record still stands. Ben married a wonderful Southern Belle, Hillary Hanna, and they will be living in Houston. That's two boys married off and two to go for Jennifer and I. Oh, we also worked in Fat Tuesday in N'orleans.

2011 Baseball is Here

2011-03-01T12:43:00.000-08:00

    Five years ago it would have been hard to believe that the MWL would become a state power in baseball. However, in the last four years, three different MWL teams have earned their way to the state finals, culminating in back to back titles by Thurston on '09 and North Eugene in 2010.
    North, Thurston and Churchill have all made it to the finals recently. North has always had a strong program, while Thurston and Churchill upgraded their physical plants and their quality of play over the last six years. Now it looks like it's Willamette that is stepping into the Bigs. Last year the Wolverines featured two 1st team all league frosh, Cole Uriste and Scott Kuvass. Throw in a honorable mention all leaguer, Trent Waggoner, and the huge new Ark to practice in, and you have a program ready to excel.
    With the exception of Churchill, the MWL was pretty young last year. And all three of our playoff teams made the quarterfinals! North and Thurston return a ton of talent. Churchill graduated all but three of their players, so it could be a tough season for Churchill in a year the MWL features a ton of returning all leaguers. Springfield graduated a fair amount of players, but if league MVP Kameron Bates recovers from a ligament injury suffered during football season, the Millers might pitch their way back to the quarterfinals.  If you're wondering who will win league, factor in up-and-coming Willamette with four returning all leaguers; and Marist with four all leaguers - Marist's Will Swindling and Logan Silver doubling up as all staters.
    I haven't been keeping up with Sheldon and South Eugene so I don't have a feel for how they'll do in 2011. Both teams got pounded in the Southwest Conference last year, finishing fifth and sixth in a six team league. It must have made the Irish and Axemen feel better when South Medford made it all the way to the finals, finishing second in state.
    So, my early thinking goes like this...

Order of finish 5A = North Eugene, Marist, Willamette, Springfield, Churchill, Marshfield
Order of finish 6A = Thurston, Sheldon, South Eugene
Combined Order = North Eugene, Thurston, Marist, Sheldon, Willamette, Springfield, South Eugene, Churchill, Marshfield
If Kameron Bates is 100% out of the blocks, move Springfield up a spot in 5A only, and two spots in the 9 team combined league.

North Eugene brings back Andrew Moore (2010 league ERA 1.54), Kyle DeHaven (1.49) and Chris Clayton (0.47) on the mound. It was North Eugene's defense that got them into the playoffs. MWL opponents are going to be hoping that North hits like they did most of last season.... miserably. The Highlanders couldn't hit, earn a walk, or lay down a bunt until Coach Nicholsen had a night time batting practice late in the season that seemed to ignite the North bats. If that nighttime practice hadn't worked, my last photo of Nicholsen would have been of him lying in the third base coaches box, clutching his chest after a missed sac bunt. But instead of resting in peace , he survived and got to watch the Highlanders take home the state title. Other players opponents wish had graduated: Garrett Harpole (hit .347 in league) and Erik Long (.317). By the way, anyone hoping North Eugene goes deep into the basketball playoffs?
Thurston also returns a tough pitching staff. Tyler Johnson (league ERA 1.19) and soph Kyle Watson (1.77) were a combined 5-1 for the Colts. They'll be getting most of the starts now that Dawson Phinney (5W-3L) graduated. Junior Jarren Goddard brings the power to the Colts lineup (.413 in league last year). Zach Kopczenski (.326) and TJ (.379) are going to have to be hot in key games if the Colts are going to win the MWL title. Tylor Dumilieu (.367) has wheels and will be a pest on the bases.
Marist's all state catcher Will Swindling has already committed to the University of San Francisco. Another all-stater, Logan Silver, is headed to Holy Cross for football. Seniors Zach Eyster and Ryan Inouye were all league Sky-Em last year. Matt Beattie and Bennet McKee are on Baseball Northwest's Watch List. I don't think Marist has enough top-notch pitching to take the title, but if everyone beats up on everyone else, they could sneak all the way to the top.
Sheldon returns a couple of all leaguer's - Cason Cunningham, a first baseman, and outfielder Ryan Land. Stan Manley returns to Sheldon as head coach. Jim Fryback is helping out with pitching. These two have taken several teams deep into the playoffs. They'll have a challenge this year.
Willamette is my surprise pick of the season. Coach Guldager started changing the program four years ago. Attention to detail and a committent to baseball by the players is expected and Guldager is getting results. Fans could see the change in attitude on the field the last couple of years, but the club just wasn't deep enough in quality pitchers and the defense was porous at times. That's all changed - although we need to see proof on the mound. Key players: Soph Scott Kuvass was a vacuum clearner at short as a frosh and earned 1st team all league honors. Kuvaas also hit .372 in league. Another soph, Cole Urioste also made 1st team last year and hit .349. Last year's youth movement included all leaguer Trent Waggoner, a junior now. Senior all leaguer Tony Svennson hit at a .356 clip last year and was second on the team in league rbi's. These guys have been able to work out in the Ark all winter and should be ready to play on day 1.
My favorite team last year because of their spunk and team chant, Springfield rode league MVP Kameron Bate's arm (4-1 in league) to the league title. I'm dropping the Miller's down as I have concern's about Bates recovery from the ligament injury. Also, while the Millers return a few of their key players, they lost a lot of speed and sass in last year's group of seniors. But consider this, if Bates is healthly, team's will also have to deal with one of last year's other frosh phenom's, pitcher Malik Evans (4-0). Two quality pitchers are enough to go deep in the playoffs, but might not get the Millers into the upper half of the nine team MWL. All Leaguer Blaine Dudley and senior Ryan Helfrich will provide the Miller power at the plate.
Like Sheldon, I haven't followed South Eugene the last four years after the OSAA split into six classifications. The Axement have three all leaguers returning from the tough Southwest Conference. They are 2nd teamers senior Gus Craig in the outfield and sohpomore Jay Schindler in the infield. Carlos Larson was an honorable mention pitcher.
Churchill missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years last year. They fielded an almost all senior team, with just three underclassmen on the schedule. The good news is that they finished on a four game win streak. The potential returning varsity players are Chase Kearney, Jacob DeZarn and Kylan Pomerey.
Marshfield continues to retool their program. Junior Zach Thrall made all league last year. Promising left handed senior pitcher Kane Rowley is probably out for the season due to an injury. Another key junior is catcher Raymond Jones. The Pirates need to find some horses to throw to Jones. Other: Tyler Davidson returns and may be the only senior if Rowley can't go. Coach Hall will probably be in the spoiler role once again this year, a role the Pirates play quite well. Davidson, Thrall and Jones will be joined by juniors Deven Knowlton at 1b, Mason Anderson at 2B, and sophomores Alex Dew, Doug Molzahn and Tyler Johnson.

As always, I appreciate additions and corrections. Mail them to mwlnow@yahoo.com.

Be a score reporter or game recapper. It's an easy way to get your kids name on this website. With three new teams in the league and some parent reporters graduating with their kids, I'm looking especially hard for reporters from:
Churchill
Marist
Sheldon
South Eugene
People who recap games and are regular score reporters get free access to their kids photos. They also get extra emphasis when I am shooting at games.
You can text me scores during and immediately after games at 541-337-1311. I Twitter out the results during the game that I'm attending. It's fun to share the scores all around the league. Email game recaps to me by 9:30 for posting that evening. If you get it in later than that, it's better than nothing, but probably won't get posted until the next day.

I am redoing the website and kind of blew it up. Each teams main baseball page should be okay, but it may be difficult to find old info until I get around to fixing the site. Please be patient.

Thanks a million

Gary

Season Wrap Up - NE Champs, All Stars & Next Year

2010-06-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

What a great way to end the baseball season. Sitting in SUNSHINE and watching a MWL team win the state championship. I talked to Coach Nicholsen a few days before the championship game and he said "You never know how good the league's pitching is compared to other leagues until you get to the playoffs. It looks like we're competitive." I would say in response, "That's a fact!"

There were great stories this year about our three seeds... Springfield not having won an outright MWL title since the 70's.... Thurston losing ten all leaguers to graduation and taking the second seed... and North Eugene losing two of their four returning all leaguers, losing another penciled in started via transfer, and a mid season injury to one of their aces. All three head coaches had quite a challenge. All three made the state quarterfinals. But it was Coach Nicholsen who climbed the mountain by getting his players to play incredible D early in the season and then adding in the bats during the playoffs.

North Eugene gave up just four runs total in five playoff games. In games that counted this year - league and playoff games - the Highlanders allowed just 1.6 runs per game. Out of 20 league and playoff games, North held opponents to 0 or 1 run 13 times! Kyle DeHaven and Andrew Moore both return next year. They had a combined league record of 9-4 with 98 combined K's and 24 combined walks.

North's late season offensive explosion was good to see, although not really needed during the playoffs because of the great D. Coach Nicholsen and I have different theories about how North got their bats going. Nicholsen says everything changed when they had a late season night hitting practice. He changed up their hitting routine a little and the kids started smacking the ball during the night practice and it transferred over to the games. My theory is that the kids saw North Medford lay 19 blistering hits on North Eugene at Swede and the Highlanders started thinking, "So, that's how it's done."

My memory of the state championship game will be that the Highlanders never quit, even though they were given plenty of reasons to fold. They were facing a pitcher who reaches the 90's and had signed with Oregon State and was picked in the 5th round of the MLB draft, so they needed to make the most of every scoring opportunity. But North leaves two on in the third, leaves the bases loaded in the fourth, leaves the bases loaded again in the fifth, all the while keeping Volcano Stadium spectators from overheating by fanning 13 times. But North just kept putting pressure on until the Grizzlies couldn't catch all of the salmon on base and scratched out three runs in the sixth. Then all the Highlanders had to do was shut down the top of the order for two innings. No pressure. It was a great day.

All league thoughts. I saw a lot of ball this year, and I think the all league selections were very good this year. Coach of the Year almost always goes to the winning coach, but I could have argued for a three way split with Lansdon, Dube, and Nicholsen. Hats off to all three for managing the players heads in a year that a lot of teenagers would have fallen apart. The Millers had to overcome the image of Springfield not being a good program, much less a championship program. The Colts had to find a pitcher (Found 3 - Dawson Phinney, Tyler Johnson and Kyle Watson) and overcome the loss of all of those all leaguers from a state championship team. I've already pointed out North's possible pitfalls. MVP. Normally, the MWL has several players who were excelling on the mound, in the field and at the plate. But this year, Kameron Bates was about the only one to play that triple role. Certainly Andrew Moore looks like an MVP after his pitching performance in the state playoffs, but the league vote was taken before the playoffs. Peanut Havens had to be considered with his .440 batting average and leadership from behind the plate. Freshman. Wow, two freshmen made first team and one made second. It was a joy to watch Scott Kuvass play short for Willamette. His frosh teammate Cole Urioste pounded the ball at a .349 clip. Finally, Thurston's Kyle Watson picked up two victories against no losses with a sub 2.00 ERA and showed clutch hitting at the plate.

Next Year: Bye-bye Colts and hello Spartans. I stated in my blogs last spring and winter that I was really pumped for the 2010 baseball season because I thought at least four teams had a shot at the title and maybe five, plus it just seemed like the caliber of baseball had improved a lot throughout the league. I'm just as pumped for next year, but for far different reasons:

Thurston and North Eugene would have been the clear favorites next year. Thurston returns five all leaguers. North Eugene returns six if you count Shawn Boehm, who was injured this year after an all league year in 2009. So, without considering Marist until I learn more about them, Thurston's move to 6A puts North in the driver's seat. How will the returning players handle the high expectations? Will they be overconfident? Will they tighten up? How will Coach Nicholsen manage the players' heads?
Marist joining the league. We're all curious how Marist will compete at the 5A level in all sports. They'll do just fine is my guess.
The development of the Willamette program. The Wolverines are looking good with four returning all leaguers and a new domed stadium. I was talking to Jeff McKay of Baseball Northwest late in the season and he said hitting in Oregon was way behind Washington. One of the main reasons was a lack of adequate indoor facilities. Well, Willamette has solved that.
A lot of pressure will be on Springfield. They return the league MVP, Kameron Bates, along with Blaine Dudley and Ryan Helfrich - all excellent with the stick. Frosh pitcher Malik Evans (4-0) returns, but will need to improve his K to BB ratio. But what is there after those four? We'll find out if Coach Lansdon has developed a program or if 2010 was a once every 40 years phenomenom.
Churchill will be replacing a ton of players due to graduation. The Lancers got on a roll way too late - winning their last four league games, finally looking like the Lancers of recent years. Coach Hoberg will hope to copy what Thurston did this year after the Colts lost most of their 2009 team.
I'm even looking forward to improved play by my Marshfield Pirates, who only had four seniors this year and had several sophs and frosh. They need to develop several pitchers. As usual for the Pirates, a lot will depend on how many kids play summer ball.
The Man Cave at a field I won't mention. Baseball diehards all, and they'll be back.

Next Year's College Players: Today's Register-Guard reported that Dawson Phinney and Jordan VanEngers have committed to LCC. Please let me know if you know of any others who have committed to a college baseball program. I believe Sam Kiesse is headed off to George Fox and I've heard and forgotten about many others. If you know of any other commitments, please email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com. Also, if you can update me on kids who are playing college ball this year (2010) please let me know. Here's what I have so far for 2010.

Photos - All photos should be 50 cents for 4x6's unless I didn't get the pricing change made. I sold photos to just three people this year. Hopefully, that will pick up next year to make it worth my time of working with thousands of pics. Here's a link to the main photo page. Click in the '2010' column.

That's about it for this year. I'll post the all state list when it becomes available. Thanks to all those who texted scores and other information this year - the Moore's, Bates, Dew's, Kiesse's, Mill's, Watson's and the coaches. I'm sure I missed several fans who helped out. This was the first year that I had scores posted for almost all games by 9:00 on game nights. A special thank you to Rich Lari. Rich emailed the great recaps of the North Eugene games. Rich goes into the parent reporter Hall of Fame along with Tony Schauermann, a Thurston parent. Rich and Tony are closet sports writers.

Will Bulldogs Blast Highlanders?

2010-05-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

Aye-yi-yi! West Albany's Bulldogs took down Springfield, our #1 seed, 11-1. West Albany hammered out three home runs in the process. They have scored 10 or more runs at least 13 times. They scored 20 or more three times this season. Put it all together and the Bulldogs average 9.5 runs per game. And with all but one game score showing on the MaxPrep site, the Bulldogs have never been shut out or even held to just one run!

Defensively, the Bulldogs have really tightened up their game during the playoffs. They held Glencoe to just two runs and Pendleton to just one run.

That said, we do have a little MWL comparison to look at. Thurston beat West Albany 3-2 in the season opener. A week later the Bulldogs jumped on Willamette at Willamette, 10-2. Finally, North Eugene lost to West Albany 5-4 two weeks ago.

So what's in store for North Eugene in the semis? I'm thinking that North's defense will keep the Bulldogs within reach. That means that the Highlanders will need an offensive game more like the Corvallis (13-2) playoff game than the KU game (3-2). The Bulldogs like to jump on it early, so if North can get out of the first two innings in good shape, they can put some pressure on the West Albany defense. If North stays close they can get the small ball game going and then mix in some extra base hits.

It'll be interesting to see who goes to the mound for North on Tuesday. Kyle DeHaven pitched four innings against West Albany just two weeks ago and Garrett Harpole tossed three against the Bulldogs, allowing no hits. Just last week, Garrett Mills tossed four innings against Corvallis before turning the ball over to Chris Clayton in the fifth, Mills holding the number one team in the state to one run through four. Finally, Andrew Moore pitched a complete game last Friday, but has had three full days of rest. All pitchers are availalbe Tuesday and it's common in the state playoffs to see the same starter in the Friday-Tuesday- Saturday quarterfinal to final stretch. We'll find out at game time. I'm guessing Mills will start and coach Nicholsen will make early changes as he did with Corvallis and West Albany to give the Bulldogs lots of different looks.

Offensively for North, the Highlanders have been getting good production up and down the line up recently. That takes a lot of pressure off of the top of the order when they know the bottom four guys have been knocking in runs and hitting doubles and homers in the playoffs. The recent batting surge throughout the lineup also gives hope for a comeback if the Bulldogs do happen to jump out to a fairly large early lead. The Aslhand one inning comeback from six runs down agaisnt Thurston in the quarters serves as a reminder that with a little luck and some hard hit balls, you're never down too far.

....Coach Corey Nicholsen becomes only the second baseball coach in North Eugene's 53 year history to take the Highlanders to the state semifinals. Garry Selby pulled off the trick in 1977 and 1998. North fell short of the state championship game by one run both times. Hopefully, this is the Highlander's year, which would make 2010 the fourth year in a row that the MWL has sent a team to the state finals.

Go North. Go MWL.

5A Coaches Poll - Kaboom

2010-05-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

MWL fans have to be proud that unranked North Eugene crushed #1 Corvallis in Corvallis. Another MWL winner, Thurston, was ranked number eight and beat number six Lebanon 7-3. Hopefully, Springfield will not undo the MWL success by losing to unranked Madison at PK Park tonight.

The first full round of playoff games provides ammo for every baseball coach to tell his players to "Ignore the polls. Games are won on the field". Let's take a look:

Unranked Crater beat #11 South Albany in a subround game.
Crater beat #12 Cleveland 12-0 in the first full round.
Unranked Klamath Union beat 7th ranked Wilsonville.
Unranked North Eugene beat #1 Corvallis 13-2.
Almost (#13) unranked West Albany beat 3rd ranked Pendleton.

That means half of the quarterfinalists are unranked or nearly unranked. What's with the coach's poll?
Well, I can't imagine a coach having the time to check out teams statewide or hearing about key injuries or a pitcher who just hasn't had it the last half of the year.
Media polls used to be better predictors than coaches polls, especially early in the season. Reporters had a pretty good network around the state and would pick up info from each other. But with the cutbacks in staff at all newspapers, that doesn't happen much anymore.
The questionable 5A poll probably lends support to a Power Ranking System and seeding for playoffs. Fortunately, at the 5A level, there weren't too many matchups where a team played another team that was closely ranked in the polls. #8 Thurston versus #6 Lebanon was one of those games. Lebanon players will probably always wonder why they couldn't have been matched up with an unranked team, although 2010 wasn't a good year to play the unranked.

At the 6A level, things were a little different. Six of the top 10 teams will be in the quarterfinals (Elite Eight). Lincoln, ranked #11, is the 7th team in the playoffs. Unranked South Medford is the final quarterfinalist, having won two games over unranked teams. Unlike the 5A level, 6A did have some match ups between teams closely ranked. #2 Lake Oswego versus #3 North Medford being one of those games. Seeding using Power Rankings would have prevented the #2 versus #3 matchup and unranked South Medford would not have advanced to the quarterfinals without playing a ranked team.

Quick Notes:
The Midwestern league can advance three teams to the quarterfinals for the first time ever if Springfield beats Madison tonight (Wednesday).

North Eugene can advance to the semifinals for the first time since 1998 with a win over Klamath Union in Klamath Falls Friday. BRRRR!

North Eugene and Springfield are on the same side of the bracket.....

North Eugene pulled off a miracle getting their game in last Friday. It had rained most of the day and was raining solidly when I showed up at 4:30. The rains slowed to a sprinkle by 5:00. The North players rolled back the tarp and the sprinkles turned to a light mist and the field was mowed and dry. I think that the Dalles-Wahtonka players were ready to call it an evening, stay overnight, and play at PK park on Saturday. Those thoughts apparently didn't go out the window when the umps called "Play Ball" at 5:05. The sun even poked it's smiley face out now and again.

If you have friends who are interested in softball, I started a few pages for MWL softball. Just has this year's league and playoff results, all stars and some playoff history so far. http://www.mwathletics.com/softball/softball_index.htm

Photos prices slashed:
Only two people ordered photos this year -- even as good and as inexpensive as they are :) I've already left some DVD's of photos with some of the teams, but I've also lowered the prices of the photos to a little above cost. If you saw some photos of your favorite player that you were interested in, you may want to check out the prices.

North Medford - Are 6A Schools that good?

2010-05-18T07:03:00.000-07:00

It was quite a treat watching #3 rated North Medford play North Eugene at Swede Johnson stadium on Monday. The Black Tornado showed off their hitting prowess and some spectacular defense.
And to think that we didn't get to see North Medford's two best pitchers - Matt Mauer (Pepperdine next year) and Bradey Shipley (Western Nevada Junior College).
North Medford's catcher Colin Sowers led off the game by driving a first pitch fastball over the Red Lion sign in left center. The dinger wasn't a towering shot barely clearing the fence. It was more of a liner. The hard hit ball was a foreshadowing of the 18 hits to follow. Most of the Tornado hits were hit on the button. The most noticeable consistency of the Medford batters was that they were rarely fooled by off speed pitches. I can only recall three or four times where the batters upper body was out ahead of their legs. It didn't matter what type of pitcher the Highlanders threw - Moore, Mills or Clayton - the batters just stayed back and attacked the ball at the last moment possible and with tremendous explosion.
Defensively, the Medford shortstop put on a show. He played so deep and covered so much ground that I think they could have played without the third baseman. He made two throws from deep behind the third baseman and then topped off his performance by going well behind second base and flipping the ball, back handed, to second for a force.
The Medford catcher, Colin Sowers, not only made a point of not throwing him a fastball in his zone, but he showed he was a wily catcher by setting up a Highlander on first by hiding behind a left handed batter for a few pitches. The Highlander kept creeping off a little more and then Sowers picked him with a nice backdoor move behind the batter.
Medford's Michael Bradshaw shut out the Highlanders in a complete game victory. The good news for the Southwest conference is that Bradshaw and the other two pitching aces are all seniors.
So, are the 6A schools that much better than 5A schools? For the most part yes. The obvious reason is that they have so many more bodies in their school to choose from. The OSAA has North Eugene with an average daily membership of 938 students and North Medford at 1665. Imagine if Highlander coach Nicholsen could look down the hallway and choose from 840 boys instead of 470. There would be a lot more juniors and seniors on the team, meaning a bigger, stronger, faster team.
It's tempting to say that the teams down south just play a lot more ball than Eugene teams. But with fall ball and legion and kids being invited to Area Code games, the Eugene schools have players who get in a lot of baseball. Notably, since the big boys were split off four seasons ago, just three of twelve state semifinalists were from down south. And from 2000 to 2006, when there were 80 teams in the upper 4A Division, only one SOC team made the state finals. So I go back to larger student bodies as the reason for success - along with a great program and conditioning.
So how do the smaller schools compete when they merge with the 6A schools next year? Well, pitching and defense are the classic neutralizers in baseball. One good ace on a staff can win half of a team's league games. Just look at the teams going to state from the current MWL and you'll find that with the exception of one starting pitcher, the pitchers rarely walk anyone. (By the way, North Medford got to Andrew Moore for two in the first inning, but Moore settled down in the second and might have had a good outing if he would have been allowed to go more than two innings.)
Developing a good hitting team seems to be more difficult than putting together a good defense. I believe this is where focus and conditioning come into play. Good hitters focus on every pitch, even in practice. Focus is a habit, and good habits have to be practiced. Focus needs to be automatic in gametime. Good hitters believe a sharply hit ball - a line drive preferably, or a blistering grounder- are the only acceptable hits, even in the cage. Some coaches preach almost any grounder as okay, but grounders weren't going to get through the North Medford infield.
Conditioning has changed tremendously in the last 15 years. I remember when the Churchill football team was running the double wing. The entire team worked out relentlessly and they looked like they would do well in any street fight. The next team to take conditioning to another level was when Marty Johnson took over the Sheldon football program. Amazingly, the Irish have maintained their weightroom/plyometrics attitude for over ten years. Other teams have had spurts in different programs. A few years ago, the Thurston basketball team would have looked like NBA thugs is they had just added some tats. The bottom line is, if you want to compete with the big boys, you better have a great 'core' conditioning program. In baseball, you need to add the arm muscles, too. Bigger - stronger - faster.
North Eugene hosts The Dalles-Wahtonka Friday. The Indians-Eagles made the playoffs in both football and basketball, but were eliminated early. So they have players with playoff experience and they will hungry to advance. For the most part, the Indians-Eagles have played good D, the exception being getting blown out by second ranked Pendleton. (Interresting hyphenated school and mascot names. If Sheldon and North Eugene merged, would they be called the Irish-Highlanders, or just the Kilts?)
Here's a challenge to North Eugene. Friday's playoff game is the last chance for a MWL team to advance past the sub round into the group of sixteen under the current playoff model. The OSAA four year classification experiment is over after spring season and next year begins the 'Hybrid' leagues and the 'Everybody goes to the Playoffs' format. Let's get three teams into the Sweet Sixteen!

Non playoff teams to decide MWL title

2010-05-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it could turn out this way, but the three teams fighting for the MWL title do not play each other this week. If the top tier teams each win their two games this week, then here's the playoff seeds:

1. Springfield 12-3
2. Thurston 11-4
3. North Eugene 11-4

Fourth place Churchill, a playoff team last year, is the most likely to change the above scenario. The Lancers host North Eugene Monday and have both Spencer Jorgensen and Brad Birch available to pitch. North Eugene threw Andrew Moore all seven last Friday, so he probably won't be throwing Monday unless it's an inning of relief. I'm assuming that North Goes with Kyle DeHaven, who is 4-1 on the season. But he has thrown both of the other games against Churchill. On Wednesday, the Lancers travel to Thurston Wednesday with Sam Kiesse rested.

Fifth place Willamette hosts first place Springfield Monday and travels to North Eugene Wednesday. The Wolverines have wins over Churchill and North Eugene, so they know they can knock either Springfield or North down a notch. The Wolverines are likely to face Kameron Bates for the first time this year on Monday. Then Willamette will likely see Moore at North Eugene on Wednesday.

Marshfield hosts Thurston Monday and travels to Springfield Wednesday.

I'm thinking the highest possibility of an upset(s) will be Monday with the Springfield at Willamette game and the North Eugene at Churchill game. Both games are at the underdog's field. Willamette hasn't seen Bates yet this year, but I don't think that is a problem. Willamette doesn't like to strike out and they should put up a battle..... Churchill and North Eugene have traded 1-0 ball games. We could see a third 1-0 game.

Wednesday's games are less likely to give us an upset. All three playoff bound teams are at home. Marshfield at Springfield, Willamette at North Eugene (Moore) and Churchill at Thurston (Phinney). And I'm betting it's all hands on deck as far as the pitchers go on Wednesday, everyone is a potential reliever for the last league game.

The pressure's on. The number one seed is the only MWL team to get home field advantage for their first playoff game. Who wants it?

PS. Thanks to those who text me the scores last Friday. I was at the James Taylor/Carol King concert in Portland - Row 1. I know you youngins don't know who these people are, but they were and are still awesome.

Will North Eugene spoil Springfield's Party?

2010-05-06T18:21:00.000-07:00

Before going into the North Eugene - Springfield game, a question.... Why would anyone pay to see the Ducks or Ems play at PK park, when you can see a ten inning 3-2 game at Thurston with great pitching and fantastic defensive plays for free?

Back to the MWL. Springfield has answered the call this week with wins over fourth place Churchill and second place Thurston. But believe it or not, Springfield still could fall all the way to third. If Springfield loses out and North Eugene or Thurston wins out, Springfield falls to at least second.

North Eugene will begin their final push to take the pennant away from Springfield on Friday. A North Eugene win over Springfield gives North a 3-0 tiebreaker over the Millers. Springfield would still have a one game lead with two games to go with games against Willamette and Marshfield. But stumble once and North Eugene can steal the first seed by beating Churchill and Willamette next week.

North Eugene has two wins over Springfield by scores of 13-1 and 3-1. Springfield's Kameron Bates won't be available Friday after pitching ten innings Wednesday. In the other dugout, Andrew Moore is fresh and available for the Highlanders. North has given up just a little over 1 run per game over the last ten games. As bizarre as it may seem, Springfield might be wise to work their relievers a few innings each, see how the chips fall, and save their starters for next week. What the heck, North Eugene already owns the tiebreaker.

Willamette at Thurston
Dawson Phinney should be on the mound for Thurston. He'll be going for his fifth league win. Thurston is tied with North Eugene for second and the Colts own the tie breaker. Thurston should be focused for this one. I was impressed by the Colts valiant effort against the Millers yesterday with frosh Kyle Watson on the mound. Thurston will certainly miss Tyler Johnson if he can't get back on the field, but the Colts sure aren't going to be feeling sorry for themselves.

Churchill at Marshfield
I saw a Churchill-Marshfield game in Coos Bay a few years ago when Churchill was playing fantastic ball. The Lancers laid a complete egg. I think everyone felt that the Lancers would just kick into gear at some point and destroy the Pirates, but suddenly the game was over and the Pirates won. It looks like Elliot Aurdahl is available for the Pirates while Spencer Jorgensen pitched yesterday for Churchill.

My guesses, which were worth something before this year, is that North will prevail over Springfield and tighten up the race for the title. ... Thurston's Phinney will continue his mastery of the strike zone and beat Willamette to stay deadlocked with North in the standings.... And Churchill will have their hands full with Marshfield.

Bottom line is that we are down to the last three games and we don't know who our top three seeds are. A Churchill win and North Eugene loss Friday, keeps Churchill's faint playoff hopes alive. Churchill can catch North Eugene and capture the tiebreaker. Long odds, but it could happen.

Millers Clinch Playoff Spot - Title next?

2010-05-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

Kameron Bates had a day for Springfield against Churchill. Bates went 4 for 4 with a two run dinger. The 11-7 win put Springfield ahead of Churchill by five games with four to play, thus earning the Millers a playoff spot. This years trip to state will be the Miller's first playoff appearance since 2000.

The Millers next goal has to be to win an outright league title. The next step to the title for the Millers is to go on the road and beat crosstown rival Thurston this Wednesday. Springfield won the first two by scores of 11-8 and 6-2, so the Millers own the tiebreaker. But it is a lot different at the end of the season to be a co-champion with the first seed via tiebreaker, than to be the outright champion.

I was at the Thurston-North Eugene game last night where Thurston's shortstop and pitcher Tyler Johnson was hurt at second trying to turn a double play. Hopefully, the injury won't keep him out of the playoffs. I don't have any information from Thurston, but Johnson getting helped off of the field by teammates isn't indicative of being a starter against Springfield tomorrow. Dawson Phinney pitched five innings last night for Thurston, so Phinney probably won't be used as a starter tomorrow (Wednesday). Does coach Dube put the ball in the hands of frosh Kyle Watson? Or perhaps senior Jordan Loos? Maybe junior Austin Parrett or bring someone up from JV's?

Personally, I was hoping for a Kameron Bates - Tyler Johnson pitching matchup. But now my interest will be to see if the Thurston group can pull together in baseball like they did in football when they weathered some injuries late in the season. This game might be a little like the first Springfield - Thurston game this year - high scoring. Springfield got out in front and seemed to be cruising, but Thurston pulled within three in an 11-8 Miller victory. Springfield's coach Lansdon and Thurston coach Dube both have offenses that can hit with power and bunt you to death. If it is high scoring, I hope the wind stays down so I don't freeze taking pictures over a long period of time.

Churchill's shot at the playoffs are getting slim. A Lancer loss to Willamette Wednesday, combined with a North Eugene win over Marshfield knocks the Lancers out of the playoffs. (The Wolverines beat the Lancers in round 2, 9-6.) But there is still hope. Churchill is down three games to third place North Eugene with four games to go. The Lancers have to close the gap with North to one game by their league season finale against North Eugene. Churchill and North Eugene are even as far as the tiebreaker goes. Both teams won one head to head game, 1-0. I'm guessing the Willamette-Churchill game will be high scoring on both sides.

North Eugene hosts Marshfield. Marshfield's Elliot Aurdahl has the Pirates only two wins, and he pitched Monday. So the Highlanders will see someone else. The Pirates have given up just one run in each of the last two games and have been getting some good outings from some frosh and sophomore pitchers. It'll take a great outing for Marshfield to beat North. North Eugene has given up just 1.8 runs per game over all 11 league games. That stellar performance includes two shutouts and five games holding the opponents to just one run.

So it looks like we may know the playoff teams after Wednesday's games or maybe not until next Wednesday. I hope the drama drags on a little longer.

Millers Griller Week Coming Up

2010-05-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

Churchill at home, Thurston on the road and a home game against the Highlanders. That's the Miller challenge this week. Sweep and Springfield would be on the verge of the MWL title. Win two and they are going to state. But, if they get swept, they could be on the edge of elimination if the Lancers get hot.

Springfield's bats have earned the Miller's a first place tie so far. They've pounded out 7.4 runs per game in league. That's quite a way ahead of Thurston's next best of 6.0. Four different players have jacked it for the Millers. Oliver Johnson and Blaine Dudley have two each, and Brandon Hubbard and Ryan Helfrich have one apiece.

Alex Camarena, Kameron Bates, Johnson and Cody Whitney have been hammering doubles and triples. With these bats it has to follow that Springfield would have the most players in the top 10 of RBI producers. And they do.

The other side of the Miller coin says that Springfield isn't winning their games with stellar D. They are giving up 5.6 runs per game in league. Fourth best out of six teams. But most of the runs against Springfield were scored in the first four games. Other than giving up nine runs to Willamette in a 15-9 victory in the second round, Springfield has held opponents to four or less in the last six games.

Frosh Malik Evans is 3-0 with wins over Thurston, Churchill and Willamette. Bates is 2-1 with wins over Thurston and Churchill. Jordan VanEngers is 2-1, the loss coming against North Eugene by a score of 3-1. It will be interesting to see who gets the Churchill start Monday, and who is saved for the game against Thurston on Wednesday.

Thurston
The Colts share of first place has been earned through a nice balance of offense and defense. The Colts are second in league in scoring at 6.0 runs per game. They are also second in defense at 4.2 runs per game. That's far behind North Eugene's 1.9 runs given up per game, and just ahead of Churchill at 5.0 and Springfield at 5.6 runs per game.

The Colts are getting hits, and hits with power, all up and down the line up. Jarren Goddard and Tyler Johnson have each homered and tripled, Goddard having two dingers. Goddard has also been hammering doubles, as have Peanut, Tylor Dumilieu, and Johnson. Zach Kopczanski and Jordan Loos have been hitting in the clutch and are among the team leaders in RBI's.

Colt pitcher Dawson Phinney leads the league in league wins with a 4-1 record. He could see another three starts in league. But it will be interesting to see if coach Dube holds him out of the Monday start at North Eugene to save him for Springfield. I'm guessing he goes with Phinney against the Highlanders. Phinney beat North, Willamette and Churchill in the first round. It makes sense to let him do it again.

North Eugene
The Highlanders are the defensive kings of the MWL. By a mile. They are giving up just 1.9 runs per game in league. Thurston is next at 4.2. So why aren't the Highlanders tied for first? Because they are next to last in scoring with 4.8 runs per game. My Pirates are last at 3.4 runs per game.

North's losses are by scores of 3-5, 2-4, 3-4 and 0-1. Sophomore Andrew Moore is 2-2 and has a key save. He's averaging over 10 strike outs a game versus a little over 1 walk. Kyle DeHaven is 3-1, with two wins over Marshfield and a split in 1-0 games against Churchill. Chris Clayton and Garrett Harpole have been doing very good work in relief roles.

North hosts Thurson Monday and travels to Springfield Friday. These are must wins if the Highlanders hope to regain the league title.

Churchill
The Lancers have been involved in three 1-0 ball games. Unfortunately for Churchill, they lost two of those in the second round to North Eugene and Thurston. If the Lancer's would have won those games, they would be in third place ahead of North and own the tie breaker. If....

Churchill may have to sweep this week to stay alive. They play Springfield, Willamette and Marshfield. In previous years, everyone would have thought "A sweep is very probable". Not even close this year. Any of the Lancer's opponents next week can defeat them.

Churchill's defense hasn't been too bad. At 5.0 runs given up per game, they are a little behind Thurston. It's the offensive side that is hurting. They've scored 3 or less in 7 games. I find it tough to believe that a line up with speedy left handed lead off man Ben Straka, Alex Priaulx (three dingers), Sam Kiesse, Brad Birch (2 dingers) and Spencer Jorgensen in the 1 through 5 spots, Churchill isn't putting up more runs.

Willamette
The Wolverines are third in runs scored in league and fifth in runs given up. Willamette finished the first round 0-5, with two one run losses, two two run losses and a fifth loss by three runs. Four of those losses were low scoring affairs. The Wolverines picked up their bats the second round and finished 3-2. This time in mostly high scoring affairs.

Willamette will most likely have to sweep the final round to have a chance of making the playoffs, although a miraculous cave in by North Eugene and Churchill could get them to the playoffs with a 4-1 final round.

Willamette's two homers have been by a frosh and soph - Scott Kuvaas and Trent Waggoner. Frosh Kuvaas also has tripled. Taylor Woodke has been hitting with men on and is among the league leaders in RBI's. Jake Hughes cleared the bases with a double to win the game against North last week. Junior TonySvensson has also been clutch with men on base.

Pitching duties have been spread pretty evenly among Trent Waggoner, Jack Hughes, Koleton Williams and Tony Svensson.

Marshfield.
The Pirates almost messed up the tie at the top of the league in a 1-0 loss to Springfield. They had a man on third with no outs in the 7th and couldn't get him in.

Seniors Cody Dew and has homered for the Pirates. There have been some outstanding performances late in the year by some frosh and sophs. The Pirates could end up in a three way tie for third if North loses out to end up 6-9, Willamette wins three to end up 6-9, Churchill wins one against North (5-10) and Marshfield sweeps five to end up 6-9.....

Please share your comments or corrections by responding in this blog or email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com

You can now buy MWL photos

2010-04-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, I have had a lot of parents ask me if they could buy some of the photos on the web site. Well, I've finally set up an account to sell photos on line.

The photo handling site is called SmugMug. It came highly recommended by several photographers, including the photographer in Coos Bay who shoots a lot of Marshfield and North Bend sporting events.

* Photos come in many different sizes. The base size is usually 4x6.
* You can order larger prints, but sometimes you have to crop a little because the dimension ratio of the larger photo may not be 4x6. For example, an 8x10 ration is 4x5.
*Sometimes a larger print is not available. That is because I had to crop so much that if the picture were blown up it would be too fuzzy. This happens a lot with distant photos, like those taken of outfielders.
*SmugMug doesn't charge separate shipping charges for each picture. So it is cost effective to order several prints at once. You may want to join in with another parent or two to save on shipping.
*You can order merchandise with pictures on them such as mouse pads, refrigerator magnets, coffee mugs, etc. Look for the merchandise tab.

Each team can have up to two people who can buy photos of their favorite player at cost plus shipping. The two people need to be regular contributors of scores and or stats. So far, the following teams have contributors:
Marshfield : 1 (same person does stats and scores)
North Eugene: 2 (1 sends in scores, the other stats)
Willamette: 1 (Coach sends in stats and recaps)
If you would like to be one of those who is eligible to buy at cost, please email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com

Coaches who want to do something special with photos for their season ending banquet or other function should contact me so we can make it happen.

Half of the profits will go to the school of the main player in the photo. The head coach will determine which group receives the money. Some schools use the baseball booster club or general booster club.

As always, two DVD's of photos will be provided to each school approximately two games before league ends. These photos are not cropped or edited. Some schools have used them for the student Yearbook, and some have turned them over to the baseball boosters.

Your support by buying photos is appreciated. There are many expenses doing the website. The biggest being the 27 inch Imac, the Nikon D700 and the 200mm & 400 mm lenses. If you want me to follow your kid around for a game or two, get me one of these:) Nikon 600mm lens

Here's my SmugMug web site.
Gary Haliski Photography
Here's the website of the photographer who covers Marshfield High School. He recently posted photos from the North Eugene at Marshfield game.
Outlawguy Photogrpahy

Good luck down the stretch!

8 Games Down, 7 To Go - Who Wants It?

2010-04-24T09:19:00.000-07:00

The MWL just made the turn at the halfway point, and not much has been established for the title or the playoff teams. The league is as tight as I hoped.

Four teams have a legitimate shot at the title. Co-leaders Springfield and Thurston, 3rd place North Eugene and fourth place Churchill. Of the four, Churchill has the longest shot, being 2 games out of first with 7 to go. But those 7 games include 2 against co-leader Thurston. Lancer wins would give Churchill a tie breaker over the Colts.
And odd as it seems because Willamette has a 2-6 record, the Wolverines have a shot at making state. They are only 3 games out of third, with two games against third place North Eugene, and two against co-leader Springfield. Four of the Wolverines five losses are by two runs or less. It wouldn't take much to turn their record around.

Springfield and Churchill have to be the surprises so far. Springfield has played up to its potential. That was a concern before the year. It's tough for players to change their mindset from just playing ball with no real expectations of going to state, to playing ball to go to state. The question was, "Can the players and coaches play to their potential every game, every pitch?" The Miller's have answered the call as shown by their prolific bats in most games, and the D of the last four games where they have held opponents to a little over three runs.

Churchill jumped out to a 3-1 record, but lost three in a row. And they weren't pretty losses. They will need to get back to their defensive ways of the first four games, when they were giving up just 2.5 runs per game. Churchill is loaded with seniors. That can be good if they band together. Or, it can be bad if they succumb to spring term senioritis and their minds drift towards off field thoughts.

There are no league games Friday, but there are key games Monday and Wednesday. Now's the point in the season where coaches will use a starting pitcher in back to back games if they can pull them early in a lopsided win. The Churchill at North Eugene game Monday is the first opportunity to see if a coach uses this strategy. Lancer Brad Birch started Friday and went just four innings. He got the last 10 batters out that he faced, six by strike outs. He could be used in a pinch. If you really get into this strategy and want more to consider.... a Churchill win would give the Lancers the tiebreaker. But if Churchill loses, the Lancers still have another chance to take the tiebreaker in the third round. What would you do with Birch if it's close in the fifth?

Wednesday's games feature Thurston at Churchill and North Eugene at Willamette. Thurston likely will have a full set of pitcher options on Wednesday. Churchill will be coming off of the game against North Eugene and will have fewer pitcher options if the Lancer starter goes deep into the game on Monday. Fortunately for Churchill, they have a lot of guys who can throw.

Newbies. Some more frosh had impressive outings last week. We're all pretty familiar with Thurston's Kyle Watson trying out the clean up batter's position and pitching, Springfield's Malik Evans on the mound and Willamette's Scott Kuvaas at shortstop. We may be seeing a few more frosh in bloom. Willamette's Cole Urioste had a great week and Marshfield's Doug Molzahn was pressed into duty and pitched a complete game against Willamette. Another baby buc from Coos Bay, Tyler Johnson, also is picking up momentum at the plate. Coupling these outstanding frosh with the many very solid sophomores it appears the league is in good shape for at least a few more years. (The Coos Bay newspaper reported Molzahn out for the season with a knee injury)

Fight for First in Springfield and other thoughts

2010-04-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

The Springfield and Thurston wins over baseball powers Churchill and North Eugene not only set up a much anticipated battle for first place between the Millers and Colts, the wins also opened the door for Marshfield and Willamette to work their way into the playoffs. More on the Eugene - Coos Bay schools later.

Springfield and Thurston
Hats off to both coaches. Erik Lansdon has taken the Millers from a struggling program to a highly competitive team. The Millers were 4-11 in 2008 and 3-12 in 2007. Phil Dube at Thurston has developed the entire Colt program - from JV's to Varsity - so that Thurston can graduate 10 all leaguers and still play the best ball in the MWL, so far.

The city of Springfield has two very different 5A teams. Springfield wins anyway they can - and anywhere. The Millers have played only one league game at Hamlin. They win the high scoring games, like the 11-8 and 12-10 first round games, or close ones like the 5-3 win over Churchill in the league opener.
Starting pitching duties have been spread out among junior Kameron Bates, frosh Malik Evans and senior Jordan VanEngers. Three starters with solid wins gets the opponents thinking a lot about which Miller they might see in the next game.
Blaine Dudley has been a nice surprise at the plate, leading the Millers in league RBI's. Alexjandro Camarena has shown some power and his speed kills. Bates hasn't jacked one in league yet, but who's throwing to him? He's still getting his share of RBI's.

Thurston has become the team to watch as they are playing the best D in the league, holding opponents to four or less in five of the Colt's six league games. Of course, it's the Millers who tagged Thurston for 11 runs at Thurston.
Dawson Phinney is 3-0 and if coach Dube throws him every other game, Phinney will get five more league starts. How's that for stepping up as a senior? Like Springfield, the Colts use a frosh in the starting rotation. Frosh Kyle Watson has been solid, with a sub 2.0 ERA. Junior Tyler Johnson also has had some memorable outings, especially the 5-3 win over North. Johnson came in in relief. He loaded the bases with no outs. Then he struck out three in a row. I guess he's a teaser.
Thurston's bats are alive. Tyler Johnson, Peanut Havens and Jarren Goddard have all been hitting with power and with men on. Jordan Loos leads the teams in league rbi's.
What I like about this team is the D. Solid pitching, out of sight infield and outfield play and speed to get to the wall or the short strokes. And catchers are oftentimes overlooked. Thurston has two great catchers in Peanut Havens and Jarren Goddard. Goddard makd two outstanding plays on bunts in the second round North Eugene game.
On O, the Colts lay down bunts like they are on autopilot, double steal, hit the long ball and tear up the bases with speed.

A true MWL fan wants tomorrow's game to go to Thurston. That would make them tied for the tiebreaker, potentially setting up a rubber match in the third round for all of the marbles. I'm assuming Dawson Phinney is throwing for Thurston. Phinney has been money so far. I'm thinking the Colls and Phinney will take this one to the bank and set up the possibility of a round three ballapalooza.

Churchill and North Eugene
They both need to win to stay two games out of the lead and pull to within one game of second.

Churchill's pitching has been inconsistent. They've won games, 3-2 and 1-0, but lost them 4-12 and 3-10. Their strike out to walk ratio isn't what we're used to. Hopefully for the Lancers, that will change for the second and third rounds.
The big surprise is that Churchill's bats haven't woken up yet. Brad Birch does have two dingers. I'm glad the opponents are throwing to him a little. Seemed like last year, I only saw him get walked. Alex Priaulx also has a homer. But overall, the Lancer's just haven't been the Lancers, but there's time left. They just better not wait too long.

North Eugene seems snakebit. The team is taking some hits in the injury department and they've lost three close ones; 3-5 and 3-4 (in 8) to Thurston, and 0-1 to Churchill. With recent injuries to Mills and up and coming soph Dillon Hudson, the Highlanders will be regrouping to find a way to make it to the playoffs for the 15th straight year.
After 10 run wins in their second and third league games, I thought the Highlanders had the swagger back, but they've only scored 7 runs total in the last three games. Garrett Harpole has two dingers and leads the team in league rbi's.
With Mills hurt, Andrew Moore, Kyle DeHaven and Chris Clayton are going to have to carry the pitching load. They can do it, but they need some runs behind them.

Willamette and Marshfield.
Willamette picked up their first league win Monday. The Wolverines are probably playing the most consistent D after Thurston. They've held opponents to five or less in five of six games. A lack of bats lost four of those games.
On the mound, seniors Jake Hughes and Logan Wright are looking for more run support. And a couple of sophs are getting a lot of innings, Trent Waggoner and Koleton Williams.
Taylor Woodke is leading the team in RBI's. Wright and Jordan Bowman have been blasting doubles.

Marshfield got out of the blocks with a 5-3 win, then gave up at least 10 runs in the next four games. The Pirates are looking much better at the plate than last year. They haven't been shut out this year, while at this time last year they had been goose egged twice already and were on their way to more.
Cody Dew has a homer for the Pirates. They are likely to sneak out another win or two this year. It's early and when Elliot Aurdahl is on, he can really frustrate the other team.

I'll be at the 'fight for first' game tomorrow. Then I think I'll check out my alma matre, Marshfield, Friday. Pirate coach Quintin Hall is doing a great job of building the program. There is huge improvement in the way the Pirates swing at the plate. It'll take a year or two to instill consistent hitting technique. In the meantime, it's fun to watch the improvement and anticipate what's coming in the future. I saw Springfield change for the better last year, and look at them so far this year.

A Moment of Silence

2010-04-17T15:30:00.000-07:00

Amid all of the noise and excitement of a four way race for first place comes a moment of silence on behalf of one of our MWL baseball players in Coos Bay.

Marshfield senior Josh Perkins lost his mother to cancer on Thursday. You may recall that I wrote about the four seniors at Marshfield and what great kids they are. I got to know them during my five years in Coos Bay. Josh is a huge guy. Looking at him, he's meant to be a shot putter, or a football lineman. But Josh loves baseball and he loves band. He'd rather be in the spirited Pirate marching band than in the trenches.

I used to see him in the halls at Marshfield and I noticed that he hung around with his band friends more than his jock buddies. As a former trombone player myself in Marshfield's pep band and also a baseball player, I could relate. 'When the Saints Go Marching Home' is among trombone player's favorite songs. So maybe I'll pull the t-bone out of the garage and play it for Josh.

Josh's mom was a fixture at the Marshfield baseball games. That's not always a pleasant time, as you know if you've been to one of those games in pea soup thick fog. But, there she was, always encouraging Josh to do his best. Now she won't be at games anymore.

Josh is going to take a few days off. You see, he lost his father a year ago. I imagine it would be tough to go out on that field and look in the stands and not see the family there after all of these years of support. So it's likely that there will be a moment of silence before the Willamette at Marshfield game on Monday for Josh and his mother.

Sad events like this make us remember that life is about relationships and not baseball.

Good Luck Josh

Four Way Tie Thoughts

2010-04-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

Last week, opening day made sure this wasn't going to be a free ride for Churchill and North Eugene as Springfield and the young Thurston squad made statements about their programs by taking games from the traditional Eugene powerhouses.

Friday's games started to bring league standings back to the good old days, and last nights games saw the home run bats break out as North Eugene and Churchill 10 runned their opponents.

North Eugene - Springfield game review.

I see more Highlander baseball than any other teams. That's because I live so close to Swede, Swede is a great place to shoot photos and coach Nicholsen lets me into regular season games for free. All last year and earlier this year, I saw North flail at bunt attempts. I can't remember seeing them lay one down on the first attempt during that period. Pop ups galore, guys in that frozen bunt pose after the balls in the catcher's mitt (With that look of 'Sorry, coach'), and bunts going right back to the pitcher for DP's. I should have switched from still photography to video to capture coach Nicholsen writhing in pain in the coaches box.

Sure enough, last night in the third inning; man on first, no outs... North popped up a bunt to the pitcher. But Corey must have some Wiley Coyote in him and laying down a successful bunt must be the equivalent of catching the Road Runner. Wiley Coyote never gives up. North got the first runner on in the third with no outs. Then, lo and behold, Wiley Coyote laid down four straight bunts. I'm always curious what coaches have said to their players that gets them on track. Maybe coach Nicholsen said, "No successful bunts, no swings!" Because after the successful bunts, it was bombs away. Dingers, doubles, hard liners for singles.

So my most looked forward to game of the young season went from a 2-0 game after two full innings to 13-1 in five. And over at Thurston, I'm missing a 5-2 Thurston-Willamette game.

I can't help but notice that Willamette is playing as good as ball as anybody and is 0-3. All were games I would have liked to see because I like well pitched games. 3-5, 2-3, 2-5 losses have to be hard to take. But they also are playing the type of ball that when the bats heat up, they could pull a big run on the league like Churchill did last year and be on their way to the playoffs. It's still early.

Out in east Springfield, Thurston senior Dawson Phinney has thrown 13 innings and picked up two wins. That's stepping up. Phinney has beaten North and Willamette. I expect him to start Friday against Churchill.

Churchill's D is looking looking steady. They've given up 5, 3 and 3 runs. If the 19 run explosion in Coos Bay got their bats going, Wednesdays game with North should be firework city.

Marshfield finished 1-2 against the Eugene schools. Now they move on to the Springfield schools. They will host Thurston Wednesday. I am interested to see who takes the mound for this one.

Springfield had one of those games last night. 0-0 after two innings, then the wheels fell off. The season is a long one, though, so one or two of those games during league is no big deal.
I would not want to be the team going to Willamette on Wednesday. The Millers are that team. Looks like they are going to run into a good D and the Willamette bats are bound to come alive soon.

The only thing we know for sure about Wednesday's games, weather permitting, is that North Eugene or Churchill will be in first - either all alone or tied with other teams, but not each other. The league could have anywhere from a three way tie for first to a three way tie for second after Wednesday. It'll be at least another week before we start to see much separation among teams. That's exciting.

Thoughts on Friday April 9 Games

2010-04-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

I chose the matchup of the Springfield Undefeated's over the Willamette 0-1 -Churchill 0-1 game. I wanted to see Springfield frosh Malik Evans pitch and see how he would handle a pressure situation. On the other hand the Churchill-Willamette game was loaded with a bunch of good seniors and teams that have been playing solid D, a good chance for a well played game.

Despite the final 11-8 score, the game was exciting through five with Springfield up 5-3.

The score was 0-0 after two innings. Thurston pitcher junior Tyler Johnson got three infield outs in the top of the first. The second was shakier for Johnson as he issued a walk and hit a batter, but he got out of it when he left three Millers stranded on a ground ball back to him.
Miller frosh Evans quickly got through the first two innings with little trouble. He did walk the second batter of the game, but picked him off. The only Colt hit in the first two innings was by frosh Kyle Watson, who peppered a double to left with one out in the second.

The sun was still shining, but you would have thought a big dark cloud had settled over the pitchers and fielders, as it was about to shower walks and errors. Ollie Johnson got it going for the Millers with a single. Alex Camerena, who is turning into a wall basher, hit the first of two doubles to drive in Ollie. Two walks later, with one out and the bases loaded, Cody Whitney did his job and hit a deep sac fly for an rbi and the second out. The runner on second advanced to third, but the runner on first tried to take second. Peanut Havens said, "uh-uh", and tossed him out for the third out. Springfield 2 Colts 0.

Evans must have gotten cold during the Miller at bat as he walked the first two in the bottom of the third, Dumilieu got on via a bunt to load the bases. Kyle Wright showed some football strength and blasted one to right center for a three rbi double with no outs. A popped up bunt was caught at first by Bates who doubled Wright off at second. Evans got out of the inning with a K. Colts 3 Millers 2 after three full.

Springfield used four singles and a walk to score 3 in the top of the fourth. Evans K'd the first Colt batter, but then the Miller shortstop took a routine grounder and mailed it to the stands, putting Jarren Goddard into scoring position at second. Apparently the shortstop was just building some drama, as he made a spectacular play to get the third out of the inning for the Millers. Millers 5 Colts 3 after four full.

The 5th. The Millers 7-8-9 spots sat down 1-2-3. Evans K'd the 1-2 spots of the Colts, then walked Peanut. Peanut moved to second on a Loos single. But a long fly ball to left by Watson ended the inning.

The 6th. Austin Parrett struck out three Millers in the sixth, but the Millers used a walk, two singles and an error to score two and go up 7-3.
A great diving catch at second of a line drive off of Goddard's bat probably prevented a Colt rally. The next batter, Johnson, walked and got to second on a wild pitch. But Evans K's the next batter and got a 6-3 ground out to end the inning. Millers 7-3.

Wild 7th. Springfield put a string of singles together, Camarena hit his second solid double. An error put Camarena across the plate. Millers up 11-3 with one out and still two men on. An 'illegal slide' double play ended the Miller at bat. The wind was blowing and it was time to go home and warm up. The first Colt grounded out. Two outs from hot chocolate. But the Colts drug this one out with the help of a three dinger to right by Johnson. Final 11-8.

Overview of the game:
Springfield: Frosh Malik Evans had a good outing with six K's and five walks, 1 HP. He'll get stronger and I'm sure the walk total will go down. Camarena looked great at the plate, in the field and on the bases. Ollie Johnson did what a leadoff man is supposed to do. Three singles and a walk. Bates was hitting the ball on the ground and pushed in a couple of rbi's.
Thurston: This is one of the types of games I thought the Colts would have because of their youth and lack of varsity experience. A couple of unforced errors, a few too many walks issued. And the upside of youth, a never say die rally in the 7th. Wright had a day at the plate. A single, a hard double and a walk. Dumilieu showed his burners on a bunt single. The Colts will just get better and better as the weeks roll on.

Churchill 3 Willamette 2. Didn't get much info on this game, but it was the type of game I expected and wanted to see. Birch went the distance for Churchill. Churchill won it in the bottom of the 7th. Undoubtedly, a well played, well pitched games on both sides. Churchill travels to Coos Bay Monday while Willamette visits the Colts.

North Eugene 12 Marshfield 2. I somewhat anticipated this one after North lost to the Colts and Marshfield beat Willamette. If the Pirates had lost to Willamette, the Highlanders might have overlooked Marshfield. North's DeHaven had a no hitter through 4 and 2/3, so it looks like the Highlanders have a solid 1-2 pitching rotation.

This upcoming week:
If we get our games in, we'll complete the first round. Springfield is the only undefeated team, and North Eugene gets the first shot at them this week. Willamette gets a shot at the Millers Wednesday and the Pirates host the Millers Friday. Besides following the Miller's attempt at reaching the upper echelon of the MWL, the other game I am looking forward to watching is North Eugene at Churchill on Wednesday. If the weather doesn't wash us out, there should be a ton of entertaining games this week.

Final comment. Is there a power outage this year? I think there was just one league homer in the six games so far. Tyler Johnson poked an opposite field homer at Thurston.

Feel free to comment via this blog, or email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com with comments, corrections or additions.

Opening Day - Wild, Wild mid West

2010-04-08T06:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, it looks like this season is going to be everything I hoped it to be. Everyone, and put Marshfield in that word, is in it - at least for a playoff shot.

I ended up on a MWL tour Monday due to the Springfield game being moved to Churchill and the Pirates showing up late to Willamettte. That made three games within eight miles of each other and I just couldn't resist trying to get opening day photos of the pitchers.

Opening pitch for me was by Sam Kiesse of Churchill. Junior Kameron Bates would counter for the Millers, who were bumped off of Hamlin by a flood. Although the game was moved, Springfield remained the home team. Both pitchers looked in command when I left in the bottom of the second, although Churchill stranded runners at second and third with one out. Bottom line for this game is that Springfield has joined the upper MWL echelon along with Thurston, North and Churchill. Blaine Dudley and Ryan Helfrich were both 2 for three. Bates k'd 8 while yielding just 3 hits. Tommy Hubbard closed.... Churchill didn't get in many non-league games and should be looking forward to the three game a week MWL routine.

Next up was Marshfield at Willamette. Einstein Elliot Aurdahl started for the Pirates. Trent Waggoner got the nod for Willamette. When I was in Coos Bay, and Aurdahl was a frosh, he used to tell me that a pitcher can win with a 70 mph fastball if he understood the elements of gravity, air drag, the Magnus force and the coefficient of viscosity. You'd think Elliot is an Eagle Scout. That's because he is. Now a senior, Elliot K'd 13 with his 70 mph'er and earned the 5-3 nine inning win. The Pirates remind me of Springfield about a year ago. The players know what to do on D and a lot more of them are agressive at the plate and have good strokes. Marshfield is another program on the way up. By the way, Aurdahl's apparent only flaw is that he is headed to Beaverville instead of Duck town.... Willamette's D held the Pirates to 3 runs through eight. That's enough to win, so beware the Wolverines.

Got to North late. Thurston was up 5-2 after their at bats in the top of the 6th. I missed seeing North's Moore, who started with four scoreless innings and K'd 10, but gave up four in the fifth. I also missed most of the Colts Dawson Phinney's six inning performance. What I did catch was an incredible bottom of the 7th. North was trailing 5-3 and Coach Dube put in Tyler Johnson to close. I believe it was a double, single and a walk later that Dube went to the mound to talk to TJ with the bases loaded and no outs. The next batter was a lefty, which meant a pulled fly ball would score a run and advance the tieing runner to third. Whatever Dube said to Johnson, Dube should save for a book, because Johnson K'd the next three batters, the last two looking.

So at the end of opening day, all three Eugene teams are in the league cellar. The cities of Springfield and Coos Bay are in first. How often does that happen in baseball? This won't last long as the Millers travel to Thurston Friday. One of them will be 2-0 and still at least tied for the league lead after they face off. Most, if not all of the teams, threw their staff aces Wednesday. Friday will be an interesting day to see if any team has a second ace up their sleeve. Several teams have one pitcher who is good for five to eight wins, but does any team have two of those?

I'll be at Thurston Friday to see the 1-0 teams duke it out. The defending state champs will be trying to send a message to the Millers that Springfield is a Colt town. Is it?

PS. You might want to try Twitter via your cell phone. I keep the tweets to mostly game updates. You can click on the Twitter logo on the main page and see what you would find out while sitting at a game. I'm an old fogie and I figured out Twitter. So can you.
If you don't Tweet, you can still the the tweets on the MWL website by clicking on the Twitter logo. So when you get home, just click on the Twitter logo and you'll see the scores before I get home and post to the web page.

Final League Prediction

2010-04-02T12:33:00.000-07:00

I've am so pumped for league play! There's never been the opportunity for four teams to win the title, but there definitely is this year, maybe even five.

Four teams have already established a more than solid ace.... Hitters have gotten a lot more aggressive throughout the league. It's tough to find more than one hitter on a team who looks like they should be DH'd for.

Coaching is outstanding.... pitch calling, small ball, obviously a ton of improvement in the infields. No more games as a fan writhing in torture and feeling sorry for a club.

But you don't want the "They are all so close" prediction, so here we go:

Churchill and North Eugene should compete for the title.

League Champ: Churchill
I'm sticking with them even though they are 2-2-1 in non league. The opponents were tough.
What I like:
The Lancers sport 13 seniors with experience - all leaguers Birch, Kiesse, Jorgy and Straka.
Spencer Jorgensen on the mound with plenty of other pitchers, Kiesse, Straka, Birch, Rheuban.
Brad Birch at the plate with a lot more help in front and behind him this year.
It's that smooth Churchill infield once again.

2nd Place North Eugene
Most years there are two teams who are so far above the rest, the two coaches only have to concentrate on their head to head match-ups to make sure they own the tie breaker. Definitely not that way this year. But I believe if North wins their first three league games, coach Nicholsen will then start thinking about the Churchill series a little more like a race for the number one seed. Problem is North has to get by Thurston in the first league game and then travel to Springfield before they play Churchill
What I like:
Andrew Moore as the staff ace with lots of backup on the mound.
The Highlander swagger at the plate is coming back. Delaney, Moore, Mills, Harpole, Ferrenburg, DeHaven and Crum were the 1-7 batters against Marist's Zach Brandon. Erik Long was used at the nine spot in the Marist game. Don't let these Highlanders get their bats going.
The almost boring fantastic Highander infield D. A double play on a "safety" squeeze attempt by Marist. Please.

Third will be a fight between Springfield and Thurston - A baseball war in Springfield.

3rd Thurston
How do you lose your entire all world team and come out of the blocks 6-3 in non league? Hats off to coach Dube and his staff. It's tempting to place the Colts higher, but I think the inexperience will lead to some occasional unexpected losses.
What I like:
The combo of starter and reliever Phinner & Loof as named by the Albany Democrat Herald. Actually, they would be Dawson Phinney and Jordan Loos. I didn't see junior Tyler Johnson pitch in pre league. Frosh Kyle Watson may become one of the many potential fantastic frosh in the MWL this year.
The Thurston infield D. Phinney will stay in the games long enough and keep the ball in the park for the great Colt D
The Colt bats. Thurston was on fire until the last two games when they scored a combined one run. I'm betting you'll see a mixture of good days and bad days at the plate, especially as they go through the first two rounds of league play. But there will be a steady improvement throughout. During week one, the order in the SE game was Wright, Jordy Smith, Havens and Jarren Goddard in the first four slots. Tyler Johnson, Watson, Loos, Phinney and Dumilieu. I'm curious to see what the league line up will be - lots of potential here.

4th Springfield
Has to be the most improved team over the last two years. Kudos to Erik Lansdon and his staff. I am impressed at how consistent the infielders have become. And I can't believe the change at the plate. Two years ago, I wondered where the Millers learned to hit before going to high school. Last year was better, four or five guys looked like hitters. Now almost every man is aggressive, staying back and exploding on the ball.
What I like:
Kameron Bates as staff ace and Thomas Hubbard in relief. Frosh Malik Evans on the mound!
The Millers much improved offense. They are putting the bat on the ball. Alejandro Camaenra's lead off speed, Ollie J in the two spot, Bates batting 3, Hubbard, Whitney and Dudley.
The Miller attitude - loose, scrappy, aggressive, more focused - are they focused enough to finish in the top 3? They have the talent.

5th Willamette
Hard to call Willamette as their pitching staff is coming on line a little late. But I did see two wins over Junction City, 9-1, 4-1 last Saturday. Everyone knows Willamette can hit and play good D.
What I like:
Wolverine hitters: Junior Tony Svensson had a day at the plate last Saturday. All Stater Tyler Woodke is Mr. Reliable with power in the alleys. Jordan Bowman and Dustin Leber led off one - two last Saturday. Only one K in 14 at bats between them, so the Wolverines should be setting the table for Woodke and Taylor Hughes. Logan Wright and Tyler Hoskins looked good in the six and seven slots.
Soph Trent Waggoner on the mound. Hughes and Woodke need good years on the mound for a Willamette playoff run.
Frosh shortstop Scott Kuvass and the Willamette D. Kuvass turned some nice DP's last week.

Although I have them in 5th, this Willamette group has the talent to compete for the title. Will everything fall into place starting next Wednesday?

6th Marshfield
The only team I haven't seen. So far in non-league the Pirates are 4-3-1. They've already won more games than all of last year.
What I like:
The great kids in the senior class. I was in Coos Bay when these guys were frosh. 'Einstein' Elliot Aurdahl, Ryan Campbell, Josh Perkins and Cody Dew. An Aurdahl - Campbell combination is likely to pitch their way past a couple of title contenders, knocking some team down a seed or two.
The D. The Pirates are keeping the score down. If they can continue to reduce the number of walks, the opponents will find the going tough. Junior Kane Rowley on the mound if his arm is okay.
The direction of the program. Facilities improvements, youth programs in place, a large number of frosh turning out.

That's it. My final prediction - yes it's the same as the early bird special in the winter.

You can comment on this blog, or email me with comments/corrections/additions at mwlnow@yahoo.com

Week 2 - MWL having tough week

2010-03-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

After coming out of the batter's box in week one with an 11-5-1 record, the MWL is currently 7-8-1 in week two with eight games to play.

The Good.
Thurston continues to impress. The Colts went 3-1 in the Crater tourney, defeating Lebanon, 6A Franklin and 6A Barlow. Crater was the lone team to stop the Colts. What's particulary impressive this early in the season is that Thurston is holding the opponents down in run production. Keep in mind that the Colts are just like everyone else, throwing a lot of different arms to see who will be pitching come league. Lot's of games get very high scoring this time of year, but the Colts D is ahead of schedule.

North Eugene started this week's play today (Thursday). Andrew Moore picked up the win in a 10 K 3-0, complete game. Last week, the Highlanders played North Medford tough and beat last year's state runnerup, Corvallis. So their stock will remain high. They finish this week with three more games in Idaho. Then a killer schedule next week, including a much improved from Day 1 South Eugene, Marist, Sheldon and a rematch at home with North Medford.

The not so Good.
Springfield started the week by picking up their fourth straight win over 6A Gresham. But then they dropped two straght games, to 6A Lakeridge and 5A Wilsonville, both by an 8-7 score. Still the Millers are 4-2 on the season and their defense is only giving up 4.5 runs per game, which is low during this time of year, when teams are throwing everybody and baatters are teeing off.

Churchill lost 5-2 to what should be a highly ranked Crescent Valley team on Wednesday. I was hoping to see this game, but I transferred some poison oak from my work gloves to my eye and it was swollen shut. The Lancers have yet to pick up their first win... but do not let that get you smiling. They've only played three games, are 0-2-1, with their other loss against Corvallis, certain to be very highly ranked. The Lancers continue play this week today (Thursday) and tomorrow - let's play two. You still have to be thinking Lancers as probably league champs. Next week they play Sheldon and Marist. Can't schedule anything better locally before league play.

Willamette is 1-2 this week with an upcoming double header Saturday against Junction City. Willamette's bats starting heating up in a 16-14 win over South Eugene last Friday and seem to be staying hot. This week's games included a loss to another very strong Mid-Willamette team, West Albany, and 6A Hood River Valley. The Wolverines sandwiched in a 9-3 win over 6A Benson. Note that Willamette has already played three 6A teams and won two of them. The Wolverines will need to tune their pitching and D in the next week and a half before league starts.

Marshfield opened this week's play with a 2-1 loss to North Marion. Aurdahl pitched that one. The Pirates bounced back in their second game of the North Marion tournament to beat central. The Pirates closed out the tourney with a loss to Banks. Marshfield has five more pre league wins to pick up their fourth win of the season, which would be more than all of last year.

League Prediction Thoughts - Saw 4 teams this week

2010-03-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

I made my 'Way To Early Prediction' in February before rosters were even set. My thoughts were:

1 Churchill - I was thinking no brainer for league champ
2. North Eugene - should earn second seed, but possibly fall to third seed
3. Thurston - an admittedly wild guess being that 10 all leaguers graduated
4. Springfield - well situated to knock off Colts or Highlanders
5. Willamette - just needs pitching to come around to go to state
6. Marshfield - much improved, but will play spoiler this year.

After seeing North Eugene, Thurston, Springfield and Churchill I'm thinking....
I may have been correct.

-North looked almost too good on D in their first game. Shouldn't a team commit an error on day 1? Andrew Moore should be their number one on the mound and will be tough to beat.

-Then I watched a frosh, Malik Evans, pitch for the Millers, and pick up a 2-1 win. The Millers didn't pound the ball, but they were facing a pitcher who throws in the lo to mid 80's and they put the ball in play. I'm guessing Kameron Bates is the Miller's number one, and if Evans throws a few more like the South Albany game, he could be a solid number two.

-Then I watched Thurston play a tight game with South Eugene. Although the Colts lost, they played very well on D. They got solid pitching from their starter, junior Jordan Smith, and closer, Jordan Loos, and tested a pretty good frosh, Kyle Watson, in between. It's too early to even think who coach Dube will go with during league, but I don't think the pitching will lose games for the Colts.

-Friday was great weather and a game at Churchill. Churchill's Sam Kiesse sailed smoothly for three innings after a little stumble in the first. Lancer Jack Lively looked very good in relief. Look for Spencer Jorgensen as the number one pitcher with Kiesse making a statement for number two.

Didn't see Willamette play due to a postponement, and I won't see Marshfield until league play.

It likes we're going to see a lot of good baseball during league this year. Probably a year where we need four teams going to state.

Not many games being played locally next week. I hope to see Churchill Wednesday, and I might go up to Junction City on Saturday to watch Willamette if my wife doesn't kill me.

I'm behind on posting pictures. I bought a new Imac, it was super flawed and had to get another one shipped from Taiwan. I just got it and loaded game photos and realized I don't know how to use a Mac after 27 years on a PC.

TWITTER: You might want to sign up for the MWL twitter. Look on the main MWL Page. I tweet the score of the game I attend and I forward the scores that people text me. Pretty cool, even for me, a cell phone klutz.

Week 1 Review - MWL Looking Good

2010-03-18T20:36:00.001-07:00

Everything in Baseball Land is great when every team gets in all of their games in week one. It's even better when the league is 11-5-2 on the week with two of the losses being against 6A teams.

I've noticed that over the last six years there has been a major improvement throughout the league. It used to be that of the six 5A MWL clubs, only North Eugene could be counted on to be a playoff team year after year. Then Churchill's program kicked into gear about six years ago. Then Thurston's took off, culminating in a state title. Willamette went to state in '07 and '08. Last year Springfield looked solid, but was it a one year fluke? No, is the answer. The Miller batters are even more agressive this year and the D is strong. Now Marshfield is gearing up and should see dramatic improvment over the next few years.

Strong booster programs, facility improvements and good coaching throughout the league has made the league much more competitive across the board.

When league games roll around, we will likely see the most competitive year ever in league history. Almost every team has a great D im place behind their pitchers. And almost every team has a super solid number one pitcher, although, I don't think there is a pitcher who can deliver an automatic win each time on the mound. And almost every team can put the ball in play all game long, although I don't think any team will have multiple power threats.

It all adds up to anticipation of watching a lot of well played ball games and a lot fewer 10 run spectacles. I'm lovin' it!