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

  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