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.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
5A MWL play-in Stinkeroo
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
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
Sunday, May 15, 2011
6A Seeding Sweep
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Tie Breaker, RPI and Jim Fryback story
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.
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!
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.
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!
Monday, May 9, 2011
South Eugene spoils pennant race
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:
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!
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
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!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Thurston has the inside track to the crown
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?!
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?!
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