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