Random Thoughts on a 'Stormy' Night....

• Tim Ernst, Robert Pavelka, Andrew Tulowitzky, and Matt Woodruff have walked across the stage and have graduated! Congrats!
• Recruiting continues to go forward in a positive direction. Its a good mix of pitchers, catchers and middle infielders. More to come..
• DIII Baseball will select the field of 53 for its Championship Tournament on Sunday night. It is not an exact science by any stretch of the imagination, but they use a Quality of Wins Index to help determine the at large berths. This thing is comparable to the BCS....and on a smaller scale creates just as much controversy. There are 33 Automatic Qualifiers who have won their conferences. Austin College is representing the SCAC as an AQ. There are another 6 selected from Pool B. Pool B are teams are in conferences that do not have an AQ....Emory is a Pool B team. Then there are 14 Pool C selections...these are for anybody who did not get a A or B selection. This is where the QOWI comes in play. To even have a chance you need a 9.5 or better (just for fun I figured ours to be 6.6, not bad considering we only won 10 games, more on that in a minute). Rhodes (36-10) and Millsaps (35-11) are in consideration for a Pool C berth....both have QOWI's around 9.5. With a load of upsets in the conference tournaments around the country their chances are dwindling slowly....Stay tuned to http://www.d3baseball.com/ for updates.
• OU's QOWI in 2007 was 6.6. We play one of the hardest, if not the hardest in-region schedules in the south. 25 wins would get us some serious consideration for an at-large berth next year. Obviously winning the SCAC is #1 on the goal sheet and as a consolation you get the AQ to the Championships.

May = Depression

A lot of people ask me if I'm catching my breath...honestly, I wish I never had a chance to catch my breath. Right Austin is preparing to go to the regionals, Rhodes and Millsaps are practicing and praying they each get a chance to go to the "Dance". I think Rhodes has a better chance but I wouldn't be surprised if both watched from home.

As I start to look back at the year and evaluate, a few things stick out in my mind.

First, damn we were young. I know I've said it before but damn....Next year 1 senior, 1 junior, 13 sophomores and about 8-10 freshmen. The best part is those 13 sophomores will have had a TON of experience.

Second, 10-32 doesn't really tell the story. 22 game losing streak don't happen every year. Outside of the streak we were 10-10, that is a better indication of how good this team was...

Third, until the SCAC goes away from 4-game weekends we will all struggle in mid week games. Only three teams were over .500 in the SCAC. Not even the SCAC Champs were over .500!! Playing LaGrange, Emory, Huntingdon, Piedmont during the week after a SCAC series is tough! But what ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.


In case you could not make it to the banquet here are the 2007 Team Awards:

MVP: Tim Ernst
Offensive POTY: Andrew Llano
Defensive POTY: JJ Rizzo and Brendan Pilger
Rookie of the Year: Stephen Archer
Pitcher of the Year: Nick Greenfield
Stormiest Petrel: Robert Pavelka

Season Recap

It has been a while since my last post...I'm sorry. Over the next few days I will recap the season in a few posts. During the course of the summer I will add updates. Stay tuned!