Quote:WEDNESDAY 5.25.16
Game 1 No. 3 Miami No. 6 Central Michigan 9:30 AM ET
Game 2 No. 2 Ball State No. 7 Western Michigan 1:00 PM ET
Game 3 No. 1 Kent State No. 8 Eastern Michigan 4:30 PM ET
Game 4 No. 4 Northern Illinois No. 5 Toledo 7 PM CT/8 PM ET

All tournament games are live on ESPN3.

Last week, KSU moved up to #28 in Collegiate Baseball's Top 30. Pitcher Eric Lauer was also named national pitcher of the week following his no-hitter vs. BG. He was MAC Pitcher of the Week in the East 5 times this season. Currently only KSU (42-12) and Ball St. (32-24) have records above .500 on the season.

"only KSU (42-12) and Ball St. (32-24) have records above .500 on the season."


Almost makes you wonder if more MAC teams will follow Akron's lead..

(05-23-2016 09:01 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  "only KSU (42-12) and Ball St. (32-24) have records above .500 on the season."


Almost makes you wonder if more MAC teams will follow Akron's lead..

Makes you wonder how many sports MAC schools would drop if they all dropped the ones they were lousy at. Would there be a MAC left?

When your first 15-20 games are on the road its not much of a fair contest. The overall records for MAC teams are representative of playing most of their season on the road.

(05-23-2016 09:13 AM)axeme Wrote:  

(05-23-2016 09:01 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  "only KSU (42-12) and Ball St. (32-24) have records above .500 on the season."


Almost makes you wonder if more MAC teams will follow Akron's lead..

Makes you wonder how many sports MAC schools would drop if they all dropped the ones they were lousy at. Would there be a MAC left?

We'd still have wrestling and maybe track.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

2016 Awards announced:

MAC Player of the Year
Alex Call, Ball State, Jr., OF

MAC Pitcher of the Year
Eric Lauer, Kent State, Jr., LHP

MAC Freshman of the Year
Connor Smith, Western Michigan, Fr., SS

MAC Freshman Pitcher of the Year
William Anderson, Northern Illinois, Fr., RHP

MAC Defensive Player of the Year
Deion Tansel, Sr., Toledo, SS

MAC Coach of the Year
Jeff Duncan, Kent State

All-MAC First Team
C- Jarett Rindfleisch, Jr., Ball State
1B - Caleb Stayton, Jr., Ball State
2B - Brad Wood, So., Northern Illinois
3B - Mitch McGeein, Sr., Eastern Michigan
SS - Deion Tansel, Sr., Toledo
OF - Alex Call, Jr., Ball State
OF - Luke Burch, Jr., Kent State
OF - Vinny Mallaro, Jr., Buffalo
SP - Eric Lauer, Jr., Kent State
SP - Keegan Akin, Jr., Western Michigan
SP - Eli Kraus, So., Kent State
SP - Alec Tuohy, Jr., Buffalo
RP - B.J. Butler, Jr., Ball State
DH - Zarley Zalewski, Sr., Kent State
DH -- Gary Russo, Sr., Miami

All-MAC Second Team
C- Cody Gaertner, Sr., Ohio
1B - Ross Haffey, So., Miami
2B - Steve Sada, Jr., Miami
3B - Dylan Rosa, So., Kent State
SS - Connor Smith, Fr., Western Michigan
OF - Mitch Longo, Jr., Ohio
OF - Daniel Jipping, So., Central Michigan
OF - Stephen Letz, Sr., Northern Illinois
SP - Ross Achter, Sr., Toledo
SP - Cole Gnetz, Fr., Miami
SP - Andy Ravel, Jr., Kent State
SP - William Anderson, Fr., Northern Illinois
RP - Zach Willeman, So., Kent State
DH - Brennan Williams, So., Eastern Michigan
At-Large - Conner Simonetti, Jr., Kent State

MAC All-Defensive Team
C: Cody Gaertner, Sr., Ohio
1B: Tommy Hook, Jr., Northern Illinois
2B: Riley Minorik, Fr., Bowling Green
SS: Deion Tansel, Sr., Toledo
3B: Sean Kennedy, Jr., Ball State
OF: Manny DeJesus, Sr., Ohio
OF: Mason Mamarella, So., Kent State
OF: Alex Call, Jr., Ball State
P: Keegan Akin, Jr., Western Michigan

Nothing like a little baseball at 9:30 in the morning to start the day.

(05-23-2016 09:13 AM)axeme Wrote:  

(05-23-2016 09:01 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  "only KSU (42-12) and Ball St. (32-24) have records above .500 on the season."


Almost makes you wonder if more MAC teams will follow Akron's lead..

Makes you wonder how many sports MAC schools would drop if they all dropped the ones they were lousy at. Would there be a MAC left?

Yea. That's totally I was saying... If *a* school is bad at *a* sport they should drop it.
/sarcasm....

Let me try again. When more than 80% of your conference can not manage a winning record in a sport. When 100% of your conference spends 90% of their out of conference games on the road you have to askyourselves... is it worth it..

This is not about UB sucking at baseball. This is about *everyone* sucking at baseball.

Imagine if only two MAC basketball teams managed a winning record. Imagine nobody in the MAC played a home basketball game until late december.

That's what MAC baseball is.

And yet a MAC school is ranked #23 in the country and is consistently strong, year in and year out. How is this possible with all those disadvantages? I hear a lot of excuses from other schools that KSU (and Ball St. and other schools in various years) disproves. Having AD's that are incompetent at hiring baseball coaches and having baseball coaches who recruit lousy players is the problem. Saying they are at a disadvantage that can't be overcome is obviously and demonstrably untrue.

Miami wins game #1 over CMU 10-5.

#7 WMU upsets #2 Ball St. 5-1. In the regular season, BSU swept the Broncos three games by a combined score of 43-6. Go figure. Playoff baseball.

KSU's Eric Lauer throws a complete game 1-0 shutout at EMU.

The fourth game will get a later than expected start.

Toledo beats NIU 11-7.

THURSDAY 5.26.16
Game 5 No. 6 Central Michigan No. 2 Ball State 9:30 AM ET
Game 6 No. 8 Eastern Michigan No. 4 Northern Illinois 12 PM CT/1:00 PM ET
Game 7 No. 3 Miami No. 7 Western Michigan 4:30 PM ET
Game 8 No. 1 Kent State No. 5 Toledo 8:00 PM ET

The first two games are elimination games. The winners of the last two games get to jump ahead to Saturday's semi's and skip playing Friday at all. Huge advantage.

Again, all of the tourney games are broadcast on ESPN3. They did a great job yesterday.

The tournament format is a split bracket double-elimination, meaning each side of the bracket plays down to one remaining team without two losses. The two sides of the original bracket only meet in the championship game(s) on Sunday. If both teams in the championship are undefeated or both have one loss, then it is a one game championship. If a one-loss team beats a previously unbeaten team in the championship round, then they will play again for the title.

•With his 4-hit shutout of EMU yesterday, KSU's Eric Lauer lowered his nation-leading ERA to 0.64.

•EMU employed an interesting strategy yesterday by starting one of their backup starters in the first game and saving their best starters for today and Friday, perhaps anticipating a run through the loser's bracket, and not wanting to waste their best starter against the league's best team.

(05-26-2016 06:53 AM)axeme Wrote:  THURSDAY 5.26.16
Game 5 No. 6 Central Michigan No. 2 Ball State 9:30 AM ET
Game 6 No. 8 Eastern Michigan No. 4 Northern Illinois 12 PM CT/1:00 PM ET
Game 7 No. 3 Miami No. 7 Western Michigan 4:30 PM ET
Game 8 No. 1 Kent State No. 5 Toledo 8:00 PM ET

The first two games are elimination games. The winners of the last two games get to jump ahead to Saturday's semi's and skip playing Friday at all. Huge advantage.

Again, all of the tourney games are broadcast on ESPN3. They did a great job yesterday.

The tournament format is a split bracket double-elimination, meaning each side of the bracket plays down to one remaining team without two losses. The two sides of the original bracket only meet in the championship game(s) on Sunday. If both teams in the championship are undefeated or both have one loss, then it is a one game championship. If a one-loss team beats a previously unbeaten team in the championship round, then they will play again for the title.

•With his 4-hit shutout of EMU yesterday, KSU's Eric Lauer lowered his nation-leading ERA to 0.64.

•EMU employed an interesting strategy yesterday by starting one of their backup starters in the first game and saving their best starters for today and Friday, perhaps anticipating a run through the loser's bracket, and not wanting to waste their best starter against the league's best team.

Looks like EMU started their best pitcher.

He pitched well enough except for the long HR in the 2nd. KSU kept threatening but couldn't push more runs across. He faced 18 batters and gave up 6 hits in 4 1/3. The relief pitcher was a bit better.

(05-26-2016 06:53 AM)axeme Wrote:  THURSDAY 5.26.16
Game 5 No. 6 Central Michigan No. 2 Ball State 9:30 AM ET
Game 6 No. 8 Eastern Michigan No. 4 Northern Illinois 12 PM CT/1:00 PM ET
Game 7 No. 3 Miami No. 7 Western Michigan 4:30 PM ET
Game 8 No. 1 Kent State No. 5 Toledo 8:00 PM ET

The first two games are elimination games. The winners of the last two games get to jump ahead to Saturday's semi's and skip playing Friday at all. Huge advantage.

Again, all of the tourney games are broadcast on ESPN3. They did a great job yesterday.

The tournament format is a split bracket double-elimination, meaning each side of the bracket plays down to one remaining team without two losses. The two sides of the original bracket only meet in the championship game(s) on Sunday. If both teams in the championship are undefeated or both have one loss, then it is a one game championship. If a one-loss team beats a previously unbeaten team in the championship round, then they will play again for the title.

•With his 4-hit shutout of EMU yesterday, KSU's Eric Lauer lowered his nation-leading ERA to 0.64.

•EMU employed an interesting strategy yesterday by starting one of their backup starters in the first game and saving their best starters for today and Friday, perhaps anticipating a run through the loser's bracket, and not wanting to waste their best starter against the league's best team.

EMU got excellent pitching yesterday. The 2nd pitcher gave up 1 hit over 3+ innings.

The starter gave up one CONSEQUENTIAL hit, a HR. The rest were one here and one there...

1 - 0 games, normally not my cup of tea, are exciting in tourneys where the outcomes are super, super important. Otherwise, give me 9 - 8.

(05-25-2016 12:48 PM)axeme Wrote:  And yet a MAC school is ranked #23 in the country and is consistently strong, year in and year out. How is this possible with all those disadvantages? I hear a lot of excuses from other schools that KSU (and Ball St. and other schools in various years) disproves. Having AD's that are incompetent at hiring baseball coaches and having baseball coaches who recruit lousy players is the problem. Saying they are at a disadvantage that can't be overcome is obviously and demonstrably untrue.

sigh.... dude nobody is shaqing on Kent State m'kay... Stop being so damn defensive

Baseball is a sport the MAC should go full in on. With few northern conferences paying it any attention it should be easy to become the top of the pack. Kent shouldn't be the only school thumping on the big10. We will forever be in the shadows of the big10 in football and basketball but could easily take their place in baseball.

(05-26-2016 10:53 AM)ilovegymnast Wrote:  Baseball is a sport the MAC should go full in on. With few northern conferences paying it any attention it should be easy to become the top of the pack. Kent shouldn't be the only school thumping on the big10. We will forever be in the shadows of the big10 in football and basketball but could easily take their place in baseball.

Yeah we could over take them in football if we all packed 100k stadiums ... Have you seen MAC baseball facilities compared to the Big10's??? No one is taking over crap. Sure Kent can swim in the big fish tank, just like 1-4 teams can in every sport. We are not coming close to ever passing the prestigous BIG10's in much of anything... Those schools have higher academic standards and more moneys and fans to build build build.