I haven't been paying any attention at all to any other MAC baseball teams playing against "power conference" opposition -- the Flashes have had two, against the Buckeyes and against Indiana, and have lost both. But the game against the Buckeyes was so, so close.

Running at 667 in conference, the Golden Flashes had a golden chance to beat the Buckeyes in a one-off OOC contest yesterday. The Buckeyes went to the fence, with a two-run homer to start scoring in the bottom of the of the 4th, with the Flashes working for it to get back to 2-2 in the top of the 5th, on a loaded base single and a loaded base hit by pitch, and after a solo homer to lead off the 6th followed up with an RBI single and RBI walk, but the Buckeyes chipped away 3 runs to level it in the bottom of the 6th. The Flashes went ahead on a solo homer to the top of the scoreboard in the 7th, but the Buckeyes score a 2 run homer in the bottom of the 7th to go ahead.

The Flashes almost tied it up in the eighth, with the call on the field that the Golden Flashes runner beat out a throw to the plate, but it was overturned on replay so the score held at 7-6 for the home team.

How has it been going OOC for the other MAC baseball schools?

I don't know about baseball, but the OHIO softball team beat Ohio State, 1-0, last night in Columbus! It was OUr team's 10th straight win of the season!

(04-05-2023 10:29 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  How has it been going OOC for the other MAC baseball schools?

NIU baseball is 5-22 for the season. We often play our first 20 games to start every season on the road.

NIU baseball has been terrible the last eight (or is it nine seasons now?) under our current head coach. He has a career record of 145-285.

Why he hasn't been fired yet is unbeknownst to NIU fans but then again our athletic director has been fine with underachieving coaches, while giving them contract extensions, for a while now.

(04-06-2023 09:50 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  NIU baseball is 5-22 for the season. We often play our first 20 games to start every season on the road.

Bowling Green played their first 16 games on the road. One of them was a win at then-No. 5 Louisville, but still: Tough to be nationally competitive in a sport when in a region where the weather is basically incompatible for half the season. The Falcons are 11-16.

I wouldn't blame any MAC school for dropping the sport.

(04-06-2023 12:41 PM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 09:50 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  NIU baseball is 5-22 for the season. We often play our first 20 games to start every season on the road.

Bowling Green played their first 16 games on the road. One of them was a win at then-No. 5 Louisville, but still: Tough to be nationally competitive in a sport when in a region where the weather is basically incompatible for half the season. The Falcons are 11-16.

I wouldn't blame any MAC school for dropping the sport.

Northern schools are at a serious disadvantage. It negatively impacts our schools to start play in March when the weather outside is still terrible and we have no choice but to play a bunch of games out west or down south.

NIU baseball was pretty competitive during Ed Mathey era (our coach before the current one) and even was getting HS players who were drafted in MLB to come play at NIU.

Now, the program is awful and extremely uncompetitive. Our previous head coach left NIU to become the coach at a Division 3 school. He's been pretty successful there. Sad state of affairs...

https://northcentralcardinals.com/sports...athey/3219

(04-05-2023 12:24 PM)bobcat_backer Wrote:  I don't know about baseball, but the OHIO softball team beat Ohio State, 1-0, last night in Columbus! It was OUr team's 10th straight win of the season!

Nothing like beating the Buckeyes!

Broncos are 3-14 OOC including dropping three to #1 LSU and 0-6 vs. Big Ten nines.

Kent has enough pitching for the weekend games, but is slightly stretched to also cover the mid-week games. I think Kent will be in the top two or three in MAC standings, but I don't expect much on Wednesdays.