Championship Saturday Updates

[Bogus Smith]

ORU takes a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st on a Sacrifice fly by Jake, scoring Duff from 3rd base.  ORU is the visiting team in the first game.  ORU will be the home team if there is a second game.

[Bogus Smith]

Warfle hit a 3-run homer in the top of the 3rd for a 5-0 lead by the good guys.

[Bogus Smith]

Two more runs in the top of the 6th, increases the lead to 8-0.  The only question remaining is whether our arms will keep the Gents shutout for a second straight game.  Sullivan is doing a great job right now.

[Bogus Smith]

Good guys up 9-0

[Bogus Smith]

Game is currently in a rain delay, thanks to the heads-up work of the Golden Eagles trying to get the tarp on the field.  The game is in the bottom of the 9th, with the good guys still ahead 9-0 with a runner on second base.  Chris Ashman has come in to close out the game (and get some innings in since he hasn't pitched since last weekend).  Sullivan did a great job, not letting any runner get past second. 

As for the rain delay, no one else (either from WIU or any League officials) was willing to get the field covered.  Another show of administrative incompetence on the operations of this Tournament on the part of the Mid-Con and WIU.

[Bogus Smith]

Golden Eagles win 9-1.  Congratulations to the good guys for a great Tournament.  Let's get 'em at the Regionals now!!

[tmh8286]

Coolest thing - I went to a graduation party this afternoon, and got there while the game was in the bottom of the eighth.  We were there probably two hours or more, and at one point checked a radio to see if the game was still on - it wasn't, so I assumed it was over. 

When we got in the car to leave the radio came on and it was the Golden Eagles back in play!!  I got to listen to the last inning, and hear the Eagles win!  How great is that?  I missed at most a few batters. 

Congrats to the boys in vegas and navy.  A great performance today, and a tremendous performance in the tournament.  I'm glad we still have some games left in the season, but I'm really going to miss some of the seniors on this team.  Most of them have given us two years of thrilling baseball.  Who's going to step in and fill their shoes??  I guess we'll find out next year, but boy, they've got some big shoes to fill.

[TrueBlue82]

Doc - we say the same thing EVERY year - and yet the program reloads EVERY year.  Hats off to Rob Walton - Mid-Con Runner-up Coach of the Year!

[tmh8286]

Game is currently in a rain delay, thanks to the heads-up work of the Golden Eagles trying to get the tarp on the field.  The game is in the bottom of the 9th, with the good guys still ahead 9-0 with a runner on second base.  Chris Ashman has come in to close out the game (and get some innings in since he hasn't pitched since last weekend).  Sullivan did a great job, not letting any runner get past second. 

As for the rain delay, no one else (either from WIU or any League officials) was willing to get the field covered.  Another show of administrative incompetence on the operations of this Tournament on the part of the Mid-Con and WIU.

Bogus, could you please elaborate about covering the field?  Are you saying that ORU covered it?  Or that they asked that it be covered, or what?  If we covered it, there must have been a cover around there that we used.  Or are you saying that with ORU and Centenary playing, that WIU lacked motivation and the Mid-Con lacked initiative to see to it that someone was ready to take care of it?

Please clarify what happened and what you meant.

[Bogus Smith]

Based on Geoff's broadcast, the rain started coming down pretty hard and no one was attempting to get the field covered.  As I understood it from earlier reports, WIU has three tarps to cover their field because they are all tattered and no one tarp can cover the field adequately without the holes in the tarp leaking. 

The team then took it upon themselves to run for the large tarp and start rolling it out, but the WIU coach stopped them and said that they needed to get some other tarps out first, so they took those and covered the home plate and pitcher's mound areas.  By the time they got the two areas covered, the rain stopped, but the infield and basepaths needed work before the game could progress.  It rained again before they could finish working on the field to start the game again.  If ORU had not gotten after it, the game probably would have ended right there.

[tmh8286]

It's interesting to me that the Mid-Con hasn't updated the web site after the championship game today.  Usually they are very prompt in updating - I've pointed out before that the Mid-Con web site is usually the first place to post box scores after basketball games.  They've been the same way about posting the outcomes of the baseball tournament games.  But now, nearly six hours after the game's conclusion, there is still no posting of a story on the the Mid-Con Baseball Tournament Championship game.  

Hope they get one up soon.

[tmh8286]

Based on Geoff's broadcast, the rain started coming down pretty hard and no one was attempting to get the field covered.  As I understood it from earlier reports, WIU has three tarps to cover their field because they are all tattered and no one tarp can cover the field adequately without the holes in the tarp leaking. 

The team then took it upon themselves to run for the large tarp and start rolling it out, but the WIU coach stopped them and said that they needed to get some other tarps out first, so they took those and covered the home plate and pitcher's mound areas.  By the time they got the two areas covered, the rain stopped, but the infield and basepaths needed work before the game could progress.  It rained again before they could finish working on the field to start the game again.  If ORU had not gotten after it, the game probably would have ended right there.

Thanks, Bogus.

[Old Titan]

I was very disappointed in how the conference and WIU ran this tournament.

From my perspective several hundred miles away, here is what I thought was missing:

? No pre-tournament thumbnails or game notes on the four participating teams on the Mid-Con website.

? No banner-link to tournament info on the conference website main page.

? No live stats link anywhere on the conference website.

? Inadequate server capacity for the online video streaming.

? Delayed posting of game stories on the website.

? No post-game quotes from players and coaches.

? No post-game box scores.

? Inadequate facilities for players and press at the tournament site, including no locker rooms and no lights.

? Inadequate operations and security oversight at the field.

I'm not sure who was in charge of media relations and game ops on this event, but they simply dropped the ball, both pre- and post-game.

Once again, it makes me really appreciate the job Cris Belvin and his Media Relations staff do when ORU hosts the baseball and basketball tournaments in Tulsa. 

And once again, I'm troubled that whenever something needs to be done beyond the bare minimum in this conference, we typically have to do it ourselves - from self-policing a near-brawl on the field, to pulling out the darn tarps when it rains...

[Bogus Smith]

You're right about our staff, OT.  As "bare minimum" as we run our athletic department, we have the best staff of the Conference.  They appear to run circles around the other member schools' staff and they serve us well when we compete against our more marquee games/events.  Even when Scott Williams was with us, our staff ran Mid-Con Championships like a first-class operation that it should be. 

It's important (in my opinion, of course) that the Conference championships should be run in a manner to give the student-athletes as good of a festive experience as possible.  I believe that this attitude is exemplified when we put on the Basketball Tournament as so many people put in hundreds of hours to make sure the teams are treated as equitably and honorably as possible.  The other championships could/should be required to follow suit, if the Conference required it. 

It's unfortunate that the Baseball Championships were not afforded the same due as all of our other championships.  It did seem to lack a lot of organization and preparation.

[Irish333]

Bogus Smith..... I really believe it's because we answer to a Higher Authority! Amen, Amen.

[Old Titan]

If you want to see how it should be done from an information standpoint, check this out:

Big XII Website

They even have a "Game Replay" feature, where you can see an animation replay of the entire play-by-play of any particular game from the tournament.  It's really cool if you missed the game and want to know when and how the critical plays occurred.

[tmh8286]

Based on Geoff's broadcast, the rain started coming down pretty hard and no one was attempting to get the field covered.  As I understood it from earlier reports, WIU has three tarps to cover their field because they are all tattered and no one tarp can cover the field adequately without the holes in the tarp leaking. 

The team then took it upon themselves to run for the large tarp and start rolling it out, but the WIU coach stopped them and said that they needed to get some other tarps out first, so they took those and covered the home plate and pitcher's mound areas.  By the time they got the two areas covered, the rain stopped, but the infield and basepaths needed work before the game could progress.  It rained again before they could finish working on the field to start the game again.  If ORU had not gotten after it, the game probably would have ended right there.

Geoff talked about this a little on his show this AM.  He said that, in spite of rolling out three tarps (he said that ORU and Centenary players did the covering), they were so full of holes that even after covering the field was very wet, covered with puddles, and barely playable.  But Geoff said that he was encouraging Rob Walton to try to get them to finish the game, because he could see on radar that an even bigger thunderstorm cell was headed their way, and if it hit them it would almost certainly require them to stay the night to finish three outs on Sunday.  So they went out and finished up in less than ideal conditions, water on the field and all.

While I understand the desire to move the tournament around, just as there are minimum requirements for bidding on the basketball tournament, there should be minimum requirements for hosting a baseball championship.  I'm hardly in a position to be able to list what those would be, but I would think it should include a lighted field, locker rooms, and the ability to cover the infield in the event of rain!  If ORU is the only one that would qualify to host, then perhaps the standards would encourage other teams that wanted to host to improve their facilities.  After this weekend you really get the feeling that the Mid-Con does not take it's commitment to baseball very seriously.  The WINNER OF THE TOURNAMENT wasn't even posted to the web site UNTIL SUNDAY!!!  I'm very slow to criticize the conference, because I know that they are limited in resources, but as I've had a few days to think this situation over, I really feel that the teams and fans that were involved in the tournament this weekend were let down.

On a side note, Geoff said that leaving Macomb their bus driver took THREE wrong turns, and after driving for 1 1/2 hours they were only thirty miles outside of Macomb!  It was a totally frustrating afternoon for the team.  They looked pretty happy yesterday when they drew Wichita in the regionals, though!