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NCC 12-13

With their win Monday against Webster City, Clear Lake clinched their first NCC baseball title since 1965. Congrats Lions!!!
 
Originally posted by vikesfan13147:
With their win Monday against Webster City, Clear Lake clinched their first NCC baseball title since 1965. Congrats Lions!!!
That absolutely amazes me. I remember even back when I was playing how Clear Lake had some really good players (some D1 recruits). Hard to believe, especially for them being the biggest school in the conference, that this is their first title in 48 years.


I also saw they beat St. Eds 2-1 the other night on a controversial call (or so I read
question.r191677.gif
).

When was the last time Clear Lake made it to state? I thought I remembered them going recently. Maybe not.

As for SE, it's been a strange growing year for the Gaels highlighted by a roller coaster of streaks. They were on a 5-game win streak before the loss to Clear Lake. It looks like they're starting to hit their stride a bit and their pitchers are settling in. Their younger guys have definitely gotten plenty of work in. I'm trying to think, but I believe they return most if not all of their pitching staff next year. The issue will be replacing the departing seniors in the batting lineup. Guys like Tommy Setterdahl and David Flattery, and it was too bad injuries kinda slowed him up as he would've been the top gun for the Gaels on the mound otherwise.

He helped lead the Gaels on the mound to their last state appearance in 2010.
 
Clear Lake has never been the largest school in the NCC. Usually 2nd-5th depending on enrollment swings at Algona, Humboldt & IFA. Webster City has been the largest school since before I was born.

It's been ten years since the Lions last appearance at State, but lets not put the cart before the horse and book them for Des Moines yet. Anything can happen in a baseball substate.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
CL has won the league since 1965, just never outright. It has been a while since the last one, however, I beleive they shared it with Garrigan a couple times around 2000

Very close play the other night, Thunder, from my view. Whichever coach didn't get that call was going to have grounds to argue it.

Really nice effort by CL in winning this league considering that they had to replace the majority of their production from last year. No one saw that coming and they deserve credit for running away the league the way they did. This team has excellent pitching and solid defense, but they're not as good as they were last year. The conference has not been this down in at least 10-15 years, IMO
 
Originally posted by GoodOldNCC:
CL has won the league since 1965, just never outright. It has been a while since the last one, however, I beleive they shared it with Garrigan a couple times around 2000
Maybe we can get super_tecmo on the case to confirm.
tongue.r191677.gif
He's posted older basketball stats from the conference, maybe he has or can find info on baseball too. I had thought they at least shared the title once or twice back around when I was in HS. They always seemed to be right in the thick of the conference race.[/B]
Very close play the other night, Thunder, from my view. Whichever coach didn't get that call was going to have grounds to argue it.

Really nice effort by CL in winning this league considering that they had to replace the majority of their production from last year. No one saw that coming and they deserve credit for running away the league the way they did. This team has excellent pitching and solid defense, but they're not as good as they were last year. The conference has not been this down in at least 10-15 years, IMO
I do agree that it is somewhat down. But I also think that there are a few programs that have made quite a bit of improvement in recent years. Humboldt had a pretty nice regular season. Iowa Falls-Alden is definitely more competitive than I remember and even Clarion-Goldfield has gotten better. They had a nice run to end the season last year and while I don't know that they were better this year, they did finish with 1 more regular season win.
What I noticed (and even Clear Lake had a few close-calls) was that the margin for error was much thinner almost from top to bottom, with the exception of Clear Lake, who was able to come out on top in pretty much all of their close games and that helped them to a conference title.

I think, while the overall talent of the league was a little down, there wasn't much that separated many of the teams in the conference, and night-in and night-out a few plays here and there turned out to be the difference in ball games. The Gaels lost 6 one-run games this year in conference play, each to a different team.
 
But I also think that there are a few programs that have
made quite a bit of improvement in recent years. Humboldt had a pretty nice
regular season. Iowa Falls-Alden is definitely more competitive than I remember
and even Clarion-Goldfield has gotten better.



Good points
here. Some of these schools (I would
throw in Algona) have been terrible in years past, and its good to see them
putting respectable teams on the field.






I think, while the overall talent of the league was a little
down, there wasn't much that separated many of the teams in the conference, and
night-in and night-out a few plays here and there turned out to be the
difference in ball games. The Gaels lost 6 one-run games this year in
conference play, each to a different team.



The difference between
this year and years past was in the top half of the league. It seems like more often than not you'll see
two or three very good teams who you feel could compete for a state title if
they got hot at the right time. It seems
like St. Eds has been in that group for the better part of a decade and they
fell off this year. Bishop has had
several and they're down. Eagle Grove
has had some really, really good teams with fantastic pitching, and they were awful
this year. Webster City, Hampton have
had some solid teams. Usually you can
count on there being a couple really good teams. This year, there was maybe just one.


 
DT is correct as CL did share the league title in 2000 & '01 and I believe it was with Garrigan one year and Garrigan and Webster City the other. As far as other programs in the league besides CL - Humboldt has put together a nice ballclub the last couple years and Clarion has been much more competitive. Iowa Falls was much better last season than this year as well as St. Eds but the Gaels were a much better team as the year progressed.
WC, Algona and Hampton have dropped like a rock over the last 2 years. Coaching changes with 2 of the 3 programs can be a factor and some athletes just don't go out for baseball. Staying with the theme of CL, Thompson has done a great job with the program and whatever he is doing with their offseason training, its working. You don't lose a lineup with Adams, Truesdell, Tusha, Kockler, Kerran and Bendickson and expect 30 wins and a NCC crown.
 
There are some finals in playoff baseball:

Hampton-Dumont beat Hudson 3-2 and will play Dike-New Hartford Tuesday in Parkersburg.

St. Edmond beat Eagle Grove 7-6 and will play Ogden Tuesday in Story City.
 
Hampton-Dumont saw their season came to end tonight with a 7-5 8 inning defeat at the hands of Dike-New Hartford. D-NH advances to play Waterloo Columbus Catholic, who beat Aplington-Pakersburg 10-0, Saturday in Parkersburg.

Clarion-Goldfield also ended their season tonight with a 8-1 loss to Roland-Story. Roland-Story will square off with St. Edmond, who upset seventh ranked Ogden 4-2 in 8 innings, Saturday in Story City for a berth in the Class 2A Substate 2 Final.

Bishop Garrigan put together a convincing 12-1 6 inning win over Pocahontas. The Golden Bears advance to face West Bend-Mallard, who beat North Iowa 8-4, Thursday in Algona. Bishop Garrigan took both regular season meetings sweeping a doubleheader 11-0 and 5-3.
 
Thanks. Was wondering how that turned out. Should be another good game on Saturday.

Hopefully, the NCC can get one or even a couple teams into state this year.
 
I think a potential Garrigan-Newman substrate final would be a battle. I just don't know if St. Eds can get past Roland-Story. I think the best bet for an NCC team to get to state will be Clear Lake or Humboldt in 3A. I think this is the year CL gets over the hump and gets to Principal Park. They will potentially have to beat #6 Waverly and #10 Decorah, or a very good Oelwein team. Decorah did beat CL last year, but neither team is as good as last season. Humboldt could come out of the wide open Substate 7 with teams like Boone and Iowa Falls-Alden in it. There really isn't a clear favorite in that Substate.
 
Bishop Garrigan was upset by West Bend-Mallard tonight 6-0. Really don't know what to say about this. The Wolverines must have figured something out from the first two games played between these two teams. I don't who pitched for each team, but WB-M definitely picked a good time to get hot. They will play West Hancock, who beat Belmond-Klemme 9-8, on Saturday for a chance to play either Lake Mills or Newman in the Class 1A Substate 2 final. Things are gonna interesting with all the 3A teams in action tomorrow to see and who survives round 1.
 
Jason Zinnel pitched for wbm and Wadle pitched for garrigan. Wbm hit Wadle well which was a small surprise. Garrigan hit zinnel but not hard at all and just couldn't get things going. Wbm actually had bases loaded in the 5th with 1 out and didn't score. That could have opened it wide open
 
#2 (3A) Clear Lake beat Charles City 3-0 tonight and will play #6 (3A) Waverly-Shell Rock, who beat Independence 13-1 in 6 innings, on Monday in Waverly.

Algona ended their season with a 3-0 defeat against #1 (3A) Sioux City Heelan. Heelan advances to play Spencer, who beat #9 (3A) Storm Lake 3-0, on Monday in Spencer.

Iowa Falls-Alden saw their season come to an end against conference rival Humboldt. The Wildcats outlasted the Cadets by a score of 10-8. Humboldt advances to play Boone, who beat fellow conference rival Webster City 11-2, on Monday in Boone.
 
St. Edmond was eliminated tonight by Roland-Story 3-2. Roland-Story will play South Central Calhoun, who beat Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto 4-2, on Tuesday in Carroll. That leaves Clear Lake and Humboldt as the only remaining NCC teams in postseason play, and both are in action next on Monday.
 
The Clear Lake/Waverly-Shell Rock and Humboldt/Boone games were both postponed until tomorrow night due to weather. The winner of the CL/W-SR game will play Decorah, who beat Oelwein 9-3, on Wednesday. The Humboldt/Boone winner will play ADM, who beat Nevada 11-1 in 5 innings, on Wednesday.
 
#2 (3A) Clear Lake defeated #6 (3A) Waverly-Shell Rock in an instant classic 8-6 in 9 innings. They will play Decorah tomorrow night in New Hampton.

Humboldt was defeated by Boone tonight 8-3. Boone advances to play ADM tomorrow night in Boone.
 
Clear Lake advances to the Class 3A state tournament with a 6-3 victory over Decorah. The Lions will play in Des Moines for the first time since 2003 and are the #6 seed in the 3A bracket and will play #3 seed Chariton on Tuesday at 6 pm.
 
Not that there's a way to make the seeding more fair, but it is kind of unfair that CL gets 1 point each for beating Newman, Kee, and Garrigan, but a team could get 4 points for each time they beat teams like DSM North or Waterloo East, etc. However, I've always said that seedings don't matter. Just beat who you play and you'll win it, and, since there's no easy game at state, there should be 3 tough games no matter where you're seeded. Kind of feel bad for the 3 seed that had to draw Clear Lake!
 
The NCC Players selected to the All-State teams are as follows:

Class 3A First Team:
Gavin Sheakley Clear Lake Sr Pitcher (Captain/Player of the Year)

Class 3A Third Team:
Ben Jacobson Humboldt Sr Infielder
Mitch Keeran Clear Lake So Outfielder

Class 1A Second Team:
John Burns Bishop Garrigan Sr Infielder

Class 1A Third Team:
Reece Wadle Bishop Garrigan So Pitcher

Congrats to everyone!!!
 
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