NICL West

[PNation]

This was a nice thread last year thought I would start another one

Here are my predictions

1. West Marshall
2. South Tama
3. East Marshall
4. BCLUW
5. Gladbrook Reinbeck
6. Grundy Center
7. South Hardin
8. AGSWR


West Marshall returns a lot including the best pitcher in the conference, I think that South Tama will be close, having beat them twice last year, but they never faced Riemenschnieder, but probably have the best hitter in the conference. East Marshall lost their studs but had some nice younger players and seemed to always be well coached. BCL is well coached and returns some players but losing Thompson will be tough. G-R is there because I don't know who will pitch for them but again have a lot of tradition. Grundy was young last year, but heard they are struggling for numbers. South Hardin couldn't field a JV team last year and seemed to be flustered on the field last year, but they did have some young players last year so they could be improved. AGWSR really struggled last year if they want to improve they will have to develop younger players.

 

[terrehawk]

The conference does seem as down as it has been for some time. I think your analysis is pretty spot on. EM and BCLUW probably will be way down (especially EM but they throw strikes) and GR lost a lot of talent but have a few young athletes. (If they ever stop over-throwing their P's they might make it through a season)

the only thing I would say is that WM and S Tama might be close to a push right now. IMO It will be interesting to see how they developed in the off season.

S Tama seemed to have some good young players last year and only lost 2 guys that I could see.

WM should be fairly deep pitching wise and is capable of playing good D. To me, their 2nd biggest concern is consistent catching and a CF when Riemenschneider is on the mound.

#1 is that WM HAS to find a way to cut down on their strike outs if they want to win the conference.They had 171 in 24 games last year and had 11 SO's last night against....COLO.... They did lead the conference in SB's last year and hopefully they continue to become more and more agressive and find ways to steal runs (not leaving it up to hitters), as a good running game can somewhat offset a poor hitting team.





This post was edited on 5/23 7:27 PM by terrehawk

 

[mtdew_fever]

South Hardin continues to be the biggest mystery on why they can't get enough kids out.

I'd agree, BCLUW has not had much overall talent compared to other schools, but their coach is one of the best in Central Iowa.

I see South Tama leading the way with West Marshall and Gladbrook-Reinbeck following.

 

[pinkphantom]

I don't have a lot to add regarding the other teams as I don't know a lot about them. I think what most has been said here is pretty much accurate.

As far as I know, neither South Hardin nor Grundy Center have a JV team. East Marshall has only varsity games scheduled against them. On the surface you would expect them to be not that great since the pool to pick players from is limited. But that's being said knowing nothing about how good their players are.

East Marshall will not be anywhere close to last year. We have 2 regular starters on our team from last year (Center field and catcher). Most graduated. 2 aren't playing this year. 3 upper classmen on the varsity team (2 Seniors, 1 Junior). None of those 3 are really pitchers. So that leaves the bulk of the pitching to underclassmen.

As terrehawk said, EM will throw lots of strikes. These pitchers have been well trained and have been pitching a long time. However, still young and I would expect teams with good hitters to get on them. But also we are very well coached and will play good defense. I think we will be able to reduce the amount of running teams try on us this year too.

EM definitely won't be last year, but won't stink up the joint either.

 

[PNation]

Sam Kuhter from South Tama threw a no hitter tonight against Grundy

 

[pinkphantom]

And he's only given up 1 hit in 2 games? That's mighty decent. Opponent batting average of .023.

 

[PNation]

Both Dalton Doyle from South Tama (vs. G-R) and Tyler Lutes (vs. South Hardin) threw no hitters last night, that is three no no's so far this year that I know of, is that a sign of good pitching or poor hitting?

 

[terrehawk]

Originally posted by PNation:
Both Dalton Doyle from South Tama (vs. G-R) and Tyler Lutes (vs. South Hardin) threw no hitters last night, that is three no no's so far this year that I know of, is that a sign of good pitching or poor hitting?

I think the teams outside of WM and ST are pretty poor and I believe those 2 are pretty average. In particular, once you get past their top 2-3 players/pitchers.

Riemenschneider from WM is capable of beating a really good team when he is on and gets help behind him. I can't really speak for ST's best pitcher though.

A no-hitter in HS is normally not a tremendous feat at this level of play with the teams that would be considered average and below. If a legitimate top 10 ranked team were to get no-hit, then I would look at that as a pretty good accomplishment.

Many times, just having the ability to throw strikes is enough against a lower tier team. They will get themselves out generally.

 

[TD-BOMBS]

PNation good prediction.

 

[mtdew_fever]

I am amazed at how poor this conference is right now. Per Quikstats, not one team is batting .300 and only two teams have winning records (WM and ST).

South Hardin and Grundy Center are probably the worst two teams this conference has seen in years. I realize they play mostly underclassmen, but it's still shockng on how many freshman they have to play (very few Jr and Sr out).

 

[terrehawk]

Any word on when the W Marshall and S Tama game will be resumed and the 2nd game will be played?

They played last Friday. Were scheduled for a double header but with multiple lightning delays, they had to suspend play at around 10 pm in game 1 in the bottom of the 10th inning.

WM had just batted and went up 7-3 and ST had 1 out and no one on in the bottom half.

Kuhter and Riemenschneider threw great games but both had to come out. Kuhter due to the innings pitched rule (he also had thrown over 150 pitches) and Sinning, who would have started game 2 for WM, relieved JR in the middle of the 9th. He had just over 100 pitches.


I'm not sure how or when they will make these up/finish game 1 with schedules backed up so badly. Maybe play on a Saturday?

The delay most likely helps ST the most as they will possibly be able to bring Kuhter back for G2. U understand there is a huge drop off to #2? And Sinning is pretty solid for WM so not playing both games Friday probably helped ST.
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[PNation]

I would guess that the drop off for West Marshall is bigger Kuhter is South Tama's ace but Koch and Doyle aren't too far behind.

 

[terrehawk]

I understand that East Marshall 10 runned S Tama tonight and that Koch was the pitcher of record. Color me shocked.

I had heard that S Tama dropped off quite a bit after Kuhter but still figured S Tama would be able to walk through all the other teams.

Things just got REALLY interesting in the NICL West.


This post was edited on 6/19 10:17 PM by terrehawk

 

[pinkphantom]

Like I said earlier, EM won't stink up the joint. I certainly wouldn't paint them as "a bad team" as was previously stated. Well-coached, just young. Did I think we would 10-run STC? Nope. Did I think we COULD beat them? Yes.

A lot of people probably don't know that we have played the better portion of the year short 2 or 3 of our normal starters. 2 of them were injured very early in the year and one mid-year. When we played WM the first time we were down all 3 of those starters, forcing us to start 2 freshman and an 8th grader. They are back playing but still aren't 100%. It is what it is. We still try to win the game.

Tonight we'll get to face Kuhter. Apparently some of the STC players got in some kind of a fight behind the dugout after the game and I heard one of the players talk back to the coach in the first inning. That would never fly on our team, or most teams.

WM will still win the conference.

 

[pinkphantom]

Tonight's score:

EM 1
STC 0

 

[TD-BOMBS]

Conferance Standing as of 6-22-13 per quik stat

West Marshall 9 - 0 - 0
East Marshall 9 - 2 - 0
South Tama 6 - 2 - 0 8
Gladbrook-Reinbeck 4 - 4 - 0
BCLUW, Conrad 3 - 4 - 0
AGWSR, Ackley 2 - 5 - 0
South Hardin 2 - 7 - 0
Grundy Center 1 - 6 - 0


This post was edited on 6/22 9:35 AM by TD-BOMBS

 

[terrehawk]

Originally posted by TD-BOMBS:
Conference Standing as of 6-22-13 per quik stats

West Marshall 9 - 0
East Marshall 9 - 2
South Tama 6 - 2
Gladbrook-Reinbeck 6 - 5
BBCLUW, Conrad 3 - 4
Grundy Center 4 - 6
AGWSR, Ackley 2 - 8
South Hardin 2 - 9

Looks like it was updated this weekend so I updated for you.

Note that S Tama and W Marshall have 1 unfinished game mostly in the books (Still 2 outs to play in a game with a 7-3 score) so WM would likely be 10-0 and ST would likely be 6-3 if that score stands.

With EM sweeping ST last week, it's down to WM and EM for the title with West Marshall and East Marshall scheduled to play their 2nd and final game of the conference season with each other tonight.

WM won game one earlier 7-2. Tonights game apparently has been moved to EM with a 5:30 varsity start, weather permitting. (WM apparently is having some tarp issues..)

A win by WM and I believe they would be guaranteed no worse than a tie for first place and in essence virtually locks up the conference title as WM would essentially only have 3 games left to play and a 3 game lead.

WM Conference games remaining:

1 game (and 2 outs of another game) with S Tama left.
1 game at home with Grundy Tuesday
1 game @BCLUW on Thursday

If EM would win tonight, EM would need help from the other conference teams as they would be behind 1 game with 2 more games to play.

EM conference games remaining:

1 game with Gladbrook Reinbeck
1 game @Grundy Center

 

[PNation]

Don't quote me on this but the way I read the rule Kuhter wouldn't be able to pitch in the 2nd game.

 

[pinkphantom]

I disagree and believe he would be able to pitch, assuming he has met all of his innings pitched requirements for the week that the game is now played. He obviously wouldn't be able to compete in the yet to be finished game because all rosters continue as if the game was played on the same day.

The second game is a reschedule and is a brand new game. Nothing carries over on that reschedule.

If your reading that he wouldn't be able to pitch, then it would be a massive headache for everybody in the state. Say a pitcher pitches 9 innings in a game on a Monday night. They have a Tuesday night game that is rescheduled for a week later. By your reading, that pitcher would then not be able to pitch in that rescheduled game for the same reason.

Note that I don't know how many innings he pitched in the first WM game, but if it was less than 9, he could have even come back and pitched in the second game up to his ninth inning of pitching. (Ignore that it would be a bad idea. I'm just saying by rule.) It would be legal for a starting pitcher to pitch 5 innings and then 4 innings in back to back games of a double-header, unless I'm missing something. Again...by rule. I never said that would be a good idea.

 

[terrehawk]

I understand that BCLUW beat WM tonight. Think it was 7-6 in 8 innings.

I believe WM lead 4-1 going to the 7th. Couple hit batters with bases loaded to send to extras.

think WM scored 2 in 8th but BCLUW scored 3 in the bottom.


Now WM with 1 loss and S Tama with 2. They are to play Monday before they play Nevada. Have to finisg the 7-4 game in the bottom of 8th. If wm holds on, they win the title. ST would hve 3 losses and WM would only have 1

They would then play S Tama game 2 (last conf game) followed by Nevada.

Then WM has a pretty tough last week or so schedule wise compared to most of the season so far
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[terrehawk]

W Marshall gets their 2 outs vs S Tama and locks up the NICL West title.

Game 2 is up shortly. WM is throwing an 8th grader.
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