Buccaneers and Sabres and Panthers

Beloit College finished up their Florida trip with a loss to Vassar College.  The Buccaneers ended up with a 4-3 record including two blowout victories against Northland College.  Scoring 57 runs in 7 games is pretty impressive, especially considering they didn't have a single home run. 

Marian University has started out 0-2 this spring while playing St. Mary's(MN) and The College of New Jersey in Arizona.  The Sabres face Augsburg College tomorrow for a doubleheader and will remain in Arizona through March 18.  Marian's head coach Jason Bartelt was inducted into the Lakeland College Hall of Fame last October.  He was named All-Conference in each of his three seasons as a player there. 

UWM dropped 3 to the University or Arkansas last weekend despite being ahead or tied in the fifth inning or later of each of them.   This week the Panthers are in California playing in the Jack Gifford Memorial Tournament.  They lost the first two games to San Jose State and UC Davis.  Today's game was a different story as the Panther pitching staff was lights out against Santa Clara.  Chad Pierce had a perfect game into the fifth inning and only gave up 3 hits and walked none in seven and a third innings while striking out 3.  Greg Blohowiak and Kaleb Engelke finished the 3-0 shutout.  Doug Dekoning went 2 for 3 to extend his hitting streak to 13 games.  He has been on fire this season hitting .500 with 2 HR, 13 RBI, and 4 steals.  UWM will finish up their west coast trip tomorrow with a rematch against San Jose State.

Minor League

Wisconsin has been home to numerous minor league teams over the years.  Fans in the state have gotten the opportunity to watch players such as Hank Aaron and Mark McGwire while they were first starting out.  Now all we have left in the state are two minor league teams. 

The Beloit Snappers are the low A level farm team of the Minnesota Twins.  There is hope they will soon get a new stadium.  They will be relying on donations and cashflow generated by Snappers operations.  I hope they are able to get this done. 

The Milwaukee Brewers also have an in-state low A level farm team in the Midwest League.  The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers have been around for a long time but this will be their third season affiliated with the Brewers.  You can become a shareholder and get lots of perks as an owner of the Timber Rattlers. 

I would love to see more minor league teams come back to Wisconsin.  The success of the Northwoods League has shown how popular baseball done right can be in the state.  The key to luring teams back is having a top notch stadium for them to play in.  Hopefully we get another inventive community to find ways to privately finance a new stadium. 

Beloit College Buccaneers

Dave DeGeorge is starting his 21st season as head coach of the Beloit College Buccaneers.  I got the chance to ask him a few questions.

BAW:   What do you think is the biggest adjustment to college baseball for incoming freshman?

Dave:  The biggest adjustment for players moving from high school to college baseball is the speed of the game. Foot speed affects both offense and defense. Arm strength is greater across the board. Freshman base runners make mistakes due to the range and arm strength of the defenders. Freshman pitchers can be greatly bothered by running game of a veteran team. Freshman defenders struggle to get the ball to the base on-time against many college runners. The best players make the adjustment to the speed of the game within their first year.

BAW:   How many all star tournaments do you go to in the summer to check out players?

Dave:   Beloit is a national college, so I can recruit the entire country. My bread and butter are the northwest suburbs of Chicago and the areas in and around Milwaukee and Madison.

BAW:   How big is your recruiting area?

Dave:   Beloit is a national college, so I can recruit the entire country. My bread and butter are the northwest suburbs of Chicago and the areas in and around Milwaukee and Madison.

BAW:   Do you have anyone on the team that appears to have a shot to get drafted this summer?

Dave:   Mike Kovach is the player on our team most likely to play at the next level. He can play every position on the field, he is fast and he has a natural knack for the game. If he doesn’t get the opportunity to play in the minor leagues, he may go overseas to play.