Here's the link to the @UIC baseball series preview:
http://www.valpoathletics.com/baseball/news/2012-13/12727/red-hot-crusaders-meet-flames-with-plenty-at-stake/ (http://www.valpoathletics.com/baseball/news/2012-13/12727/red-hot-crusaders-meet-flames-with-plenty-at-stake/)
Elliot Martin is back from injury this weekend. That's good news. Cole Webb is back from injury and back in the rotation. That's good news. Overall, the pitching is as deep as it has been all year. That's good news. Valpo is hitting the baseball as consistently as they have all year. That's good news. Valpo has the longest winning streak in Division 1 college baseball at 10 games. That's good news. Valpo is now over .500 on the season. That's good news. Valpo has pulled within one game of Milwaukee. That's good news.
Basically, Valpo has six conference games left and Milwaukee has three conference games left. Both play YSU with Valpo having this UIC series in addition. Needless to say it's a big weekend. A sweep puts us in good shape.......taking two this weekend still keeps us reasonably in contention for the regular season championship.
Go Valpo Baseball!!!!!!
More good news!!! Valpo was named the Central Region Team of the week by College Baseball Insider!!!
Central: Valparaiso remained hot, going 5-0 to extend its win streak to nine. The Crusaders posted an 11-4 win over Goshen on Monday and 5-3 against Western Michigan before sweeping a three-game set from first-place Milwaukee to pull within a game of first in the Horizon League. Valpo won 5-3 on Friday, 10-7 on Saturday and 7-6 on Sunday.
The Mickelson kid from UIC was great yesterday. He pounded the strike zone with a moving cutter, so it was just one of those days. Sometimes the pitchers win. We will be OK. DeBoo fought off a blister/hangnail to throw a good seven innings. He allowed just three hits, but they came at big times and we helped them with an error. The goal for Valpo remains to go 2-1 in this series, and then hope for some help this weekend from YSU...GO VALPO!
Looks like we really need some help within our own ranks. We lost this afternoon's game, 12-5. YSU isn't helping with a loss in Game 1, and trailing 5-0 in today's makeup from yesterday's rainout. I'll be happy with the #2 seed. We just need to put things together against the conference teams, so that we're ready not only for the tournament, but for any close games that come in Youngstown, both next weekend, and in tourney play.
We were so close to a comeback for the HL regular season title. If we win tomorrow, we should be in good position for the #2 seed, and hopefully make a run of it!
There goes the sweep for UIC, and possibly the chance to be the #2 seed. Not sure what happened this weekend, but we really needed to show up for this series. I am disappointed, but we will hopefully go onward and upwards against YSU!
Tough weekend, but I am confident we can bounce back next weekend against
Youngstown and go into the tournament with some momentum. I still like our chances.
I was shocked to see a veteran group come out so flat for an important series like this. We had a poor approach at the plate all weekend, and caught UIC with hot bats. We had as many hits as they did, but they got the big two out RBIs and we didn't. We will need to forget about the weekend, and start building momentum against Toledo tomorrow then the season ending series against YSU. A two or three seed doesn't really matter, but we need to win at least two against YSU to eliminate the possibility of finishing fourth or fifth and having to play an extra game in the HL tourney.