2009 Hendricks County Tourney

It was a grueling day, but the Brownsburg Bulldog baseball team won three games to capture the 2009 Hendricks Country Baseball Tourney. The first game was a breeze as the Dogs beat Tri-West 14-1. Matt Bowman and Kohl Bennett pitched for the Dogs. The second game was against rival Avon. The Dogs struggled on offense, but the pitching and defense came through for a 3-0 victory. Pitchers Matt Duncan, Alex McGowan, and Dalton Wentz (6K in 3 IP) only allowed 1 Avon hit in the game. In the championship, the Dogs beat a surprisingly good Cascade team, 4-2. Freshman Issac Sampen pitched 4 innings to get the win. Bennett and Wentz (2K in 2/3 IP) shut the Cadets out the rest of the way. The Bulldogs play Monday against Ben Davis, game time is 5pm.

The Brownsburg softball team did not have the same results in the county tourney. In the top of the first, Avon scored 3 runs on no hits. Four walks and 2 hit batters were the only "offense" in the inning. Brownsburg pitcher Emily Schaefer settled down after that until the 7th when Avon tacked on 3 more runs. However, anytime you give Avon more than a few runs you will not win the game. Avon pitcher Jenny Esparza is one of the best pitchers in the state of Indiana and showed why today. She had 16 strikeouts in her 7 innings pitched.

A win is a win, I guess

The Braves sat through a 2-hour rain delay to beat the Nationals 6-5. Kelly Johnson singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th at 130am. The bullpen wasn't much help again, giving up 4 runs in 7 innings. Once again, the bats were working as 4 players had multiple hits and Yunel Escobar had a 3-run homer. The two teams play at 710p tonight. Japanese pickup Kenshin Kawakami gets his first start for the Braves.

Ball State has a double-header with Bowling Green today. The first game is at noon.

The Brownsburg high school baseball team may have a TRIPLE-HEADER today. Their first-round county game was not played yesterday even though it was in the 40's and not raining. Their game against Tri-West starts at 1pm today. If they win, they will play Avon around 345p. If they win that, they would play in championship around 630p. It could be a long day for the players, but it would be worth it to win the Hendricks Count Baseball tournament.

2009 NCAA Baseball Seeding Predictions

The Braves are in a rain delay right now, so I thought I would make some predictions for the NCAA baseball tourney. I predict the top 8 seeds, in alphabetical order, as follows (current RPI rating in parentheses):

Arkansas (2)
Cal State Fullerton (1)
Georgia (19)
Georgia Tech (5)
LSU (11)
Miami FL (6)
North Carolina (3)
Rice (4)

The only current teams in the RPI top 8 that will not get a top seed are Hawaii and TCU because their remaining schedule is just not up to par with the other teams.

Ball State's game against Bowling Green was postponed until Saturday because of rain. The game will be made up as part of a double header on Saturday.

Lost - A good episode

Watching Lost last night, I had the same feeling that I had when I watched "The Man Behind The Curtain" in season 3, the first Ben-centric episode. In that episode, Ben takes Locke to Jacob's cabin and we get a first glimpse of Jacob (well, supposedly it was Jacob). That episode opened up a whole new part of the story and is one of the few episodes that had me on the edge of my seat. Last night's episode had that same feeling when Ben went to be judged by Smokey. It was thrilling just because you didn't really know what was going to happen. There were also flashbacks spanning many years with Ben that gave some answers to outstanding questions. With only 20 hours left of the show, the answers to many of our questions will be coming soon.

Also, as I said last week Micheal Emerson and Terry O'Quinn should receive Emmy nominations for this season and one of them should take home the award.

What the F#$% just happened?

The Braves, leading 10-3 in the 7th, gave up 8 runs in the bottom of the 7th to eventually lose to the Phillies 12-11. Javier Vazquez gave a great performance in his Braves debut, throwing 6 innings and giving up 3 runs. The offense hit 3 more homers to continue their great start. However, the bullpen reverted back to last year's form by giving up 9 runs in the last two innings, including 4 (that's right, 4) bases-loaded walks. According to the cool new feature on the ESPN gamecast the Braves had a 98% chance of winning the game going into the bottom of the 7th with a 10-3 lead. Luckily, the Braves have an off day tomorrow before starting a 3-game series with the winless Nationals. I know it's only one game, but the high hopes I had for this season may have been dashed by the ineffective bullpen.

The Biggest Loser

Last week, I stated that Laura could be the dark horse to win the $250k. Well, last night she won just about everything. She won $5,000 in the temptation challenge along with the main temptation prize of having the only vote in the elimination room this week. Plus, she had the week's biggest weight loss, taking off another 8 pounds. She used her vote to remove Sione from the contest. Tara did win the other challenge, which consisted of running the steps at the Rose Bowl. Once again, she beat all of the guys. This is one determined chick, but that will be her downfall the first time she drops below the yellow line.

What a Tuesday!!!!

The Braves continued their great start by beating the Phillies 4-0. In their two games this year, the Braves pitchers have given up only one run and the starting pitching has averaged almost 7 innings per start. Kelly Johnson and Chipper Jones homered, giving the team 5 homers for the season. A few days ago, I said that the Braves need to have better starting pitching and hit for more power. If these two games against the defending world champions are any indication, this could be a very good year for the Braves.

The Ball State baseball team put up crooked numbers in each of the first six innings to double up on in-state rival Purdue, 17-8. Cleanup hitter Zach Dygert had 3 hits and 4 RBI and Brownsburg's own TJ Baumet had 3 hits. The Cardinals are now 15-12 on the season and travel to Bowling Green to play a three-game series on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The Brownsburg baseball team beat North Central, 5-3. Dalton Wentz was the winning pitcher. The county tourney is this weekend. BBurg plays Tri-West on Friday at 5pm. The winner of that game plays Avon on Saturday at noon. The championship game will be played after the completion of the semi-final games. All games are at Avon High School.

Tar Heel Stomp

North Carolina proved that their 35-point December crushing of Michigan State was no fluke by beating them 89-72 in the NCAA Championship game. It wasn't very close. NC led by 21 at the half and the game never got closer than 14 points in the second half. NC was the preseason number one team and they backed it up in the tournament. Now the baseball season can really start....

The Pirates scored 4 runs in the ninth off of new Cardinal closer Jason Motte to win 6-4. They may as well have left Isringhausen as their closer if this kind of stuff is going to keep happening.

The Reds could only muster 3 hits as they were beaten by the Mets 2-1. Aaron Harang and Johan Santana pitched very well. It was a good game between two of the best starting pitchers in the majors.

The Braves and Phillies resume their series tonight at 705p. Jair Jurrjens will pitch for the Braves, and 46-year-old Jamie Moyer will pitch for the Phillies.

One down, 161 to go

The Braves were solid in their 4-1 victory over the Phillies last night. Like I said in a previous post, the starting pitching needs to go deeper into the game (Derek Lowe threw 8 shutout innings) and the hitters need to hit for more power (3 home runs). Closer Mike Gonzalez made it an adventure but struck out Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez with two runners on to seal the victory.

Ball State's baseball team swept the double-header at Buffalo on Sunday. They won 15-9 and 3-1. They are tied with Toledo for the lead in the MAC West.

OPENING DAY!!!! (Well, at least for my team...)

Today is the day that I have been waiting for since early October. The day where everything starts anew and hope rises once again. Tonight at 8pm on ESPN, the Braves will play the Phillies in the first game of the 2009 MLB season. There are some new faces in the starting lineup for the Braves. Derek Lowe will start on the mound, Garrett Anderson will be in left field, and 22-year-old Jordan Schafer will start in center field. Schafer is from Hammond, IN about a 2-hour drive from where I am right now. The Phillies will start Brett Myers on the mound due to Cole Hamels' elbow issues.

This season has to be better than the 72-90 season that was put together last year. Our starters need to go deeper into games and the hitters need to hit for a little more power. All I can say is that I am very excited today and I can't wait for 8pm. GO BRAVES!!!!