Hits,

There are probably as many opinions as to why as there are people on this board. Maybe Pat Shurmur will be a better coach somewhere else. Results matter. We were ranked #13 in d-III at the start of the season by an independent scouting organization (Prep Baseball Report). That group judged our talent and how we should perform based on what we have. Don't even ask where we are ranked now...they don't go beyond 25 and teams that low have 3 times as many wins as losses.

Riders get off the snide, 13-3 over Northwestern. Sure wish we'd have these kind of offensive outbursts against OCC teams..but just goes to show the disparity in level of competition in OCC vs WCAL.

No game today, no practice....we have 3 rainouts we could make up. I wonder how many of the top area teams are off completely today.

Whatever momentum the team gets will be muted with 2 days off completely.

They played 5 innings of baseball last night and there were still some shaky plays that would have been a factor against better teams. The one that comes to mind is an easy double play in which the player took it himself instead of flipping the ball to the player standing at 2b. The runner at 1b is safe by a step and an extra run scores that inning. Instead of allowing 2 runs we allow 3. Doesn't matter against Northwestern, but what about in a 1 run game?

We have a rotation of players that play 3b, 1b and OF due to the pitching rotation. Those players would really benefit from a lot more reps in game situations in practice. In the Triway loss the 3b made several errors and it was his first time there all season. The catcher was behind the plate for the first time all year, 2 errors. The RF, first time ever in OF drops a pop fly. In the Clear Fork game another player was pressed into service at 3b from his normal spot in CF. first time he has played there in years. His error leads to the only runs of the game and we lose. This week against Clear Fork a player was pressed into service in RF for the first time all year. 2 errors.

Practice is to address it these areas and help kids who have to play multiple spots. Weather is always a factor in our area, so time outside is critical. The excuse in April is cold wet weather. What is the excuse on a mid-70's Satuday in May?

Quoting Hits: "...was widely and highly regarded as top notch, up and coming coach." You may have stumbled upon the root of the problem with Marshall - he believed (and still believes) the hype. I personally heard him say that no one knows baseball better than him. It was so over the top that I thought he was joking but quickly realized he was dead serious.

Make no mistake, Marshall has exactly the team he wanted and claimed would bring success to the baseball program. This group is talented and baseball is the primary sport for most of them, but thanks to limited depth on the bench and a coach who’s got better things to do on the weekends, they have been forced into positions where they have limited experience as Red Rider pointed out. This shallow bench situation was created by Marshall intentionally. He didn’t recruit a single athlete from any other sport even though some had played baseball every year until last year. Don’t misunderstand me – when I say he didn’t recruit any players I mean he didn’t even speak to them –even a polite “Hi” when walking past was too much for him to muster. I spoke to two former players who, when asked if they were going to play baseball, gave the same story. He has the team he wants and their record is a result of his leadership and arrogance.

It’s time for a change.

Interesting times for this team....

Counting the win last weekend over Barberton, the win over Northwestern and now the win over Northwest, the team has score 10+ runs in 3 of their last 5 games...and if you count the win over Willard, it's been 6+ runs in 4 of their last 6, and 4 wins in their last 6.

Jekyll & Hyde.

Would love to see us score these kind of runs against Lex/Woo.

And now a 3-2 win over state ranked Lex...best OCC win in a while.

Orrville played a great game last night to beat Lexington. Even without Lex's two 7th inning errors I think Orrville would have won in extra innings. Kerr was pitching as good as I've ever seen him while the Lexington catcher was earning his pay just keeping the ball in front of him. It was a big win and the boys deserve all the credit.

7th place...ahead of only Mansfield Senior. Even the biggest critic of the program wouldn't have predicted this in March.

Red Rider;1441098 wrote:7th place...ahead of only Mansfield Senior. Even the biggest critic of the program wouldn't have predicted this in March.

Can't really argue with that.

2 with Wooster then @ Perry to close it out. Tough stretch.

Team had 8:30 practice today (Saturday). Coaches don't show!!!!

Red Rider;1441537 wrote:Team had 8:30 practice today (Saturday). Coaches don't show!!!!

Must have been a real important kids travel ball tournament somewhere.

Was this a practice called by the coaches or one that was "self organized" by the kids? If coaches called practice, then they need to be there...simple as that.

We need more details on what happened Saturday morning, most importantly who called the practice? The assistant coach has a player on the team - was either one of them there? Who led the practice if no coaches showed up?

rock turner;1442262 wrote:We need more details on what happened Saturday morning, most importantly who called the practice? The assistant coach has a player on the team - was either one of them there? Who led the practice if no coaches showed up?

What if the kids thought it would be beneficial to practice, so they organized it? Telling if nothing else.

Talked to a player today - he said Marshall did call the practice and neither he nor the assistant coach showed up. The team ended up having a short batting practice pitching to each other. He also told me there were some very angry people but I didn't ask who.

I can't understand how the parents of this Junior class could be willing to subject their kids to another year of this kind of disrespect and indifference. We've got a very qualified and well-respected person coaching the girl's softball team that I bet would jump at the chance to fix this badly broken program.

It's time for a change.

What is JV record in OCC? Is it possible they have as many OCC wins as the varsity?

Wooster 9 Orrville 2. Interesting comments by Orrville coach Scott Marshall afterwards. "We don't back down from anybody and that's our schedule. Wooster is good too, and you don't win as many games as they have by mistake. They have the luxury of having a lot more depth that we do - they graduate guys each year and I'm looking at six or seven senior banner pictures hanging over there and I have two. We're just a small school and we don't have a lot of guys out for baseball, but that's not an excuse. Give Wooster credit for playing very well today, but in the tournament we'll play teams our size and I look forward to that."

rock turner;1442403 wrote:Talked to a player today - he said Marshall did call the practice and neither he nor the assistant coach showed up. The team ended up having a short batting practice pitching to each other. He also told me there were some very angry people but I didn't ask who.

I can't understand how the parents of this Junior class could be willing to subject their kids to another year of this kind of disrespect and indifference. We've got a very qualified and well-respected person coaching the girl's softball team that I bet would jump at the chance to fix this badly broken program.

It's time for a change.

If true, that's really bad.

Interesting you bring up Craig Johnson. Just won his 100th game as softball coach. Pretty good for a program that traditionally isn't that strong & loses a lot of girls athletes to track.

Swept by Wooster...what's that make it..5-9 in the OCC? 3-9 if you don't count 2 wins against Senior. Single wins over WH, Madison & Lex. Swept by Ashland, CF & Woo.

After beating West Holmes at their place we were 4-3 in conference, we went 1-6 the rest of the way.

Yuck.

Makes you wonder if the record would have been any different if the players just coached themselves...I mean they apparently have to run their own practices if they want to get work in on Saturdays.

We have scheduled a replacement game with none other than Walsh Jesuit Monday. If we win today in the tourney, we have Canton Central Tuesday. Not sure why anyone in their right mind would think it was,a good idea to burn pitching on Monday knowing we will likely be playing CCC on Tuesday and if by some miracle we win that, we will play (I assume Tuslaw) on Wednesday. Whoever pitches Monday will be out of the mix, so I would have to think there is no way any coach would throw one of the top 4 pitchers against Walsh...which brings me back to...what IS the point of voluntarily going out and getting slaughtered Monday night???

We might need our 1-2 starters to get us past CCC. The next night we need 3,4 and maybe 5 to deal with Tuslaw. At a minimum you would want to have 3 fresh guys for each of those games. So WHO are we going to march kids out against Walsh that have pitched maybe 5-6 innings all year? A JV pitcher?

Nah, I have been around this organization long enough to know that the plan is our ace is going 7 on Tuesday no matter what. Our 2 is going 7 on Wednesday no matter what. 3-4 will deal with Walsh for whatever gain we get from that VOLUNTARY game. This is why the season is always a wreck...management of pitchers and understanding how to set up and use relievers. Anyone who believes you will consistently win with starters facing tough hitters 3-4 times a game without using relievers regularly is setting the team up for failure in the long run.

It would be an utter shame to get past CCC and be playing for regionals on Wednesday agai st a weaker opponent and lose because we don't have relievers or because we used our 2 in relief on Tuesday.

Beat Aquinas & CCC got beat by Loudonville.

Stars aligning for another shot at regionals perhaps.

RedRider1;1443577 wrote:Beat Aquinas & CCC got beat by Loudonville.

Stars aligning for another shot at regionals perhaps.

Tuslaw is your biggest hurdle to win districts. Even with star KC Meyer out for the rest of the year (broken fibula, dislocated ankle), they still have a good pitching staff and good hitters. We split with them, so they're definitely good. But you guys are no slouch, either. Should be interesting to see who Tuslaw throws against Chippewa and how that game plays out. I'm rooting for our fellow PAC member Tuslaw, but it would be a "nice" consolation to see a Wayne County school get out of districts.

It just eats at us - after losing to Canton Central Catholic 4 years in a row in districts (2 of those years they went on to win state), we move to DII, and they proceed to go 0-2 in sectionals the next 2 years.

How on earth did Loudonville hold CCC to 1 run in 7 innings? I could understand a fluke that results in a 6-5 win, but to hold a team to one run, evidently they have at least one solid pitcher.

I am sure Tuslaw will be a hurdle, but wow did we ever get a gift 2 years in a row with CCC getting knocked off.

We got by St T, but they had the lead late. They just fell apart with errors and gave it away. We have games Friday, Saturday, and Monday, so as I said earlier, if our starters don't go the distance we won't have any relievers left.

BRF;1437620 wrote:
I look for the Riders to get tough at tournament time and do the job.

Go Riders!

The players hung tough and came back from a big deficit to snatch a win. Let's be realistic, a loss to any of the three teams we have faced so far would have been embarrassing. None had a pitcher that threw more than 80 mph. For a second year in a row, we got a gift in the form of an upset by CCC and Tuslaw losing one of their best players to a broken leg. St. Thomas, Loudonville and Chippewa shouldn't strike fear into too many teams...even though 2 of those teams gave us a run for our money. We made a ton of errors tonight, and against a Regional caliber team we would have been sent packing in 5 innings. If you were there you had to be thinking the same when Chipp was unloading on us early. It looked like the season was over.

Frankly, we haven't faced a team yet that would finish .500 in the OCC. I seriously doubt any of them would win more than 3 OCC games.

I think the team needs to win at least one more tournament game, reaching the Regional Finals, before we can say that they achieved what they were capable of achieving in the post season. Getting to the Final 4 would be absolutely amazing. But, what would a solid defeat in the first game mean? This is where the tournament REALLY begins. There are no flukes at the Regionals. So if we go down I. Game 1 again, what did we really accomplish this year...or last year for that matter? The same applies then.

I can say that it will be a long, long, looong time before Orrville baseball will have as much talent as it has had over the past three seasons. Have we accomplished what we thought we would? Not yet and certainly not in the OCC. What will be a good season in years to come? 10 kids coming out and a .250 winning percentage?

Let's see how things shake out next week...and then let's see if anyone has the courage to assign a grade to the program.