Going to keep the Power Rankings a little bit shorter this week before doing a big blowout one next time. It will be special I promise. In the mean time feast your eyes on these rankings and consider them a bit of a sampler before the main course next week.
1. Tufts (27-4, 8-2)- At first I was going to put Wesleyan here before looking at the team wide stats. Tufts’ pitching has separated themselves just a little bit from the other pitching staffs down the stretch, and its 2.58 ERA is .75 runs better than Bowdoin’s second place mark. Tufts has a great video of the Tufts staff discussing what has made them so successful. The offense is not quite as dominant, but has still scored 21 more runs than anybody else in the NESCAC. The secret to their success has been their patience. They rank as a team only fourth in the NESCAC in batting average, but their .396 OBP is the best in the league. Also, a .396 OBP is absurdly high for a full season.
2. Wesleyan (23-8, 10-2)- Did someone on Wesleyan read the Power Rankings last week? No way they printed it out and circled the fact that I put them third right? There isn’t a lot of stuff out there that could be used as bulletin board material in the NESCAC, so let me just have my moment and imagine that they used my writing as inspiration for their series win over Amherst. Like I said above, I almost put them number one, but think that Tufts’ body of work is too deserving not to put them first. One player we haven’t given enough credit to this season has been second baseman Andrew Yin ’15. He has gotten on-base more than any other player in the NESCAC.
3. Amherst (23-7, 9-3)- Yes, it was a disappointing weekend for Amherst, but my impression of them hasn’t changed very much. Drawing Tufts for the first game of the double elimination tournament is tough, but Bowdoin showed last week that Tufts’ Kyle Slinger ’15 is beatable. They have a bevy of pitchers to throw at teams this weekend. They won the tournament last year as the number two West seed without losing a game so they have been in this situation before.
4. Bates (18-14, 6-4)- Their remaining two games against Tufts are much more important in terms of confidence for the Bobcats than the Jumbos. Bates lost the first game of conference season to Tufts when Slinger threw a gem against them, but they were in the game the whole time. Both managers will have to balance keeping their players in rhythm and not giving away too much in case of a potential rematch in two weekends. While Bates is a distant fourth behind the big three, Brad Reynolds ’14 will give them a great chance to win at least one game, and after that the team has been playing well enough to make a run.
5. Williams (10-15, 6-5)- The overall record is not very good in large part because of the depth of Williams pitching, but this was still the best team not to make the playoffs. They were doomed by going 1-5 against the tandem of Amherst and Wesleyan, and it would have been interesting to see how they would have done in the East given how up for grabs the second spot was. Their hitting didn’t perform quite as well in conference play, but some drop off was to be expected.
6. Colby (15-13, 5-7)- Colby gains this spot by virtue of beating Bowdoin in their head to head matchup. No team took a bigger step forward than Colby this season in big part because they had great improvement by returning players. Back in March they looked to be at best a spoiler with enough talent to steal a game from anybody, but their 4-2 conference start was for real. They return a lot of players next season as well. Their offense will need to get contributions for players up and down the lineup, but they aren’t far away.
7. Bowdoin (17-14-1, 5-7)- This is a disappointing finish for Bowdoin given their preseason expectation, but in the end their weaknesses just couldn’t be overcome. Still a lot of positives to take away with the biggest one being all the players who stepped up in bigger than expected roles. All of those players will be back next season in what is sure to be a team hungry to get back to the playoffs in a crowded East.
8. Trinity (15-16, 4-8)- 2014 was a terrible season by Trinity’s high standards, but their series against Tufts showed that there are still plenty of players in Hartford. It felt like Trinity lost more close games than anyone else. Everyone in the lineup will be back as well. It is way too early to make any predictions about the East next year, but it will be just as unpredictable next season. Don’t be shocked if the Bantams bring in a couple of hard throwing freshman to strengthen the rotation.
9. Hamilton (9-14, 2-9)- To be honest, Hamilton really hasn’t done much to hold onto this spot in recent weeks because their offense has completely collapsed. Their pitching staff has kept them in games, but there just isn’t enough hitting. The improvement of twins Chris and Kenny Collins ’17 does represent a ray of hope that next season the Continentals will be a more complete team capable of cashing in on the early promise they showed on their Florida trip.
10. Middlebury (4-21, 2-10)- The Panthers seemed to building a little momentum a few weeks ago after they beat Hamilton twice and played Amherst very tight for a couple games, but that enthusiasm has disappeared in the middle of a nine game losing streak. Their remaining four games are two doubleheaders against Tufts and Bowdoin so those will be difficult games as well. If they win some of them then they recapture some of those good vibes heading into the summer.