Author: Adam Lamont

The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

Full Disclosure: I was not able to watch any of Amherst-Williams game on Friday night and only caught the end of the National Championship game because I was travelling. Highlights of the championship game can be found here. Highlights of the semifinal between Amherst and Williams can be found here. As such I can’t write an in-depth breakdown of the games this weekend. This post focuses instead on the bigger picture that emerges as we enter the basketball offseason.

An incredibly entertaining National Championship ended with a flourish that unfortunately left Williams on the short end of a great game. Michael Mayer’s putback of a Duncan Robinson shot with four seconds left put Williams up one before Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Quardell Young raced up the court for the winning layup with under a second left. Obviously it was a tough loss for Williams, but the Ephs’ can take solace in knowing how well they played both in the championship game and in the tournament overall. Their blowout victory Friday night over Amherst was shocking in its dominance even if some saw a Williams victory coming because of how they were playing entering the weekend. Williams’ victory over Amherst means they have taken the proverbial crown denoting the NESCAC’s top dog away, for now, from the Jeffs.

The Analogies

I thought of two analogies after Williams’ victory Friday night, but their imperfections were made even more glaring after the loss Saturday. Nevertheless, because I love extended analogies, here goes nothing. Allow me to indulge here and tease out the parallels between the Amherst-Williams rivalry for the last two years and medieval Europe. Amherst is led by King Toomey and supported by his feudal lords David Kalema, Tom Killian, and Connor Green. Williams is a rival house that enjoys considerable influence, but has been defeated many times. The leaders of Williams are Duke Taylor Epley and Earl Michael Mayer. They know that they need something else to overcome Amherst so they promise a foreigner, Baron Duncan Robinson, the crown if he gives Williams his support. The game Friday night was the final climactic battle where Williams vanquishes Amherst. Toomey is exiled because of his graduation and the new king Duncan Robinson claims lordship over the NESCAC basketball kingdom. By no means a perfect or exact analogy, but an entertaining one, at least to me.

A more relatable sports analogy to Friday night’s game is the SEC football championship game between Florida (Amherst) and Alabama (Williams) in 2009. The year before Florida won the SEC championship game before going on to win their second national championship in three years. In 2009, both teams returned undefeated entering the game. This time Alabama pulled away in the second half with a Tebow  interception in the end zone putting any hope of a comeback to sleep. Alabama had broken through, winning that National Championship and then winning again in 2011 and 2012. Both teams were supremely talented, and entering the 2009 championship game many thought Tebow would be able to will his team to victory. Toomey is quarterback Tim Tebow as the team leader who gets all the press and accolades, David Kalema is wide receiver Percy Harvin as the quick and athletic play-maker, and Tom Killian is tight end Aaron Hernandez as the Swiss army knife capable of filling all sorts of roles. Duncan Robinson is running back Trent Richardson as the supremely talented freshman who helps put the team over the top, Taylor Epley is running back Mark Ingram as the veteran player who has the moxie and ability to make all the plays, and Michael Mayer is linebacker Rolando McClain as the leader in the middle that makes everything work. Here’s hoping that these comparisons, particularly in reference to Killian and McClain, only go so far as the field.

Saying Goodbye:

The 2014 class was loaded with multiple All-Americans and talented players at different positions and schools around the NESCAC. Still, any conversation about the 2014 class has to center on Aaron Toomey. Toomey’s final performance is a disappointing end to what has been an unbelievable career. He is quite simply everything you could want in a Division 3 point guard. He combines elite shooting, court vision, basketball IQ, ball handling and leadership. Entering this year, some argued that he was a tad overrated and Amherst wouldn’t be able to repeat their success because of how much Amherst had lost from the 2013 senior class. This season destroyed any notion that he could be considered overrated given his statistics and Amherst’s record. Toomey’s career was a masterpiece to watch, despite how it ended. There are no bigger shoes to be filled next season than his.

The depth of this senior class was of the highest caliber, and probably deserves its own post. Toomey’s teammates David Kalema and Tom Killian improved every year while at Amherst to become two of the best players in the league. Williams’ senior duo of Taylor Epley and Michael Mayer enjoyed enormous success all four years. Mayer will go down as a dominant center that had skill and size not often seen in Division 3. Middlebury’s class, led by Joey Kizel, helped elevate Middlebury’s program to even greater heights. Kizel was unfortunately overshadowed by Toomey for much of his career, but his penchant for making big shots and will to win made for a great career. Though Kizel headlined the group, center Jack Roberts developed into one of the league’s best post defenders, and swingman James Jensen provided high energy every time he was on the floor and often gamely tackled the opponent’s toughest defensive match-up. Bowdoin’s trio of Andrew Madlinger, Matt Mathias, and Grant White led the Polar Bears back to the NCAA tournament. Tufts’ Kwame Firempong and Bates’ Luke Matarazzo were scoring guards and underrated players throughout their careers. Conn College’s Matt Vadas was a scoring machine throughout his career, and his teammate center Mason Lopez enjoyed a great senior season. Though there is a ton of talent coming back next year around the league for what should be a very entertaining and wide-open season, the 2014 senior class was an exceptional one that will be greatly missed.

Ultimately, the Williams-Amherst rivalry defined the 2013-2014 NESCAC season. Of course there were many other storylines like Bowdoin’s first NCAA tourney bid since 2009, the rise of young teams like Colby and Trinity, and Middlebury’s rollercoaster ride. Yet all of that is secondary to what the two teams from Western Massachusetts accomplished. The teams combined to go 18-2 in NESCAC play, faced off for the NESCAC championship, and both made the Final Four in the NCAA’s. These are two of the best programs in all of Division 3, and they proved it again this year. The jobs that Coach Mike Maker and Coach David Hixon did this year were exceptional, and to their credit what we have come to expect. Williams ended up just short of the absolute goal of a national championship, but that doesn’t diminish what the two teams achieved this season.

Looking Back, Glancing Forward: West Division

Spring trips are in full swing for most NESCAC baseball teams so now is a good time to get caught up on the entire goings on around the conference as well as looking ahead a little bit.

Amherst: The Lord Jeffs encountered a (understandable) case of wrong identity as the Oswego State Baseball Twitter account celebrated a win over “UMass Amherst.”

The loss was Amherst’s first this year. The normally effective Amherst offense could only manage eight hits including three by shortstop Taiki Kasuga ’14. John Cook ’15 looked very effective for the Jeffs firing seven innings and recording 13 strikouts with only two earned runs. The loss came one day after Tyler Jacobs ’15 hit a three run homer in the top of the tenth as Amherst won in extras over Rutgers-Camden. Amherst has a bunch of games left in Florida; the biggest of which is Saturday against Southern Maine, ranked #3 in the nation. We’ve yet to see the much-anticipated debut of Mike Odenwaelder on the mound, and the second-year player has struggled out of the gate at the dish, hitting .182 but with a home run among his two hits.

Hamilton: Last Saturday, Continentals outfielder Joe Jensen ’15 was at the D3 National Indoor Track Championships. We want to say congrats to Joe on finishing second in the nation for the 400-meter dash. To top it off, on Monday Jensen led off for Hamilton in their first game, reached his first at-bat via walk, and promptly stole second. Last year Jensen had 29 stolen bases, tops in the league and 11 more than the runner-up. Hamilton’s win against Bowdoin Monday doesn’t count towards the conference standings, but is a big confidence boost especially since it was Hamilton’s first game while Bowdoin had already played seven.

Middlebury: The Panthers don’t start their season until Saturday, but as Peter Lindholm reports, Middlebury has already suffered two huge losses this year. Pair of Two-Sport Stars Hang Up Their Spikes

Wesleyan: As expected, the Wesleyan offense has been potent, but the Cardinals are only 5-4 because they are allowing way too many runs. Already Cardinal opponents have had games of eight, nine, 12 and 13 runs. Donnie Cimino ’15 has been a beast posting an on-base percentage of .524 along with five stolen bases and other guys like Andrew Yin ’15 and Ellis Schaefer ’17 haven’t been shabby with the bat either. Jeff Blout ’14 has been a disaster on the mound with a 10.80 ERA after two starts, and the only bright spot in the rotation has been Peter Rantz ’16 who has a 1.04 ERA in 17.1 innings pitched. Wesleyan has four more games in Arizona to get their rotation figure out.

Williams: The Ephs will be the last team to get underway in the NESCAC with their first game this Sunday, March 23 in Arizona at 2 PM.

Looking Back, Glancing Forward: East Division

Bates: The first team to play games up north, Bates swept their three game series against SUNY Old Westbury to improve on the season to 4-6. Seniors Kevin Davis ’14 and Griffin Tewksbury ’14 have led the way at the plate for the Bobcats. Tewksbury in particular has been raking with a .371/.463/.629 slash line highlighted by his two homeruns. The defense, which cost them some games down south, was better for Bates as they had two or fewer errors in each of the three games against Westbury. They have doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday against Salem State and Husson.

Bowdoin: Bowdoin sits at 6-2 on the season now mostly on the strength of contributions from players who saw little time last year. In particular first baseman/outfielder Chad Martin ’16 and outfielder Peter Cimini ’16 have been on fire at the plate. Combined the two have hit for a .550 avg, nine runs, and nine runs batted in. In the first meeting between two NESCAC teams Hamilton bested the Polar Bears 2-1. The game ended in dramatic fashion with the tying run for Bowdoin gunned out at home after a single by Cole DiRoberto ’15. Bowdoin finishes their Florida trip with doubleheaders Wednesday and Friday.

Colby: The Mules have to wait until Sunday to get the season started against Bard. More importantly we want to offer our condolences to the Metto family and Colby community for the tragic loss of Griffin Metto ’15. Colby Echo and Campus Mourns Loss of Griffin Metto.

Trinity: An uneven start isn’t overly shocking given the amount of turnover in both players and coaches, but an 11-1 thrashing at the hands of Western New England is cause for concern. The offense got off to a great start tallying 13 runs against Denison in the first game of the season, but has only tallied five runs in the last three games. The good news is that Peter Burrows ’14 was impeccable in his first start going six scoreless with eight strikeouts. Trinity has a lot of time to get it going down in Florida, where they will be through Sunday, and plays Endicott later today.

Tufts: The Jumbos are a perfect 4-0 so far showing that they have the capability to win both low and high scoring games. Andrew David ’16 struggled in his first start on the mound allowing five runs against MIT including four in the sixth inning, but the Tufts bats were all over MIT from the start with six runs in the first two innings. Complete coverage of Tufts exciting win in the second game of the doubleheader against MIT can be found here. The depth of the Tufts rotation is already showing as the three other starters for the Jumbos allowed at most only one run. Wade Hauser ’15 is his usual self with a homer already to go along with .381 on-base percentage. Tufts is not as far south as other NESCAC teams as they are playing in North Carolina and Virginia. We are not sure what the impact of the latest winter storm will be, but Tufts has had to already postpone one game.

Baseball Team Previews

To make things a little easier, below are links to in-depth capsules for every team in the NESCAC. Each capsule includes our picks for the team’s Most Valuable Player, Pitcher of the Year, what the team lost from 2013, and finally the overall outlook for the season. Enjoy!

Amherst

Bates

Bowdoin

Colby

Hamilton

Middlebury

Trinity

Tufts

Wesleyan

Williams

Colby Season Preview

Colby (11-23, 2-10 in 2013)

What they lost:

They lost a few players from last season, but none that were true impact players. The best position player Colby lost was Jack Kramer, a decent hitting, but by no means irreplaceable player. Kramer had only one extra base hit in 65 at bats. Brady Hesslein threw 40 innings for the Mules last year, but had a 6.07 ERA. The best player Colby los was reliever Ian Bezahler, who sported 1.00 ERA albeit in only 18 innings.

2014 MVP: OF Jason Buco ’15

Buco had an up and down sophomore campaign after an exceptional freshman season, but we expect him to return to his form from two years ago. Besides his bat, he is a real threat on the basepaths and last year hit five triples, so his speed is exceptional. He only had 84 plate appearances last year, and if that number is in the 120 area he could have 15 steals easily. The fact that he had more walks (10) than strikeouts (seven) bodes well for the season.  Buco is part of a very good defensive outfield that is a huge boon for Colby pitchers, and doubles as a wide out on the football team.

2014 Pitcher of the Year: Soren Hanson ’16

Hanson was Colby’s best starter last year as a freshman and will need to be a full-fledged ace this year. He has the potential to shut teams down as evidenced by his 41 strikeouts in 43 innings, but he finished the season with a mediocre 3.74 ERA. The Belmont Hill product should see his innings increase this season as the Mules tighten their rotation. He finished the season on a high note going 7 1/3 innings while striking out 11 against Bates. The power right-hander could be poised for an All-NESCAC performance.

Season Outlook:

The Mules bring almost everybody back from a team that was a disappointment in 2013. They should be better this year given their depth, but unless their pitching increases leaps and bounds they will be at best a middle of the road team. They benefit from having two sport stars Buco and Luke Duncklee ’15 who play football in the fall. The lineup should be good as there are experienced players at every position. We don’t expect last year’s best hitter Nate Ellis ’14 to replicate his .380 average, but he is still an above average player. Hanson has the chance to be a very good starter, but others will need to elevate their game on the mound. Scott Goldberg ’15 or captain Greg Ladd ’14 are the most likely to make a jump. One interesting tidbit about the Mules is that their season preview lists seven second baseman. We are sure the competition for that spot is fierce.

 

Bates Season Preview

Bates (19-17, 5-7 in 2013)

What they lost:

From last year’s seniors only two were impact players, Ryan Sonberg and Kevin McGregor. The impact of those two on the Bates offense was enormous as both posted on-base percentages above .400. McGregor, despite being the bigger of the two, was actually a walks savant, and Sonberg had 11 more total bases than any other Bobcat last year. The biggest loss however might come from the departure of last year’s innings-pitched leader Tom Baroni. Baroni ought to have been a senior this year but has decided to step away from the team this season. Whatever the reason for his absence, his 63.2 innings pitched and 2.12 ERA would have been very useful for the Bobcats.

2014 MVP: C Mekae Hyde ’15

The junior catcher enjoyed a great sophomore campaign capped off with a first team All-NESCAC honor. The stocky catcher is a Lewiston native so he has been right at home from day one on the Bates campus. Hyde is a powerful and balanced hitter with three home runs and a .324 average last year. Hyde might see some time besides catcher especially on the second game of doubleheaders in order to keep him fresh and let veteran catchers Jeff Gunn ’14 and John Anagnost ’15 get some at-bats. Still, Hyde is most valuable at catcher where he combines elite offense and defense.

2014 Pitcher of the Year: Brad Reynolds ’14

The 6’2” left-hander made the switch from reliever to starter last year with great results. He held batters to a .208 average in 43 innings last year which is low for a top of the line starter. This year he is likely to pitch close to 60, but it isn’t likely he will get worn out from the increased workload. Reynolds, like many other southpaws, relies more on deception to induce weak grounders and flyballs than overpowering hitters. If he cuts down on the 23 walks he gave out last year, he will be able to lead a Bates staff that boasts some other talented arms.

Season Outlook:

There is a lot of talent up in Lewiston, but that doesn’t mean results are a given. The team already completed their trip to Georgia and posted a record of 1-6. Hyde only played in the last two games so hopefully he is healthy when the team resumes play this weekend. Last year, Bates played a lot of close conference games including three one run losses against Trinity. They should win more of those games this year given regression to the mean, but that alone doesn’t guarantee a better record. The team’s disappointing performance in Georgia can be attributed to their shoddy defense. They averaged 3.6 errors in their seven games, and considering the team lacks any overpowering starters, the defense needs to be rock solid. If they improve there they have the bats to make some noise, but the pitching will not be enough to get Bates to the top.

 

Bowdoin Season Preview

Bowdoin (23-15, 8-4 in 2013)

What they lost:

Nobody can deny that Bowdoin lost a lot from last year. The 2013 class was one of the most decorated in school history, headlined, of course, by Oliver Van Zant. The contributions Dan Findley, Luke Regan and Tim McGarry made in the lineup were critical for the Bowdoin offense. Replacing those three might end up being harder than replacing Van Zant, because the pitching staff remains very deep for Bowdoin.

2014 MVP: OF John Lefeber ’14

After lighting the league on fire as a freshman, Lefeber went through somewhat of a sophomore slump in 2012, but saw his numbers rebound in 2013. The senior will now have to step up and become the team’s best hitter and leader in the outfielder. Lefeber is a gap to gap hitter who led off games down the stretch last season, but might see time in the middle of the lineup because of the graduation of Findley, Regan and McGarry. The Bowdoin offense was only mediocre last year and they lost a lot in those three. Lefeber could also see an increase in innings on the mound. A huge season from Lefeber is a must for this team to repeat 2013’s success.

2014 Pitcher of the Year: Christian Martin ’14

Martin has been overshadowed his entire career by the dominance of Oliver Van Zant ’13. Now that Van Zant is gone, the expectation is for the left-handed Martin to step right in and be the ace. An argument could even be made that Martin was just as good as Van Zant last year. The southpaw boasted a better K/9 rate, started one more game, and actually allowed seven fewer runs than Van Zant (though Martin had five more earned runs allowed than his senior). He is the prototypical long lefty in the mold of a Randy Johnson or a Chris Sale. Martin has made an All-NESCAC team in three seasons already, but hasn’t been on the first team since his freshman year.

Season Outlook:

The formula remains the same for Bowdoin as they will rely on their pitching and defense paired with timely hitting. The top three starters, Martin, Henry Van Zant ’15 and Harry Ridge ’16,  already have a lot of experience. The younger Van Zant brother has the stuff of a power righty, but has to do a better job mixing up his pitches and location. Meanwhile, Ridge, another left-hander, had an up and down season last year, having some great starts, but also giving up too many homers. The other pitchers who will see more time are Erik Jacobsen ’15 and Lefeber. The key for Bowdoin is if younger players can make the lineup dangerous from top to bottom. Guys like Cole DiRoberto ’15, Peter Cimini ’16, and Buddy Shea ’15 will have to provide consistency to keep Bowdoin balanced. The returning starters can be expected to put up numbers, but none of them are likely to be dominant forces capable of carrying the offense by themselves. If players who haven’t seen much playing time so far manage to make an impact then Bowdoin will be right back in the thick of the NESCAC race despite all the talent they lost from last year.