Tag: CBB

Stock Report September 29: The Jumbo Uprising

After two weeks the NESCAC is playing out according to preseason expectations. Tiers are rapidly developing and becoming defined. Hamilton, Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby are at the bottom of the league capable of giving teams scares but unable to outplay teams for 60 minutes. Middlebury and Williams are the middle class of teams that beat up on the lower teams but can’t handle the talent of the top flight. Finally Trinity, Wesleyan, Amherst, and Tufts will battle it out for the conference championship… wait a second… that can’t be right.

Tufts?

The Jumbos moved to 2-0 after outscoring Bates 35-7 in the final two plus quarters on their Homecoming. Tufts is clearly not yet one of the top teams in the conference, but their start so far is the best story of the NESCAC season. After years of coming up short, Tufts is riding a wave of momentum that might crest at 3-0 if they can go on the road and beat Bowdoin. That’s getting ahead of ourselves though, here is the week 2 stock report.

Stock Up

Middlebury Head Coach Bob Ritter and Offensive Coordinator Joe Early- What everyone wanted to know coming into the season was whether Middlebury had a starting QB that would be able to keep the Panthers in the upper echelon. Matt Milano ’16 has answered those questions, winning NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week honors after leading Middlebury to a decisive 27-7 victory at Colby. Milano deserves a ton of credit, but the Middlebury coaches also are worthy of notice. Head Coach Bob Ritter, who is also the QB coach, has done a masterful job building Middlebury into what it is today. In a league still very run heavy, Middlebury has carved out its own identity in airing the ball out. There is more balance this year as Middlebury ran the ball 49 times Saturday, yet the passing game is where the Panthers shine. Joe Early, now in his sixth season as the offensive coordinator, has done a fantastic job with every Middlebury QB he has coached, and Milano is merely the latest in line. After winning the AFCA (American Football Coaches Association) Assistant Coach of the Year in 2012, Early could be in line for a head coaching job somewhere soon.

Safety Jimmy Fairfield-Sonn ’16 (Amherst)- Some players are not able to be properly appreciated until you see them in person, and Fairfield-Sonn fits that description. He lacks the size you want in a safety at only 5’10” and 175 pounds, but he more than makes up for it with his speed and instincts. After not playing in week one, Fairfield-Sonn was all over the field making nine tackles (seven solo) and a fumble recovery at the end of the first half that kept Bowdoin from scoring and making it a one score game. All day he was able to come flying up into the box and delivered big hits on Tyler Grant ’17 and the Bowdoin wide receivers in the flat. The Amherst defense has talented players at all of their positions, and Fairfield-Sonn fits great in the defensive scheme to disrupt opponents rhythm and comfort.

 Running Back Zach Trause ’15 (Tufts)- Like last week, Tufts found a way to win in an unusual way with Trause being the hero this week. After a Mark Riley ’16 touchdown reception put Bates up 24-23, Trause decided that he was going to leave his final Homecoming a winner. He took the ensuing kickoff 82 yards to put Tufts back on top. Then a few minutes later he took a punt all the way back to give the Jumbo defense more than enough cushion to work with. Another excited Tufts crowd loved every second of it. This week’s win for Tufts was a much more complete performance. Not many people expected Tufts to win the game, much less pull away and win so comfortably in the end. For Trause and the other Jumbo seniors, the beginning of this season has been validation of everything they have put in over the years.

Stock Down

The Maine Schools- Bowdoin, Colby, and Bates are now a combined 0-6 for the season after they went 11-13 as a group last year. They have been outscored by a total of 130 points in those games. Bowdoin has not looked competitive in either of their games. Colby’s defense has taken a step back despite bringing back nine starters from last year. And while Bates almost pulled the upset on Amherst, the loss to Tufts by 18 points destroyed any of that momentum. The Maine schools have never been forces in the NESCAC, but they look to all be among the bottom of the league right now. The CBB at the end of the season will shape each of their seasons, as it so often does.

Defensive End James Howe ’16 (Williams)- Expecting Howe to replicate last season’s incredible statistics was always a reach because of how team’s would concentrate on him more, but it is safe to say that his first two games have been disappointments. He has eight tackles and one tackle for loss. You can’t argue that the focus on Howe has especially benefited his teammates as Williams hasn’t recorded a single sack yet. Obviously he is only one player and Williams lost 38-0 for a hundred other reasons before Howe’s performance. Some might liken criticism of Howe to that levied against Jadaveon Clowney last year simply because expectations were out of whack before the season began. Williams has to figure out a way for Howe to make an impact every game in order to avoid another drubbing like the one Saturday.

Drama- The average margin of victory in week two was 24.2 points. The top part of the league had no problems with their opponents. The NESCAC has never been known for its parity, and this season has not been any different. The game we expected to be the closest, Williams vs. Trinity turned into a rout with the Bantams flexing their muscles for 60 minutes. Colby not being able to stay close with Middlebury was also a surprise after the Mules hung tight for a half against Trinity. The lone upset this week came from Tufts of course. The rules around recruiting and roster size are supposed to keep every NESCAC team somewhat close to each other in terms of talent, but that has never really been the case.

Stock Report 4/7

Stock Up:

Third Baseman Kevin Davis ’14 (Bates) – Davis hit clean up all weekend against Bowdoin, and rarely does anyone fit the bill as perfectly as the 6’3” slugger did in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader. Davis smacked two doubles and a home run en route to seven RBIs in a 13-7 win. On the weekend, Davis went 8-14 with 10 RBI and three doubles. Davis raised his average by 51 points and more than doubled his RBI total to 19, second in the NESCAC.

Middlebury’s Pitching – The Panthers can take away some positives from this weekend’s series at Wesleyan despite the sweep. After looking lost against Williams, it took a shutout from Jeff Blout ’14 in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader and a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the ninth in the second match up from Nick Miceli’17 for the Cardinals to finish off Middlebury. The pitching and defense improved drastically for the Panthers. While ace Eric Truss ’15 still hasn’t found his 2013 form (7 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 0 K on Friday), Middlebury held Wesleyan to five runs (four earned) in the last two games of the series and a .273 average while the Cardinals have hit .323 overall on the season. Cooper Byrne ’15 was great in the seven-inning game (CG, 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K) and Logan Mobley ’15 (6IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 0 K) worked his way out of some jams to throw a strong start in the second game. If the Panthers can get the bats going they might just have an effect on the race for the West crown.

Cooper Byrne '15 tossed his second consecutive complete game on Saturday.
Cooper Byrne ’15 tossed his second consecutive complete game on Saturday.

Startin Pitcher John Cook ’15 (Amherst) – Because the third game of the Amherst-Hamilton series was postponed last weekend, Amherst’s number three got his first chance in a league game against rival Williams and was dominant. Cook has huge shoes to fill with older brother and current assistant coach Bob Cook ’13 having departed, and after an up-and-down first couple games the 6’4” hurler put it together and earned his first win on the season. Cook’s line was 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K.

Stock Down:

Second Baseman Jack Roberts ’17 (Williams) – The lefty took the league by storm with his early performance, especially a 6-16 series against Middlebury, but flailed to an 0-12 weekend against the Lord Jeffs, including three strikeouts in the series finale, dropping his average to a still-respectable .290. Roberts is still a dependable hitter with a bright future and the ability to use all fields, but these growing pains are to be expected for any first-year, and we ought to be willing to give him a pass against a vaunted Amherst rotation.

Bowdoin – The Polar Bears get singled out here partially because we talked about Trinity in this column last week and their disastrous fall continued with a 1-2 weekend against Colby in Hartford (although the Bantams were playing as the road team). Bowdoin, meanwhile, now appears to be part of a three-team race for who will join Tufts in the NESCAC playoffs. Perhaps it’s too early to anoint the Jumbos with the divisional crown because they’ve only managed to play one league game, but they’ve looked great out-of-conference. So the second spot will fall to either Bates, Bowdoin or Colby, barring a storming comeback from Trinity, and the Polar Bears set themselves back by losing the series to their in-state rivals. Bowdoin (3-3) and Colby (2-1) still have three games with Tufts ahead, Bates (2-2) has two with the Jumbos and a series on the road against a desperate Trinity team this weekend, while the Mules still need to play both Bowdoin and Bates. CBB action now takes on a lot of meaning this season.

Williams Pitching – Sorry, Ephs fans, if it feels like I’m picking on you guys. Williams should be happy with taking a victory from Amherst, the class of 2014’s first against the Lord Jeffs, but the fact that the team’s league-worst 8.33 ERA was lowered in a weekend where Williams lost one game 16-6 is a testament to the under-performance of the staff so far. While Middlebury’s staff seems to have, at least for now, turned a corner, the Ephs regressed from last weekend to this one. Of course, opponent matters, and Williams faced potentially the most potent offensive in New England this weekend, but the Ephs won’t be able to compete for a division crown until they can hold teams to four or five runs a game. One bright spot is the performance of righty Thomas Murphy ’15. In two league starts, Murphy has tossed 14 innings and given up just one earned run. A key for Murphy is his 2.57 BB/9 rate. He relies on his defense to get outs for him, and his teammates were good enough to help Murphy get his third win of the year on Saturday.