Briar Cliff, M'side part of GPAC baseball tournament field
By Barry Poe Journal sports writer | Posted: Thursday, May 03, 2007
Briar Cliff got to enjoy its surprising run to the Great Plains Athletic Conference baseball co-championship only a couple of days. Now it's time for the most important season to begin.
Both the Chargers (24-16) and Morningside (22-21) are part of the eight-team field in the GPAC post-season tournament, set for today through Saturday at Hastings, Neb. Briar Cliff, which shared the regular season title with Sioux Falls, is seeded second and plays seventh-seeded Mount Marty (25-15) at 9 a.m. today while sixth-seeded Morningside tangles with Northwestern (31-13), the No. 3 seed.
"Each of our players knows what's at stake, so it's time to forget about the regular season and gear up for the post-season," said Briar Cliff Coach Boyd Pitkin. "You look at this conference and there's so much parity that each team is capable of winning this thing."
Top-seeded Sioux Falls (21-16), the hottest team coming into the tournament with a seven-game winning streak, plays Nebraska Wesleyan (19-18) and Dakota Wesleyan (24-18) and Midland Lutheran (20-24) clash in a matchup of No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.
It's no secret that Briar Cliff relies on its senior leadership, so with that in mind Pitkin will send Jared Jacobs to the mound for today's opener and has Ryan Gorsett penciled in as the tentative starter for the second game. Jacobs has a team-high six victories while Gorsett, a West High product, is 3-3 and has been the hottest pitcher of late.
"They both struggled early in the year, but the last two or three weeks they've come out and done what they've needed to," said Pitkin. "We want them in there because they have been pitching well, but also because of the leadership role they've taken the last couple of weeks."
Briar Cliff and Sioux Falls each finished 17-7 in the league while Dakota Wesleyan and Northwestern were each 14-8. Morningside wound up sixth with a 12-10 record, which equaled its entire output (12-30-1) during the 2006 season.
Seniors Jeff Butcher, Chris Stevenson and Mike Schwartz fuel the BCU offense. Stevenson, the shortstop, bats No. 3 in the lineup, first baseman Butcher fourth and Schwartz, the third baseman, fifth.
Butcher, an East High product, is hitting a team-high .354 with 14 extra base hits and 26 RBIs. Stevenson, who returned to the team this season after taking a year off, is right behind at .353 with a team-leading five home runs and 40 RBIs. Schwartz, meanwhile, has a .330 average while senior leftfielder Josh Malenosky, another ex-East High standout, is hitting .312.
Pitkin said Andrew Swank, a junior centerfielder, and Louis Beare, a sophomore rightfielder from Belleville, Ontario, Canada, have given the team a recent spark.
Morningside's Josh Hansen, a junior from Onawa, Iowa, has won seven of his last eight pitching decisions to improve to 7-3. Both Hansen and Heath Horsley (7-2) are just one win shy of the single-season record. Look for those two to toe the rubber for the Mustangs in their first two contests.
Jared Noteboom, a freshman second baseman from South Sioux City, and sophomore rightfielder Jason Engleman from Hawarden lead Morningside with a .338 average, but junior centerfielder Tom Kohl is swinging the hottest bat.
Kohl, who has also stolen 25 bases, has hit safely in his last 10 games, raising his average from .244 to .309. Nick Paulsen, a sophomore designated hitter from East, is batting .484 over his last 10 games.
Morningside, though, will have the unenviable task of facing hard-throwing righthander Mihai Burlea of Northwestern. Burlea, a 6-foot-6 junior from Botsonia, Romania, has a 9-0 record and 3.23 ERA with 89 strikeouts in 64 innings pitched.
The winner of the GPAC tournament earns an automatic berth in the NAIA Region III Championship May 9-11 at Lewis and Clark Park.
Both the Chargers (24-16) and Morningside (22-21) are part of the eight-team field in the GPAC post-season tournament, set for today through Saturday at Hastings, Neb. Briar Cliff, which shared the regular season title with Sioux Falls, is seeded second and plays seventh-seeded Mount Marty (25-15) at 9 a.m. today while sixth-seeded Morningside tangles with Northwestern (31-13), the No. 3 seed.
"Each of our players knows what's at stake, so it's time to forget about the regular season and gear up for the post-season," said Briar Cliff Coach Boyd Pitkin. "You look at this conference and there's so much parity that each team is capable of winning this thing."
Top-seeded Sioux Falls (21-16), the hottest team coming into the tournament with a seven-game winning streak, plays Nebraska Wesleyan (19-18) and Dakota Wesleyan (24-18) and Midland Lutheran (20-24) clash in a matchup of No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.
It's no secret that Briar Cliff relies on its senior leadership, so with that in mind Pitkin will send Jared Jacobs to the mound for today's opener and has Ryan Gorsett penciled in as the tentative starter for the second game. Jacobs has a team-high six victories while Gorsett, a West High product, is 3-3 and has been the hottest pitcher of late.
"They both struggled early in the year, but the last two or three weeks they've come out and done what they've needed to," said Pitkin. "We want them in there because they have been pitching well, but also because of the leadership role they've taken the last couple of weeks."
Briar Cliff and Sioux Falls each finished 17-7 in the league while Dakota Wesleyan and Northwestern were each 14-8. Morningside wound up sixth with a 12-10 record, which equaled its entire output (12-30-1) during the 2006 season.
Seniors Jeff Butcher, Chris Stevenson and Mike Schwartz fuel the BCU offense. Stevenson, the shortstop, bats No. 3 in the lineup, first baseman Butcher fourth and Schwartz, the third baseman, fifth.
Butcher, an East High product, is hitting a team-high .354 with 14 extra base hits and 26 RBIs. Stevenson, who returned to the team this season after taking a year off, is right behind at .353 with a team-leading five home runs and 40 RBIs. Schwartz, meanwhile, has a .330 average while senior leftfielder Josh Malenosky, another ex-East High standout, is hitting .312.
Pitkin said Andrew Swank, a junior centerfielder, and Louis Beare, a sophomore rightfielder from Belleville, Ontario, Canada, have given the team a recent spark.
Morningside's Josh Hansen, a junior from Onawa, Iowa, has won seven of his last eight pitching decisions to improve to 7-3. Both Hansen and Heath Horsley (7-2) are just one win shy of the single-season record. Look for those two to toe the rubber for the Mustangs in their first two contests.
Jared Noteboom, a freshman second baseman from South Sioux City, and sophomore rightfielder Jason Engleman from Hawarden lead Morningside with a .338 average, but junior centerfielder Tom Kohl is swinging the hottest bat.
Kohl, who has also stolen 25 bases, has hit safely in his last 10 games, raising his average from .244 to .309. Nick Paulsen, a sophomore designated hitter from East, is batting .484 over his last 10 games.
Morningside, though, will have the unenviable task of facing hard-throwing righthander Mihai Burlea of Northwestern. Burlea, a 6-foot-6 junior from Botsonia, Romania, has a 9-0 record and 3.23 ERA with 89 strikeouts in 64 innings pitched.
The winner of the GPAC tournament earns an automatic berth in the NAIA Region III Championship May 9-11 at Lewis and Clark Park.
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