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Conference play is finally here and the Chips and Card seem to be living up to some of the preseason hype thrown their way by various NCAA Baseball experts.
Baseball is a hard assignment for northern teams. They end up being on the road throughout February and most of march. When they return home for conference play many teams have to play "home" games on a neutral field while the snow melts and the ground dries out.
Such is the lot of a Mid Major NCAA Northern baseball team.
Last weekend everyone managed to get their games in despite the still tight grip of old man winter. After one week this is how I see things in the MAC.
| Ranks | Team | RPI | Record | MAC | Last | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BSU | 108 | 16-8 | 3-0 | 3-0 v BGSU | Ball State escaped Bowling Green with a sweep but the Falcons made it harder on the Card then one might expect. Close call not withstanding BSU has had a great year so far. |
| 2 | CMU | 122 | 13-10 | 3-0 | 3-0 at Ohio | Central is looking like they may live up to some of their pre season hype. They pretty much trounced Ohio after a nice pre-conference set of games. |
| 3 | Miami | 72 | 10-10 | 2-1 | 2-1 v WMU | Miami played a very hard out of conference slate which is why despite being just 10-10 they have the MAC's best RPI. They lost the second game of their series with WMU. |
| 4 | Kent | 142 | 11-9 | 2-1 | 2-1 v TOL | Kent seems to always be a force in MAC baseball. By their programs standards they had only an ok per MAC season, then they dropped their opener to Toledo. It's too early to say but Kent might be rebuilding this season. |
| 5 | Buffalo | 158 | 10-7 | 2-1 | 2-1 @NIU | Buffalo lost a couple of games in non conference play where they led in the 8th or 9th. Then NIU opened up the series by putting 15 up on the Bulls. UB could be as good as last years team but their bull pen experience may be an issue. |
| 6 | Akron | 197 | 10-10 | 3-0 | 3-0 v EMU | Akron fed off of a rather east non conference schedule but then blasted EMU 3-0 to open up conference play. It's hard to know who the Zips are yet until they play someone in the top half of the MAC. |
| 7 | WMU | 113 | 10-10 | 1-2 | 1-2 at MOH | Going to Miami for the opening weekend of conference play was a hard draw. The Broncos have to be happy to escape Oxford with a win. |
| 8 | Toledo | 132 | 8-12 | 1-2 | 1-2 @ KSU | Toledo was ready to play for game one against Kent but were unable to do any real damage at the plate in games 2 and 3. |
| 9 | BGSU | 237 | 6-15 | 0-3 | 0-3 @ BSU | The defending MAC Champions opened up on arguably the MAC's best team and gave them a run for their money in two of the three games. |
| 10 | EMU | 208 | 8-11 | 0-3 | 0-3 at Akr | EMU was looking good coming into conference play at 500 but Akron dispatched of them relatively easily. Hopefully for the Eagles it was the travel. |
| 11 | NIU | 204 | 3-17 | 1-2 | 1-2 v UB | NIU came into conference play with an awful 2-15 record but then blasted UB 15-9 in the opening game. If they can start to get any consistency on offense they might surprise a few people |
| 12 | Ohio | 282 | 4-16 | 0-3 | 0-3 v CMU | Ohio was supposed to be a team turning it around in the MAC last season but the Bobcats struggled then and are not looking too much better this season. |