JUCO tournament

http://www.lcuchaps.com/main.aspx?cat=nonlcu

El Paso beat Howard today 18-13 in a pitchers dual.

Will play the winner of Weatherford/Clarendon tomorrow at 1pm.

Howard had a great year --- wow, they're out in 2?

Will be making today's games at 5pm and 8pm.
The wind is blowing about 30-40mph on the great South Plains today. Gotta love Lubbock with the sky a dirt brown.

Grayson County run ruled Cisco today in the 5pm game. Grayson had one inning where they hit three dingers in a row. One grand slam to start it off and then two solo shots.

Weatherford was getting beat by Clarendon 10-2 after 6 innings.

Is it just me, or where does some of the discipline these guys learn in HS ball go after they graduate?
Throwing helmets and tossing bats after a K at the plate. One guy would have been tossed in a HS game. The umpire just talked to him, gave him a warning.

Clarendon ended up winning 19-2 or thereabouts. Clarendon hit the ball.

Grayson will play Clarendon tomorrow at 5pm.

Cisco will play New Mexico.
El Paso will play Weatherford.

No surprise that there are many surprises as the tournament always brings them out. Grayson is usually the ONLY constant in this tournament but even they have had rough ones. Looks like they and Clarendon are the cream of the crop, though. I have seen where San Jacinto was beaten by Alvin down south in that regional.

quote:

Originally posted by Out in the sticks:

Is it just me, or where does some of the discipline these guys learn in HS ball go after they graduate?
Throwing helmets and tossing bats after a K at the plate. One guy would have been tossed in a HS game. The umpire just talked to him, gave him a warning.

This time last year I was coming home from Coppell and stopped by "The Gabe" to catch some of the D-III JUCO play-offs. I never made it to the stands because of all the profanity coming out of the 1st base dugout. I understand about the heat of the battle and such, but this was way beyond PG-13 stuff. Rated R material big time. I thought I had stumbled into a Quentin Terrantino movie. It was horrible.

Grayson beats Clarendon in the final of the winners bracket.

New Mexico and Weatherford squared off tonight and the game was marred with an unfortunate event. In the 6th, with Weatherford up 3-2, a bench clearing brawl was averted by the umps. While the umps were calling the coaches to the home plate area to give out warnings, another confrontation was occurring at 2nd base. Both teams emptied the dugouts and the brawl moved to the outfield. Three NMJC players took bats on the field. It was ugly for a while. No one was hit with a bat, thankfully.

In the end, both teams were ejected resulting in their 2nd losses and they go home. Now, Clarendon gets the easy route back to play Grayson tomorrow in the title game.

The championship game has been moved up to 1 p.m. today.

Here is a link to an article about the brawl:

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaabb/news?slug=ap-tournamentbrawl&prov=ap&type=lgns

A lot of chatter was going on between all the teams in the tournament. As was stated earlier, the Umps should have gotten control of the situation from the first game.

Again, what in the heck happens to the discipline these kids learned (or maybe they never did) in HS ball?
The actions of these players would not be tolerated in 99% of the HS programs in Texas and other states.
What is wrong with the coaches and their programs for this to happen?

Obviously... it depends on what high school team you played and what JUCO team you played as far as discipline. I personally don't know of a lot of high school teams that require 5:00 a.m. practices, shaving every single morning, mandatory study halls, etc.

Discipline might be learned in high school and then lost at a JUCO, but most JUCO programs I know are much, much tougher and require considerable more discipline than most high school programs.

AND... as I have learned over the years, a lot just comes from within the athlete. A disciplined individual will probably be a disciplined player in high school and then at the JUCO level as well.

IMHO... of course.

A lot of it starts at the top. At one highly-ranked Texas JUCO, the head coach is notorious for his potty mouth. This sets a very poor example for his players.

One thing I have noticed the last 3-4 years is the big influence of the latin players in the Juco ranks in the West region. I don't know how those teams get around the international player limit, but I suspect it isn't all on the up and up. How many kids that graduated high school in the US need an interpreter on the field?

No, I am not predjudiced either. Just an observation. The latinos seem to be very vocal in the dugout.

What is wrong with letting US raised kids get the opportunity to play and get the education? I am sure many of those kids parents paid taxes and should have the opportunity over the large contigent of Latinos at some of those schools...

Just my 2 cents worth... and it probably isnt' worth that.

Somehow it does seem more than a little strange that a JUCO in Borger has its coach flying around the Caribbean on recruiting trips.

Maybe he has to go that far to find someone who hasn't heard of Borger!

I have seen many a high school game where the players have thrown bats and helmets because of a strike-out. There has been very negative verbal talk about specific players on the opposing team. Many coaches just let it go on.

quote:

Originally posted by NTXFan:
One thing I have noticed the last 3-4 years is the big influence of the latin players in the Juco ranks in the West region. I don't know how those teams get around the international player limit, but I suspect it isn't all on the up and up. How many kids that graduated high school in the US need an interpreter on the field?

No, I am not predjudiced either. Just an observation. The latinos seem to be very vocal in the dugout.

What is wrong with letting US raised kids get the opportunity to play and get the education? I am sure many of those kids parents paid taxes and should have the opportunity over the large contigent of Latinos at some of those schools...

Just my 2 cents worth... and it probably isnt' worth that.

I have the same view you have about this. This year Ringer1 son was asked to come out to workout for one these JUCO's. When we arrived we sat and talked to the head coach while waiting for another player to show up. He mentioned on several occasions the latin player on his team. I do not remember him ever mentioning any of his American players. Being new to this whole process, I didn't think anything of this.

Anyway, after the other player showed up, we went on with the workout. The coach had called in one of his latin players to help with this. After about twenty to thirty minutes into the workout I heard the latin players brought up several times while the coach never mentioned his American players. One thing he said that struck a nerve with me was when he spoke about one of his latin players not knowing a bit of english. I asked, "How do these guys pass their classes if they can't understand english?". He said they have English As A Second Language. So I asked, "What happens when they leave here?". He said, "They better understand it by then.".

Well it worked out Ringer1 son was not what they were looking for and we were more fine with that. The college in itself what's not a fit. BUT, after about ten miles down the highway it really started to burn me up about these JUCO's bringing in latin players who couldn't speak a word of english while US born players who need the opportunity lose out. Needless to say I ranted all the way home about this and haven't forgot.

Are the majority of people out there ok with colleges giving out baseball scholorship money, which hard to come by already, to foreign players who can't even speak the language?

Congratulations to Grayson County for winning the regional tournament. They are headed to Grand Junction for the Juco World Series, May 24-31. Great job by Coaches Hart, Murphy, and Marko. This was truly a team effort this year.

It was great to see Brett Bruening, Flower Mound alumni, get the win in a 9 inning complete game outing.

Congratulations to Brett and the entire team for a great tournament

Good luck in Grand Junction!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Shuttle:
It was great to see Brett Bruening, Flower Mound alumni, get the win in a 9 inning complete game outing.

Congratulations to Brett and the entire team for a great tournament

Good luck in Grand Junction!!!

Brett was lights-out today. His best performance of the year. He just keeps getting better. He is a big key to this team.

Awesome news. Congrats to Grayson!

good job grayson keep it going