If you have a kid playing or are just a fan or Alum of a D3 school you are already aware of the 2 week frenzy that are the conference tournaments. Last night about midnight the NCAA posted the teams and brackets for this years road to Appleton.
https://www.ncaa.com/news/base...selections-announced
There will be all the typical madness that goes along with the 8 regionals being played simultaneously. There will be some great baseball played by kids and players most have never heard of.
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... and the weather forecast is brutal in several regions.
Why change now...I am willing to blindly bet on next years weather being better!
#mudder #pullthetarp #raindelaycoming sigh....
old_school posted:Why change now...I am willing to blindly bet on next years weather being better!
#mudder #pullthetarp #raindelaycoming sigh....
#playonturf
The Mid east region is being played at Adrian College, which has an all turf field.
BishopLeftiesDad posted:The Mid east region is being played at Adrian College, which has an all turf field.
That looks perfect. Rain in their forecast, too.
Thanks for posting, Old School. Intense interest here in the Auburn NY regional, weather be damned. Falcon Field does not look like turf, though. Ugh.
smokeminside posted:Thanks for posting, Old School. Intense interest here in the Auburn NY regional, weather be damned. Falcon Field does not look like turf, though. Ugh.
No it is not. It has hosted quite a few regionals though.
It is also the home of the Doubleday's, a minor league team in the NY-Penn league.
I know we have at least a couple members with skin in the games. Best of luck to all!
Some old standbys didn't show this year. From the West, no Cal Lu (which had its worst year in a LONG time, after winning it all last year), no Trinity, no Linfield.
However Chapman is bacj. It has been a while, but they were a regular participant, when they were an independent.
I think Trinity got shafted.
smokeminside posted:I think Trinity got shafted.
I have not kept up like in years back. How did they get shafted?
On another board, folks who seem to know what they are talking about say that Trinity was excluded because their SOS was weak, they went 0-2 in their conference tourney, they lost to teams with losing records. and they sputtered to the finish line. Apparently performance in the last 25% of the year is a new criteria for selection.
Probably D3baseball board. SOS is very important criteria, in the selection process. However out west due to distances and other factors, it can be difficult, to put a together a strong schedule. However it is a well known criteria, and has been for a while. Cal Lu suffered the same fate a couple of years back.
Best way to get to the regional, is win your conference tournament. Don't leave it up to the committee. This is especially true out west.
Exactly.
Yeah SOS is a big ... which is why Cal Lu, after it got screwed that year by SOS started scheduling either a second Spring trip or extra home games with non-conference teams who were looking for warm places to play. It also played a role in the SCIAC eliminating what had been their end of the season, pre-tournament round-robin. Gives them all more chances to play strong non-conference opponents. This year perhaps as a result 2 SCIAC teams are in.
Unfortunately, Cal Lu kind of sucked.
From what I can gather, the cause of Cal Lu's probably temporary decline seems to have been that two strong seeming incoming classes ended up sort of hallowing themselves out, because of guys who gave up without being pushed out the door, according to my son (who was one of them) and some of his former teammates. The team was extremely loaded with upper class studs when those guys were frosh and sophomores. One of them even looked like he was slated to be the number 1 or number 2 arm perhaps after his freshman year. Many of them seem to have been either not committed enough overall or not patient enough to wait their turns for playing time -- though that's not how they themselves would put it, I'm guessing. (Certainly that's not how my son puts it, but its clear to me that he just wasn't willing to wait his turn.) So this year the team was younger than it has been in recent years and also reliant on some upperclass transfers that didn't really shine. Maybe there's an upside though. Perhaps they are about to start another cycle with some guys who will have been 3-4 year starters by their senior years. That's what happened with the most recent cohort of studs. They got chances starting freshman year and got better and better, until they were a dominating group. (Although strangely, it wasn't really the core of that group that won the D3 WS. That WS team kinda of played over its head with just a few guys left over from the group of studs I'm talking about. )
I didn't dig very deep before I made my comment. I have not completely understood the complexities of the selection process, but with Trinity finishing the season in the top 20, I just assumed they should be given a shot. Didn't realize their SOS was relatively weak.
Thanks for the clarifying info. Obvious to me now that Amherst wouldn't have made the tournament without winning the conference title. I get it.
One other thing. The D3baseball top 25, while very accurate in my opinion, has nothing to do with the selection process.
There are many pro's and cons in each region. While it is tough to build a strong Strength Of Schedule out west, they start much earlier and the games are more spread out. So much so, that they need fewer pitchers during the regular season.
BLD, I understand that now more than ever. Kai's team played about ten games the last two weeks of the season. It was crazy. And they ALL mattered. The league has a west and east division with 5 teams in each division. They only play 12 games that count toward reaching the playoffs, and only two teams in each division make the conference playoffs. Each 3 game series is huge. And the weather mashed them all together, where one day there'd be a rainout makeup and the next the beginning doubleheader of a three-game series. Amherst was lucky to take two of three from each of their 4 opponents. It was the only way they could qualify for the league playoffs.
BishopLeftiesDad posted:One other thing. The D3baseball top 25, while very accurate in my opinion, has nothing to do with the selection process.
D3 baseball is like the boys club, once you are in it you need to really suck to get out.
old_school posted:BishopLeftiesDad posted:One other thing. The D3baseball top 25, while very accurate in my opinion, has nothing to do with the selection process.
D3 baseball is like the boys club, once you are in it you need to really suck to get out.
I agree, and you need to be good for real long time to get in it. Although the regional selection process is better. They are doing a better job of sticking to the criteria. Whether that criteria is correct or fair is a whole other matter.
First pitch in 15 minutes....and the Mid Atlantic has already tweeted a delay - looking at 330 start!
Today forecast looks better then tomorrow. It could be a long weekend.
Taking the Mid Atlantics on the road.
Arcadia vs Union (scheduled for 430 in York) has been relocated to Hartford CC at 330 - turf field.
Wow.
old_school posted:Taking the Mid Atlantics on the road.
Arcadia vs Union (scheduled for 430 in York) has been relocated to Hartford CC at 330 - turf field.
Bold move. Been there many times. You can play in pouring rain if you choose to. Great juco facility.
Are they staying there for the whole thing, or taking it day by day?
New York is going as scheduled. A little delayed because of game lengths. Weather's nice today. Amherst/Southern Maine in half an hour.
Heartbreaking loss for Amherst. Avoidable throwing error led to winning run in bottom of 8th. Son is taking it pretty well. He had a decent game. Started in center, 1/4, single started Amherst's 2 run rally that put them ahead. Will know their opponent later tonight. No one is really standing out yet in the regional.
I hate it when a play like that decides a game. Welp, it's not for nothing that they don't want to rent cars to kids until they are 25yo, even if they go to a school like Amherst. Good luck in the next one!
BTW... YUGE upset win for Willamette today out West over #1 seed Chapman. Congrats to the Bearcats!
congrats Bearcats!
MidAtlanticDad posted:old_school posted:Taking the Mid Atlantics on the road.
Arcadia vs Union (scheduled for 430 in York) has been relocated to Hartford CC at 330 - turf field.
Bold move. Been there many times. You can play in pouring rain if you choose to. Great juco facility.
Are they staying there for the whole thing, or taking it day by day?
Day by day right now; scheduled back at York tomorrow but we will see.
West region all the lower seeds won in the first round. Including the Willamette bearcats. I got a dog in that race. Tomorrow the 1 and 2 seeds play each other in the losers bracket, so one team will be eliminated. All our games started on time but each ran late. One went 10 innings the others had lots of action. The late game was supposed to start at 6 on original schedule, it just finished at 11 pm.
Back to SOS, most of the teams hosted Swarthmore this year. It was the first time in s while that Willamette had an east coast team play here. It was a tough trip for Swat but it worked out well for them, Swat won their conference. Guess you gotta make things happen with that schedule
Played Swarthmore twice this, they are solid team. I wasn't surprised at all to see them win game one.
Surprised that Swarthmore is doing so well. Good for them...not exactly a baseball factory, there.
And now they've won Game 2, beating Cortland 2-1. That region is bananas: 6 of the 7 games so far have been low-scoring one-run games. Two of those have gone into extras.
Amherst, sadly for me, is out, losing 2-1 to St. Joseph's Long Island, which got an amazing pitching performance. Amherst's was good, too, but St. J's was even better.
And out West, Willamette is surprising people!
smokeminside posted:And now they've won Game 2, beating Cortland 2-1. That region is bananas: 6 of the 7 games so far have been low-scoring one-run games. Two of those have gone into extras.
Amherst, sadly for me, is out, losing 2-1 to St. Joseph's Long Island, which got an amazing pitching performance. Amherst's was good, too, but St. J's was even better.
Thanks for the update both schools are somewhat local to me. Shame your kid's season ended, it looked like a great game.
My boy’s team was eliminated at the New York Regional today. Particularly tough on him because he was knocked out with an injury after winning Game 1. He had started every game this season. Heartbreaking to watch.
Saw some excellent pitching here over the 3 days. Lots of close games. The bats just never caught fire for our guys.
Very emotional scene after the game for all the seniors and their teammates who will miss them dearly.
Congrats on them making it that far, and I hope your boy heals quickly.
JCG posted:Congrats on them making it that far, and I hope your boy heals quickly.
Thanks
