College spring season 2015

Swampboy,
Good stuff! Glad to see Joseph back on the bump!

Swampboy, thanks for posting Your son's team story. What that team has done requires leaders.I am sure son is one of those. Great reading.

Congratulations to BOF's son, Nick, and his Trinity Tigers for winning the SCAC post-season championship and a berth in the Regionals which begin in about 10 days.

Trinity lost a heartbreaking 10 inning game to top seed Centenary College on Saturday. As a result, they fell into the losers' bracket and had to win 3 straight, including two against Centenary yesterday, on Centenary's home field.  The Tigers ended on a high note by run ruling the #1 seed in the final game.

It seems like yesterday our son and his teammates were celebrating the very first Regional bid for Trinity in 2002. They will now be participating in their 10th Regional since 2002 and celebrating their 9th conference championship.

When our son was being recruited, this was/is exactly the type of program which was being described to him, with a very clear picture of how he fit in getting this program to be nationally recognized. Too many times Trinity has been one game from the CWS. Hopefully this pitching rich team  brings an end to "being close."

I am curious, do you think Trinity would have made the regional tournament even if they had not won the conference?  Obviously an academic question since they are already in.

 

No I don't CD.  They had to win the tournament or they would have been sitting at home for the first time in a very long time. About 2/3's of the way through the season they lost a series to Centenary and second one to Southwestern which led to them ultimately having to win out at the end just to get a #3 seed for the conference tournament.

That stretch, in my view, made winning the tournament all or nothing with a Pool C bid out of the question, even with the Regional being in Texas this year.

Thanks infielddad, I just got back from Shreveport and it was a lot of fun. They are the first team in 20 years to come through the loser’s bracket in the conf tournament. CD the team had to win the tournament to get through to Regionals.

 

This team has been under performing all year and it has been frustrating to watch them at times. It has only been in the past month that the pitching, defense and offensive has started to play to their capabilities. The pitching and defense was spectacular over the weekend and the offense is now starting to jell. We have 5 strong starters and my son and the other key closer threw 9 innings without giving up a hit over the weekend. Teddy Turner shut down two rally’s one in game one and the other in game 4. My son actually took the loss in game two, partially because he threw the ball over the head of the second basemen on a double play ball, but he came in with runners on 2^nd and 3^rd with no outs and got two K’s and a popup to get them out of an inning earlier and no hit them the rest of the way.  We really should have won the game before all this but we made some key base running mistakes, but that is baseball. In hindsight this has actually helped the team as they had to play three elimination games, which they did with confidence and energy, something that had been missing all season. This is going to really help them when they get to Tyler in a week and a half. 

 

The ride continues. Go Tigers! 

I haven't been around in a while. Something about having to really work at work . wanted to give an update on son 2015 freshman year to date as well as Wright State season so far.

 

Jeremy is 6-0, ERA under 2.3 and has been starting mid week games until 2 weekends ago. Friday night starter hurt his finger on that weekend and he was called into action in the 3rd. Pitched 4 innings of 1 run, 3 hit ball. Saturday got his first start in conference play. Lasted 2 inning giving up 3 runs, 5 H, 3 BB, 1 HBP and 1 balk. The good thing is the team was hitting and team won 14-6. . Sadly, I not only did not get to the game (7 hours away) but internet was down at the stadium and did not know anything about 2 games that day (He started first one) until 2 hours after 2nd one concluded.

 

It was his first real time under adversity and I was curious how he would be after. saw him yesterday and asked him how it was. Basically he said it was a tough outing, small strike zone but then he didn't give the umpire a reason to call a strike . Sounded like he was ok and thank goodness I wasn't there. I would have been going crazy watching him struggle. I guess it is good to be oblivious sometimes  

 

As far as team they are 34-14 and having a very good year. Team feels like they have given away some games as part of those loses but I would guess every team feels that way. D is very solid. Pitching has been really good and hitting timely with some guys hitting really well. Currently 2nd in horizon league with one more league weekend to then to league tournament following weekend. Coach has said all year, we want to be in top 2 spots in league season, play good non conference schedule to get prepared for NCAA and then win league tournament because reality is only one team is getting out to play in NCAA. Then he said he would take his chances with this team against anybody. I like his attitude

 

Son's team traveled to Erie, PA for the D2 Atlantic Regionals yesterday.  Flew from Raleigh to Atlanta to Buffalo, then charter bus to Erie.

 

The WSSU Rams are seeded #4 and will play #3 seed Seton Hill (PA) tonight at 7 pm.

 

Game can be heard (audio only - no video) at:

 

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/...-rams-sports-network

 

The school could  not afford the "rights" to broadcast video - NCAA wants $1,000 per game vs $150 per game for audio.

 

Anyway, my wife and I will be "listening" tonight. 

 

Go Rams!  We See Red!

BOF's son, Nick, pounds the strike zone and shuts down a terrific hitting line up over 2 2/3's innings  of terrific relief pitching in a very tight, hard played and competitive 5-3 Trinity, Tx.win against their former league rival. Trinity stays in the winners bracket with a huge game of 2-0 teams upcoming. Trinity has  more quality and depth still available  and is also having very good AB's up and down the line up. Nick was really, really good today!

Personally I love the match up of Coach Scannell and Coach Page. Yesterday Coach Page got win #700.  In the NCAA post game interview, he was asked what that meant.  He laughed a bit but then talked about how he would remember that game because it was one where his #1 pitcher did not have his best stuff and pitched with guts and heart through 8 1/3.  Coach Scannell talked about his #1 who went 7 no hit innings over 2 days(rain in Texas) and how much heart he showed in that game, but more importantly, how hard he has worked to get to be the guy who gets the big games.

2-0 gets Trinity nothing though. They still need to win AB's and innings!

The D2 Atlantic Region Tournament has had some wild upsets.

 

First #5 West Chester upset #2 Millersville 5-0, then #4 Winston-Salem State beat #3 Seton Hill 5-2.  The only game to go as expected in the first round was Mercyhurst defeated West Va State 3-1.  But the wildness is not done yet.  In a must win game #3 Seton Hill won over #1 Mercyhurst 8-1.

 

The #4 WSSU Rams continued their winning ways with a 9-4 win over #5 West Chester while Millersville eliminated West Va State 4-1.  Total of 6 HR's in the WSSU / West Chester game.

 

Rams await the winner of the Mercyhurst / West Chester game.

 

Son has not had a good outing so far.  0-7 with a BB and a sac bunt.  He's hitting the ball hard but not finding the gaps in the defense.  At least the team is winning.

Sons team, Yavapai just won west region and are headed to The NJCAA world series in Grand Junction CO!! Go roughriders!!

The Trinity Tigers, after knocking on the door to the CWS for something like 12 times since 2002...are headed to Appleton.  They won nearly every inning  and nearly every AB and swept through a very tough West Regional riding wonderful (dominant pitching), rock solid defense and an aggressive and timely offense.

On May 17, 2002, Appleton seemed like it was in reach for the very first time for Trinity.

Sometime during that night, Coach Meccage, #41, passed away.  Appleton didn't happen.  30 young men played 3 more games through tears and got to the championship game as a tribute to #41, knowing he would have it no other way.  Trinity won't be playing on May 17, 2015.  They will be packing to head to Wisconsin. I am thinking #41 and #12 already have their seats.

In the D2 Atlantic Regional, #4 WSSU Rams fall in a heartbreaker 2-1 to #1 Mercyhurst.  Mercyhurst got on the board in the 4th and again in the 8th.  But the Rams weren't done yet.  In the bottom of the ninth son led off with a double off the wall for his 2nd hit of the game and scored on another double by the next batter.  A sacrifice bunt moved the runner to 3rd.  Sadly the next two batters struck out with the tying run 90 feet away.

 

The Rams will play #2 Millersville at noon Sunday in the consolation round.  The winner will face Mercyhurst  for the regional championship.

The weather in Wisconsin ought to be pretty nice this time of year

Son's season is over.  WSSU fell to Millersville 6-5 on a walk off single in the 9th.  The Rams took an early lead 2-0 in the 4th.  Millersville scored one in the 5th.  WSSU extended their lead in the 6th to 3-1, but Millersville tied it in the 7th.  Again the Rams took the lead in the 8th to 5-3,  The Marauders score two to tie in the 8th.  The Rams went 1-2-3 in the 9th.  Millersville fought back with a single with runners on for the walk off.

 

 

Jr is off to Appleton for the CWS starting on Friday. There really is no better way to end a college career. This team has been frustrating to watch for 2/3rds of the season as they were so talented, but never could seem to get it together. They did this toward the end and went 21-4. Probably the best thing that happened to them was loosing in their conf tournament and they had no choice but to win or go home.

 

They have lifted the mantle of the "best program" or "best coach" to not make it to the CWS and the Tiger Nation is buzzing like you can not believe. They have lifted the weight of this comment off of the coaching staff and every player who has come through Trinity, it is really amazing to see the reaction and support from everywhere. We are off to Appleton tomorrow morning and plan on being there the whole weekend.

 

Go Tigers! LWPA7676

 

BOF, awesome!  Have a great time and best of luck to your son and his team.

Congrats BOF!  Good luck to your son and the Tigers!!

AWESOME BOF! hope trinity keeps rolling

That's awesome, BOF....Best of luck to Nick & his Trinity teammates!

Son’s team is not ready to let this season end…. It’s on to the D2 World Series in Cary.

 

The Atlantic regional was quite a show. The last 5 overall games played were 12 innings, 13 innings, a 2-1 game, a walk off in the 9^th on the first game on Sunday and a 2-0 championship game.

 

To say I was impressed by the overall play is an understatement. I think 4 teams were ranked in the top 15, the 5^th in the top 30 and the 6^th receiving votes.  Every team brought their A game and left it all on the field.  Every team ended up with at least one loss, bullpens were stretched thin.

 

Games were played on the Detroit Tigers AA field in Erie,PA. Jerry Uht field. The town of Erie really supported the tourney.  It was a great setting for college baseball.  To win the regional in their home town in front of many family and friends made it even more special.

 

The college’s  graduation was being held next door in the arena, many seniors on the team had to miss the ceremonies ( they didn’t mind). The graduation was finished before the game so many of the graduates stopped into the park afterwards and caught the last few innings,

 

My son had a strong postseason in his last 3 starts he is 2-0 in 20.2 innings, .87 era, 30K, and given up 13 hits.  He came back on short rest to start the Sunday game and lasted 4 2/3, striking out 8.

 

We even got his 90 year old grandmother to the game now that was a special hug after the game!!!

 

Now it’s time to head to Cary, son is getting the ball for the first round game,  I couldn’t be happier or prouder for him and his team, they truly are a band of brothers. To get to even be a small part of the process is an honor and I am going to take a million pictures and enjoy every second of the experience.

 

GO LAKERS!!!!!!

Good stuff mmm1531 - all the best to the Lakers in Cary.  Your son had an outstanding tournament.  There is a strong NE Ohio contingent on that team as well and I'll be rooting for them.

I have not had time to post because of the crazy schedule due to rain and game times but son's team is playing the "if" game this morning for the pool B side and if we win this we are in the final championship round. Trinity continues to play very good baseball and we have plenty of arms left so we shall see what happens today

BOF,

 

I have been watching via LiveStats.  It has been exciting!  Good luck to the Tigers today!

Watched this weekend via the video feed.  Trinity is on fire!

The season ended a little earlier than we anticipated for my son's team last week.  They had been considered strong contenders for a D1 Regional bid up until the final two weeks of the season.  Unfortunately they finished the last eight games, 2-6.

My son was shut down for the last eight games due to elbow soreness.  He has an MRI scheduled for tomorrow....positive thoughts are appreciated, because he's not going to endure another TJ surgery.  He battled through a number of issues on & off the field in 2015, and I'd hate for his college career to end with another injury.

On another note....The Lake Elsinore Regional (UCSB, USC, Virginia, & SDSU) is about 20 miles from my house, so I'll be at the ballpark tomorrow cheering for one of the Southern California teams to come out of this region.

I am sorry to hear that, let us know how the MRI turns out.

Congratulations to all the sons that moved on in the tournement's and condolences to all of our sons who missed the playoffs. bsbl247 sorry to hear about the elbow. Hope it turns out for the best.

we missed the conference finals by two games this year, but set a school record for wins in the process. Son has improved ten fold with hard work and a great pitching coach. Now he is off to summer ball in the Jayhawk league. First game Sunday. We did have one potentially career changing stop at the WWBA west tournement in Goodyear over Memorial Day weekend. Even though he has finished his Fresh. Year at a JUCO, he won't turn 19 until next month so we thought a chance to play in an 18u game would keep him sharp for summerball.  Turns out he had the MLBSB there on Friday night, and Sunday we had standing room only behind the backstop three deep with MLB scouts. That's really cool, but to complicate things even more he has had three D1 coaches call him and want to see him throw. He's gone from going back to NMMI to wanting to get drafted to maybe playing D1 for two years, all in three days. He did throw for Arizona State just before they left for CA. They are extremely interested and are planning a trip to Kansas after they win the CWS( gotta have some optimism)

i guess we have until the 15of July to find out what we are doing for the next two to however many years. Will be an interesting summer.

Best of luck to your son. I will be at home this weekend rooting for the eastern invaders in the Lake Elsinore Regional...

It's too bad you can't make the trip out here, golfball.  While I will not be cheering on UVA, I will be pulling for your son to have a great weekend! 

Thanks.

Well, son's freshman's season came to an end this weekend. Wright State fell to Illinois in the regional final at Champaign. Son did not get the opportunity to play this weekend but he has many more years to fight his way on the field.

 

Illinois is a very quality team. I can see why they were in national seedings. That being said, I am proud of how WSU played this weekend. Lost Friday night to #2 seed Notre Dame 13-7. but had a very bad inning in bottom of 8, giving up 6 that put game out of reach.

In the battle of Ohio for best team in 2015, Saturday played 2 innings up 5-2 vs. Ohio U, then rain came pouring down, raining out the day. SP from Saturday came back on Sunday, pitched 6 more quality innings giving up 0 runs on Saturday and we won 8-3. That was first NCAA win for WSU since 93. Later that day in finals of losers bracket we got ND again, Coach called on RS JR, who had made his first start ever last weekend in Horizon league championship game going 4 innings that day (that was his longest outing his career at that point, he had been a key middle reliever up to that point). He was obviously nervous, walking first batter on 5 pitches, HC came out to talk to him and it obviously worked. He then proceed to pitch 8 innings of shut out ball gave up 4 hits, 2BB and gathered 6K. His cutter was nasty. He recorded the 2nd win of tournament and made that being the farthest WSU had ever gone. He was calm and collected during the game and after. His Dad was on cloud 9, The young man is a very quality young man and could not have happened to a nicer guy. Our fans, his teammates, coaches, everyone was going crazy for him.

 

We ended up losing 8-4 yesterday, but was in the game with Illinois until the top of 9.

 

I am so proud of this team. 2nd most wins in team history with 43, most since 87 when they were D2 national champs. 5th lowest ERA in team history and lowest since 87 (all 3 others were in 70's). Lots of other team and individual accomplishments.

 

My son had a great year 7-0, 2.22 ERA, 44IP. Did his job as weekday starter. Spot reliever on weekends. 

 

I am most proud of who is was as a teammate. He was always the kid that played every inning, got every big start as pitcher, batted 3rd, etc. . Much like every kid on his team I expect. This year, he got in 13  of 60 games. Never picked up a bat (nor probably will ever again), was never the go to guy on the mound. Yet he was one of first guys out to greet guys in between innings, always on the fence cheering guys on. No one was happier for his future roommate that pitched game of his life on Sunday night (except maybe his dad) when that easily could have been my son's spot. On and on and on.

 

This year he grew as a man and I am forever grateful for that.

NCAA D2 world series was a blast…

 

Sons team won 1^st game in an 11 inning thriller, sons roommate came in to take the mound in the bottom of 9^th with bases loaded. He goes to 3-0 count and comes back and strikes out the batter..Good stuff.. My son started the game, he went into the 7^th inning. He was struggling to throw his off speed stuff for strikes but limited the damages and kept his team in the game.

 

Lost second game to an excellent Tampa team 3-1, then lost to Cal Poly 5-1,   Tampa played some outstanding ball and appeared to be the best team there. Their shortstop is exceptional. I believe he was 3^rd team all American. Congrats to Tampa for being champs this year.

 

Cary was everything as promised…what an excellent venue.  We had great weather, good food, had some really enjoyable nights on the patio with team parents!!  Our last night there was really made special by having the majority of the players joining us for some post season celebration.

 

I haven’t seen my son cry over anything in the past years, but after the last game he was really affected by losing his senior teammates, with tears in his eyes he said “ I am really going to miss those guys”

 

The only bad thing I saw and didn’t agree with was the NCAA limiting roster sizes for the world series. I didn’t think they had to do it for the regionals, but for some reason there was a roster limit imposed.  I could not find anything official in the NCAA rules on line and wondered why they do that??

Do they do the same thing for the D1 teams in Omaha?

MMM as far as roster sizes. D1 limited roster size in regionals. I understand ACTIVE roster size, but in son's team case 5 player's not only could not be on roster, they could not be in uniform and could not be in dugout, on the field or in uniform. I wish the NCAA would relax on that rule. Those boys worked hard all year long as well as their teammates. I think they should get that same experience.

 

sons school had to do something similar,  school paid for the players to attend but they could not be in uniform, practice, or be in the dugout.  They got creative with a couple of kids, naming them as a coach or getting a media pass. 

 

I would hate to be a coach in that situation to tell a player who has busted their butt all year that now you can't be part of the team... The NCAA rep should have to sit face to face with that player and break the news to them. 

Hey all -

 

I'm Kyle, and I ran the Road To Cary blog this year that some of you chatted about. I joined here to say thank you for reading my blog throughout the season and I really appreciate all the kind words everyone had about it. It is still a work in progress and the first blog I've ever done, so there is room for improvement, and I look forward to having it be even better next season. During this off-season, I plan on doing things on there intermittently, including doing a top 10 D-2 teams of the last 10 years kind of thing, or something along those lines. I recently put up an MLB Draft preview post, so we'll see what else I can come up with.

 

Thanks again for all your kind words and support! It was a pleasure following along all season with some of the best teams in the country, especially teams like mmm1531's! Your son is a spectacular talent!

It's been a pleasure reading your blogs, Kyle.  Not much out there on D2 baseball, and it is very good baseball, so what you have been doing is much appreciated.  Keep it up!!!

 

 

Kyle,

 

Thanks for the kind and flattering words about my son and his team.  The whole season has been a treat to watch, D2 baseball deserves all of the exposure it can get. Those kids really put on a show.

 

Also a big thanks for the D2 coverage, I know the players, parents, and coaches of son’s team follow it and really, really appreciate your efforts.  I can’t imagine the time commitment you put in to be so thorough.   Keep up the great work!!!