Division II Regionals Start Today

Good luck to all in the D2 playoffs!!  We missed out this year, but hope for good things next year.

Nervous here as well.  My son's team plays at 7 pm tonight in the Atlantic Regionals.  At least we can listen via the webcast.

How did Shepherd get left out of regional's? they had 39 wins and where one of the best teams in their region? I know they lost their conference championship in extra innings but how does a committee leave out a team like that? 

Zues - i haven't a clue how the NCAA does the at-large selections.  Son's team secured their bid by winning their conference championship.  Had they not done so, I don' t think they would have received an at-large bid and they had 38 wins and only lost one game in conference play.

FoxDad, at least misery has company!  Mine is playing in the South Central region in Grand Junction.  The website says there will be live video but we will have to see.  Good luck to yours as well.  If we get to Cary, I'll be there for every pitch.  I can't take this two weekends in a row.  

I have no idea how UNC Pembroke got left out. That one shocked me. Of course every year there are a couple of head scratchers. Exciting times. Regionals are awesome. Good luck to all of your boys. Cary is an awesome experience.

I don't either.  In my mind, there is no question they should have made it.  I have heard that their SOS was not very strong and that may have something to do with it.  But, they were ahead of Mount Olive, beat CSU in the PBC and lost to Armstrong, so I thought for sure they would be in.

Cary has been the team goal since day one.  They did play some conference games there as well as the conference tournament.  To them Cary became "Home away from Home.  It is a beautiful complex.

I copied this posted from another site:

How:

The following criteria as outlined in Bylaw 31.3.3 of the NCAA Division II Manual shall be employed by a governing sports
committee in selecting participants for NCAA championships competition:
● Won-lost record;
● Strength of schedule;
● Availability of student-athletes for NCAA championships; and
● Nullification.

In addition to Bylaw 31.3.3, the Division II Baseball Committee has received approval from the NCAA Division II Championships Committee to use the following criteria in the selection of at-large teams for the Division II Baseball Championship (not necessarily in priority order):
Primary Criteria
● In-region Division II won-lost results;
● In-region Division II strength of schedule (opponents’ average winning percentage and opponents’ opponents’ average winning percentage);
● Head-to-head competition (minimum of two contests);
● Results versus common opponents;
● Results against Division II teams with a .500 or better record against Division II opponents;
● Results against Division II teams out of conference .500 or better;
● Road results; and
● Results versus teams ranked in the previous regional ranking and all teams with a winning percentage of 0.650 and above.

Once the opponents’ average winning percentage (OWP) and opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage (OOWP) are calculated, they are to be combined on a weighted scale (e.g., 2/3 weight for OWP and 1/3 weight for OOWP) and this combined number becomes the strength of schedule.

Here is a link to the site:

http://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/fi..._PreChamps.pdf

With the above being said, I think something needs to be done with the D2 regionals.  There are SO MANY strong teams left out every year.  Particularly from the South and SouthEast Regions.  

I believe in D1, they have certain spots reserved for conference tournament winners, then take the best teams from across the country - regardless of where the school is located.  In D2, it's all done by geographic region with limited spots.  So, there are teams that are left out that are much stronger than a lot of teams that make it in.  In the Peach Belt Conference, there were around 5 teams nationally ranked between the polls, yet only one of them made it to the Regionals.  And they were the lowest ranked team of the PBC teams.  It's a crazy system.

My son's team missed out partly due to 3 teams in the region winning their conference tournaments who would not have made the regionals otherwise.  Left only 3 spots for at large bids.  Not many for a very strong SE region.  But, we had our opportunity and destiny in our own hands and didn't come thru late, so we got left out.  Tough year for our team.  Although we wound up with a 35-14 record with the 13th toughest schedule in D2 baseball, we really under performed.

Here's a quote about the SE Region from the Perfect Game site:

"With three automatic bids given to teams that wouldn’t have made the field otherwise, it sent some extremely good teams home early. UNC Pembroke, Columbus State and Armstrong were all worthy of an extended postseason, but sadly there wasn’t enough room for all of them. If either CSU, a preseason top three pick of mine, or UNCP, one of the hardest hitting teams in the USA, were playing, I’d put my money on them. Alas they are not so another team must be chosen."

My son's team is CSU... Ugh, oh well.  Hope to compete next season.

Atlantic Region Update:

Game 1 - #5 West Chester on the verge of an upset over #2 Millersville leading 5-0 in the top of the 9th.

Final score West Chester 5 Millersville 0.

Angelo State up 6-1 over Colorado Pueblo in bottom 5th from South Central Regional.

Atlantic Region update:

#4 WSSU Rams upset #3 Seton Hill with a 5-2 win.  Woo Hoo!  Great win Rams! 

#1 Mercyhurst defeated #6 West Virginia State 3-1.

The #4 Rams will face #5 West Chester tomorrow in game 6 at 5 pm tomorrow.  #6 West Virginia State will play #2 Millersville at 10 am in game 4. #1 Mercyhurst takes on #3 Seton Hill at 1:30 pm in game 5.

All games have been moved up 2 hours due to expected rain tomorrow evening.

In south central region, all three games were won by the lower seed.  4 beat 3, 5 beat 2, and in nightcap 6th seed St. Mary's beat #1 seed Colorado Mesa who is ranked #3 in the

nation.  That's baseball, that's why you play the games.  

Atlantic Region Update:

#2 Millersville defeated #6 West Virginia State 4-1.  Will play the loser of West Chester vs Winston-Salem State.  WVS eliminated.

Second game of the day in progress.  #3 Seton Hill leading #1 Mercyhurst 2-1 (top of 4th).

#4 WSSU vs #5 W. Chester scheduled for 5 pm (Eastern).

ADDENDUM:

#3 Seton Hill defeated #1 Mercyhurst 8-1.

Atlantic Region Update:

#4 Winston-Salem State defeats #5 West Chester 9-4.

6 HR's in the game - 4 for WSSU and 2 for WCU.

Tomorrow's schedule:

Atlantic Region update:

#1 Mercyhurst defeated #5 West Chester 6-4/  WCU eliminated.

#3 Seton Hill / #2 Millersville still in progress  Tied at 3 in the 12th inning.

#4 Winston-Salem vs #1 Mercyhurst when game in progress is completed.

 ADDENDUM:

#2 Millersville wins 6-3 on a walk off HR in the 13th inning.

#4 WSSU Rams fall to #1 Mercyhurst 2-1.  Trailing for most of the game the Rams rallied with back-to-back doubles in the 9th and had the tying run 90 feet away after a sacrifice bunt.  Sadly the final two batters struck out.

This game didn't start until 9:45 pm due to the 1st game of the day going 11 innings and the 2nd game going 13 innings.

WSSU will face #2 Millersville Sunday.  The winner will play Mercyhurst for the Atlantic Regional Championship.

Wow, what a day at the Atlantic regional!!

sons team pulls out an extra inning game to start the day 6-4

then I watch millersvile and seton hill go 12 innings, those are both excellent teams

after a late start mercyhurst beats Winston - Salem 2-1... Game finished around 1:00 am.

Foxdad you missed a beauty, your son crushed that double. Congrats on some all region mentions for your son, well deserved.

there was a change of balls from the Psac tourny, they used a Wilson ball there and now using a Rawlings, seams are a little higher than the Wilson.  We are not seeing the homeruns and shots to the gap that we saw with the Wilson ball.

winston Salem now plays millers vile at noon, MU awaits the survivor.. 

Son on picked up the win in the opener Thursday with a 3 hit, 10k 7 inning outing. he may come out of the pen on Sunday, it's an all hands on deck situation.

Awesome day, all six teams at this regional have put on a show, what a treat to watch, the winner of this regional will have earned their way to Cary.. 

You don't know how much I wish I had been there to see it.  At least they went down swinging.  Listened via webcast though.  Just need one more hit to extend the game.  It was after 2 am before I got to bed.  I didn't realize he received all region mentions - that is awesome.

WSSU Rams fall to Millersville 6-5 on a walk off single with 2 outs in the 9th.  Millersville will play Mercyhurst for the regional championship.

Son did not have a good day going 0-3 with a walk, but I'm still proud of the him and the team.  Instead of bunting in the 3rd with runners I would have had him hit away and hopefully drive one deep to drive in a run, but it is what it is.  It's the furthest any Ram's baseball team has gone.  They've been to regionals before but usually 2 game and out.

Congratulations to the University of Tampa! They really stepped it up post season this year!

Tampa's made three in a row and it is almost an annual event for them.

One new team I see this year is Mercyhurst.  A private Catholic school from Erie Pa.  Many of their kids are recruited here from the Cleveland suburbs and they have been knocking at the door for many years.