D3baseball.com Daily Dose

As I finish the final touches on my weekly blog my thoughts are not on the game but thinking about the Bluffton Baseball Team and their tragedy. This is not the kind of breaking news anyone wants to wake up to. Everyone at D3baseball.com wishes the best for the players, their family and the Bluffton University community.

In the northeast corner of the nation the New England and New York regions are coming to life. This weekend Eastern Connecticut State (0-0) travels for a key game against Kean. In the New York region, Cortland (2-0) is sporting a perfect record with two tournament games played at Hampden-Sydney. Liberty League teams, RPI (0-0), Vasser (0-0), and Skidmore (0-0) will start their seasons this weekend.

The Mid-Atlantic sees the first action in the Freedom and Commonwealth Conferences. In the New Jersey AC Kean (1-0) is the only unbeaten. Players of the week are Joe Franceschini, Rowan, Joe Augustine, Kean, and Steve Myers, Rutgers-Camden as player of the week honors awarded for the first time this season. Franceschini earns the first NJAC Player of the Week selection after hitting .500 with six RBI and five runs scored in three games combined for the Profs. Augustine earns the first NJAC Pitcher of the Week selection after leading the Cougars to a season-opening 4-0 road victory at Stevens allowing just one hit in 8.1 innings of work. Myers earns the first NJAC Rookie of the Week selection after producing the game-winning hit in the Scarlet Raptors’ first victory of the season. He registered a game-winning RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning for the first hit of his collegiate career in Camden’s 3-2 victory over Waynesburg.

In the Capital AC, Mary Washington (3-0) opened the season with a doubleheader sweep of Messiah College and added one more win this week. Salisbury (7-1) pushed their win streak to seven games. The Seagulls posted a no-hitter against Eastern University as Bryan Brainer pitched five scoreless innings to kick-off the no-hitter before it got closed out by the bullpen. In the Great South AC Mike Sims and Justin Phelps, both from LaGrange were the player and pitcher of the week. Sims batted .500 in four games (9-for-18) with six runs scored and five RBIs. Sims was also 5-for-5 in stolen bases. He had a career-high four stolen bases against Sewanee. Phelps was 2-0 in two relief appearances. Phelps pitched nine scoreless innings, allowing five hits, a walk and struck out eight. In the ODAC,two teams have winning records. Lynchburg (6-2) took two from Juniata. Virginia Wesleyan (4-2) split with York and lost to Emory at the Rawlings Classic. D.W. Moore, Lynchburg, was the ODAC Baseball Pitcher of the Week. He has posted a 3-0 record and a 2.84 ERA early this year in just three appearances. The sophomore right-hander has allowed 15 hits and six walks while striking out 15 in 19 innings. Moore pitched 6.2 innings of scoreless relief at Greensboro.

Millsaps (8-2) and Centre (3-0) continue to roll this season. The SCAC offensive and pitcher of the week were Daniel Ward, Hendrix and Justin Basham, Centre. Ward went 9-for-11 over the week, hitting two home runs (one of which was a grand slam), four doubles and three singles. Ward drove in 10 runs and scored five as the Warriors won two of three games on the week. He slugged 1.727 with a 0.818 batting average. Basham posted a complete-game seventh-inning shutout in his first career outing for the Colonels en route to a 9-0 win over Earlham College. Basham allowed only four hits and did not walk a batter, while striking out 11 Quakers. The freshman hurler retired 12 hitters straight at one time and did not allow a runner to reach third base the entire game. Basham also struck out at least one hitter six of the seven innings and at least two hitters four different innings. In the USA South, Averett (14-3) continues their fine season and N.C. Wesleyan (10-3) grabs the early conference lead with two wins. Conference honors went to Mark Wooten, N.C. Wesleyan, Chris Toth, Methodist, Jake Loye, Averett and Lincoln Garner, Ferrum. Wooten hit .643 (9-for-14) with five RBI, one double and one home run as the Battling Bishops went 3-1 last week. Toth appeared in one game last week, picking up a victory in the Monarchs, 9-2, win over Ferrum. Toth pitched seven innings without giving up an earned run. Freshman Loye hit .500 (6-for-12) with six RBI, two doubles, one home run and a slugging percentage of .917 last week for the Cougars. Garner, a freshman at Ferrum, picked up his second win of the season in an 11-0 win over USA South rival Methodist. Garner tossed eight shutout innings while allowing just four hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts. Emory (6-0) stayed unbeaten this season. Emory won its fourth-consecutive game on its final at bat, as Zander Sotiriou hit a one-out walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to allow Jake Ornstein to score from second base as the eagles defeated Adrian 4-3 at Chappell Park.

In the center part of the nation, Transylvania is 2-0 with wins over DePauw while Heartland rival Rose-Hulman is 3-1. Adrian (1-2) got a win over Oglethorpe and losses to Emory and Piedmont. In the CCIW, Augustana started 3-0. St Olaf (2-0) sweeps Dubuque as Luke Gagnon was 5-5 with 4 doubles at the Metrodome in the Twin Cities. Fellow conference member Macalester (1-0) is also undefeated in early action.

Out west, Texas Lutheran (11-0) will play Texas Tyler (9-0) in a clash of the remaining unbeaten teams in the American Southwest Conference this weekend. Schreiner (10-2) is also a ten game winner in the ASC. Players of the week in the ASC are Trent Elizondo, Texas-Dallas, Grant Wilson, Louisiana, Ryen Pounds, Concordia-Austin and Bernard Pena, Schreiner. Elizondo collected 14 hits over 20 at-bats, raising his batting average to .692 on the season. Elizondo hit four doubles, had nine RBI and walked twice. He also scored a combined six times against Paul Quinn College and McMurry. Wilson threw a complete game shutout against Texas College on Tuesday. He allowed just two hits and was perfect over six innings. Wilson turned around on Saturday and allowed only two runs in seven innings against Hardin-Simmons. Both appearances resulted in wins. Pounds hit two home runs - including a grand slam - and two doubles to go along with 12 RBI over a four-game stretch. He went 3-for-3 with a walk and nine RBI during the game in which the Tornados plated 38 runs - a new ASC record. Pena hurled a no-hitter against Division II Texas A&M International, striking out four batters and walking only one over the seven-inning game. The Mountaineers won 7-0.

With the action in the Northwest Conference, George Fox (6-0) remains unbeaten with two team members getting conference honors this week. Bo Thunell and Nick Bratney were the NWC player and pitcher of the week. Thunell batted .500 (4 for with six RBIs and three runs scored. He had a pair of doubles and a home run in the two Bruin victories. Bratney tossed a complete-game victory, allowing four runs (none earned) on nine hits, with two strikeouts and one walk. In the SCIAC, Redlands (6-4) and LaVerne (4-6) are both 3-0 in conference. Chapman (12-1) got big wins against fellow independent Menlo College this week. Chapman All-American pitcher Devin Drag allowed 7 runs against Menlo, raising his ERA to 2.4 but remaining unbeaten on the season. Cal State East Bay (9-3) won two of three games against Willamette University (3-6).

Game of the week: St Thomas vs. Wisconsin-Stevens Point, March 5 at the Herbert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

Last weeks Game of the Week: Averett and Christopher Newport split a doubleheader in Danville, Virginia on February 24. Both teams decided to play a twin-bill on instead of single games on Saturday and Sunday due to the threat of inclement weather on Sunday. A six-run fifth inning was enough to lift the Cougars to a win in the first game of a double-header on Saturday, but the Averett University baseball team could not duplicate the feat in game two. The Cougars split their games with the Captains of Christopher Newport with final scores of 6-4 and 1-3. In the first game, the Captains (7-3, 1-1 USA South) struck early, scoring one run in the second, and three runs in the fourth inning. The Cougars (13-2, 1-1 USA South) however, refused to be stopped by the Captains ace pitcher Kenny Moreland and came alive in the bottom of the fifth inning. In the fifth, Jake Loye led of with a double to center field. Jeremiah McMillan reached right after on an error by the second baseman, and Loye scored on the play. After two outs, the Cougars hit four straight hits, including three doubles. Those hits scored five more runs and gave the Cougars the win 6-4. The second game quickly turned into a pitchers battle between the two teams, with the first run not scored until the fifth inning. The Captains put one run across in the fifth, another run in the sixth, and finally one more run in the top of the ninth. The Cougars only managed one run in the seventh inning. On the day for the Cougars, Justin Brown led hitting 2-for-4 with two RBI and one run. Ken Kellum was just behind him hitting 1-for-4 with one run and one RBI. Ahmed Shelton pitched a complete game in the first game, gaining the win and only allowing four runs. For the Captains, Eric Cole led hitting 4-for-8 with two RBI and two runs.