D3baseball.com Daily Dose

Here we are at one week closer to the playoffs and twelve conferences’ champions will be chosen this week. First a reminder of those team already holding a ticket to the regionals are:

USA South: Ferrum
SCIAC: Pomona-Pitzer
NWC: Pacific Lutheran
GNAC: Western New England
NEWMAC: Wheaton
ODAC: Bridgewater
SCAC: Austin

Also last weekend Maryville finished their 2007 season with a Great South Athletic Conference championship after defeating LaGrange College in the final elimination game of the series by the score of 13-6. The teams from the GSAC will have to wait for to see if they will get a Pool B or C bid since the conference does not have an automatic bid.

In the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association two teams are battling down to the Wire. Hope (19-5) has the edge on Adrain (19-7) and playes two doubleheaders today and tomorrow against Olivet. Adrian has two game remaining at home against Albion. Adrian hold the series edge defeating Hope in three of four games.

The Commonwealth Coast Conference started on Tuesday with two elimination game today. Top seeded Curry and Salve Regina are the remaining 2-0 teams and are waiting to see who they will play on Saturday.

No. 1 seeded Westfield State and No. 2 Fitchburg State earned first round victories on Thursday afternoon to advance into the winners bracket of this weekend’s Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament.

Manhattanville and Stevens won their first game of the Skyline tournament that started yesterday. and play will resume on Saturday in the four team double elimination tournament.

The North Atlantic Conference also plays their tournament. With a 10-2 conference mark, Castleton enters the upcoming North Atlantic Conference baseball tournament as the top seed. The Championship, hosted by St. Joseph’s College of Maine is a three day, double-elimination tournament beginning today. Castleton (10-2l) will take on fourth seed Maine-Farmington (5-7 ) and second seed and two time defending champion St. Joseph’s (9-3l) and third seed Husson (7-5) will meet in game 2 . St. Joseph’s is on the bubble for a Pool C bid if they don’t win the conference tournament.

In the North Eastern Athletic Conference Keystone (18-0 in conference) hosts the four team tournament. Keystone is a provisional team and cannot advance so if they win the championship, expect the second place team to advance with the Pool A bid.

In the Middle Atlantic Conferences, in the Middle Atlantic Commonwealth Conference, Lebanon Valley (14-7) is the top seed in the Commonwealth and King’s (13-5) and DeSales (13-5) are the top teams in the Freedom.

There is a slim chance for any team in these conference above to get an at large bid so they will have to battle it out to see who gets to represent their conference in the regional playoffs. In the four conferences listed below, it is probably to see each get two teams into the playoffs barring upsets in the tournaments being played this and next weekend.

The Pennsylvania Athletic Conference starts today with #2 Alvernia taking on #3 Gwynedd-Mercy and #1 Arcadia playing #4 Wesley College. Both Arcadia and Alvernia are in the NCAA regional rankings so if one wins the conference title, the other could get a Pool C bid.

The Centennial Conference starts today with Gettysburg at Franklin & Marshall and Ursinus at Johns Hopkins. Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall and Johns Hopkins are all in the regional rankings. It would not surprise anyone to see two teams from the Centennial get two teams into the playoffs. Three is possible but not likely.

Like the Centennial, the SUNY Athletic Conference has three of the four teams in the conference tournament in the regional rankings. No 1 seed Cortland should make the playoffs no matter what they do. Brockport and Oneonta need to win to avoid next weeks waiting game. No 3 seeded Plattsburg has to win the tournament to get to the playoffs. Two teams from this conference should appear in the playoffs and the tournament could be what moves one team over another.

The New Jersey Athletic Conference has the potential to send three teams. By consensus, Kean and The College of New Jersey are in wheteher or not they win the tournament with a 1,2 ranking on the NCAA regional rankings. There is a third hungry team out there that is looking to capture the NJAC Championship. On Thursday, the number 1,2,3 seeded teams were victorious so Kean, TCNJ and Montclair State has the upper hand so far.

The lone west region conference tournament is the American Southwest Conference and features Ozarks vs. Texas Lutheran and Texas-Dallas vs. McMurry. Texas Dallas and Texas Lutheran are ranked in the NCAA regional rankings and if there is any conference playing this weekend who has a chance to get three teams in the playoff, it is the ASC.

Good luck to all this weekend.