D3baseball.com Daily Dose

Sitting in the Paper Lion enjoying an end of the tournament dinner it dawned on me – The tournament is not over. After 11 games in three days, only two games on Memorial Day seemed like a well…. a holiday. Those people scoring the game were working hard though as Emory surprised everyone by dispatching both Cortland State and Wisconsin-Stevens Point with an offense as potent as any in the tournament.

The Emory contingent near by my table made sure that I should not call the Eagles a cinderella team. The coach also made that clear well before the hitting came around. How can a 43-9 team be a cinderella team? Personally I am still living down calling the Emory baseball team “likely to disappoint” in the South regional. Yeah likely to disappoint those who don’t believe they can win the Championship Game.

Kean has always been my pick since the start of the season so they are not doing anything unexpected. Their pitching has been fantastic but a strength of the program for a while now.

I am one of those who will watching and enjoying the best Division III can bring. It will be a heck of a game – that I can assure.

The sun is shining, the wind is blowing steadily out to left field and Emory is taking their final warmups out in the field just before the first pitch.

I’ll be on the blog for most of the day giving updates, tidbits and the like. Those of you who are unable to attend the games can catch everything via the live video, live stats and the scoreboard provided by CSTV, UW-Oshkosh and D3baseball.com.

It’s an odd feeling, trying to follow baseball this way. Haven’t been able to get into the NCAA video today. Can’t load Carthage’s audio. Cortland doesn’t have any. And since the Internet is still down in the press box, for a second consecutive day, our eyes and ears in Appleton are muted.

So when I logged in and found that our line score was different from the live stats, I didn’t know what to trust. (Turns out the live stats were wrong. They’ve since been corrected.)

Following baseball in silence is very disconcerting.

But I know others can see the video, so while I re-reboot my machine, share the knowledge. What are we seeing today from Appleton?

Eastern Connecticut State University coach Bill Holowaty has won more than 1,200 games in his career with the Warriors, and four Division III national championships. And although the Warriors won’t be adding to that total this season, it’s been another great run.

Brian Girasoli of the Norwich Bulletin writes about the Eastern Connecticut team that started it all 25 years ago and how much the school and Willimantic, Conn., has changed in a quarter-century. The vintage photos included with the package make for a great Sunday newspaper story and it’s well worth your time to read.

It is whether day. Yes there maybe some weather – this is forecasted to be the worst day for weather – but it is whether your team advances or goes home. The first of two elimination games this windy and partly cloudy morning.

The evening games will be important as well. It is a decided advantage to keep in the winners bracket and the winner of game 11, the “winners bracket final” has he inside track to this year’s walnut and bronze.

Keep posted to d3baseball.com and all the live video, stats and updates available for those not fortunate to be here today.

Here I sit looking at sunny skies and watching the Eagles and Pointers play baseball. Zimmermann is not disappointing anyone with four strikeouts in a three innings of no hit ball and a run scoring double to put UW-Stevens Point ahead in the first inning.

Bing – there goes another ball an Emory batter could not handle.

Keep checking the blog for my observations as I keep a running commentary on the games today through the end of the Championship.

We are down to just eight teams to concentrate on and with the All-American team is out, it is time for a little break. My break means spending many hours in an airplane and car as I wind my way to the 2007 Division III Baseball championship.

I will be getting to the diamond when the gates open and leaving when they turn off the lights. If you get to be at the Championship and see me walking the concourse, stop me and say hello. I’ll be the guy in the hawai’ian shirt with my yellow Salem Buccaneers cap.

I wish I had some insight how the games will go but we have some pretty good match-ups to watch on the first day. Will we see anyone duplicate the feat of Eastern Connecticut’s Chris D’Amato who could not be gotten out (batting average of .786). Or will it be someone trying to beat Corey Hamman, Montclair State’s ERA record (0.34). No matter the individual stats, the focus is on that team prize of a national championship. The more each team wins, the more pressure there is to keep the advantage and keep winning. That pressure will be compare to those teams with a loss knowing that this could be the last game of the season.

See you in Appleton.

With the playoffs behind us. it is time to see how I did in my predictions. Those who are regulars at the discussion board know my preseason predictions was only third best. The preseason poll had all eight teams ranked from the start with 5 in the top 10. The surprising thing is that the last poll was a worse predictor of success since in the May 8 poll there was only 4 teams in the top 10 and Carthage was missing from the Top 30 (I expect them to shoot up in the poll released this week). So by region:

Mideast Regional

Marietta was a surprise winner of the regional. So much of a surprise that many Marietta fans were reluctant to pick them. Thats in the past and the Marietta bandwagon is headed to Wisconsin. This is the second year Wooster has rolled into the regional looking for a ticket to the Championship and come up empty. The Scots did extract a bit or revenge when they eliminated Otterbein. If you remember last year, it was the Cardinal’s who gave Wooster their second loss. Our cinderella team, Ohio Wesleyan, was able to force Marietta to play a second regional championship game so give me two out of three .

New England Regional

Once again our cinderella team made it to the championship game but Eastern Connecticut did not disappoint anyone other than the teams they faced. Wheaton never got the chance to play Eastern Connecticut as they were 0-2 against the Owls of Keene State. Our predictions were a little off imagine if Keene state did not have Wheaton’s number we would be sitting pretty. Okay only one of three taking us even so far.

South

Are you seeing a trend? Our cinderella team loses to the team we picked to “most likely to disappoint”. Ferrum comes within one inning of making their first Championship but lose to Emory in an extra innings game. Where was Salisbury? They only got to play on the third day only because rain delayed the tournament. Otherwise The Eagle are flying high and should represent the south well. This brings me to down one

New York

Now I am starting to feel like the seer I am. Trinity (Conn.) nearly made it to the Championship game but found out just like Ithaca that beating Cortland twice in the same tournament is pretty tough. Our champion pick had to win twice on the final day but did so to advance. Ithaca once again is staying home. I dont think it is me but I started covering Division III baseball the same year Cortland State made beating Ithaca in the New York regional a yearly thing. Coincidence? Either way, I had this regional pegged – three for three gets me two above .500

Mid-Atlantic

I have been high on Kean all season and they were my pick to make the tournament for the first time and there they are. I expected New Jersey in the Championship game but “cha-ching” score me another point as they fail to advance after winning the NJAC. I will not claim to predict Johns Hopkins as my cinderella but all the non NJAC teams did remarkably well. Kean was on a roll for the tournament and nobody was going to stop them. Give me two points and a push.

Central

Is anyone hotter than Carthage? I think not. Luther did well ending their season on the next to last game. Give me a push here also since Augustana had a better series from the #6 spot in the regional. Washington was 0-2 again. They bring a quality team and had the unfortunate luck in playing Carthage (did I mention the 18,19 games in a row they won) and Luther. Illinois Wesleyan had the tournament to forget as they were out 0-2 on their home field. Give me two for two here

Midwest

St. Olaf had a good run, not to mention the misfortune to run into the pitching performance of the playoffs in Baitinger’s no-hitter – minus one. Plus one for getting UW-Oshkosh in the Championship game but losing a point for picking the Tommies to advance. There will be good crowds for UW-Stevens Point at the Championship as they ride the arm and bat of Jordon Zimmerman. This nets me just one point for this regional.

West

Chapman was a safe pick and squeaked out another trip to Wisconsin. The Pacific Lutheran boys gave them all they had and like Ferrum – fell a little short. Pomona-Pitzer, 1-2 in the tournament, beat the only sub .500 team and lost twice to Texas Lutheran netting me a point. Speaking of Texas Lutheran, the bull dogs were a force in the ninth inning. In the game they were eliminated, I don’t think anyone thought they were really out until the last out was made. They are the comeback kids of the playoffs. Lets see, three more points giving me a 15-7-2 record. Not bad.

Any comments on the playoffs?

Two more regionals to finish and the field of eight will be complete. We already have a team (Kean) making their first trip to the Championships and three (maybe four is Eastern Connecticut wraps up the regional with a win over Keene State) making a return trip. One of those teams is the defending champion Marietta Pioneers. Just a week ago there was speculation that the Pioneer’s were clearing out their lockers and going home. Now they have those lockers cleared with hopes of being the first repeat champions since Glassboro State (now Rowan) in 1979.

With pitching always in short supply at the end of the regionals it was great to see Wayde Kitchens and Joe DiPietro go head to head.

Keep posted to the Daily Dose for the latest action on the diamond on the last day of the playoffs.

Saturday will see the end of eight great series. There were some great games but as the team move deeper into the rotation the stronger teams start to emerge. I am not surprised that any team is still in contention.

Marietta has to be one of the surprise teams. They were on the bubble when playoff teams were selected and made it in as one of the last teams in. They are proving that they intend to defend their title. It has been a long time since anyone has repeated but maybe this is the year.

Every year we see a team who has never made the Championship Round. Will there be two in Kean and Pacific Lutheran? Tough series await both.

Good luck to all the teams still playing. I’ll see eight in Wisconsin.