Clearing the Bases - Wisconsin Ho
May
2008
My plane leaves in about two hours and I am still thinking who wins this whole thing this coming week. The answer is difficult since I can see most every team having the chance to make it to the end. If there is a cinderella team, it is Adrian. They started the season with big wins down south as they defeated Emory and Piedmont back-to-back. The did not back down in a evenly matched regional in Terre Haute. They might have showed a crack when Heidelberg forced a winner take all game, but are now all square in Appleton.
Chapman, Cortland State, Trinity, Kean all breezed through their regionals without a loss….and in a few days two will have a loss as they have to play each other. The good news is that two teams can make it to the winners bracket final before one of these four emerges with out a loss. Throw in UW-Whitewater, and we have five favorites.
Linfield and Johns Hopkins had to battle to make the final round. Linfield needed extra innings while the Blue Jays were able to let their offense take over. Both team came back from first game losses to capture the regional.
The contest is wide open and nobody in the field will surprise me if they end up coming out of the winners bracket. I hope all will be following the games and enjoying the live video on the last two days. I myself am looking forward to five days of good baseball and let the teams decide the action on the field.
Hope to see many of you at Fox Cities Stadium.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:57 am
One cannot always translate outcomes in one tourney to another, but West Region teams will look carefully at how the Linfield Wildcats and Chapman Panthers fare.
As one of the two regions to have two members playing in the National Championships, the other being the MidAtlantic with Kean and Johns Hopkins, the West Region foes will evaluate for the degree of parity that may exist in the Region.
Chapman went through the Regional undefeated, but eked out four hard-earned victories. Look how close the Abilene Regional was…
G1 Chapman 4, LaVerne 3
G2 Chapman 5, McMurry 3; 12 innings (walk-off HR)
G3 Chapman 10, Trinity 9
G4 Chapman 4, Trinity 3!
Chapman won the 2003 National Championship, but lost to eventual National Champion George Fox in the 2004 Regionals. Since 2004, Chapman has won the last four West Regional tourneys.
Linfield’s run through the Rock Island IL Regional went this way:
G1 UW-Stevens Point L, 2-1 in 10 innings.
G2 Illinois Wesleyan W, 5-4
G3 Wartburg W, 7-5
G4 Augustana W, 10-1
G5 Webster W, 4-3 10inn.
The Wildcats victory and Chapman’s win in Abilene Tourney cause West Region fans to ask which Region is strongest this year.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 am
The number of head-to-head games between the eight teams in Wisconsin is pretty slim. Chapman beat Kean twice and Cortland State beat Johns Hopkins. Even the common opponents do not help. Adrian and Johns Hopkins played Piedmont and each regional champions won. Montclair State played three teams - Cortland State, Johns Hopkins and Kean but were MSU beat Kean twice in three games and lost to both Cortland State and Johns Hopkins. La Verne played Chapman and Kean but lost all these games.
If these results provide a guideline - Chapman defeats Kean (based on head to head), Adrian-Johns Hopkins is a toss up with Kean losing again if they play Johns Hopkins. Linfield-UW-Whitewater is another toss-up as is Cortland State-Trinity.
I just have the feeling that whomever wins the Cortland State-Trinity game will have the upper hand in the tournament facing Chapman or Johns Hopkins.
Sorry Bulldogs, the record for teams in their first championship series is not good. There is the Ramapo and George Fox victories in their only championship appearances.
One more bit of history is that does not bode well for Kean is that there has not been a repeat winner since Glassboro State did it in 1978-79. Thats 29 years for those scoring at home - the longest such streak (an unconfirmed rumor) in college sports.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:56 am
I’ll go on a limb and predict that Cortland hands Trinity it’s first loss. Cortland faced Kiely last year in the regionals and had basically no scouting report on him. They took way too many first pitch strikes and were basically 0-1 in every count. I think they’ll be more aggressive and put up enough runs to give Tone room to work comfortably. I can’t see them knocking Kiely around too much but I also don’t see Kiely holding them to 2 hits and 1 run through 10 innings like he did last year.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
is there going to be any way to watch the games via computer?