D3baseball.com Daily Dose

It is not surprising to see a cancellation or postponement in the early spring. The blog here at D3baseball.com is going to be experience some maintenance in the next few days and my weekly blog has been postponed. I’ll be back in a few days to report on stat leaders. A second reason for my postponement is that I had hoped to see the first national stats at ncaa.org today. Like everyone will have to wait a few more days for the NCAA to get the first D-III baseball stats online.

Now that I have a little more time, I will be traveling where I’ll be catching up with UW-Oshkosh alumnus Jarrod Washburn. Look forward to my interview in the weeks to come.

I hope everyone is getting out to the diamond. Baseball is best when viewed from the stands.

With both polls out for the first time, there is some debate about the differences. As the top teams keep winning, the differences will become smaller over time. If the D3baseball.com poll is a predictor – then these could be the regional champions (highest ranking regional team): Trinity (Conn), Cortland State, New Jersey, Salisbury, Wooster, Carthage, UW-Oshkosh, and Chapman. From the ABCA/CB poll you get Keene State, Cortland State, Kean, Piedmont, Wooster, Carthage, UW-Oshkosh, and Chapman. Probably neither is entirely correct but either way the championship round would be exciting with either line up. The best news is that there is a lot of baseball yet to play and like most sports, the national champions is decided by a teams play, not their standing in either poll.

There are a lot of key match-ups this weekend. Two stand out as the winner this weekend will have the inside track for their conference regular season championship. On the west coast, Pomona-Pitzer and Redlands have been at top of the SCIAC for nearly the entire season. This weekend, Pomona-Pitzer and Redlands square off in a series that potentially could give either the SCIAC championship. In a key Little East match-up, Eastern Connecticut and Keene State play a doubleheader on Saturday on the opposite coast. This is the time for the Owls need to make a statement that they will be the top dog in the LEC. It is also time for Eastern Connecticut to shed a mediocre start to the regular season and start on their road back into the the national polls. This is the conference opener for both teams.

With the D-III baseball season half over and we have just two undefeated teams (with at least 5 games played) left in Carthage and Trinity (Conn). Carthage has won 30 of their last 32 games with their only losses at the championship round. Trinity (Conn) is the other undefeated team having survived a scare on Tuesday. The longest winning streak of the season applies to neither. Salisbury started the season with a 5-4 loss to Virginia Wesleyan in ten innings and have won 18 games in a row. A little luck in that first game and they could also be undefeated.

The NCAA will release stats for D-III players on 1 April. With the start of April it is time to start thinking about the end of the season All-American teams. Who would you like to nominate for a D3baseball.com All American? I will be accepting nomination through the end of April before the balloting cycle starts. Just post who you think should be considered and why.

This week I want to talk about the Top 25 poll. The poll exists for several reasons. I believe that it is expected and probably more importantly, I felt the ABCA poll started too late in the season and needed to come out more than once twice a week. In cooperation with the NCWBA, voters were identified and with our preseason poll in January, the D3baseball.com.NCBWA Poll was born.

The start date was set to be the last weekend in February to capture most of a month of games in the South and West regions. By the last weekend in February, eight teams in the preseason poll had seen action. The number of teams playing have increased until this week (Week 4) where just a few teams have yet to see action due to a late spring break or a canceled game or two. I expect every team to have played a game by the end of next week.

The weekly voting starts after the games on Sunday and a short list of about 80 teams (85 are low interest payday loanno fax payday advance loan1 hour payday loan,payday loan in 1 hour,1 hour loan paydaypayday cash loanapplication loan online paydayquick payday loanpayday loan ukguaranteed no fax payday loanaccount loan payday savings,no teletrack payday loan with savings account,account loan payday people savingsadvance cash loan online paydayloan payday store,payday loan store in chicago,alabama loan payday storehassle free payday loan,free loan payday,free payday advance loanno fax payday loanadvance fax loan no paydayadvance cash loan loan paydayquick low interest payday loan,fax loan payday quick,loan payday quickfast easy payday loancash loan payday tilconsolidate payday loan debt,consolidate debt loan paydaybad credit loan payday,account bad credit loan payday savings,bad credit loan loan no payday personalpayday payday loan cash advance loan,advance cash cash loan loan payday quick,advance cash loan paydaycash til payday loanno faxing instant payday loanquick cash payday loanonline payday loan serviceeasy payday loansavings account payday loanapproval guaranteed loan paydayno checking account required payday loan,no checking account payday loan,account checking loan no paydaypayday loan best rate,best loan payday,best payday loan siteez payday loansonic payday loaninternet payday loan law,internet payday loan,internet loan paydayemergency payday loanfax loan missouri no paydayloan milwaukee payday storecalculator loan paydaypayday loan on linepayday loan canadacalgary payday loan,calgary loan paydaycanada payday loan online,loan online payday,fast online payday loanloan payday uk,payday loan uk,payday loan in the ukcash advance payday loan softwareall payday loan in canada only,canada loan payday,canada loan manitoba payday winnipegonline no fax payday loanaccount bank loan no paydaypayday loan on line,line loan payday30 day loan payday,30 day payday loanloan until paydaycash central loan payday on the current list) is sent to each voter. Essentially the weekly summary has the records of each team, the record for the week and games played against other teams on this list. Teams on the list always include those teams who have received votes and teams with good records. Occasionally a team not on the summary list will receive votes but that is rare. I hope it is that I have identified all the possible candidates.

Each voter has their own system in identifying how to rank teams. My ballot from last week is below:

1. Chapman (15-2)
2. Wooster (9-1)
3. Texas-Tyler (19-3)
4. New Jersey (9-2)
5. Cortland (5-2)
6. Salisbury (11-1)
7. Wisc-Oshkosh (3-0)
8. Carthage (3-0)
9. RPI (7-1)
10. Johns Hopkins (4-2)
11. Kean (9-3)
12. Augustana (9-2)
13. Otterbein (0-0)
14. Piedmont (16-3)
15. Trinity (Conn) (3-0)
16. Linfield (14-3)
17. Pomona-Pitzer (15-3)
18. Transylvania (9-1)
19. Ripon (8-1)
20. Redlands (14-6)
21. Christopher Newport (14-4)
22. Widener (12-2)
23. The University of the Ozarks (18-3)
24. Wesley (15-3)
25. Concordia (Ill) (9-1)

Twenty-one of my votes come from teams with a winning percentage of at least .750. Those four teams with records less than .750 include: Otterbein who is the lone team on my ballot without a game played; Cortland, Johns Hopkins, and Redlands all lost games and the more games they lost, the farther they dropped but started in the top half of the poll in Week 3. The eight teams I dropped from Week 3 were dropped also because they lost games but dropped off the top 25. Each of these teams were ranked no higher than 17th on my previous ballot. The only difference was St. Thomas. They won all their games last week but got squeezed out due to teams who I wanted to rank higher. The 25 teams I ranked are a combined 268-54 (.832)

When I actually started looking at teams to rank and I wanted to rank about 50 teams in my top 25. I was not alone in finding it difficult to reduce the list to just 25 teams. From that point I started looking for reasons not to consider a team. This gave me a shorter list but left me trying to decide which team has had the better season. I used my previous ballot as a guide since I used the same process the week before. As I moved teams up and down, I eventually came up with my list of the best 25. In just a few cases, you have games played against common teams to help guide who is ranked higher but these are not as common as one would like. I am kidding you to say that position Linfield and Pomona-Pitzer are in cannot be switched but I am comfortable in the knowledge is that this the place in the poll where I think they should appear. If I had a 26th vote, my vote would be for either St. Thomas (6-2) or Calvin (8-1).

Seven teams I ranked did not make the top 25. This is not unusual since more than half of the teams that received votes did not end in the top 25. The one thing I notice as the votes roll in, the top 25 becomes more and more stable. When the last vote is cast, there are just a few changes, if at all in the order of the top 25. The last thing to remember is that a poll is an opinion (with knowledge) and as such is an attempt to answer the question: Who is the best team? The ultimate decision on who is the best team for the season is decided where it should be – on the field.

Another week gone and by the time I come back, Everyone should have a game under their belts. I was able to listen to a few games this week, thanks to those radio stations that stream their audio on the internet. I was listening to what has to be the comeback of the year so far as Texas-Tyler came back from a 8 run deficit in the 6th to win. This is just an example of the never quit attitude of some teams. You certainly could see it in Salisbury when Montclair State has a 7-2 lead and lost the game in the 13th. NC Wesleyan scored three runs in the last of their inning on Sunday but fell one run short in a 6-5 Greensboro win.

What is happening with the homerun this season. Seth Kivett already has the 7, the same number the Methodist team hit all season. Drew Hedman, Pomona-Pitzer has hit 13, Tom Williams, Concordia and Kyle Stalker, Willamette have 11. Andrew Blomberg, Claremont-Mudd-Scripts is only second in their conference with 10. In the ASC, Derek David hit his ninth yesterday for second place. There seems to be an explosion of homeruns this year. The league lead last year was Brett Thomas with 14 and that will certainly be surpassed this season as Hedman only needs one more to tie Thomas.

Enjoy the games..and as Ernie Banks said – “It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame… Let’s play two!”.

The season is finally settling in. For a month I have been watching the southern and western team play seeing a few teams from other regions start their season. Every region now is coming to life. There has been a slew of games in the Metrodome in Minneapolis giving the Midwest and Central teams an alternative to waiting for spring break. Last week two-thirds of the teams were in action and more this week. There are a few teams that will hold out until mid March but this week is the first real action across the board this season.

With many of the conferences in play, there are POTW for many. This must mean that the NCBWA Player and Pitcher of the Week will be announced starting next week if the past is any guide.

A glance at the latest D2baseball.com/NCBWA poll shows only one team that has started to play and not have a loss. This is No. 5 Johns Hopkins who started their season yesterday with a 13-2 win. Last week was one to forget for many of the top teams. No. 16 Marietta dropped 2 to No. 22 Piedmont, giving Piedmont enough support to make the top 25. No. 11 Kean stumbled against Manhattanville who needed late inning runs to secure their their wins against the defending national champions. No. 1 Chapman was able to keep their top spot and No. 18 Redlands was able to move up after Chapman defeated Redlands twice in three games. Adrian certainly got noticed and appear in the list of having received votes based on their victories against No. 9 Emory and Piedmont. Looking through this weeks top 25, the only team that played last week and did not lose was No. 8 Texas-Tyler.

The games to watch this week are with No. 12 Wheaton (Mass). They take on No. 13 New Jersey on the 8th and then have two games against No. 3 Cortland State on the 9th and 11th. Nobody has a tougher week. In the middle of the country the key match-up is No. 24 Luther vs No. 10 Wisc-Oshkosh. The UAA tournament gets going on Monday and continues through the following Saturday (March 11-15).

I hope everyone can get out and see a baseball game. Still snow on the ground here but spring is in the air.

Our first regular season poll is out and we are working on making schedules available. Congrats to Mary Hardin-Baylor, Redlands and NC Wesleyan for appearing in the Top 25 for the first time. Come to think about it it is everyone’s first time for the regular season poll.

Pacific University in Oregon played their second tripleheader in four seasons, just the second school to have played two in their schools history. The Boxers played Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday as the two teams were forced to play after rain scrubbed a single nine-inning game that was scheduled the day before. Pacific won the first
game 5-2, but then dropped the second and third games to the Sagehens by
finals of 7-4 and 7-5. All three games were seven innings. Pacific’s other tripleheader took place on Apr. 4, 2005, when Pacific played three against Puget Sound.

Our games to watch this week has two games on the radar. The first is at No. 3 Kean where No. 9 Eastern Connecticut comes in to play the Cougars. The second, for a different reason is the game that never got played last year. Bluffton takes on Eastern Mennonite on the one year anniversary of the Bluffton bus acident.

A couple of other good early season games are played every day. Stevens plays No 3 Kean today. For a couple of up and coming teams, York and St. John Fisher square off on Thursday. Friday and Saturday No 1. Chapman takes on No. 19 Redlands. Linfield travels to No. 18 Pacific Lutheran this weekend for two key NWC games. No. 23 NC Wesleyan also has a key conference match-ups with Christopher Newport this weekend. Ozarks, off to their best start ever, will host No. 22 Mary Hardin-Baylor for a three game series starting Friday.

As I started to write this blog D3baseball.com was only 500 hits from hitting the million mark. With that total cut in half as I end my weekly report, I want to thank all those who come to read and participate in our online discussions. D3baseball.com would not exist if the fans did not support all the web sites in the D3sports.com family.

An exciting time where in the D3baseball.com’s home office. Just fresh into our second year, tonight the last regional preview gets posted, and the new weekly poll gets its start next week. Like everyone else who has snow piling up outside, listening to a game or two on the internet was a good way to spend a holiday weekend (thanks to Washington and Lincoln).

It appears that everyone in the South and West regions are playing and getting in their games. A few Mid-Atlantic and New York region teams are venturing into warmer climes to get a game or two in on the weekends. By the end of Sunday, 29 the teams who received votes in our preseason poll will have ventured on to the diamond to face a D-III foe. Eight of those teams were ranked in the Top 25.

I have neglected to give my picks for the championship round until now. I am expecting Eastern Connecticut, Cortland State, Johns Hopkins, Rhodes (yeah even with their slow start), Wooster, Illinois Wesleyan, St. Thomas and Chapman. Ever since there were automatic bids, the championship round included one team made their first appearance. Rhodes is my pick for this team in 2008. If you look at the collective wisdom of the top-25 voters, you will see a different list: Eastern Connecticut, Cortland State, Kean, Emory, Wooster, Carthage, Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Chapman. We will only know in May who is right. Who are you favoring for the final tournament of the year?

Already nearly two weeks in to the season. There are game every weekend and on most days in the southern conferences. The ODAC, USA South and SCAC all have started with the non conference schedule with the SCIAC and ASC joining in. There are a few teams like Millsaps and Texas-Tyler who are undefeated and Hendrix, who has played the most games this season has started in a big hole 0-7.

Huntingdon turns in the first no-hitter of the season and it is hard to believe that Seth Kivett of Methodist has already hit five homeruns, especially on a team that hit only 7 last year and have already matched that to date.

D3baseball.com is one today. I have to thank everyone for checking in. This has been D3sports most successful launch yet and I hope more sports sites to come. I know this site will just get better. A season behind me has me already in mid season form as the D3baseball.com staff gets new content every day. Game reports will appear in between our regional previews that with today’s New York Preview gets us half way. One more on Friday and then finishing up the following week. This will be just in time for the weekly poll by the NCBWA and D3baseball.com to start for the first time.

I hope everyone a great 2008. I am looking forward to the Championships in May and I hope to see everyone there

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?