D3baseball.com Daily Dose

Gustavus third baseman Tory Herman digs a ball out of the dirt to throw out an Ole in the third inning

I’m finally getting settled back in at the home office after covering just one game of the MIAC Championship and play-in. St. Olaf exploited every single opportunity Gustavus Adolphus gave them in their 15-6 victory. St. Olaf was supposed to face St. Thomas 30 minutes after they shuttered the Gusties’ 2008 season.

But Mother Nature showed up in the 3rd inning of the play-in and never left. Rain was expected, the start of the first game was moved from 1pm to 11am in an attempt to get both games in before the field was unplayable. However, that was not the case. MIAC Executive Director Dan McKane, Asst. Executive Director

The grounds crew tends to the home plate area following the completion of the Gustavus/St. Olaf game.

Matt Ten Haken, St. Olaf head coach Matt MacDonald and St. Thomas’ Dennis Denning met just off the third base line at 2pm. It didn’t take long for them to make the postponement official and it was no surprise to the fans in the stands — the grounds crew, comprising the head coaches from Bethel, Carleton, Augsburg and two more, had already tarped, drained and staked both the pitching mound and the home plate area.

A photographer came up to me and asked the question I have heard posed each of the last three years: What happens if they don’t get the game(s) in tomorrow? The NCAA requires that Pool A conferences submit their auto qualifier at 6pm Eastern tomorrow. Most conferences want to have their auto qualifier to come from a tournament but they are allowed to determine it in whatever manner they wish.

Dan McKane shed some light on this particular situation for me this evening explaining that all games will be 9 innings in the MIAC tournament, they have no intention of slimming either games tomorrow down to 7 innings to fit them in before the deadline. In addition to that, he added that the committee is willing to let the MIAC complete their games a bit late.

But that brings up the question of what if the field is unplayable? St. Thomas gets the AQ for the MIAC having won the regular season title with an 18-2 conference record.

Gustavus right fielder Spencer Campion makes a catch in the fifth inning

St. Olaf turned four double plays in the game.

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?

Listening to the last game of the day, it is not lost on me that this is two hours earlier than last night. The games on Thursday had all the drama that those on Wednesday provided.

I wont forget listening to the unlikely comeback for Texas Lutheran as they put six runs on the board in the ninth to take a one run lead over Pacific Lutheran only to see the game slip away when the Lutes score two of their own….and then do it again in the ninth inning to extend their game against Pomona-Pitzer, giving them time to push the winning run across in the eleventh.

I wont forget John McGraw’s D3baseball.com broadcast of the 13 inning game that Cortland State and Trinity (Conn.) played with an honest-to God pitcher’s duel.

These are some of the highlights that the World Wide Web has allowed not only I, but the many fans, supporters and parents to experience.

I hope everyone is enjoying the drama of playoff baseball as much as I and don’t forget to keep the on-line discussion going strong as we see who survives the final day before the Regional Championship games.

If you stayed up until the end of that 16-inning game between Wheaton and Curry last night, like I did, you’re probably heavy into your caffeine provider of choice by now. But to watch Curry relievers Eric Lochiatto and Cory Moore go toe to toe with a New England power was fascinating to watch.

Hopefully Curry’s gutty performance on Day 1 will be long remembered.

But even that is overshadowed by the incredible individual performance by Jordan Baitinger of Ripon. The no-hitter first came to my attention after five innings, when I was updating the Scoreboard page. I checked back in in the seventh, tuned in for the eighth, and set up John McGraw, our broadcaster for the New York regional, to do a ESPN-style live lookin for the ninth inning.

Kudos to St. Olaf’s Mike Ludwig for a great call of the game and making it available on the Net.

What’s left for Wheaton? Surprisingly, their pitching staff might be in good shape. Chris McDonough went the first seven and a third and is obviously unavailable. Josh Simmons threw the 13th-16th and faced 16 batters in his four innings. But Keith Pescosolido and Pat Martin threw just two innings each.

So we had a game that tied the longest game in NCAA playoff history and the first no-hitter since 1980.

What a night. Only hope that Day 2 can live up to Day 1. And with elimination games Mid-Atlantic, West and Central today, there should be plenty of drama.

Like yesterday, let’s keep each other up to date on what’s going on here on the Daily Dose. The door is open.

As the opening day of regionals gets underway, we know you are out there watching (on D3Cast), listening (on D3baseball.com or your local stations) and tracking (on live stats).

Got a note to share, an observation, a comment? Bring it here, share with the group.

First note from New York, the rain is still coming down and they are hoping to start the 10 a.m. game at noon. I’ve got D3Cast’s broadcast from New England on my screen … though of course, I’m also at work today, and I have a fair amount of actual work today.

Join the commentary.

We don’t have a live audio page set up yet but Division III baseball broadcasts are starting up already, and Occidental has a live audio broadcast on Saturday as La Verne travels to Occidental.

It’s a 1:30 PST start, 4:30 Eastern. Both teams are well out of the gate with eight games under their belt: Occidental comes in at 6-2, 3-1 SCIAC while La Verne is 2-6, 1-0.

On the call is Craig Dunkin, who spent three years calling minor league baseball, including the Class A Yakima Bears. He’s better known in Division III circles, however, as the voice of Occidental football and basketball. And better known in D3sports.com circles as a guy who sounds like me on the air.

Anyway, if readers have other links to games, feel free to post them here in the comments.

Chapman defeated McMurry last night, 13-7, scoring in all innings but the seventh and getting seven strong innings from 2006 All-American Devin Drag.

I will be traveling to Abilene this afternoon for the doubleheader.