By Ralph Turner for D3baseball.com
| Whitworth is the only team
that will be driving to the fly-in regional. Whitworth athletics photo |
For all of the pre-selection consternation that was expressed on the West Region message boards, the McMinnville Regional can be summed up , “the NCAA did it right”. All five flights that the NCAA is buying lead to Oregon. There are 5 Pool A’s and one Pool C bid coming to this regional. Host Linfield (West Region rank #5) was “twittered” as one of the teams, which brought an intense 10-plus page discussion on the West Region boards on the various calculations used by the NCAA. (We learned the mathematical value of the Cal Tech effect.)
In 2012, the West seems to be “down”, at least by Top 25 placeholders. No. 12 Concordia (Texas) won the ASC-West and then swept the ASC tourney during the final weekend to return to the Playoffs after a 2-2 West Region performance last season. The 2002 Tornados are the only ASC team to go to Appleton. No. 15 Trinity (Texas) saw its #2 arm, Ryan Lucero, go down in April. That took some wind out of the sails of a team that was looking to win the SCAC (SCAC). They repeat as a West Region contender, getting a Pool C bid after going 1-2 in the SCAC tournament. Whitworth Pirates won a co-title in the NWC with Pacific, and earned the automatic qualifier by winning the season series, 2 games to one, over the Boxers. This is Whitworth’s first trip to the post-season since 1992, back in the NAIA days. Fourth seed La Verne won the SCIAC bid by winning the regular season title. This was Leopards’ head coach Scott Winterburn’s first SCIAC title since 2008. Coe is the #5 seed. The Kohawks finished second to Central College in the regular season but swept the IIAC tournament to get to Oregon. Last season, they went 0-2 in the Central Region. With the exception of St John’s back in 1997, Coe has not faced any of the other teams in the McMinnville Regional. This will be Coe’s fifth appearance in an NCAA Regional. It should be lots of fun. Johnnie fans keep one eye on the happenings in McMinnville every fall, so the Johnnie trip to McMinnville in May catches the eye of the D-III sports fan. St. John’s knocked out rival MIAC St. Thomas to earn its third trip to the NCAA and its first since 1998.
West Regional Schedule
Wednesday, May 16
G
Time
Participants
1 12:00 pm
Concordia (Texas) (36-9) vs. St. Johns's (29-14)
2 3:00
pm Trinity (Texas) (34-10) vs.
Coe (27-15
3 7:00
pm Whitworth (26-13-1) vs. La
Verne (25-14)
Thursday, May 17
4 12:00 pm Loser
of game 1 vs. Loser of game 2
5 3:00
pm Winner of game 1 vs. loser
of game 3
6 7:00
pm Winner of game 1 vs. Winner
of game
3
Friday, May 18
7 12:00 pm Winner
of game 5 vs. Winner of game 6
8 3:00
pm Winner of game 4 vs. loser
of game 6
9 7:00
pm Winner of game 8 vs. loser
of game 7
Saturday, May 19
10 12:00 pm Winner of game 7
vs. Winner of game 9
11 3:30 pm Winner
of game 10 vs. loser of game 10 (if necessary)
Favorite: Concordia-Texas head coach (and former Major League Pitcher) Tommy Boggs won the ASC with pitching and defense. That formula sounds good for the Regional.
Most likely to disappoint: All of the West Region teams that had hopes of playing in Linfield, including Linfield. Other disappointed teams in the West Region include NWC co-champ Pacific, Pomona-Pitzer, and a trio from the ASC: University of Texas-Tyler, Texas Lutheran, University of Texas-Dallas (which was regionally ranked in the first week).
Players to watch:
C Collin Janssen, Concordia (Texas) (.329 AVE, 36 R, 16 2B, 5 HR,
34 RBI, 84 TB, .992 FLD)
SP Ben Klimesh, Trinity (Texas) (12-2, 1.75 ERA, 97.2 IP, 67
H, 35 BB, 142 K, .192 OBA)
IF/OF Tyler Pfeffer, Whitworth (.393 AVE, 44 R, 17 2B, 11 HR, 54
RBI, 122 TB, 7 SB)
OF Jacob Ludvik, La Verne (.405 AVE, 43 R, 17 2B, 3 HR, 36 RBI, 94
TB, 8 SB)
OF Nick Stein, Coe (.370 AVE, 41 R, 10 2B, 7 HR, 33 RBI, 91 TB, 17
SB)
RP Joey Long, St John’s (1-0, 2.2 ERA, 10 SV, 24.1 IP, 15 H,
7 BB, 24 K, .174 OBA)