| Will we see a repeat of 2013
or will someone else do the traditional dogpile? d3photography.com photo by Larry Radloff |
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By Jim Dixon
D3sports.com
The field is set and on Friday eight teams will meet to decide a national championship on the field of Fox Cities Stadium. D3baseball.com will be there to record the action in words and pictures.
This is one of the strongest fields since D3baseball.com has covered the championship round with five of the eight teams in ranked in the first ten spots of the D3baseball.com Top 25. Two more are ranked. Baldwin Wallace, which received votes in the final regular season poll, is the only unranked team.
Favorite: Linfield
The Wildcats have all the elements of a champion. They play good defense, hit the ball and pitch very well. They also have a coaching staff that are proven winners, proven on the same field a year ago when Linfield won its first D-III World Series.
It will not be easy as they open the 15-game series with St. Thomas. The ace in the hole for Linfield is that they have the 2014 West Region Pitcher of the Year in Chris Haddeland to start the series. Following Haddeland is First team All-West pitcher, Aaron Thomassen. There are no guarantees but this gives the Wildcats some pretty good cards on the table. Haddeland last started in the West Regional opener vs. LeTourneau on May 14 and threw two innings of relief on May 17, meaning he will come into the game May 23 with plenty of rest.
Most likely to disappoint: UW-Whitewater
UW-Whitewater shares with St. Thomas the shortest trip from campus to the World Series and the Warhawks will have plenty of fan support, especially opening with the late game on Friday. Unfortunately, Southern Maine will be their opponent. The Huskies nearly took down Linfield in 2013 without their best pitcher and the 2013 D3baseball.com Player of the Year in a slump.
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UW-Whitewater showed some chinks in the armor when they led off the WIAC championship with a dog fight with fourth seed UW-Stout winning 15-14, needing four runs in the ninth to extend the game. If Whitewater can get a good start in the series, it will not be the players and fans in purple who will be disappointed but D3baseball.com for making the wrong prediction.
Dark Horse: Salisbury
Salisbury quietly have set up a record of excellence as one of
five teams with an appearance in the playoffs in each of the last
eight years. The Sea Gulls are as good of a lock to make the
playoffs every year and this record is a tribute to head coach Doug
Fleetwood. It is for their coach that Salisbury will be playing
with additional motivation as this will be the last World Series
for him. Earlier Fleetwood announced that he will be stepping down
to devote more time to the Sea Gull football program, where he is
an assistant coach. Expect the Salisbury to make a serious run at
the 2014 title.
Cinderella: Baldwin Wallace
History has proven that the hardest thing to do is to win a national championship in your first appearance. George Fox did it in 2004, Kean did it in 2007, but for every run made at a national championship, the road if full of 0-2 performances. The Yellow Jackets will be tough competition and every year for the last three, have set or tied program records for wins in a season. Any team that takes Baldwin Wallace lightly will more than likely find themselves in the elimination bracket or out of the series.
The rest of the field
St. Thomas' chances will depend on their pitching staff and key to this will be the pitching of Steve Maher. Maher is two years away from his Midwest Pitcher of the Year accolades, and the last two years have not been to him. If Maher pitches like he has shown, the Tommies will be a team to contend with, especially since his spot in the rotation comes mid-series, where pitching starts to get thin. On the offensive side, the Tommies will need to replace the MIAC player of the Year, Tyler Peterson, who sat out the regional with an injury. In the regional, St. Thomas proved this was not a problem scoring early in some games and coming back with big innings in comeback wins.
Emory is back in the D-III World Series for the first time since 2007, when the Eagles made the title game. The strength of the team is its outfield play where Emory one of the best outfield tandem (Brandon Hannon, Wes Peacock, Daniel Iturrey) in D-III baseball. There is a lot of space in the outfield at Fox Cities Stadium and turning hits into outs will be key in making a deep run in the series. When Emory gets a base runner, don't expect them to stay there long as they stole 119 so far this season, good for 15th in the nation.
Cortland State first came to the D-III World Series in 1995 and have been a favorite every year to return. In their 12th World Series, the coaching staff knows the area as well as any team coming to Appleton. Coach Joe Brown brings a quality team and expect nothing less. Brandon McClain shook off a minor injury in the regional opener to pitch a two-hit complete game in the championship game. Add in Brandon Serio and you have a pitching duo that rivals the best in D-III.
We could very easily see the same matchup this year as in the 2013 championship game. Southern Maine returns with a team that is healthier than 2013. Logan Carman tried to pitch in 2013 and when he was unable to pitch, it was an achievement for the Huskies to finish second with their ace sitting out the championship round. Carman is in prime form and USM has plenty of pitching depth if they fall into the elimination bracket to play on the final day.
Players to watch
DH PJ Rinaldi, Cortland State (.397, 25 R, 46 H, 9 2B, 2 HR, 28
RBI)
C Jake Wylie, Linfield (.348, 25 R, 39 H, 11 2B, 8 HR, 34 RBI)
1B Quinn Griffith, Salisbury (.405, 41 R, 64 H, 7 2B, 3 HR, 34
RBI)
2B Mark Zimmermann, Baldwin Wallace (.379, 49 R, 77 H, 14 2B, 3
HR, 44 RBI)
SS Sam Dexter, Southern Maine (.393, 45 R, 77 H, 12 2B, 2 HR, 32
RBI)
3B Brad Gugliotta, Baldwin Wallace (.379, 58 R, 77 H, 15 2B, 1 HR,
31 RBI
OF Brandon Hannon, Emory (.388, 61 R, 61 H, 7 2B, 27 RBI, 23
SB)
OF Daniel Iturrey, Emory (.377, 39P, 63 H, 8 2B, 1 HR, 44 RBI, 13
SB)
OF Dylan Friend, UW-Whitewater (.380, 52 R, 65 H, 15 2B, 8 HR, 42
RBI, 11 SB)
SP Logan Carman, Southern Maine (4-1, 1.71, 1 CG, 15 BB, 18 K, 42
IP)
SP Brandon McClain, Cortland State (10-1, 1.50, 2 CG, 21 BB,
70 K, 84 IP)
SP Conner Dillman, Emory (9-1, 2.29, 2 CG, 35 BB, 73 K, 78.2
IP)
SP Brett Collacchi, Salisbury (11-1, 2.50, 2 CG, 23 BB, 57 K, 82.2
IP)
SP Chris Haddeland, Linfield (11-1, 0.97, 7 CG, 27 BB, 79 K, 111
IP)
RP Austin Jones, UW-Whitewater (6-1, 2.19, 2 SV, 12 BB, 24 K, .186
b/avg, 37 IP)