By Jim Dixon
D3baseball.com
A weekend of Regional action did not disappoint. Eleven top seeds made it through to this round with three playing in the final game. Nine hosts also earned a spot this coming weekend as well. While four teams made it through the regional round who were seed last in their regional, none have the tag of Cinderalla. The most surprising of these four was Adrian. Lynchburg, Birmingham-Southern and La Verne have history of playing championship caliber baseball but share times this where struggled on the field at some point this season and are now peaking just when it counts.
Like last year, the adage that good pitching stops good hitting, and visa-versa held. Fourteen shutouts, up from nine last year, were spun last weekend. Just when you thought pitching was getting short, most occurred on Sunday with all teams using their third, fourth starter of the weekend. On the hitting side, teams reached the 10 run mark just 43 times in the four day tournament, including a half dozen games where both teams put up double digit runs. UW-La Crosse accounted for half of these games, playing just one game where neither team hit the 10 run mark. Rain did make its appearance but most teams were able to keep on schedule.
Seven teams that played in Cedar Rapids last year are still in contention, including the defending National Champion, Lynchburg Hornets. Only Baldwin Wallace has already been eliminated in the regional round. Another 2023 team will not make it as Endicott and Johns Hopkins play each other this weekend. If the favorites win this coming weekend, we can see half the 2023 field try their luck in Eastlake, Ohio. There are three teams that will be making a bid for their first World Series appearance. They are Denison, Pomona-Pitzer and Salve Regina. Since the NCAA moved to the current playoff format, where the established conferences get an auto bid, there has been a rookie team in the final round every year. This looks to continue if one of the three rooks can win two games this weekend.
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| Endicott enters the super regional round with a 44-2 record and the number one ranking. The Gulls won three games last weekend by an average margin of four runs. Their opponent this coming weekend, Johns Hopkins, destroyed their competition by an average of 12+ runs/game. Endicott athletics photo |
Ashland super regional
Adrian at No. 24 Randolph-Macon
The OAC has no teams, nor the NJAC in the super regional round. The ODAC (along with the SCIAC, C2C, and WIAC) has two teams in the super regional round and Randolph-Macon is one of them. The Yellow Jackets made the most of their at-large selection joining Lynchburg in the super regional round. They will host one of three unranked teams in Adrian. It might be hard to identify who is rooting for whom as both teams sport yellow and black uniforms - excuse me, lemon for RMC and gold for Adrian. If we had a dark horse entry or call a team a Cinderella, it would be Adrian. They needed a MIAA tournament win and then to survive a regional that many expected No. 3 Baldwin Wallace to win. The Bulldogs never did face the host Yellow Jackets in the regional but will get their chance this weekend, needing two wins against a different 'Jackets team to get back to the the World Series.
Beverly super regional
No. 6 Johns Hopkins at No. 1 Endicott
The good news for No. 1 Endicott is that they have taken Johns Hopkins away from their homer happy home stadium. A year away from setting a record number of home runs, they showed that the long ball is still part of their offense in the regional. We can guarantee that out of this regional, there will be a team from the 2023 DIII World Series as both played last year. Last year Johns Hopkins was the top ranked team at this point in the season and Endicott was in the top 10. The tables are turned and this year, Endicott is the No. 1 team in the nation ans JHU is just a few spots behind. The sentimental favorite are the Blue Jays as long-term head coach Bob Babb is looking for that elusive national championship after finishing second last year with the same line up he brings into Beverly.
Granville super regional
Birmingham-Southern at No. 2 Denison
Denison has been knocking on the door for many years and this seems to be their year. They swept through the regional they hosted and are winnwers of 12 of their last 13 games. We will not be giving the crown just yet to the Big Red as they have to play against a Birmingham Southern team that is playing to give their head coach, Jan Weisberg something to cap his career with the Panthers. The doors back in Birmingham are closing this weekend and this team is giving the school a well deserved last act. One little factoid is that neither team hosted their end of the season tournament. While Denison had an identical record to Wittenberg, it was the Tigers with the tie breaker. For BSC, it was Centre that dominated the SAA this year but did not make it past the regional round.
La Verne super regional
Lynchburg at No. 16 La Verne
Get ready to cash in those frequent flyer miles. Lynchburg had a 6 hour drive to Case Western and their reward is a cross-county flight to La Verne. All this to defend the title they won almost a year ago as Cedar Rapids was closing out their hosting duties for the DIII World Series. La Verne also has time in the air with a round trip to San Antonio. No matter who wins, the team will get back on a plane and head to Cleveland Hopkins International. If the Hornets are to return to the DIII World Series, they will have to rely on their pitching and defense. La Verne on the other hand proved that they can not only win with the bats as they did in two slugfests but also prevail when scoring is at a minimum. Whoever pitches the best will continue their season for another week.
Marshall super regional
No. 12 Pomona-Pitzer at No. 4 East Texas Baptist
If the past is a key to the present, all you have to do is look back in February when Pomona-Pitzer played East Texas Baptist in a three game series on the same field. The Sagehens won that series 2-1 and if they do this again, they will be headed to the DIII World Series for the first time. East Texas Baptist will be looking to book the end of the Pomona-Pitzer season with two losses and make the Series for the second time in as many years. In an ironic twist, the SCIAC team that was playing in Texas, La Verne, will head back to Southern California to host their super-regional and the team playing in Southern California finds themselves headed to Texas this weekend.
Newport News super regional
No. 11 Misericordia at No. 10 Christopher Newport
Christopher Newport was the final team in. They needed to go to their top pitcher to close out a win as it looked like N.C. Wesleyan would get an improbable comeback but left the go-ahead runner on base. They welcome another pesky team in Misericordia in what looks like one of the closest contest in the upcoming weekend - if you follow the polls or the RPI stat. Misericordia caused misery all weekend to their guests. If they want to make it two trips in a row, they will need to get past the Captains on their home field.
Salisbury super regional
No. 8 Salve Regina at No. 9 Salisbury
Salisbury is the most experienced team with more World Series appearances since the start of the World Series in 1976 (12-14) and also since the pandemic year of 2020 (9-4). The Sea Gulls will be looking for their fourth straight appearance, the first team to do so since UW-Oshkosh accomplished the feat with their 1996 appearance. If they do, Benji Thalheimer will become the 23rd player to play in four different World Series. In the other dugout is Salve Regina who is looking to start their own streak with appearance number one. While big pieces of the past Sea Gull teams are starting in the D-I ranks, Salisbury has plenty of offense and pitching to make the trip one more time.
Whitewater super regional
No. 15 UW-La Crosse at No. 5 UW-Whitewater
UW-Whitewater is the favorite to come out of the region for their 8th appearance in the DIII World Series and first since 2016. The Warhawks missed the Cedar Rapids era and will be looking forward to make their mark in Eastlake, Ohio. Job one is containing a UW-La Cross offense that scored at least nine runs in each of their games in the regional they hosted at Copeland Park. UW-Whitewater did just that as they went 4-1 this year against the Eagles.