Killing us not to be there, but    Go Captains Go!!!    Don't even let SU leave the USAS winning a regional title on your field...but what a great and fun rivalry!        I hope these two keep scheduling each other, but the future USAS has lost a wonderful annual competition.  Kudos to both programs for getting and staying at a national level...but come on Captains, beat 'em!

A little late but Wordsmith's analysis is not exactly correct. While some schools do "package" players, most prefer to send players in groups so there will be some familiarity being so far from home. Nothing wrong with that. D III's are getting accepted in better leagues with greater regularity as time goes by. I'm the GM of a team and we had an All American D III outfielder who hit over .320, with several outfield assists, and certainly showed well in the VBL. When my sons played in the VBL a few years ago, D III's were rare. Last summer there were more than 20 in the league and this summer I suspect there will be more than 25.  Talent can be found all over the place-we have a RHP coming from a small Christian college...that throws 93-94.   A lot depends upon the work put in by the college coaches to place their kids-some schools really work to place  their guys, some do nothing, and everything in between.  It is becoming a recruiting tool to point out where a school sends its players in the summer.

Hokieone will be there!   

Okay, as it appears CNU will be coming in before too long, I'll post this to get the cobwebs and dust off...and yes, CNU, Salisbury, York, Mary Washington, and Frostburg have the makings of the core of a very competitive baseball league!  Go Captains!

Wow, this will change: there hasn't been a post on the CAC web site in almost 2 years...

I'd have preferred to see CNU in the ODAC , but it will be a big dog wherever it goes, in all sports.

Good luck to our CNU Captains opening the season today with a ton of "Great Expectations"!  Funny how when you have a son playing, a three hour drive is nothing...  one pitch at a time guys and have a blast-it's still a game! 

It's on the calendar-Mr. and Mrs. Hokieone will indeed be there...and we hope to get to a couple home games in Newport News. We miss seeing everyone...and Cheddars too.  

     Some nice performances in the Valley League this summer by some CNU Captains: Connor Madden  hits .316 with 7 outfield assists for the Strasburg Express and Matt Shoemaker hits  .356 with Covington, and still going strong in  the post season semi-finals. Steven Keener hit .263., not bad at all and Jacob Vaughan had a 1.98 ERA in 13 innings, also for Covington.  Matt Verdillo pitched well for the Strasburg Express with 13 appearances, but suffered the sometimes plight of a reliever-one ugly outing blew up his ERA.

   Good summer work by the Captains.

   It's been  refreshing to see a number of D III players in the VBL this summer; as recently as 3 years ago there were less than 5 in the whole league.

  Some others: Jordan Walton of Randolph Macon has just blistered the ball for Waynesboro, hitting .364 in 43 games with 31 RBI's (and made the All Star team). Shenandoah has a few players in the league as well, with Cory Nelson hitting .285 for Winchester, Kyle Scallion having 3 saves and a 3.10 ERA for Front Royal, and Keeton Neeb hitting .257 for Winchester. Trey Such of Methodist (Strasburg Express)got his bat untracked late in the season but still managed a .387 OBA  Jesse Meier of Birmingham Southern finished with a 2-1 record and a 3.66 ERA, also for the Express. Meier was lights out in his last 3 starts and led the team in innings pitched with 39.1.     

      Lots of USA South guys in the Valley League this summer. Some CNU guys:  Steven Keener IF(Covington), Matt Verdillo P(Strasburg), Connor Madden OF (Strasburg), Jacob Vaughn P (Covington). Keener is hitting .300 after 5 games, Madden is hititng .500 after 5 games, but has missed 3 with a hamstring tweak-he should be back in action by early next week.

  Shenandoah has guys in Winchester (Neeb and Nelson) and Front Royal (Claudio, Scallion), and Randolph Macon has a couple in Waynesboro (Walton, Weymouth).

   There are probably others.

   Nice to see the D III's getting spots in the VBL!

    A bit off subject, but pertinent nonetheless:   I'm a CNU Parent and went to almost every game they played for 6 years. CNU25 pretty well described the rivalries and early on, SU wasn't really a factor, just someone you sure didn't want to lose to for embarrassment's sake. They have come a long long way and deserve a ton of credit, and Anderson is one of the best game coaches I've seen-he gets the most out of his guys and in the past 3-4 years is drawing in some very good talent. I would never have imagined that was possible at SU as the facilities weren't much and school was known for its music programs, not its sports, but SU's baseball program is a bright light and deserves much credit (and more funding ).  And SU as a school is improving by leaps and bounds as well. It won't rank in the top academic schools in Virginia right now, but it's heading up and Rome wasn't built in a day.

  As for fans:  over my 6 years of CNU games, the clearly favorite rival was NCWC. The on field rivalry was intense, but off the field, a lot of the players were friends, they even hung out together at the USAS tournament, and the NCWC fans were just delightful. They'd root their guys on just as loud and faithfully as SU's...well, just as faithfully, maybe not as loud...but the fans of the two schools developed friendships as well. We looked forward to either going to Rocky Mount or having them visit as we enjoyed shooting the breeze with them. There was never any ugliness.     We had some classic on field battles with them, all the more memorable because we genuinely liked their fans too.  If they weren't playing CNU, we pulled for them too.

  I don't know exactly how the CNU-SU rivalry turned ugly. Certainly on the field, they've played some wonderfully competitive games over the past 3 seasons, and it feels like SU is the biggest rival...but certainly not the "favorite".  SU's fans are very faithful, very supportive, and they travel exceptionally well.  If you listen to what they say, it's not vulgar or ugly, not obscene, they just root for their guys.  Not a  thing wrong with that.   While  they may have a fan or two that just seems annoying-you find those sometimes, clean but just for some reason annoying- it's not like that's the only annoying fan in the USAS-every school has one or two of those from time to time.   And while I missed the USAS Tournament this year, I heard nothing but good things from some parents about the SU crowd-one guy said, "Heck, if it wasn't SU, I could almost like them."  Kinda funny...

  So, SU, now 2-0 in the NCAA regional, has regained the bragging rights for this year, however much further they go, and they get to hold those rights until 2012.   CNU baseball will likely always be top notch-they have beautiful DI quality facilities, the school is highly rated academically (now #3 in Virginia among ALL schools for average GPA/SAT entering frosh), it's located in a baseball hotbed, Tidewater, a very personable and successful well-regarded head coach, and not insignificantly, the in state tuition is reasonably priced as it's a state school.  SU could be at the threshold of long record of outstanding baseball-excellent coach, successful program, the school improves yearly, new academic buildings have gone up, and the baseball facilities have improved...but these guys do deserve their own field.       So kudos to SU, they've earned them, and maybe over time, the rivalry will grow a bit "friendlier".  

  A D III college player from New York told me he followed CNU and SU all year as it was "just so cool that two rivals in the same conference could be so highly ranked". Interesting perspective.

 Good luck to the Hornets, and maybe the day will come in the future where all of the rival fans of both schools really mean that.

Congrats to RMC and Coach Ray Hedrick!    This program is just going to get better and better..

No surprise here-CNU goes to #1, getting every first place vote.

   Nice for the scrap books, but it amounts to a big bull's eye. Much work to be done to be able to battle through the Regionals. And of course. Let's hope Methodist can join CNU and SU.....

Yabba Dabba do! Atta baby Captains!     So now  CNU and SU have played each other 4 times  this year, and probably more in the regional. 9 times in 2 years and counting...

HS note for D-bat: Clarke actually has some talent, just hadn't played well. Smoot  isn't much of a stick but plays a college caliber defensive shortstop,and the Clarke  CF is excellent-he saved 3-4 runs  with some outstanding defensive play.   Strasburg's coaches had mentioned Clarke was better than their record; they beat Mason the night before.  (small roster:they suit up 11 players.)

Back to college: Go Captains!

    Wow, just finished a  Little League  opening day, got to the office  to do some work and thought I'd read the comments on CNU's victory over SU...but my how quiet it is....

   I love the squeeze bunt in the 9th. CNU used that a couple tournaments ago and it backfired, but when it works, almost impossible to defend.

   One to go for the Captains, and SU is obviously capable of pulling off the comeback. We have a reverse of last year where CNU had to come back to force a title game, and did, but lost.  I thought the inordinate delay before the last game wasn't helpful to CNU last year-SU had some hanging heads after losing the first game, but with the long delay before the title game, and an apparently pretty good pep talk from you-know-who, SU righted their ship...and won the rings. 

   SU-CNU games have turned into the Yankees-Red Sox of D III.  Very impressive baseball.

  Go Captains!