UTTyler seems to be having a down year this season.  Their pitching seems extremely weak this year.

I dont know why they were voted to repeat as East champs.

Very true.  I am not a huge fan of the automatic bid from conference tournaments.  I would like to put more emphasis on winning the regular season title, but tournaments has always been the way it has gone.  There is a similar situation in NCAA basketball where teams who are bubble teams all year (or sometimes not even considered) get in the tourney via winning the conference tournament.

But, changing the automatic bids does not really solve anything.  Expanding the field might solve a little, but in 10 years will people argue that deserving teams got left out?  Probably.  I am in favor of the 64 team field and regional/super regional setup that D1 and D2 have.  I guess an arguement could be made that there arent enough D3 teams, but 64 seems to be the magic number.

Quote from: RSSmith on May 04, 2009, 08:15:37 PM

Quote from: Blackcat00 on May 04, 2009, 03:56:42 PM
Whats that have to do with anything. Year end and out there are teams that are left out in the ASC when John HOpkins school of the Blind are thrown in as at large bids and are 2 and que. Just putting in my two cents. And Concordia lost to Eastern Connecticut state who was ranked #2 the entire year and not an at large bid.

I'm sorry, I've only been following Hopkins for the last ten years.  Can you please tell me when they failed to win a game in the post-season?

When they get sent to the West Regional??   haha, im just kidding.   

I was about to point out the head to head matchups of Millsaps and MC, but you beat me to it.  Actually, Millsaps was suppose to play in UTT's round robin tourney at the beginning of the season.  They backed out and Concordia was called in to fill the gap.  Would have been a fun first weekend with Millsaps and UTT squaring off against each other.

It is possible that Millsaps recieves a pool C bid to the southern regional...travel kinda dictates that to be a good move.  If anyone in the west recieves a pool C it will likely be a pacific coast team because of the location of the tourney.

I agree that MC evolved this season into a very good team and would be a good addition to any regional tournament, but their early season stumbles washed away their chances of that happening.

Frankly, it is hard to judge northeast teams vs southern or western teams because the northern schools are not able to get on the field and practice/play year-round like most of the southern and western schools can.

The way the regionals are set up, everything has to do with population density.  There are far more D3 schools in the north and northeast than there are in the southwest and west areas.  Therefore, the higher density regions get more bids.  I have my issues with this setup just like many other posters do, but there really isnt any other reasonable way around it.

The elite teams from the northern areas end up being on par with the southern and western schools when the final tournament rolls around.  The biggest problem we face is that there are so many VERY good teams in the west region compared to school density (a higher percent of the teams in the west are highly competitive vs the northern regions).  Unfortunately, only 1 representative from the west will go to the final tourney (unless one of the west schools recieves a rare at-large bid to a different regional and wins).

I would love to see the west region being broken up into a pacific and south west region...but there just arent enough D3 schools to make it happen.  I think Ralph broke down the numbers earlier.  Wish some of the NAIA schools or D2 schools would just drop down and make it easier    .

UT Tyler took the voters out of the equation by plating 7 runs with 2 outs in the 9th inning to win 8-5 and take the ASC crown tonight.

Possibilities of any other ASC team recieving an atlarge bid are very slim.

Quote from: Ralph Turner on May 04, 2009, 01:46:32 AM
No Pool C bids for the ASC.  They only remote chance was for UTT.  Now my money for a West Region Pool C bid goes to the NWC runner-up.

Congrats to UTT!

I agree with you there....very tough way to end the season for MC.

Amazing game!!

I wish I could have been there.  Congrats to UTT on winning the ASC title for the first time.

UTT scored 7 runs with 2 outs in the 9th to turn a 1-4 deficit into a 8-4 lead.  Ziegler obviously was pitching on fumes tonight and simply ran out of stuff in the bottom half.  Holland came into relieve Ziegler with no outs and runners on first and second in an 8-5 game, and got the next two batters to ground out.  The last play was a double play to end the game and the tournament.

Incredible job by both MC and UTT in this last game.  The 3rd and final game the teams played in the tourney against each other lived up to what I had expected between these two.  I thought that MC and UTT were pretty evenly matched, but 15-4 and 16-2 scores in the first two games told a different story.

UTT locks up the automatic bid and their first trip to the regional tournament.  I do not know if any other teams from conference will get a bid.  MC and TLU have the best shots at one...I think if anyone gets a pool C bid it will be MC because they might get an invite to the Southern Regional.  It will be tough tho, especially since Millsaps will likely get an at large bid also.

Great end to a very competitive and well played conference season.  Once again congrats to UTT and Coach Vilade for winning the tournament and the conference title.  Vilade finally got that monkey off his back.  Now it is time to evaluate all the injuries UTT has and see if anything is left in the tank for the next round.

Good win tonight for UTT.  Showed some guts coming back and winning.

@d3baseballnut  -  Im not ripping on UTT in any way.  In fact, I am a UTT alum.  I am trying to be as honest about the situation as I can be.  They have not been playing their best recently, and have had some key losses.  The point I was trying to make earlier was that I think they gave up vs MC earlier today.  Championship teams do not give up.  Now, they came back and showed heart against UTD, so thats great.  They will likely get in the Regional Tourney now that they reached the final day.....the only thing that will keep them out IMO is if they come out and lay down again.

Pretty bad loss there for the Patriots.....I doubt many pool C teams get run ruled.

Well I was completely wrong again.  I thought TLU would come out and bully UTD after what MC did to the Comets, but it did not turn out that way.  UTD won 10-7 in 10innings.

This eliminates TLU and guarantees an ASC champion from the East side for the first time in a long time.

UTD does not have the arms to win out from the losers bracket, but their lineup is dangerous.  If their bats get hot and stay hot, they very well could slug their way to the championship.

Quote from: CUAfan on May 01, 2009, 11:31:39 PM

Quote from: Just_Some_Guy on May 01, 2009, 05:55:50 PM
I think there .969 Fielding percentage, indicates they RARELY play poor defense DP.

Defense isn't not messing up once you get to the ball; defense is turning balls in play into outs. Fielding percentage doesn't measure that. It just measures how often a team/player messes up when they do manage to get to the ball. This is how everyone in the conference measures up by defensive efficiency (the rate at which they turn balls in play into outs).

Team - Defensive Efficiency
1. Texas Lutheran - .637
2. Texas-Tyler - .634
3. Mississippi College - .621
4. Mary Hardin-Baylor - .621
5. McMurry - .617
6. LeTourneau - .605
7. Texas-Dallas - .603
8. Louisiana College - .597
9. Hardin-Simmons - .590
10. Concordia-Texas - .588
11. Ozarks - .586
12. Schreiner - .583
13. East Texas Baptist - .568
14. Sul Ross State - .559
15. Howard Payne - .547

So, yeah, Texas-Tyler is a really good defensive team compared to the rest of the conference, but not because they only mess up 3.1% of the time when they get to the ball. It's because they turn 63.4% of all balls in play into outs.

Very interesting stats.  Look at the top teams in that category, then look at the top 8 teams in conference.  Some notable similarities.

I dont know who MC will throw vs UTT.  Seaman is the obvious choice because he has thrown well all season except for a couple games....one of those games was a 10-0 win by UTT in which Booher pitched for UTT.  I wouldnt say MC has confidence in putting runs up against Booher, but I would say that they have confidence in Seaman.  Hell, he has thrown 2 no-hitters this season.

I was not aware of the injury situation at UTT.  That is very unfortunate indeed.  I know that Towns had a knee problem a couple years ago, and that kept him out of an entire season.  Hopefully neither of the injuries are severe.

When I commented on Vilade's decision making, I simply put myself into his shoes (tho I didnt know about the injuries obviously).  I know I would have been chomping at the bit to get some drive and passion out of my team.  After losing a huge series vs MC 2 weeks ago, then having to come back from behind to win the McM series, I would have been throwing a fit watching my team play so poorly.  6 errors!!!??  And some stupid base running?   I would have blown up and replaced everyone in the lineup.

Luckily, Holland is a great pitcher and kept the team in the game.  And, I have to give it to Rozell.  He shook off a couple poor outings and threw clutch innings tonight.

The UTT-MC game will probably be close.  Just like the UTT-TLU game.  I have a feeling TLU is going to blow out UTD, and then have some serious momentum going into their 3rd game, so the loser of the UTT-MC game might be in trouble.

This tourney is turing out to be very entertaining indeed.   

If I have a shutdown guy that can come in and stop the bleeding for an inning, you better believe I put him in in the 9th.  No doubt that Macklin could have thrown 1 inning and been completely fine the next day.  Even if he throws alot of pitches (30 or so), thats nothing more than a good bullpen session.  Would not affect him the next day at all.

However, if the 9th finished tied, you probably have to bring in a different pitcher and put Macklin back in the field.  Dont want to completely burn your #2 starter on the first day...but one inning would not do that. 

As far as the pinch running substitutions early, you might contribute some coaching nervs with that.  Vilade has never won a conference tourney, and the Patriots were playing like garbage early in this game.  I have  feeling he was making subs in part because he wanted to get something started within his team.....and the other part was that he probably was hammering the panic button.  Haha, I dont blame him tho.  The winner of that game is in a much better situation than the loser.

Hopefully the errors were just some jitters for the Patriots.  They have been playing soundly all season long, now is NOT the time to lose focus.

I saw that Hendrix won the SCAC title this last weekend.  Millsaps will likely get an atlarge bid.  I am not sure what region they would get the atlarge from though.  I guess they could end up in the south or west, but that just means there are less atlarges out there to grab.  I still think UTT needs to win the tourney or atleast reach the championship game to get in.  Everyone else needs to win it in order to advance.