BB: ASC: American Southwest Conference

[Ralph Turner]

I didn't see that in the article, I thought his comments were professional. Nothing wrong with a local article touting your qualifications for the job.

The article states.... "Phelps deserves the hire just on merit, but if he were not given the job, the university may regret the decision down the road. If Phelps is anywhere other than Irwin Field in February of next year, success in UT Tyler baseball could very well become a thing of the past."

It's backing the administration into a corner in a way and saying if you don't hire him you're an idiot. And that could be true, but I personally would have just declined the interview even though I knew I should have the job.

Reading it again, Stan's comments were fine. It was just a pushy story wanting to know why we haven't hired a replacement yet and that's understandable.

Coach Phelps will land on his feet regardless!

[Patriot_Pride]

That's a given. Good coaches always land on their feet. A personal friend of mine, whether or not coach Phelps gets the job, I'll support him either way.

[TexasBB]

There is a certain part of the UTT story that has not been focused on and that is why would James Vilade be prompted to leave UTT in the first place? The posiiton he is taking although involved in baseball is not n coaching at a university level - something he has done since his carreer started.  Was there a falling out at UTT with the admin? Is the admin pulling back its support for athletics in general and baseball in specific?  Those kinds of issues are what caused James to leave UD several years ago. If there is a dropping of support for sports in general or baseball in specific then that would explain the lack of a publized search committee. I doubt that is the case though given the huge invesment that doners and the university have made in the baseball and softball complexes. However the questions remain.

[TexasBB]

I want to say that the ASC representatives did a great job in the regional tournament this year. We all can be proud of the way UTT and MC played. Unfortunetly they had to play each other again in an ellimination game. Congrats to MC for haning on in a nail biting 9-8 win to move on to at least the semi-finals tomorrow. The win takes the sting out of the 12 inning loss to UTT in the ASC championship game. UTT got revenge on Chapman last night and Chapman got ellimanted today by Linfield. Finally they are not a factor.

MC and UTT could not have been more evenly matched. This year they have played each other 6 times which each team winning 3. In their last 2 games they split 1 run games going a total of 21 ininigs to what amounts to in effect as a draw. UTT won the ASC championship but MC has a shot at the regional title. Even though I am a big UTT fan I am pulling for MC tomorrow. I think they will try to use Seamon. I hope he has some gas left in the tank.

Go Choctaws!!

[golden_dome]

I want to say that the ASC representatives did a great job in the regional tournament this year. We all can be proud of the way UTT and MC played. Unfortunetly they had to play each other again in an ellimination game. Congrats to MC for haning on in a nail biting 9-8 win to move on to at least the semi-finals tomorrow. The win takes the sting out of the 12 inning loss to UTT in the ASC championship game. UTT got revenge on Chapman last night and Chapman got ellimanted today by Linfield. Finally they are not a factor.

MC and UTT could not have been more evenly matched. This year they have played each other 6 times which each team winning 3. In their last 2 games they split 1 run games going a total of 21 ininigs to what amounts to in effect as a draw. UTT won the ASC championship but MC has a shot at the regional title. Even though I am a big UTT fan I am pulling for MC tomorrow. I think they will try to use Seamon. I hope he has some gas left in the tank.

Go Choctaws!!

In a short amount of time this has definitely grown into one of the better baseball rivalries in Division III. This is my last year as the SID at Mississippi College, and this rivalry has been one of the more enjoyable parts of the job. Yesterday's game was another great one that could have gone either way, it's been fun seeing these two teams get after each other. A lot of great players on both sides the last couple of years.

I also want to add this. The Tyler program, particularly their coaches, were very classy after a very hard played game, especially hard under the circumstances with Vilade moving on and Phelps waiting. They've built a great program over there that the conference can be proud of, and that's why they attract so many kids. They have made it look easy, but after seeing the MC coaches and players fight to build their program I promise you it's not easy winning 35 games every year which Tyler has done three years in a row now. I'm not sure what the holdup is with Phelps, but it's hard to imagine an assistant could do any more to deserve a shot at the head job. I hope he gets it.

[TexasBB]

Chris,

Good luck to you in the future. Your posts have been very informative. Do not be a stranger to these boards in coming years.

[dahlby]

Chris,

Good luck in your future endeavors. Over the years I have learned why "good" SID'S
have one of the toughest jobs on campus. Being all things to all people. Not showing off a winning program too much for fear of the competition capitalizing on the clips, while supporting a "building" sport that isn't faring too well.

I've enjoyed your posts, even though I am a west coaster.

Don't forget to post once in a while and let us know how you succeed in life.

[swbaseball3]

What a great tourney for MC!  Coming out of the losers bracket is tough in in Little League.  To do it in the regions is impressive.  The ability for the pitching staff to trudge through to the finals, well, pretty awesome.

[golden_dome]

Thanks for the nice comments, I appreciate it. I'll try and drop in from time to time.

I'm sure some of you might be interested in how the ASC stacks up with the West Coast. This weekend was my first look and IMO the ASC stacks up well. This could have been the nation's toughest regional and it was not all that different from the ASC Tourney. TLU would have fit right in with a chance to beat anyone, and HSU was competitive at the ASC Tourney.

The top pitching was about the same. Rauh from Chapman (just a freshman by the way) and Larson from Linfield were both very good, but you could put their names in a hat with Tyler Seaman and Orosey. Chitwood was the most dominant closer there and Daniel Cowart was the most effective pitcher of anyone, 13 2/3 innings, 8 hits, 2 ER, 10 K's and pitched in 4 of 5 games. Colvin from Pomona was about like Hopper.

At the plate, there wasn't anybody unlike what you see in the ASC. MC actually had the most homeruns with 7 in 5 games against really good pitching, and I think we were 4th or 5th in the ASC in the regular season. The Linfield park is very short.

No question Linfield plays with a discipline you don't see in the ASC a lot, other than maybe TLU. Chapman is there too. It earned Linfield the title, good pitching and solid defense.

Those comments aren't to belittle the West Coast teams because the regional was great baseball, probably as good as any regional. But the ASC is right there except we have 3-4 of those teams because of the size of the league, yet only one makes the postseason usually with this year being an exception.

Sooner or later an ASC is going to get through, I think it will be sooner. I hope the ASC hosts a regional next year,  TLU is back, Tyler returns a lot, and despite MC losing some great seniors I'm telling you they will be better. They return a ton of pitching, 4-5 solid bats, and they are bringing in a great group. Could be a big year for the conference.

[swbaseball3]

Great write-up!  Nice to get that comparison.  It certainly confirms what everyone on this board says every week.  Have a great summer.

[Ralph Turner]

Congratulations to ETBU who beat Linfield to win the D-III softball championship.

[dp643]

Talk about loaded in softball. The East division sent 4 teams to the 6 team regional...one of which didnt even make the conference tourney.

ETBU who finished 3rd in the regular season in the ASC East wins the National championship without a loss in the national championship bracket. I think whoever came out of that regional was going to win the whole thing.

Ralph...maybe we can call that regional the "Bracket of death"....haha

[Ralph Turner]

Congratulations to the All-Americans -- Regan Dixon HSU, Bo Bell MC, and Brad Orosey TLU.

http://www.d3baseball.com/all-american/d3baseball-allamericans-2010.pdf

[Ron Boerger]

TLU president Ann Svennungsen leaving effective Monday.

[swbaseball3]

Congrats to the All-American selections.  Can you imagine how difficult it is to select these players with all the great performances throughout the year?  One shocker is an old player of mine, Alex Eliopoulos.  He went 10-0 for Johns Hopkins, 2.17 ERA, was the Region MVP, and didn't even get a sniff.  Bummer for him but there were some crazy good performances this year.

Watch Shenandoah this year.  One thru six, they absolutely kill the baseball.  Brashears and Van Sickler are the bash brothers.  They might just out hit everyone and win it on offense.