BB: SCIAC: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Gray Fox]

I connected from the SCIAC site.  Amazing that they had it.

[SoCalSoxFan]

thx
trying to find it on ncaa site.....

Poor choices there. The NCAA site had the bracket wrong all sorts of times but we always have you covered.

I followed all the coverage via the D3baseball.com site...sometimes it loaded a bit slowly(probably California traffic  ) but otherwise it was easy to navigate and follow the entire tournament.  Great job Pat and team.

Purple Haze, I concur!   I followed all the games via D3baseball.com site; both via laptop at work and for the CLU games, via Iphone in traffic and at home.   I followed by LiveStats of Non-CLU games and video of the CLU games.    I appreciated being able to follow live and not have to wait for the box score!    Great job Pat, Jim D and team!!

[Jack Parkman]

After avoiding the boards throughout the series I will say my piece regarding what just happened.  I got to spend a few days in Tyler and a few days in Appleton watching Cal Lu and it just comes down to a team getting scorching hot at the right time.  The team that was just crowned National Champs was probably not in the top 10 of most talented Cal Lu teams (not a shot at them) but they were able to accomplish what other teams came close to doing, but never got it done.  These guys 100% played for each other and the chemistry was evident throughout the entire post-season.  The way the players stayed calm throughout any type of adversity was something that has not been the norm in the past.

I could go on and on about the whole deal but it is so good to finally see Cal Lu win it all.  Also, the WS in Appleton was just a great experience all around.  Cedar Rapids has a very tough act to follow.

[wildcat11]

Congrats to CLU for getting and done not only for themselves but for the entire SCIAC.  That is a good deal on multiple levels.

[Pat Coleman]

I connected from the SCIAC site.  Amazing that they had it.

Shouldn't be amazing -- D3baseball/SCIAC/Cal Lutheran are all on the Presto network, so when any of us add links, they appear across the sites.

[Gray Fox]

Pat,
I wondered how they were able to keep  up over the holiday.  Now I know.

[Pat Coleman]

I had one last piece in my notebook I was unable to finish until today:
http://www.d3baseball.com/playoffs/2017/kay-overcomes-physical-mental-barriers

[Purple Heys]

I had one last piece in my notebook I was unable to finish until today:
http://www.d3baseball.com/playoffs/2017/kay-overcomes-physical-mental-barriers

I think it is interesting that he is considering the run they just had and is contemplating "retirement" because its unlikely to be improved upon.

With respect to the kid coming back for a 5th year...that's not a small consideration when one considers the yearly cost at a D3 private colleges with no athletic scholarship - if he's already earned his degree then that's effectively paying the bill just to play baseball.  Not saying maybe grad school isn't part of his plan, maybe it is and it works to his plan.

[Purple Heys]

Also, the WS in Appleton was just a great experience all around.  Cedar Rapids has a very tough act to follow.

Having spent many a long weekend in the area when my older son played at Cornell College, I can see the Iwegians rolling out the red carpet and doing it up quite well.  Those are some of the nicest folks you'll ever want to meet...even the Kohawk fans.  They have experience holding D3 National Championship events for Wrestling.  Plus the Eastern Iowa Airport is a nice, easy fly-in.

[Purple Heys]

One thing that stuck out for me was all the people disguised as empty seats for the championship game - for that matter, most games I saw.

Maybe the local Cedar Rapids community will take a greater interest...

[Jim Dixon]

One thing that stuck out for me was all the people disguised as empty seats for the championship game - for that matter, most games I saw.

Maybe the local Cedar Rapids community will take a greater interest...

The announced attendance was 22,556 and is the seventh largest attendance in the 18 years at Appleton.  It is less than each of the last previous five World Series.

[Purple Heys]

One thing that stuck out for me was all the people disguised as empty seats for the championship game - for that matter, most games I saw.

Maybe the local Cedar Rapids community will take a greater interest...

The announced attendance was 22,556 and is the seventh largest attendance in the 18 years at Appleton.  It is less than each of the last previous five World Series.

Is that a cumulative count for the tournament or a game day count?

https://preview.d3photography.com/g/6563

[Jack Parkman]

The first 2 days seemed to have pretty good crowds, especially with Concordia and North Central being so close.  There were pretty good crowds at the night games as a lot of locals brought their kids out.  One local even hit my rental car in the parking lot and made sure to get stadium security to contact me so I wouldn't be responsible.  I was pleasantly surprised by that for sure.

[108 Stitches]

When we went the crowds were great over the weekends and then tapered off during the week.  Week day games in the middle of the day would have limited attendance (as you would expect). The people in in Appleton were great, families came out and kids adopted teams and came to watch those teams consistently.

Appleton has really set a high bar for Cedar Rapids.  This was the first time in awhile there were not any WI teams so you would expect a drop off from this alone.

[Purple Heys]

Well it's not like the D2 or NAIA games are any much better attended based on what friends of mine that have had kids get there have to report.

It is a difficult thing after all...not like you can book tickets early if you are travelling by air.  Proximity of the teams competing drives the attendance.