BB: USAC: USA South Athletic Conference

[Catfishncwc]

Wesleyan with a 7-1 win over York today.  Good win before regionals start in a couple of weeks. 

[coachmilburn]

Shenandoah University gets another win over Wesley College by the score of 8 to 6.  SU moves to (33-8) and (27-7 "in-region").

[coachmilburn]

Thanks for posting the link re: Maine Presque Isle, Coach.  Did you mean to say that Franklin and Marshall will have a 20 win season and a couple guys drafted?  Or was that really SU you were referring to?  If it's F&M I am wondering who they are going to have the 20 wins against.

F & M is currently 20-13-1 on the year.   

[vabaseball]

Well I am no longer wondering who they were going to have the 20 wins against.  I checked.  Swept McDaniel yesterday.  Elizabethtown. Swarthmore. They were swept by Johns Hopkins.  Shoot, even McDaniel has 15 wins this season.  Anybody consider them a serious contender?

Shenandoah is having a really good season, don't get me wrong.  I just can't get excited by them blowing away FM.

[vabaseball]

Brandon Berry has his first career complete game today for the Captains.  They win 12-1 against York and sweep the DH.  Berry really had a quietly solid year.  Trae Bailey had 5 rbis in the 2nd game.  Nice to see him swinging the bat as the season winds down.

So pretty good weekend for CNU.  They split with Salisbury and sweep York.  Not such a good weekend for York as they lost to NC Wesleyan yesterday.

[A.G.]

CNU has one game left vs a solid Stevenson team.  With one more win...they may have just played themselves into the show.  Will it come at the expense of SU, though?  Would they send three teams from one league into the region?  It will be interesting.

[Ralph Turner]

CNU has one game left vs a solid Stevenson team.  With one more win...they may have just played themselves into the show.  Will it come at the expense of SU, though?  Would they send three teams from one league into the region?  It will be interesting.

Probably not, because of the casualties from the other regions...

Wheaton MA, WPI, Millsaps, and we are in only the first weekend of tournaments.

[Falcon2720]

CNU has probably jumped York in the regional rankings.  I know York is pool B but they may have fallen to pool C consideration losing three in a row to USA-South teams.

The NJAC seems to get three teams in every year.  A Mid-Atlantic regionally ranked Montclair State team came south this year and got their tails handed to them going 2-7 against south region teams.

I think the USA-South has a strong chance to get three teams in.

[Ralph Turner]

CNU has probably jumped York in the regional rankings.  I know York is pool B but they may have fallen to pool C consideration losing three in a row to USA-South teams.

The NJAC seems to get three teams in every year.  A Mid-Atlantic regionally ranked Montclair State team came south this year and got their tails handed to them going 2-7 against south region teams.

I think the USA-South has a strong chance to get three teams in.

Well, Montclair State played its first game of the season at Piedmont, for Piedmont's 13th game of the season.  Montclair's 10th game of the season, after 15 days on the road on that working spring training was Lynchburg's 18th.

Those aren't fair comparisons.

[d3baseballnut]

I wonder if you would be giving USAC teams the same benefit of the doubt if the tables were turned and they were whipped by the NJAC. You would probably just say the NJAC was simply better.

I fear the committee is committed to letting at least 3 NJAC teams in the tournament, despite their miserable performance against out-of-conference opponents. Maybe the NJAC isnt as good as we think. Isn't a conference's intra-conference performance the best way to judge its strength???

These out of conference records do not scream to me "elite conference"; one that justifies the inclusion of these teams with mediocre records on the basis of a "they play tough opponents." 

Out of Conference Records

Montclair state   9-8

New Jersey        9-9-1

William Paterson   10-9

Rowan     11-4-1 (not bad, but #5 in the conference standings)

[narch]

great weekend for the captains...

[A.G.]

CNU has one game left vs a solid Stevenson team.  With one more win...they may have just played themselves into the show.  Will it come at the expense of SU, though?  Would they send three teams from one league into the region?  It will be interesting.

Probably not, because of the casualties from the other regions...

Wheaton MA, WPI, Millsaps, and we are in only the first weekend of tournaments.

Good points.  At this point in time, if I had to choose between SU and CNU...I would definitely go with the Captains.  In spite of the gaudy record by SU, what is the winning percentage of those teams they beat...especially the northern schools early season within the 250 mile radius that are actually OUT of the South region.  If nothing else, we have something to generate some great debate over the next two weeks!

[Falcon2720]

Against true south region teams Shenandoah is 19-7.  That includes going 8-7 against USA-South teams. 

[A.G.]

Against true south region teams Shenandoah is 19-7.  That includes going 8-7 against USA-South teams. 

Nice stat...and one I am sure the committee will look at very closely.

[Catfishncwc]

Against true south region teams Shenandoah is 19-7.  That includes going 8-7 against USA-South teams. 

Also they were just 3-6 against the 3 teams in the USA South that finished above them in conference play.  Teams that are regional teams don't have losing records against other regional quality teams in your own conference.