BB: General New England Discussion

[JustAFan]

Babson may have punched Wheaton's tournament ticket this afternoon and put its own fate in the hands of the at-large decisionmakers with a shocking 12-11 loss to Clark U. in the opening round game of the NEWMAC tournament.  Babson was cruising along 11-2 after 6 innings, and pulled its starting pitcher only to see Clark score 10 runs in the 8th inning to go ahead 12-11.  Babson loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the 9th but then hit into a game ending double play.

[KSCfan]

justafan- is the Newmac one and done?

[Stump]

Tommorows games

MIT @ Wheaton 3:30
WPI @ Babson 3:30(elimination game)
Clark @ Springfield 3:30

Wheaton would seem to be sitting pretty good for conference title. Puts Babson in poor spot for at large

[363dp]

Babson will have to go deep into their pitching staff, which is pretty deep. That is only one game, still a few days to go before the auto bid is handed out. Maybe Springfield is the Cinderella team?

My predictions for tomorrow;

Gingras pitches another gem as the Lyons roar to face Clark in the winners bracket.
Babson staves off elimination and makes it to Sunday!

[Div3NE]

Top 15 Records in New England, with conf records and vs Top 20 teams in New England.  Let the debate begin for at large teams.

SCHOOL   W   L   PCT   W   L   PCT   vs top twenty
Trinity   28       1.000    12       1.000   8W 0L
Keene S   24   6   0.800    9   1   0.900   5W 4L
Wheaton   28   7   0.800    9   3   0.750   14W 2L
Curry   25   7   0.781    15   4   0.789   9W 6L
Roger Wil   28   9   0.757    20   2   0.909   9W 4L
Suffolk   23   8   0.742    12       1.000   8W 5L
Babson   25   9   0.735    11   1   0.917   9W 6L
Amherst   17   7   0.708    8   3   0.727   5W 1L
USM   21   9   0.700    6   2   0.750   7W 9L
WNEC   24   11   0.686    15   5   0.750   10W 7L
Williams   19   9   0.679    6   2   0.750   2W 5L
RIC   21   10   0.677    7   3   0.700   6W 6L
Wentwo   23   11   0.676    11   7   0.611   1W 6L
Salem St   23   12   0.657    7   5   0.583   4W 4L
Eaconn   21   11   0.656    6   3   0.667   8W 4L

[C2islegit]

To all,

I attended the Babson vs Clark game yesterday and it certainly was a wild one. Babson started out dominting by hitting 4 home runs (one to lead off their half of the first) then adding another in the fourth, and going back to back in the 6th to make the lead 11-2, which held until the 8th. The way Clark came back was unreal. They kept hitting ground ball singles that made it through the holes in the infield. The one crushing blow was a 3 run homer to cut the lead to 5, which made the comeback reasonable for them. Babson pulled it's ace who was cruising through 6th, and that's when the unthinkable happened. There were 4 HBP's in the inning, half were skimmed jersey shots that proved costly. Babson only made one error, which is quite amazing because usually in double digit innings at any level there would be more than one error, especially if all the hits other than the homer are ground ball singles.

Babson will have to battle their way to the championship and likely have to take on Wheaton twice to grab the title. They are an explosive and team that proved they can put together streaks, as that loss snapped an 11 game win streak. Should be interesting to see how they bounce back today.

In regards to the at large, I think it is a little to early to speculate because of conference tourney's, but I think 2-3 of the 14 national at large bids will be given to the New England Region, which is very strong this year. Stump, I certainly wouldn't say Babson has a poor chance at an at large simply because of one fluke bad inning in the first round of their conference tourney. Remember, they were 11-1 in regular season play including TWO wins over Wheaton.

[dubbc]

Babson is eliminated from NEWMAC tourney by springfield this afternoon.  Wheaton beats MIT again to move into championship series, springfield will have to beat them twice.... hope the rain holds off at sidell tomorrow

Does anyone still honestly believe Babson deserves an at large bid now?  KSC USM and ECONN all must of enjoyed seeing them being bounced out so early... another huge let down for Babson fans

[wordsmith]

Babson is eliminated from NEWMAC tourney by springfield this afternoon.  Wheaton beats MIT again to move into championship series, springfield will have to beat them twice.... hope the rain holds off at sidell tomorrow

Does anyone still honestly believe Babson deserves an at large bid now?  KSC USM and ECONN all must of enjoyed seeing them being bounced out so early... another huge let down for Babson fans

Babson has to hope for all the other tourneys to go to the regular season champs to have a hope for NCAALand; still a fine season for the Babson Leave to Beavers. They should garner a ECAC bid at the least.

Word

[KSCfan]

babson not making it to the finals is a real blow to thier ncaa hopes.  Its to bad cause i root for babson even though i am a keene state fan.  I feel they have a quality program with a bunch of class acts as players and coaches.  should be interesting to see who gets the at large from the NE region now.  I feel that if Trinity or Keene gets upset in thier tournys they will get that at large, if both win thier tourny well then maybe babsons got an outside chance.  Still i believe to many loses against lec teams and nescac teams for it to matter.  Most likely off to the ecacs for the beaver which is to bad as they are a great team. 

[Paul Heering]

Don't count Babson out yet.  Don't forget that teams that play in leagues with earlier tournaments often schedule games AFTER their conference tournament.  Babson still has 4 games on the schedule.

April 30 vs Rhode Island College
May 1 at Southern Maine
May 4 vs Tufts (DH)

That is four games against four quality opponents and four chances to build that resume.

[wordsmith]

NE D-III Fans:

We have St. Joe's and Wheaton in the NCAA. Anyone else secured a spot?

1) Wheaton
2) St. Joe's

[C2islegit]

I feel as though Babson still has a shot at a Pool C bid. With four huge games remaining, as well as currently have a very solid in region record (25-9), they certainly still can get an at large.

Dubbc,
Simply because Babson was eliminated in the semi's of their conference tourney after dominating the regular season, doesn't mean you can write them off. It will be interesting to see how they do in their final four games, but if they do win out it would be a crime if they didn't get a Pool C bid.

[KSCfan]

Some great games for all you fans of good NE d3 baseball thursday and friday.  If you live up north on thursday you get Keene at ST Joes, St Joes already going to the regionals, it would seem that Keene is too but i dont want to jinx them.  If you are from Southern NE then you can get Wheaton and ECSU under the lights at the Death Star, home of the Evil Empire and Emperor Holywater.  Friday if you live in Middle NE then you can get Keene at Wheaton, two teams that very very good, and seem to battle with each other very well.  THis all leads into Conferance mania on sat as some Conferance tournys get under way, where as seedings and locations are up for grabs in some other ones.  What a great 4 days of baseball coming up!

[Rick Vaughn]

Being a homer I can't help but remind folks in Western NE of another great matchup on Sunday.  Williams and AmHerst, the best rivalry in D3 sports, battle in Pittsfield, MA to determine who wins the NESCAC West and avoids Trinity in game 1 of the NESCAC tourney.  I assume the pitching match-up will be a good one as Benz takes on stud frosh Keenan.

[Old Spartan]

Why is the game in Pittsfield?