BB: Regionals (New England) Harwich '08, '11, ECSU '09, '10

[OshDude]

I doubt it will happen this year or anytime soon (and I've said this before) but I wish the NCAA would do more mixing and matching with the New England, New York, & Mid Atlantic Regionals.

By my quick google maps calculations EVERY team projected to be in those 3 regionals are within 500 miles of ALL THREE sites.

Take the 24 teams you pick to go to those regionals, rank them 1-24 and put them in regions like this

One Regional is 1, 6, 7, 12, 13, 18, 19, & 24 seeds
Another is 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, & 23 seeds
Last is 3, 4, 9, 10, 15, 16, 21, & 22 seeds

it is supposed to be one large national tournament and not 8 regional tournaments, why not do this?

For those who don't know about it, use the software the NCAA uses, which can be found here.

[wordsmith]

And so it goes....

WNEC to NY;

WPI in
Wheaties and Curry out

TEE, Trinity and USM all together.

TEE gets the #1 seed

Back to bed and back to the drawing board about my plans on driving down to CT and seeing WNEC play in the tourney. Drat!

Word

[DougiesGoinDeep]

So 3 of the top 6 teams in the country have to battle it out to get to Wisconsin? ESCU, USM and Trinity will be a dogfight. One thing is for sure, the price of admission at the NE regional will be well worth it. I can't even try to predict who will represent New England.

Here is what I'm looking forward to:
ESCU gets the honor of the 1 seed but has arguably the hardest first round matchup of the big 3 in Babson... Maybe an upset in the making?
What game will Trinity pitch Bayer? Trinity's offense I think can slug there way out of a first round game against WSC but Bayer will probably have to go game 2 against USM... what a match up that would be.
Like I said above, USM will cruise against Husson but will have there hands full with arguably the best pitcher in the country in Bayer for game 2, what a game that would be if everything works out. No disrespect to ECSU but Trinity with Bayer and USM with Therrien would probably be the best D3 game of 2009, I just hope everything falls into place so we can see it.

My impact players for the regional (players who I think could single-handidly carry their teams):
1. ESCU: Gilblair and Castillo
2. USM: D'Alfonso, Pike and Burrelson
3. Trinity: Bayer, Killeen and Graham
4. WPI: Fahey and McNee
5: Suffolk: Just doesn't have the talent of the above
6. WSC: Same
7: Husson: No Prayer
8: Babson: Aizenstadt (tough match up for ECSU if he goes game 1)

This is shaping up to be one of the best regionals EVER. Good luck to everyone in involved. 


 

[wordsmith]

3 of the top 6 teams in America are all stuffed into one regional.

Kind of like that old John Madden favorite Turducken (a dish consisting of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken).

The Turducken Regional 

Would it not be bizarre if another team other than the BIG 3 came out of this Regional??? Like WPI???

Which brings me to WPI - congrats to this team. I think you will see I jumped onto their bandwagon way back when and got a lot of criticism about it. Glad they made it in.

Word 8)

[KSCfan]

Wow what a regional tournament in NE.  Def going to be the price of admission for that one.  But, i have a couple of gripes with the NCAA selections.  Three of the top 6 teams in America in one region.  A very very tough region with 8 teams, while you have Cortland looking to breeze through that region with only 6 teams?

WPI got in which is good for them, and i hope they do well, but why not give Curry a bid and ship them to NY or something.  Curry deserved to get into that tournament but i guess had they won the CCC it wouldnt matter. 

Cant wait to check out the regional at Eastern.  LEC TV did an amazing job with the LEC tournament and i see that the LEC is hosting the region, will we see any video feed of the games??? I know Harwich had them last year and the year before that, just wondering if anyone knows

[ECSUalum]

KSCfan,

Go to ECSU athletics home page, click on mens sports and then baseball.  the NE Regional logo will be staring you in the face, click on it ,and you will see access to both live stats, ( hope they work for all games this time as Saturday's ECSU/Keene game they did not) and LEC TV VIDEO

[KSCfan]

Thanks Alum +1k, cant wait to blow off work here in NH to watch the regionals at Eastern.  Going to be a long day of games on that first day

[ECSUalum]

Hope to finally meet everyone this week in Mansfield, as its has been a pleasure for me to read your posts and have learned a lot from all.

Will be sharing time hanging with DGilblair and ecfaninri along the LF grassy knoll and my wife/sons in the stands

[d3baseballnut]

Hope to finally meet everyone this week in Mansfield, as its has been a pleasure for me to read your posts and have learned a lot from all.

Will be sharing time hanging with DGilblair and ecfaninri along the LF grassy knoll and my wife/sons in the stands

So cool. I miss regionals. It is such a great experience.

Regionals sometimes brings back fonder memories than even the CWS.

[ECSUalum]

So 3 of the top 6 teams in the country have to battle it out to get to Wisconsin? ESCU, USM and Trinity will be a dogfight. One thing is for sure, the price of admission at the NE regional will be well worth it. I can't even try to predict who will represent New England.

Here is what I'm looking forward to:
ESCU gets the honor of the 1 seed but has arguably the hardest first round matchup of the big 3 in Babson... Maybe an upset in the making?
What game will Trinity pitch Bayer? Trinity's offense I think can slug there way out of a first round game against WSC but Bayer will probably have to go game 2 against USM... what a match up that would be.
Like I said above, USM will cruise against Husson but will have there hands full with arguably the best pitcher in the country in Bayer for game 2, what a game that would be if everything works out. No disrespect to ECSU but Trinity with Bayer and USM with Therrien would probably be the best D3 game of 2009, I just hope everything falls into place so we can see it.

My impact players for the regional (players who I think could single-handidly carry their teams):
1. ESCU: Gilblair and Castillo
2. USM: D'Alfonso, Pike and Burrelson
3. Trinity: Bayer, Killeen and Graham
4. WPI: Fahey and McNee
5: Suffolk: Just doesn't have the talent of the above
6. WSC: Same
7: Husson: No Prayer
8: Babson: Aizenstadt (tough match up for ECSU if he goes game 1)

This is shaping up to be one of the best regionals EVER. Good luck to everyone in involved. 


 

Dougie,

I think NE Regional can be defined as a SUPER REGIONAL!!! (a la the D-I nomenclature)

[ecfaninri]

Word...
I hope the baseball gods punish the committee for not including WNEC in the NE Regional, by smiling your team at a 6 team regional. I guess they didn't want NE to potentially dominate the CWS with 2 teams in Appleton.

Go Golden Bears....

ECSUAlum... I hope to get to see some of these games but work seems to keep getting in the way.

I really can't believe that Cal Luther #15 and Curry #16 got snubbed, but I glad that WPI  and Conor Fahey  will get a chance to perform on a big stage. Interesting fact that Fahey and Matt were teammates together in Lowell of the NECBL last summer, both had 1-5 records, both were leaders in the league in ERA and strikeouts, and more importantly - BOTH are from Rhode Island.

[TheGNAC]

So 3 of the top 6 teams in the country have to battle it out to get to Wisconsin? ESCU, USM and Trinity will be a dogfight. One thing is for sure, the price of admission at the NE regional will be well worth it. I can't even try to predict who will represent New England.

Here is what I'm looking forward to:
ESCU gets the honor of the 1 seed but has arguably the hardest first round matchup of the big 3 in Babson... Maybe an upset in the making?
What game will Trinity pitch Bayer? Trinity's offense I think can slug there way out of a first round game against WSC but Bayer will probably have to go game 2 against USM... what a match up that would be.
Like I said above, USM will cruise against Husson but will have there hands full with arguably the best pitcher in the country in Bayer for game 2, what a game that would be if everything works out. No disrespect to ECSU but Trinity with Bayer and USM with Therrien would probably be the best D3 game of 2009, I just hope everything falls into place so we can see it.

My impact players for the regional (players who I think could single-handidly carry their teams):
1. ESCU: Gilblair and Castillo
2. USM: D'Alfonso, Pike and Burrelson
3. Trinity: Bayer, Killeen and Graham
4. WPI: Fahey and McNee
5: Suffolk: Just doesn't have the talent of the above
6. WSC: Same
7: Husson: No Prayer
8: Babson: Aizenstadt (tough match up for ECSU if he goes game 1)

This is shaping up to be one of the best regionals EVER. Good luck to everyone in involved. 


 

Have to take issue with your thoughts on Suffolk, Dougie. I'm paid to know these things (not really), but you don't run off a 30-9 record playing a good schedule without having some impact players. They're led on offense by one of the best run producers in America, Bobby Barrett. At last check, the junior catcher was 5th in the country and 2nd in New England with 66 RBI (trails only D'Alfonso). Setting the table for the Rams has been center fielder Rory Gentile, who's only getting on base at a .503 clip. He's as dynamic as they come, with 41 walks in 39 games to go along with his .361 5 HR 39 RBI stat line. He's also 25-31 in steal attempts.

Suffolk also has 3 very good starting pitchers, 3 guys who in my opinion can beat anybody on any given day. Tim Doyle, Daniel Delia and Reid Jackson are a combined 20-4 with a 2.94 ERA. Jackson, in the last 2 seasons, has victories over Montclair State, Southern Maine, Babson, and Wheaton (ranked #2 nationally at the time). Delia has beaten Westfield State, Roger Williams, and Ramapo, and Doyle has beaten Ripon and MIT. To say they don't have any impact players is kind of ignorant and disrepsectful to a club that has ran off quite a season while beating some very good teams.

One last note about Suffolk, specifically on their first round matchup with WPI. I'm assuming the Engineers would throw their All-World Ace, Conor Fahey. The senior righthander is in my opinion the best pitcher in the region this year (sorry Jeremiah and Shawn), and his 105 Ks are tops in New England. He has absolutely dominant stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least to hear his name called on draft day next month. That being said, don't count out Suffolk's offense in this one, and here's why. This Rams offense has proven all season long they relish hitting against good pitching. Against Bayer in Florida, the Rams probably gave the Trinity ace his hardest outing of the year, touching him for 4 earned runs in 7.1 innings pitched. Likewise, in the GNAC tournament, Suffolk rebounded against St. Joe's probable All-American Pat Moran (he of the 6'5 frame, 88 MPH fastball and 12-6 hammer) in the winner's bracket game, torching the D-1 transfer to the tune of 9 hits and 11 earned runs in 1.2 innings pitched. Moran and Bayer are two of the top 10 pitchers in this region, and Suffolk has shown they can hang. That said, Fahey's on another level right now, and I expect the 10 am game on Wednesday to be quite an affair.

[KSCfan]

Fellers- how does the NCAA commitee determine what seed you are?  Is it your over all record, is thier some kind of formula.  I was looking at this thing and in my opinion i think that Trinity has the easiest of the first round games of the top three seeds.  IF i was Eastern and or USM i would much rather play Westfield State than Babson.  Im not trying to disrespect Westfield but i honestly feel like Babson is a better team with a better strength of schedule.  The NEWMAC is a much harder league than the MASCAC and thier schedules are similar.  I would of thought that Westfield is the 8 and Babson the 6. 

I have said it earlier and i will say it again, some interesting decesions by the NCAA.  #16 in the country Curry not in???

[EasternCtFan]

I agree KSCfan the NCAA needs to look at the body of work and not records. Babson is not a true 8 seed in this region and your right should probaly be switched around with Westfield. This presents what maybe would have been a game where you could save your ace to one where i feel you need to go with your best.

USM Trinity second round matchup will be a great one. If the matchup is Therrian Bayer, I will take Trinity. Both have great offenses and I feel bayer will be able to contain USM offense more.

I think the reason we got the big 3 all in Mansfield is the NCAA likes to send teams out that maybe "just got into the tournament" All three have been ranked in the top 10 all year so maybe they feel they should reward them and keep them home.

[wordsmith]

One last time.

1) Curry did not win their conference tourney title.
2) Curry lost 2 of 3 to WNEC (WNEC outscored Curry 26-8 in their 3 games) and WNEC ended up with a #5 seed in NY!
3) Curry played a schedule of weaker teams--> outside their conference mind you.
4) Only 2 quality wins came against WNEC and Wheaton
5) WPI - Quality wins came against  EConn, Trinity, St. Joe's, UMD, and a late season sweep of Wheaton! Not to mention going the distance and winning the ECAC Championship last weekend.
6) Please can we be done with Curry, the Committee is.

I think pollsters look real quick at records and winning %. The committee got the right teams from NE this year. IMO.

One other thing that seemed to get overlooked. I mentioned earlier that USM did not play D'Alfonso in their elimination match-up vs KSC. hockeyfan77 said it was a muscle twitch or something that seemed to indicate it was minor.

If it is not a minor thing and he is missing from the line-up they are a much much different team. Hope it is a minor thing as I always like to see teams and kids at full strength when playing for the big prize.

Word 8)