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

[ECSUalum]

The NCAA really made a mistake placing teams in the regionals this yr as I beleive Trinity, ECSU, USM and WPI would have all won the NY regional this yr. The championship matchup there is RPI and Farmingdale State, come on!

Agreed, You have three teams from NE Regional that could be contenders in the CWS, ECSU, Trinity, WPI, and maybe even USM.

But, thats life, and as we have seen posted all along on these threads, if you want to go to the show, you need to find a way to keep winning!

[hockeyfan77]

After   7  1/2     ECSU   4    Trinity   5

[wordsmith]

Trinity had Eye black mustaches??
Gotta luv it

And people say I am irreverant! 8)

Word

[hockeyfan77]

Final     ECSU   4    Trinity   5

[ECSUalum]

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TRINITY BANTAMS FOR A GREAT NE REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

GOOD LUCK TO THEM IN THE CWS.  BRING HOME 2 IN A ROW!!!!!!!!!

[neastbball]

Eye black mustaches or the real thing? 

[wordsmith]

No, several players had eye black painted onto their upper lip.

[ECSUalum]

To the ECSU Warriors:

Thanks for an extremely exciting season.  Its has been a real pleasure watching thier season and getting to know Darrell and Barry.  

A real gutsy bunch of guys who played thier hearts out coming out of the losers bracket to play in the championship game against the current D-III National Champions!!

Best of luck to all the ECSU seniors and in particular Shawn Gilblair who has been a truely outstanding ballplayer who I believe, has lot of good things ahead of him in baseball.   To Matt Fontaine who will come back to be a key picher in next years team congrats on a 2009 fine performance!!!  All the best to Rob, Mel, Travis , Jim, John, and Joe for an a tremendous 2009 season

Now its time to get behind the Bantams and wish them best of luck in the 2009 CWS in Wisconsin!!!!!!

[BPCatch31]

As I sit here with the trophy in my lap staring at the likes of wood graham
and jeremiah, I can tell you one thing for sure; That ain't eye black. They're real very real. Let's get it done in Wisconsin. 

[wordsmith]

As we near the last teams punching their tickets to Hooterville, Wisc. I have a thought or 2.

1) Congrats to Trinity - Now Go repeat guys and make New England proud.

2) Congrats to ESCU - Darn fine effort by you guys....I have admired your team for years much as I did the old NY Giants with Sam Huff and Frank Gifford...(ask your old man). I 'hated' them, but totally respected and admired them. same goes for ya'll. It was a pleasure rooting for you the past few days.


3)

Mid-Atlantic          Host Kean              Winning Team Kean
Mideast                Host Adrian                  Winning Team ?? Adrian in Losers bracket finals
New England       Host Eastern CT          Winning Team Trinity (2nd Eastern CT)
New York             Host Farmingdale         Winning Team Farmingdale
South                   Host Salisbury              Winning Team Shenandoah
West                   Host Linfield                 Winning Team ?/? George Fox ??
Midwest              Hosted UW-Oshkosh      Winning Team St. Thomas
Central                Host Augustana             Winning Team Undecided

So the home teams did pretty well for themselves this year. By my count:

New England had ESC in the finals and Trinity (who travelled the 23 minutes home each night) as the champion.

Mid-Atlantic - Won by Host Kean

NY - Won by host Farmingdale

West George Fox (20 minutes from Linfield is battling Chapman for a spot in the WCS.

Mideast- Adrian in losers bracket finals

Just some fun stuff to think about...

Word

[Ralph Turner]

The NCAA really made a mistake placing teams in the regionals this yr as I beleive Trinity, ECSU, USM and WPI would have all won the NY regional this yr. The championship matchup there is RPI and Farmingdale State, come on!

Quite possibly.

However there is something to be said for playing close to home for Trinity and ECSU.  Maybe shipping WPI would have sufficed.

The geographic concentration of quality baseball in New England is rivaling the Chicago-area Midwest/West Regions for Men's basketball.

Next season, one of the Pool A bids consolidates.  The North Atlantic affiliates with the NEAC to retain access to Pool A.  (Two Pool A conferences that were going to lose their Pool A bids take action to retain access by affiliating.)

[dgilblair]

I have always said that good pitching beats good hitting and it did so today.  Congratulations to Trinity and all their fans, me being one, just not today.  It was a packed house at ECSU today and the teams did not disappoint.  What more can you ask for, a one run game with the two best teams in New England and  possibly the country.  The bottom of the ninth two outs, bases loaded, New England pitcher of the year against the New England player of the year, it just dont get much better.  Well I guess the final result could have been better for me personally and a few hundred others in attendance but it was a great game.  ECSU had it's chances and it just didn't happen.  I have said all year I didn't think Trinity had the pitching to win a tournament and they proved me wrong on that, stay in the winners bracket and you need not worry to much about it. 

Word, I guess you can say the proof is in the pudding with home team flavor but Shawn had a little different view of it.  When they had batting practice on Wednesday he said they had six players able to attend because of classes and the professors would not waiver on attendance.  He said it would have been better to be on the road and only thinking about ball, but its hard to argue the results.

[wordsmith]

I have always said that good pitching beats good hitting and it did so today.  Congratulations to Trinity and all their fans, me being one, just not today.  It was a packed house at ECSU today and the teams did not disappoint.  What more can you ask for, a one run game with the two best teams in New England and  possibly the country.  The bottom of the ninth two outs, bases loaded, New England pitcher of the year against the New England player of the year, it just dont get much better.  Well I guess the final result could have been better for me personally and a few hundred others in attendance but it was a great game.  ECSU had it's chances and it just didn't happen.  I have said all year I didn't think Trinity had the pitching to win a tournament and they proved me wrong on that, stay in the winners bracket and you need not worry to much about it. 

Word, I guess you can say the proof is in the pudding with home team flavor but Shawn had a little different view of it.  When they had batting practice on Wednesday he said they had six players able to attend because of classes and the professors would not waiver on attendance.  He said it would have been better to be on the road and only thinking about ball, but its hard to argue the results.

Gilblair vs Bayer what a match-up. I saw Shawn in the post-game interview and knew he was taking it hard. But I will bet that given the same set of circumstances, any coach in D-III would, given the chance love to have Shawn Gilblair up to bat! I know I would. 100 times out of 100. I admire him as a young man who answered some tough questions from the press, something a lot of older, wiser, and very highly paid athletes haven't figured out.

I know you said a long time ago that Shawn chose ESC because he wanted to play for a championship. Well champions are defined in many ways, well he is a champion in my book.

He should be proud of his accomplishments and you should be proud as parents.

Word

[slick]

First post but have been following this all season. This regional was as good as it gets. This game was classic. I have been a long time Trinity fan, having a son who was fortunate enough to be a part of their past success. I also have been a long time fan of ECSU, and Bill Holowaty. It was, believe or not, sad to see them lose. It was great to see Trinity win, but the best part is the respect they have for each other. There is no doubt that today matched the two best D3 programs in the country and a quarter inch of the bat barrel on Shawn Gilblairs swing was the difference. Best of luck to Trinity, and you can count on ECSU being a team to beat next year.
I also would like to see the NESCAC bashing end, I think Trinity has proved that the LEC does not dominate New England baseball. And the remarks about a weak non conference schedule should end, its how you finish.

[NESCAC FAN]

This will be Trinity's 4th CWS in this decade. They are clearly the top program in NE.
I understgand the gripes about their schedule. They clearly should be challenging themselves more often. However, they didn't get to play the Eastern game because of rain this year, so that effected their SOS. Unfortunately, the NESCAC puts so many restrictions on how you schedule that there is nothing the schools can really do. I'd love to see the NESCAC bite the bullet and allow its teams to play a full 40 game schedule. It's not like the schools are going to lose any academic integrity.