D 3 softball

[WLCALUM83]

Denison (NCAC), Aurora and Lakeland, (both NAthCon), Willamette, and UW-Oshkosh (WIAC) do not get in.

[Hammer Ball]

The Centennial Conference, including it's administrators, school coaches, AD's and Presidents cannot be pleased or proud of how it's Softball tournament and NCAA representative was decided.  The No.1 seed, and host, was 2 and out on Saturday, beaten by the No.4 and No.3.  The No.2 was beaten by the No.4 and leading the No.3 after 5 innings when rain stopped the game and any further play in the tournament.  By rule the highest seed remaining advances.  So despite the fact that the No.4 seed had beaten the No.2 seed (soundly it appears) and would have to lose twice to either the No.3 or 2, the No.4 seed does not advance.  I do not have a student-athlete involved on any of these teams, nor am I an alumnus of any of these institutions.  However, I felt compelled to point out that imho this result just does not seem to exemplify the sportmanship ideal to which this and all conferences aspire.  There must be a better way.
On a related note, what incentive does the host team (No.1 seed) have to protect the field from the elements and make it playable, if it will be the first to advance if the tournament is not played, or is abbreviated and they are yet to be twice beaten?  The conflict between the responsibility of hosting the tournament and coaching your own team to the NCAA Regional creates, at the very least, the appearence of impropriety, even if the coach does everything possible to make sure the games are played.  Isn't this the standard by which Conference and school adminstrators should be guided?  It is in the outside, professional, world.

[ECSUalum]

Hammer,

I agree with your commentary that #4 seemed to have been given the shaft in the aforementioned CC Tournament, but, as has been discussed on the D-III Baseball thread, the rules are written up front, so all must abide by them.  Like in our government, if we want to make change we need to go through Congress to push for new laws, (rules), and hopefully make the changes we want.

How does one go about soliciting rule changes in the Centennial Conf.? 

IMO, Conference Officials, umpires, whomever should have at least tried to get two more innings in and call a win for #4 after the 7th, if #4 still leading. Of course this would require rules to be modified

[Hammer Ball]

Sorry, I was not clear, the No.2 was leading the No.3 in an elimination game, in the 5th inning, when the game was called.  The winner would have to beat the No. 4 twice.

You are correct the rules are written up front, but that does not make them right.  It only makes them the rules.  My question is - why not revert back to the season long Champion if the tournament is not played?

Fact is, I am reasonably sure, the student-athletes from any school have no chance of changing rules and procedures such as these within their 4 years.

[ECSUalum]

Perhaps the coaches or administration have a better chance  to  make any rule changes.

I sympathize with the student athletes as they work thier butts off between their acedemic ansd athletic responsibilities!

[WLCALUM83]

Don't let Springfield-MA's overall record (20-22) fool you:

This link will explain why not:

http://www.spfldcol.edu/homepage/athletics.nsf/Headline/82C9642848D6D920852575AC0058F4F3

(toward the end of the article.)

[WLCALUM83]

Day 1 D3 Tournament Notables:

Endicott Regional:  Tufts uses a 10-run 3rd to blow out Husson, 17-1
                               Coast Guard 3, Bridgewater State 1, (Coast Guard gets only 1 hit--a very impeccably timed hit--a 3-run HR to take it.
                               Springfield-MA 5, RIC 2  (One big time-underdog team extends its' dance a little longer).

Ithaca Regional:  PSU-Behrend eliminated after being beaten by Cortland State 1-0.

IL Wesleyan Regional:  IL Wes 1, St. Norbert 0. Wes pitcher hurls a no hitter.
                                     Coe knocks off UW-Eau Claire 4-1
                                     Alma beats Concordia-WI 4-1

DePauw Regional:  Trine eliminated after taking 2 one-run losses, the latter to Ohio Northern--in 10 innings yet.

Marshall, TX Regional:  UT-Tyler & ETBU victorius, LaVerne & LC in extra innings as I post, Linfield/Redlands still to follow yet.

Ramapo Regional:  Messiah and Rowan win, Wm Paterson/Muhlenberg still to follow.

Simpson Regional:  Webster plates 3 unearned runs to knock off St Thomas, 3-1.

[WLCALUM83]

Flash:  Another final just in from Marshall, TX

Louisiana College 4, LaVerne 3  (9 innings).

ASC ends up going 3-0 on the day!

[WLCALUM83]

Ramapo region update:  Wm. Paterson up 5-2 on Muhlenberg -game suspended (darkness) in top of 6th.

Marshall, TX:  Linfield leading Redlands, 3-0 in 4th, should Linfield hang on, Redlands will be eliminated.

IL Wesleyan:  UW-Eau Claire staves off elimination by beating UW-Whitewater.

Salisbury:  Neumann shut out the regional-hosting squad, 3-0.

[WLCALUM83]

Marshall, TX final:  Linfield 8, Redlands 5  (Redlands is eliminated.)

[WLCALUM83]

Day 2 D3 Tournament updates:

Endicott:  Husson and Bridgewater St. eliminated.
                Host school and RIC remain alive with wins
               Coast Guard beats Springfield-MA 7-4  (Springfield 4 errors in contest)
               Tufts still in driver's seat

Salisbury:  LaGrange is out.
                 Salisbury up 8-0 on Neumann going into 5th as I post, last I heard.

Ithaca:  Everything holding to expected form:  King's and Keuka both eliminated today.

IL Wesleyan:  St. Norbert and Concordia-WI eliminated today. Everyone else is in a real dogfight. (At least CUW won one game for the NAthCon.)

DePauw:  Adrian was eliminated:  Thomas More and Hiram are in an extra-inning slugfest as I post (game tied at 11 in the top of the 9th inning.

Marshall, TX:  Claremont/Mudd-Scripps eliminated; UT-Tyler's Richardson went yard in the bottom of the 10th off Linfield's Brittany Miller to give the Lady Patriots a win and set up a showdown with ETBU tomorrow.  LaVerne & Louisiana College still in the hunt.

Simpson:  Central IA already eliminated.

Ramapo:  ECSU stays in contention with a win, Staten Island and Muhlenberg are eliminated.

[ECSUalum]

Here is the link for the NCAA D-III First round @ Ramapo College NJ

http://www.ramapoathletics.com/

Game results to date:

Thursday, May 7th

10:00 AM (RAIN DELAY - 12:20 PM)
#1 Messiah (36-4) vs. #8 Staten Island (23-13)
Messiah def. CSI, 4-0

12:00 PM (RAIN DELAY - 2:15)
#4 Moravian (35-9) vs. #5 Eastern Connecticut (25-12)
Moravian def.  Eastern Connecticut, 4-1

2:00 PM (RAIN DELAY - 4:15 PM)
#3 Rowan (33-10) vs. #6 Farmingdale St. (32-5)
Rowan def. Farmingdale , 7-1

4:00 PM (RAIN DELAY - 6:30 PM)
#2 William Paterson (33-7) vs. #7 Muhlenberg (19-17)
WPU def. Muhlenberg, 9-2

Friday, May 8th
11:00 AM
#5 Eastern Connecticut vs. #8 Staten Island
Eastern Connecticut def. Staten Island, 7-0

1:00 PM
#6 Farmingdale State vs. #7 Muhlenberg
Farmingdale def. Muhlenberg, 4-1

3:00 PM
#1 Messiah vs. #4 Moravian
Messiah def. Moravian, 3-0

5:00 PM
#3 Rowan vs. #2 William Paterson
William Paterson def. Rowan, 2-1

Saturday, May 9th
10:00 AM
#6 Farmingdale vs. #4 Moravian

12:00 PM
#5 Eastern Connecticut vs. #3 Rowan

2:00 PM
#1 Messiah vs. #2 William Paterson

[WLCALUM83]

Day 2 D3 Tournament updates:

Endicott:  Husson and Bridgewater St. eliminated.
                Host school and RIC remain alive with wins
               Coast Guard beats Springfield-MA 7-4  (Springfield 4 errors in contest)
               Tufts still in driver's seat

Salisbury:  LaGrange is out.
                 Salisbury up 8-0 on Neumann going into 5th as I post, last I heard.

Ithaca:  Everything holding to expected form:  King's and Keuka both eliminated today.

IL Wesleyan:  St. Norbert and Concordia-WI eliminated today. Everyone else is in a real dogfight. (At least CUW won one game for the NAthCon.)

DePauw:  Adrian was eliminated:  Thomas More and Hiram are in an extra-inning slugfest as I post (game tied at 11 in the top of the 9th inning.

Marshall, TX:  Claremont/Mudd-Scripps eliminated; UT-Tyler's Richardson went yard in the bottom of the 10th off Linfield's Brittany Miller to give the Lady Patriots a win and set up a showdown with ETBU tomorrow.  LaVerne & Louisiana College still in the hunt.

Simpson:  Central IA already eliminated.

Ramapo:  ECSU stays in contention with a win, Staten Island and Muhlenberg are eliminated.

Salisbury update:  The host school's lead on Neumann held up.

DePauw:  Thomas More/Hiram suspended-to be finished today prior to start of regularly scheduled games.

[WLCALUM83]

Softball D3 Regional Tournament Update (Day 3 action:)

Endicott:  Springfield pulls off 2 dramatic upsets--.eliminates Endicott 4-3,(Pride's Novak hits a 2-run HR in 7th) and Rhode Island 3-1 (Angela Atkins 2-run HR in 7th). Springfield, Tufts and Coast Guard are still alive. Jumbos still have yet to lose in this regional.
                 
Salisbury:  Bridgewater upsets Lynchburg 4-2, eliminating that squad.
                  Salisbury 3, Chris. Newport 2, Chris. Newport also out.
                 Bridgewater hands Emory its' first regional loss. Salisbury also still alive.

Ithaca:  Cortland State and Buffalo State are the last 2 teams left standing. Buffalo State needs to win twice to advance.

IL Wes:  UW-Eau Claire, UW-Whitewater and Alma were eliminated, Alma in a tough 1-0 loss to Coe. (Coe's Hanse knocked in the only run of the game with a double.)

Coe and IL Wes are the last 2 teams left. Coe needs 2 wins to advance.

DePauw:  Thomas More's Weis hits a 2-run HR to eliminate Hiram. then Defiance and Thomas More were later eliminated. Ohio Northern and DePauw are the last 2 teams left. DePauw needs to win twice to advance.

Marshall, TX:  Louisiana College eliminated LaVerne, Linfield eliminated both Louisana College and ETBU. It's UT-Tyler and Linfield --Linfield needs 2 wins to advance.

Ramapo:  Moravian, ECSU and Farmingdale Statewere eliminated. Rowan, Wm Paterson and Messiah still in contention.

Simpson:  Wartburg, St. Thomas, MN and Luther are eliminated. GAC. Webster and Washington-MO are left yet.

[WLCALUM83]

Partial Update:

Ithaca Regional:  G12 Buff St. 6, Cortland St. 2,
                           G13 Cortland St. 6, Buffalo St. 0  Cortland State advances!

DePauw Regional:  G12 DePauw 4, OH Northern 0
                              G 13 Ohio Northern 4, DePauw 1  Ohio Northern advances! (J Mangola 3rd inning grand slam held up.)

Marshall, TX Regional:  G12  UT-Tyler 5, Linfield 4  8 innings  (Patriots' Wyly hit a 3-run HR in top of 8th and it held up as a Linfield rally fell short.  UT-Tyler advances!

   More later: