D 3 softball

[WLCALUM83]

Some possible Pool C Projections:

Central:  Ohio Northern, DePauw, at least 1 MIAA squad
Great Lakes:  Carthage, WIAC Tournament runner-up,
Midwest:  at least 2 IIAC squads, (Simpson on the bubble?)
West:   Redlands, Pacific Lutheran, ETBU,  Mary Hardin Baylor (1 of those ASC squads), Trinity-TX
Atlantic:  Louisiana College, ODAC runner-up, USA South runner-up,

[ECSUalum]

Congratulations to the Coach Pepin and the ECSU softball team for their 2012 LEC championship, to Ariel Cooper for Tournament MVP and to Molly Rathbun for being the best pitcher in NCAA D-III.  The ladies host the NCAA regional on their beautiful new facility starting May 10th!!  Good Luck to all

[dahlby]

Pac Lu won the NWC auto bid. Linfield would be a logical pool c choice, imo.

[sbparent]

What do you mean by pool c choice

[dahlby]

There are 3 ways to get iinto the nat'l tourney

Pool A is for winning the conference if they have an automatic bid.
Pool B is for all Independents that are not iin a conference AND for those conferences that do not have an auto bid.
Pool C is for those that did not receive a Pool A or B bid.

[sbparent]

Does anyone see linfield and PAC Lutheran going to the same regional

[mck99]

My best guess with less than 12 hours remaining in no particular order

Pool B (Two)
Emory
Rochester

Pool C (18)
Luther
Christopher Newport
Trine
Ohio Northern
DePauw
Louisiana College
Carthage
Chicago
Linfield
Montclair State
Coe
TCNJ
UW-Eau Claire
Amhest
Redlands
UW-Whitewater

Last Two in
Messiah
Bridgewater

First Two Out
Washington U.
Case Western Reserve

[sbparent]

mck99, you hit 15 of the 18 at large....good job

[sflzman]

Surprised trine got the number one in the Alma region. I was predicting someone getting shipped out of region to be the one. Then trine was my two and then I actually had Alma over ONU. I feel as though alma deserved to be there more. Ohio Northern did not thoroughly impress me the one time I saw them this year. I do think they can we this regional though.

[7express]

2 LEC teams in the field:
Keene state the #4 seed in the Amherst region, playing St. Joseph's of Maine Thursday at 12
Eastern Connecticut the #1 seed in the Willimantic region playing Lesley on Thursday also at 12

Western was probably one of the last 3 or 4 teams out of the field, and that 1-7 record against the top 4 in the LEC was probably the reason.

[7express]

Have to finish a paper, but sometime later tonight or tomorrow I'll make my regional predictions where I can look like a total fool in 6 days.

[WLCALUM83]

Baruch got hottest at the right time and kept winning while a couple of other higher seeded CUNYAC tournament teams got knocked out. (one of Baruch's pitchers hurled a perfect game during the tournament).

IL Wes regional:  Which Benedictine offense will show up--the one that manufactured 9/10ths of its' runs during the regular season, or the one in which several players went yard during the postseason tournament?

UT-Tyler regional:  Home-standing Patriots' pitching has been there for the most part (it'll be interesting to see how competitive Huntington and BSC will be -- been so used to seeing a third ASC squad in this regional the last couple of years)

Alma regional:  Pulling for either Denison, Alma or Trine in this one (my Warriors used to be in a football conference with the latter 2 schools a few years back.)

Central-IA regional:  Another real dogfight.

[7express]

Alma regional: championship prediction: Alma over Trine.  Darkhorse candidate(s):  Ohio Northern, Chicago, John Carroll.  Should be a fun region to keep a tabs on.  I think any of those top 5 I just listed have a chance, but Alma and Trine look to be the front runners.
Amherst regional: Amherst over Keene state.  Darkhorse candidate(s): St. Joseph's (ME), Plattsburgh state.  For some reason I'm not sold on Cortland state.  I could see them losing to Keuka to begin to put them in a hole.  St. Joes vs. Keene should be a great game.
Bloomington regional: Linfield over Illinois Wesleyan.  Darkhorse candidate(s): Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Carthage, Benedictine.  Not as strong as Pella last year, but still looks good.  Linfield looks to be best of group, but that's a long way to travel.
Newport News: Emory over Salisbury.  Darkhorse candidate(s): Christopher Newport, Messiah.  Emory's #1 in the country, Messiah and Newport both made the elite 8 last year.  I think Salisbury can make a run to the finals, but I say they lose to one of those 3.
Pella: Luther over Coe.  Darkhorse candidate(s): Central.  I'd be surprised if any of the other 3 made it to the championship game, much less won the regional
Tyler: Texas-Tyler over Louisiana College: Darkhorse candidate(s) none.  One of two teams that I predict don't have a chance to lose at home (the other shows up in a few minutes).  I'd pick Tyler if this was at a neutral site or on the road.  Imo, they should've found a way to swap Linfield and 1 of the 2 California schools here (either C-MS or Pac Lutheran).  Linfield here would've made this somewhat competitive.
Union: Montclair over Rowan.  Darkhorse candidate(s): Moravian, TCNJ.  Montclair should win this pretty easily too.  Baruch got hot when it counted, can they keep it up??
Willamantic: Eastern over Tufts.  Darkhorse candidate(s): no one else, because Tufts and Eastern are the 2 best.  Eastern, like Texas-Tyler, won't lose on their home field.  Tufts vs. Eastern will be one of the semifinal games and after Tufts dispatches whoever in the consolation game, they'll play again for the championship....with Eastern winning again

Championship round: Eastern over Linfield.  Darkhorse candidate(s): Emory, Tyler.  You can't count out the #1 team (Emory) and the defending champs (Linfield), but of all the 8 teams I predicted to win their regionals, Eastern is the most talented.  They have a bad taste in their mouth from last year (losing the first game blowing I think was a 5-0 or 6-0 lead in the 7th inning), Molly rathburn is an excellent pitcher, and have 8 of 9 starters back on the offense side and they've completely mashed the ball this year.  As long as Rathburn doesn't fall apart late like she did in the 7th vs. Newport this year, they'll be returning home to Willamantic with the championship.

[sbparent]

Anyone have an idea why NCAA does not pick 3 more teams for tournment. They have one 6 team  and one 7 team regional. I know in the 7 team one the bracket gets very confusing. The 6 team is also goofy. Just pick 3 more teams.

[sbparent]

Here is the scenarios in a 7 team bracket:

Seven-Team Bracket Scenarios
Scenario I

If seven teams remain after Game 4, the following procedure will be observed:

Day 2:
Game 5—Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3
Game 6—Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3
Game 7—Loser Game 4 vs. Winner Game 1
Game 8—Loser Game 6 vs. Winner Game 5

If five teams remain after Game 8, the following procedure will be observed:

Day 3:
Game 9—Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 7
Game 10—Winner Game 8 vs. Loser Game 7
Game 11—Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 9

If two teams remain after Game 11, the following procedure will be observed:

Day 4:
Game 12—Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 11
Game 13—If necessary, same teams as Game 12

If three teams remain after Game 11, the following procedure will be observed:

Day 3:
Game 12—Winner Game 10 vs. Loser Game 11

Day 4:
Game 13—Winner Game 12 vs. Winner Game 11


Scenario II

If seven teams remain after Game 4, the following procedure will be observed:

Day 2:
Game 5—Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3
Game 6—Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3
Game 7—Loser Game 4 vs. Winner Game 1
Game 8—Loser Game 6 vs. Winner Game 5

If four teams remain after Game 8, the following procedure will be observed:

Day 3:
Game 9—Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 7
Game 10—Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 4
Game 11—Loser Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10

Day 4:
Game 12—Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 11
Game 13—If necessary, same teams as Game 12

Scenario III

If six teams remain after Game 4, the following procedure will be observed:

Day 2:
Game 5—Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3
Game 6—Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3
Game 7—Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 1
Game 8—Loser Game 6 vs. Winner Game 5

Day 3:
Game 9—Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 7
Game 10—Winner Game 8 vs. Loser Game 7
Game 11—Winner Game 10 vs. Loser Game 9

Day 4:
Game 12—Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 11
Game 13—If necessary, same teams as Game 12