D 3 softball

[sbparent]

Anyone have any guesses on who will get at large births?  I will go out on a limb and say Linfield will.  I think NCAA page says there are 17 at large births.  Are there any other bracket buster upsets in conference tournaments so far?

[7express]

Anyone have any guesses on who will get at large births?  I will go out on a limb and say Linfield will.  I think NCAA page says there are 17 at large births.  Are there any other bracket buster upsets in conference tournaments so far?

Eastern Connecticut is definitely assured of a bid and I think Keene state gets one too out of the LEC.  RIC/Western would be next in line, but both of them probably need to get to the LEC championship finals.  RIC has a better conference record and head to head sweep of the Colonials, but their only 19-16 overall; Western was 7-7 in LEC play, but has a win in Florida over Luther which will save them if it comes to that.  Western was 0-6 against the top 3 teams in the LEC but did finish 27-13 on the year.  That tournament kicks off tomorrow and concludes on Saturday.

[7express]

LEC tournament set which takes place at Eastern Thursday to Saturday:

#6 Boston (17-19, 3-11))
@
#1 Eastern (36-1, 15-0)  at 12

#5 Western (27-13, 7-7)
vs.
#2 Keene (23-8-1, 10-4) at 2:00

#4 Plymouth (20-18, 7-7)
vs.
#3 RIC (19-16, 10-4) at 4

then Thursday concludes with the Boston/Eastern loser playing the Western/Keene loser at 6.

Friday kicks off with the Boston/Eastern winner playing the RIC/Plymouth loser at 12, followed by the Keene/Western winner playing the RIC/Plymouth winner at 2, then the winner of that final game Thursday playing the winner of the 2 game at 4, and the day concludes with the winners of the 2 early games at 6.  Saturday kicks off with the winner of game 7 (the 4 PM game Friday) playing the loser of game 8 (the final game from Thursday) at 12  to set the championship round.  Game 1 will take place at 2 and if necessary (and it shouldn't be) game 2 would take place at 4 to crown a champion.
my prediction is a Western Eastern championship, with Eastern winning, but getting to the championship is enough to get Western into the field..  Full bracket can be found here: http://littleeast.com/sports/tourney/2011-2012-tourney-central#sball

[WLCALUM83]

NAthCon Tournament Preview is here:

http://northernac.org/sports/sball/2011-12/releases/20120502kvdy51

(Something to watch for on Friday:  Benedictine's Pondo got shelled against Marian in the IL Eagles' last in-conference loss--so how long does Benedictine's manager go with Adcox?) Which of the squads known for offensive alley and HR power advance?

[7express]

LEC results from Thursday:

Eastern shut out Boston 9-0 Friday (final 5 innings).  Molly Rathburn improves to 26-1 with a 2 hit, 11 strikeout performance
Keene knocked out Western 2-1.
Plymouth upset RIC 9-8.  The Panthers outscored the Anchorwoman 9-0 through the 4, 5 & 6 innings to turn a 5-0 deficit into a 9-5 lead and had to survive a 3 run 7th for RIC.
Western eliminated Boston 2-1 to end the day.

Friday schedule:
RIC vs. Eastern kicks it off at 10:00 am
Keene vs. Plymouth is next at 12
Western plays the Keene/Plymouth loser at 2
and finally RIC/Eastern winner plays Keene/Plymouth winner at 4

[WLCALUM83]

Anyone have any guesses on who will get at large births?  I will go out on a limb and say Linfield will.  I think NCAA page says there are 17 at large births.  Are there any other bracket buster upsets in conference tournaments so far?

In the IIAC tournament, 4th seeded Coe put top seed Luther into the loser's bracket. If the Norse lose one more game, they're out.

[Kohawk Krazy]

Anyone have any guesses on who will get at large births?  I will go out on a limb and say Linfield will.  I think NCAA page says there are 17 at large births.  Are there any other bracket buster upsets in conference tournaments so far?

In the IIAC tournament, 4th seeded Coe put top seed Luther into the loser's bracket. If the Norse lose one more game, they're out.

Today's win may have just put Coe into the NCAA Tournament.  If they were to beat Central tomorrow, I think they'd be in for sure.

[Phred]

Coe vs Luther

Coe scored two unearned runs on throwing errors by Luther.  It was a pitchers duel with Becca Girvan (Luther) against Ashley Simon (Coe).  Luther-2 hits, Coe- 1.  Both had an equal number of strikeouts.

Coe plays Central (win over Simpson 2-0), Luther (in the elimination bracket) plays Buena Vista today--Friday.

[CityD3]

Any pool B bids?

[7express]

Western eliminates Plymouth state.  Mag Dargon had a 9 strikeout 1 hit performance in the 8-0 win.  Eastern eliminated RIC in the morning, so RICs flicker of hope of getting a bid looks like its extinguished.  Keene (who knocked Plymouth into the losers bracket) and Eastern still to come to conclude the day.  Winner advances to Saturdays championship round, loser plays Western to start the day.

[WLCALUM83]

NAthCon #6 seed Dominican had a strong showing yesterday, (25 strikeouts in 2 wins, --2-0 over Marian and 11-4 over Lakeland) Aurora and Benedictine are the others still alive, so it'll be an all-Illinois final, regardless.)

[WLCALUM83]

NAthCon update:  #6 seed Dominican gets to the final by knocking #2 Aurora out, but Benedictine's offense comes alive and knocks out the Stars in the final, 10-0. Adcox gets yet another win, and the IL Eagles hit several HRs in the final.

[7express]

Western beat Keene state 8-0 to begin Saturday but then lost to Eastern 6-2 in the LEC tournament finals.  We'll have to wait until Monday (or Sunday night) but I think making it to the finals, our win in Florida against Luther and winning 12 of our last 16 to end the season is enough to make it to the NCAA tournament.
Here's my LEC prediction for tournament teams:
Eastern gets the auto bid and should be looked at as a favorite to win the whole thing
Keene state should be in
Western probably gets in
RIC is probably out.  None of the other 4 teams are even close to getting in.  Plymouth probably joins RIC in the ECAC if both teams accept bids.

[WLCALUM83]

IIAC update:  Central-IA emerges out of a wild dogfight to get the NCAA berth. (Assuming Coe gets assigned in the same regional, those squads are gonna have even more to add to their rivalry).

OAC:  #2 seed John Carroll knocked off #1 Ohio Northern to get this conference's automatic berth (ONU's turn to play the waiting game)

[WLCALUM83]

Denison takes the NCAC Tournament title by knocking off DePauw 1-0 in 8 innings.