D 3 softball

[deiscanton]

NEAC Semfinal update

Game tied up at 3-3 between Penn State-Berks and Penn State-Harrisburg after 3 innings as the Berks Lions scored 3 runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game.

[deiscanton]

MIAA Championship Series set-- Best of 3

Trine announced their withdrawal from the MIAA Tournament earlier today for reasons beyond their control, so Alma advances to the Championship Series.

#4 Alma at #3 Calvin

Games 1 and 2 will be played on Friday, May 14

Game 3 (if necessary)-- Sunday, May 16

Info courtesy of the official MIAA twitter feed.

[TheChucker]

With NCAA regionals this year hosting 6 teams each in the 8 regions (48 total teams = 42 AQs, 1 pool B, and 5 pool C at-large), any thoughts on where the New England region, with 8 conferences, might send 2 of their AQs? How many conferences are strong enough to send multiple teams?

https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/softball/d3/2020-21D3WSB_PreChampsManual.pdf

[deiscanton]

With NCAA regionals this year hosting 6 teams each in the 8 regions (48 total teams = 42 AQs, 1 pool B, and 5 pool C at-large), any thoughts on where the New England region, with 8 conferences, might send 2 of their AQs? How many conferences are strong enough to send multiple teams?

https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/softball/d3/2020-21D3WSB_PreChampsManual.pdf

Geographically, I would say a host site in New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania that is hosted by a Northeast, East, or Atlantic Region team, so that the host site would be no more than 500 miles from campus.  Moravian or TCNJ could host a Regional with a New England team in their bracket if both Moravian and TCNJ qualify, for example.  Also, in 2019, Brandeis, Williams, and Framingham State were shipped out to regionals hosted by Northeast Region teams in the first weekend (Ithaca and Cortland) respectively.
,
In 2010, the regional sites were predetermined, so you knew weeks in advance that Wellesley and Rhode Island College were hosting 7 or 8 team regionals without even knowing if those teams would be in the field.

[deiscanton]

NEAC Semifinal update

Game 3--

#1 Penn State-Berks 3, #4 Penn State-Harrisburg 3 Top of 7th 2 outs.  Harrisburg has a runner on first.

Update-- still tied at 3-3 after 6 1/2 innings in this decisive game 3.  Winner advances to the NEAC Championship Series.

Update-- For the second game in a row, we will need extra innings to decide the winner.  We are heading to the top of the 8th inning.

NEAC is using the international tiebreaker rule for their conference tournament, as a Harrisburg runner has been placed on second base to start the inning.

First Harrisburg batter hits a double, scoring the runner.  Harrisburg now leads 4-3.  After 1 out, a single scores the first Harrisburg batter of the inning.

Harrisburg now leads 5-3 top 8th with 1 out.

Update-- Harrisburg leading 5-3 after 7 1/2 innings.  Penn State-Berks down to their last 3 outs.

Under the international tiebreaker rule, a Berks runner is placed on second.

The first Berks batter gets a single, scoring the runner.  Harrisburg now up 5-4.

2 out, but a Harrisburg fielding error has placed Berks runners on first and second.

Final:  #4 Penn State-Harrisburg 5, #1 Penn State-Berks 4  (F/8 innings.)

Penn State-Berks is eliminated, and we will have a new NEAC AQ for the first time in many years.

Penn State-Harrisburg advances to the NEAC Championship series, where they will travel to play the winner of the other semifinal series between #2 Penn College and #3 Penn State-Abington.  The other semifinal series will be played with games 1 and 2 in Williamsport, PA tomorrow and Game 3 on Wednesday if necessary.

Note:  This is the first time since the spring 2016 season that we will have a new NEAC AQ.  Keuka was the AQ to the 2016 NCAA DIII Softball Tournament out of the NEAC.

[justafan12]

Early bubble watch list based on NCAA regional rankings 5/4/21.  With only 6 at-large bids up for grabs it will not be good for some teams:

Emory & Henry - 4th Atlantic
Westminster (Penn) - 3rd in Central
Trine - 2nd Central (withdrew from their conference tournament)
TCNJ or Rowan - ranked 1 and 2 in the East.  At least one of them will not win the NJAC AQ.
Concordia Wisconsin - 1st in the Great Lakes
Auora - 3rd in the Great Lakes
Wartburg - 2nd in the Midwest
Belhaven - 1st in the West

Final NCAA regional ranking comes out on 5/13 which should shed some light on the above.

[TheChucker]

Early bubble watch list based on NCAA regional rankings 5/4/21.  With only 6 at-large bids up for grabs it will not be good for some teams:

Emory & Henry - 4th Atlantic
Westminster (Penn) - 3rd in Central
Trine - 2nd Central (withdrew from their conference tournament)
TCNJ or Rowan - ranked 1 and 2 in the East.  At least one of them will not win the NJAC AQ.
Concordia Wisconsin - 1st in the Great Lakes
Auora - 3rd in the Great Lakes
Wartburg - 2nd in the Midwest
Belhaven - 1st in the West

Final NCAA regional ranking comes out on 5/13 which should shed some light on the above.

Belhaven, and the whole West Region at-larges in general, are going to be interesting. It looks like Belhaven, George Fox and Mary Hardin-Baylor (UMHB) might be in the mix for two spots in one of the country's toughest regions. Belhaven has the best record and beat East TX Baptist twice during the season but got beat by Mary Hardin-Baylor in the conference tourney. George Fox has a slightly better record than Mary Hardin-Baylor, but Mary Hardin-Baylor might have a tougher schedule (7 of the losses were from highly ranked East TX Baptist and TX Lutheran). 

[WLCALUM83]

AMCC Update:

1 PSU-Behrend swept 8 Alfred State
Medaille/PSU Altoona series in 3rd game, Altoona up 6-3 top of 4th inning.
7 LaRoche over 2 Pitt-Bradford 1-0 8 innings, Game 1.

[WLCALUM83]

Early bubble watch list based on NCAA regional rankings 5/4/21.  With only 6 at-large bids up for grabs it will not be good for some teams:

Emory & Henry - 4th Atlantic
Westminster (Penn) - 3rd in Central
Trine - 2nd Central (withdrew from their conference tournament)
TCNJ or Rowan - ranked 1 and 2 in the East.  At least one of them will not win the NJAC AQ.
Concordia Wisconsin - 1st in the Great Lakes
Auora - 3rd in the Great Lakes
Wartburg - 2nd in the Midwest
Belhaven - 1st in the West

Final NCAA regional ranking comes out on 5/13 which should shed some light on the above.

Belhaven, and the whole West Region at-larges in general, are going to be interesting. It looks like Belhaven, George Fox and Mary Hardin-Baylor (UMHB) might be in the mix for two spots in one of the country's toughest regions. Belhaven has the best record and beat East TX Baptist twice during the season but got beat by Mary Hardin-Baylor in the conference tourney. George Fox has a slightly better record than Mary Hardin-Baylor, but Mary Hardin-Baylor might have a tougher schedule (7 of the losses were from highly ranked East TX Baptist and TX Lutheran). 

Also, neither Concordia-WI nor Aurora won NACC division tournament titles (NACC will be Benedictine vs. MSOE). One of the NACC announcers (covering last weekend's CUW-MSOE series) felt CUW still had a great chance to get in, but---

[WLCALUM83]

AMCC Update:

1 PSU-Behrend swept 8 Alfred State
Medaille/PSU Altoona series in 3rd game, Altoona up 6-3 top of 4th inning.
7 LaRoche over 2 Pitt-Bradford 1-0 8 innings, Game 1.

Update:  PSU-Altoona advances by beating Medaille 11-3 in 6 innings.
              LaRoche/Pitt Bradford Game 2 yet to be decided.

[TheChucker]

Early bubble watch list based on NCAA regional rankings 5/4/21.  With only 6 at-large bids up for grabs it will not be good for some teams:

Emory & Henry - 4th Atlantic
Westminster (Penn) - 3rd in Central
Trine - 2nd Central (withdrew from their conference tournament)
TCNJ or Rowan - ranked 1 and 2 in the East.  At least one of them will not win the NJAC AQ.
Concordia Wisconsin - 1st in the Great Lakes
Auora - 3rd in the Great Lakes
Wartburg - 2nd in the Midwest
Belhaven - 1st in the West

Final NCAA regional ranking comes out on 5/13 which should shed some light on the above.

Belhaven, and the whole West Region at-larges in general, are going to be interesting. It looks like Belhaven, George Fox and Mary Hardin-Baylor (UMHB) might be in the mix for two spots in one of the country's toughest regions. Belhaven has the best record and beat East TX Baptist twice during the season but got beat by Mary Hardin-Baylor in the conference tourney. George Fox has a slightly better record than Mary Hardin-Baylor, but Mary Hardin-Baylor might have a tougher schedule (7 of the losses were from highly ranked East TX Baptist and TX Lutheran). 

Also, neither Concordia-WI nor Aurora won NACC division tournament titles (NACC will be Benedictine vs. MSOE). One of the NACC announcers (covering last weekend's CUW-MSOE series) felt CUW still had a great chance to get in, but---

That's a tough one for those teams in the NACC. The WIAC and CCIW routinely get at-large bids, don't they?

[WLCALUM83]

No knock on the NACC, but in most sports (football, especially) the NACC, at least for the first few years, more often than not, ended up having to play a tough nationally Top 5 caliber team in first round matches. Concordia-Chicago baseball got to the D3 World Series a couple of seasons back, Dominican soccer made a deep run in D3 tournament early in the NACC's existence. Aurora women's volleyball also made a deep D3 Tournament run one year and Benedictine men's hoops got all the way to the D3 Championship final several years back, but other than those instances, to the best of my knowledge, the NACC has rarely had a team advance past a D3 Tournament 2nd round (even when WLC's women's hoops teams were getting in yearly, the Warriors never advanced past the 2nd Round.)

Ironically, the lone exception for 2020-21 is NACC Men's Volleyball, which this season had Benedictine and Dominican make the Final Four of the D3 Tournament this season, (although there were only 12 teams there to begin with) and Carthage beat Benedictine in that final.

Another factor is, the NACC has only been in existence for some 15 years.

You're right about the CCIW and WIAC teams getting at-large bids. They've also had more of a history and been more likely to get their stronger teams in the rankings more often and consistently, at least to this point.

[WLCALUM83]

AMCC Update:

1 PSU-Behrend swept 8 Alfred State
Medaille/PSU Altoona series in 3rd game, Altoona up 6-3 top of 4th inning.
7 LaRoche over 2 Pitt-Bradford 1-0 8 innings, Game 1.

Update:  PSU-Altoona advances by beating Medaille 11-3 in 6 innings.
              LaRoche/Pitt Bradford Game 2 yet to be decided.

7 LaRoche pulls off an upset, sweeping 2 Pitt-Bradford, both games 1-0 pitchers' duels.

[deiscanton]

It looks like Emory will not be able to complete a minimum 12 game softball season this year due to circumstances beyond their control.

Birmingham Southern just cancelled their 2 games vs Emory that were supposed to be played in Birmingham, AL on Wednesday.

This season, Maryville (TN) and Georgia Gwinnett also cancelled doubleheaders with Emory.

Officially, assuming Berry plays 2 at Emory on Friday, the NCAA would only count Emory as having played 11 games, which would make the Eagles ineligible to be considered for the DIII Softball Tournament absent a waiver.  If no more contests are played this week, then Emory would only have played 9 games all season.

[deiscanton]

MIAA Championship Series set-- Best of 3

Trine announced their withdrawal from the MIAA Tournament earlier today for reasons beyond their control, so Alma advances to the Championship Series.

#4 Alma at #3 Calvin

Games 1 and 2 will be played on Friday, May 14

Game 3 (if necessary)-- Sunday, May 16

Info courtesy of the official MIAA twitter feed.

Update-- Game 1 has a first pitch time of 2 PM Eastern on Friday, with Game 2 following.

Game 3 has been moved to Saturday, May 15, with a first pitch time of 1 PM Eastern (if necessary)

Note:  Alma is 3-0 vs Calvin this season, winning 9-4 in non-conference action, and by scores of 2-0 and 10-8 (F/8 innings) in conference play.