BB: Top Teams in West Region

[Whatagame]

SCIAC teams are all within 3 hours via bus/van rides, BUT your dealing with SoCal traffic. In 2013 Friday games are played at 3:00 PM and DH on Saturdays starting at 11 AM PDT. All games are 9 innings with no scheduled Sunday games usually.

are there any religiously affiliated schools besides Cal Lu (how religious are they?) and could that be why they dont play on Sunday?

NWC plays DH on Saturday (both 9IN) and a single game Sunday for conference series.  Pacific Lutheran I'm guessing is the same affiliation-wise as Cal Lu, and they play the Sunday game.  My guess is that Cal Lu has the strongest church affiliation in the SCIAC?  Someone correct if I'm wrong.

[Teddy_Ballgame]

SCIAC teams are all within 3 hours via bus/van rides, BUT your dealing with SoCal traffic. In 2013 Friday games are played at 3:00 PM and DH on Saturdays starting at 11 AM PDT. All games are 9 innings with no scheduled Sunday games usually.

Actually Cal Lu to Redlands still checks in at under 2 hours per Google Maps.

You could either move the Friday games to Sunday, or add a single game on Sunday and not miss any more class time. The former option would actually mean less time out of class.

At the times they are traveling, that 2 hours holds up on the way to the game. The return trip is longer on Fridays because of traffic. But still, compared to a lot of other conferences the SCIAC has it easy in regards to travel time (no overnights required at all).

I think moving a single game to Sunday would totally make sense... as it stands most guys either don't take any classes that meet on Friday during the Spring, or if they need to they might take something that meets in the morning. I think in my entire four years, we had one guy who took a Friday lab that he needed for his major. But he was a relief pitcher so he would just meet us at the field, and would only really get innings on Saturdays. Friday games are a pretty clear negative when it comes to academics, given that Sunday is open.

And leaving Sunday open to make up any games cancelled by weather isn't really necessary, for SCIAC teams anyway. It rarely happens, and most of the fields in Southern California react so poorly to rain that they aren't even really playable the next day. As a player, I did like having Sundays free to catch up on homework. But there's no reason guys can't put in extra time on Fridays. I can't think of a baseball related reason why it wouldn't work. I believe there's a rule against having organized baseball activities 7 days in a row, but that just means no practice on Monday- again more time for homework.

I'll ask around and see if I can find out why there aren't ever games scheduled on Sunday... perhaps we are missing something. Trinbot may be on to something with CLU's religious affiliation. PP, CMS, Oxy, Redlands, ULV, Cal Tech, and Whittier are very secular despite a few having religious histories. I think Chapman is too? But CLU might have a problem with regularly scheduled Sunday games...

[Teddy_Ballgame]

SCIAC teams are all within 3 hours via bus/van rides, BUT your dealing with SoCal traffic. In 2013 Friday games are played at 3:00 PM and DH on Saturdays starting at 11 AM PDT. All games are 9 innings with no scheduled Sunday games usually.

are there any religiously affiliated schools besides Cal Lu (how religious are they?) and could that be why they dont play on Sunday?

NWC plays DH on Saturday (both 9IN) and a single game Sunday for conference series.  Pacific Lutheran I'm guessing is the same affiliation-wise as Cal Lu, and they play the Sunday game.  My guess is that Cal Lu has the strongest church affiliation in the SCIAC?  Someone correct if I'm wrong.

One would think that if the NWC can do Saturday/Sunday there's no reason SCIAC can't... The NWC would obviously have more weather-related reasons for keeping Sunday open. And Pac Lu plays Sunday games... So unless CLU has a particularly strong Lutheran aversion to Sunday games there must be something else. Or something worth changing...

[dahlby]

Chapman has no secular affiliations that would prohibit Sunday athletic events. It is my impression that the coaches favored the  3 game weekends with  additional undetermined games at the end of the conference
season.

[dahlby]

The tourneys would need to be spread over more than one field if each team played a double hitter at,
for example, the national  tourney. There isn't enough time in the day to handle 8 games at one field, and I don't believe the NCAA would want to spread their tourney over more than 1 field.

[forheavendial4999]

So unless CLU has a particularly strong Lutheran aversion to Sunday games there must be something else. Or something worth changing...

I don't think there's such a thing as a particularly strong Lutheran aversion to much of anything. The Lutherans here anyway (a strong majority) are pretty laid back for the most part.

[Jack Parkman]

The Lutheran portion of CLU wouldn't be a reason, it is not a very strong part of the school.  It is there if wanted, but not forced on anyone at all.

[dahlby]

Cal Lu has previously participated in athletic contests on a Sunday.

[Whatagame]

SCIAC teams are all within 3 hours via bus/van rides, BUT your dealing with SoCal traffic. In 2013 Friday games are played at 3:00 PM and DH on Saturdays starting at 11 AM PDT. All games are 9 innings with no scheduled Sunday games usually.

are there any religiously affiliated schools besides Cal Lu (how religious are they?) and could that be why they dont play on Sunday?

NWC plays DH on Saturday (both 9IN) and a single game Sunday for conference series.  Pacific Lutheran I'm guessing is the same affiliation-wise as Cal Lu, and they play the Sunday game.  My guess is that Cal Lu has the strongest church affiliation in the SCIAC?  Someone correct if I'm wrong.

One would think that if the NWC can do Saturday/Sunday there's no reason SCIAC can't... The NWC would obviously have more weather-related reasons for keeping Sunday open. And Pac Lu plays Sunday games... So unless CLU has a particularly strong Lutheran aversion to Sunday games there must be something else. Or something worth changing...

Sat/Sun works great in the NWC because there is much more travel.  The two eastern Washington schools have about a 5-7ish hour bus trip to get out to the 7 west side schools surrounding Portland and Tacoma - and vice-versa (plus traveling over a 4,000 ft+ snowbound pass over the Cascades)  So they leave early Friday evening.

The NWC fields all seem to be constructed with outstanding drainage, because amazingly there are very few rain outs.  It really has to be miserable.  The two eastern Washington schools (Whitworth and to a little lesser degree, Whitman) deal with freezing temps and snow-related issues, but still games have a way of being played.   

[tigerfan_2001]

Even as you try to one up, you're still one down.

once again, you prove your message board dominance. How will I be able to live with myself? Please, oh message board master-so powerful and wise in the art of message boarding that you must have two user names- let me learn from you. Teach me how to be wise in the ways of the message board. Although I could never hope to be near as wise as you.

[Teddy_Ballgame]

Linfield proves they are not only the top team in the West, but the top team in the country. What an impressive World Series they had... the one loss comes with very good pitching performances from guys who had barely sniffed the mound all year, and some great wins.

This would also seem to validate Trinity as one of the best teams in the country this year. They played Linfield better than anyone, and it would have been fun to see them included in the World Series field.

Congrats to Linfield for bring the Walnut and Bronze back out West!

And now that this season is officially over, how are they not the consensus pick to repeat next year? Their bringing back so many good players, their entire pitching staff, and the D3 pitcher of the year. And that coach of theirs ain't half bad.

[TexasBB]

This is a validation of the entire West Region. Not only Linfield and Trinity but also UTT, Cal Lutheran, P-P and Tex Lutheran. If only some of those teams could have played in other regionals the west might have had mutiple teams in the World Series!

[108 Stitches]

OK opening up this thread for the 2014 year:

World according to *Massey:

1. Trinity
2. GFox
3. MHB
4. Linfield
5. CalLu
6. Concordia
7. TLU
8. Chapman
9. Whitman
10. PLU

*Potentially some big shifts here depending on outcome of today's games.

http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?s=cbase2014&sub=11620

[CrashDavisD3]

OK opening up this thread for the 2014 year:

World according to *Massey:

1. Trinity
2. GFox
3. MHB
4. Linfield
5. CalLu
6. Concordia
7. TLU
8. Chapman
9. Whitman
10. PLU

*Potentially some big shifts here depending on outcome of today's games.

http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?s=cbase2014&sub=11620

Cal Lu - Chapman Series games this week Monday/Tuesday. If Chapman wins 2 of 3 or better it would cause some major changes in Top 25 and Best in the West.

[Whatagame]

I can't see TLU as a top team right now after losing consecutive games last week to Pacific and Schreiner. Maybe PLU is a sleeper right now. Their pitching has been really good so far. Whitman needs to drop from this list after dropping 2 of 3 to Puget. Whitman's next three weekend series are against PLU, Linfield then Fox so that is certainly a tough test.