BB: Top Teams in West Region

[Ralph Turner]

Centenary beat TLU for the SCAC bid.

[DickWhitman]

New regional rankings. Can LV, CMS, or Cal Lu jump Trinity? PP should be a lock at this point. One team will go 0-2 and likely out. If any of them can win 2 SCIAC games  they should have a chance to jump Trinity.

1   East Texas Baptist   36-8   36-8
2   Pomona-Pitzer   28-11   29-11
3   Trinty (TX)   31-12   31-12
4   La Verne   25-10-1   26-11-1
5   Claremont-Mudd-Scripps   28-11   28-11
6   Cal Lutheran   25-12   28-12
7   UT Dallas   30-14   30-14

[Ralph Turner]

New regional rankings. Can LV, CMS, or Cal Lu jump Trinity? PP should be a lock at this point. One team will go 0-2 and likely out. If any of them can win 2 SCIAC games  they should have a chance to jump Trinity.

1   East Texas Baptist   36-8   36-8
2   Pomona-Pitzer   28-11   29-11
3   Trinty (TX)   31-12   31-12
4   La Verne   25-10-1   26-11-1
5   Claremont-Mudd-Scripps   28-11   28-11
6   Cal Lutheran   25-12   28-12
7   UT Dallas   30-14   30-14

I think so and Region 10 gets 3 Pool C bids.

[DickWhitman]

I agree. ETB, Trinity, and CMS should receive bids. La Verne had a good year, but lost 3/4 to CMS over the past 2 weeks and was crushed 15-0 by Pomona. I hope Pomona and ETB end up in different brackets. Pomona looks like a serious contender to make a long run.

[Ralph Turner]

My first bracket has a  "Texas" sub-bracket of ETBU, TUTX, Cent LA & CTX, possibly in Marshall TX.

[DickWhitman]

My first bracket has a  "Texas" sub-bracket of ETBU, TUTX, Cent LA & CTX, possibly in Marshall TX.

Would the NCAA typically keep the TX teams in the same regional? And, do the teams prefer to be lumped together? I'm sure keeping expenses down is important, but I'd prefer to see some different opponents in the first round.

Did you take a look at the SCIAC results? Pomona's pitching seems like it was really good and the hitting was also outstanding. For some reason LV didn't throw their best pitcher. It really hurt them against Pomona.

[Ralph Turner]

My first bracket has a  "Texas" sub-bracket of ETBU, TUTX, Cent LA & CTX, possibly in Marshall TX.

Would the NCAA typically keep the TX teams in the same regional? And, do the teams prefer to be lumped together? I'm sure keeping expenses down is important, but I'd prefer to see some different opponents in the first round.

Did you take a look at the SCIAC results? Pomona's pitching seems like it was really good and the hitting was also outstanding. For some reason LV didn't throw their best pitcher. It really hurt them against Pomona.

IMHO, I have B-SC as the 2nd Pool C bid to come out of Region 6. IF, and that is a BIG IF, they make it, they could be bussed to ETBU.

Then P-P hosts a bracket with a Pool C SCIAC and the NWC winner and a Texas team gets flown to SoCal.

MY Super Regional would have those winners facing off.

But for 4 (FOUR) of the 16 Pool C bids to go to ASC, SCAC, SAA and SCIAC runners-up is a tall order.

[DickWhitman]

My first bracket has a  "Texas" sub-bracket of ETBU, TUTX, Cent LA & CTX, possibly in Marshall TX.

Would the NCAA typically keep the TX teams in the same regional? And, do the teams prefer to be lumped together? I'm sure keeping expenses down is important, but I'd prefer to see some different opponents in the first round.

Did you take a look at the SCIAC results? Pomona's pitching seems like it was really good and the hitting was also outstanding. For some reason LV didn't throw their best pitcher. It really hurt them against Pomona.

IMHO, I have B-SC as the 2nd Pool C bid to come out of Region 6. IF, and that is a BIG IF, they make it, they could be bussed to ETBU.

Then P-P hosts a bracket with a Pool C SCIAC and the NWC winner and a Texas team gets flown to SoCal.

MY Super Regional would have those winners facing off.

But for 4 (FOUR) of the 16 Pool C bids to go to ASC, SCAC, SAA and SCIAC runners-up is a tall order.

So which conf at large do you feel gets left out? No chance ETB gets snubbed. B-SC does look like a highly likely bid. I can't see Trinity getting overlooked.

[Ralph Turner]

My first bracket has a  "Texas" sub-bracket of ETBU, TUTX, Cent LA & CTX, possibly in Marshall TX.

Would the NCAA typically keep the TX teams in the same regional? And, do the teams prefer to be lumped together? I'm sure keeping expenses down is important, but I'd prefer to see some different opponents in the first round.

Did you take a look at the SCIAC results? Pomona's pitching seems like it was really good and the hitting was also outstanding. For some reason LV didn't throw their best pitcher. It really hurt them against Pomona.

IMHO, I have B-SC as the 2nd Pool C bid to come out of Region 6. IF, and that is a BIG IF, they make it, they could be bussed to ETBU.

Then P-P hosts a bracket with a Pool C SCIAC and the NWC winner and a Texas team gets flown to SoCal.

MY Super Regional would have those winners facing off.

But for 4 (FOUR) of the 16 Pool C bids to go to ASC, SCAC, SAA and SCIAC runners-up is a tall order.

So which conf at large do you feel gets left out? No chance ETB gets snubbed. B-SC does look like a highly likely bid. I can't see Trinity getting overlooked.

I don't think that CMS did themselves any favors.

[Ron Boerger]

The D3baseball projected bracket has ETBU, Trinity(TX), and Birmingham-Southern (as the last selection).  It sends ASC champion Concordia (TX) to PP for a five-game series and matches up the other three with Willamette at ETBU.  SCAC champion Centenary(LA) gets sent to a regional at Spalding.

https://www.d3baseball.com/playoffs/2024/projected-playoff-bracket

[DickWhitman]

My first bracket has a  "Texas" sub-bracket of ETBU, TUTX, Cent LA & CTX, possibly in Marshall TX.

Would the NCAA typically keep the TX teams in the same regional? And, do the teams prefer to be lumped together? I'm sure keeping expenses down is important, but I'd prefer to see some different opponents in the first round.

Did you take a look at the SCIAC results? Pomona's pitching seems like it was really good and the hitting was also outstanding. For some reason LV didn't throw their best pitcher. It really hurt them against Pomona.

IMHO, I have B-SC as the 2nd Pool C bid to come out of Region 6. IF, and that is a BIG IF, they make it, they could be bussed to ETBU.

Then P-P hosts a bracket with a Pool C SCIAC and the NWC winner and a Texas team gets flown to SoCal.

MY Super Regional would have those winners facing off.

But for 4 (FOUR) of the 16 Pool C bids to go to ASC, SCAC, SAA and SCIAC runners-up is a tall order.

So which conf at large do you feel gets left out? No chance ETB gets snubbed. B-SC does look like a highly likely bid. I can't see Trinity getting overlooked.

I don't think that CMS did themselves any favors.

CMS did beat 2 regionally ranked opponents and didn't get blown out by Pomona. If the SCIAC gets 2 teams I think they are in. La Verne on the other hand has been sinking bad and a 15-0 loss can't be overlooked. Over the past 4 weeks they've lost a series to CLU, CMS, and a poor showing in the SCIAC.

[Ralph Turner]

Wow! Trinity and ETBU as Pool C bids as expected but 3 SCIAC Pool C teams! I believe they deserve it, but after years of (message board semi-hyperbole) PTSD from all of the strong West Region teams that did not make it... Wow!

Cal Lutheran in the UWW Super Regional.

Trinity TX/ULV winner to the CWRU Super Regional.

PP-W'lam and ETBU/CentLA/CMS/CTX in the ETBU Super Regional.

One national finalist is guaranteed, but 3 are not implausible.

From the Transylvania Super Regional, let's adopt B-SC as a member of our archipelago.

[DickWhitman]

I wish PP and ETBU were in different supers. They both have the pitching to make it to the finals. Cal Lu and LV don't have the arms needed. If CMS can win one of their first two games their offense might be able to pound any team's third or fourth pitcher. Trinity looked like they might be able to pull it off.

I'm excited to see the region get 9 teams. The teams went on the road and played a lot of non-con games. I was worried based on the D3 baseball rankings, but it seems they were fishing more for clicks than accuracy.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity has two strong starters (Teer [8-1 in ten starts, 1.20 ERA; Chavana, 7-3 in 11 starts, 1.53]), one excellent short reliever (Newman, 5-0, 1 save in 17 appearances/36.1 IP, 0.50 ERA), but they don't have the bats they normally have (.279 BA/.427 slg/.391 OBA) and that cost them in the SCACs.  The team BA is normally north of .300 - this year's BA is the worst since at least 2010, and those stats appear incomplete.  Last year's .295 was the lowest since then. 

The Tigers will have to hope the bats catch on fire - and see some quality innings out of their other starters - to make any noise in the NCAAs. 

[Riley Zayas]

I'm excited to see the region get 9 teams. The teams went on the road and played a lot of non-con games. I was worried based on the D3 baseball rankings, but it seems they were fishing more for clicks than accuracy.

I'm not sure it was really them fishing for clicks. Region 10 was super deep this year, which was awesome, but I don't think it can be overstated the role conference tournaments played in the number of teams Region 10 got in.

Concordia and Centenary winning the ASC and SCAC tournaments forced ETBU and Trinity to take Pool Cs, doubling the number of teams from those two leagues. Neither Concordia nor Centenary probably deserved to be nationally-ranked, based on resume, so there's that. We knew the NWC was down a bit this year, and would be a one-bid league with no nationally-ranked teams.

SCIAC did really well and glad they were rewarded for the non-conf scheduling. But as far as it relates to the Week 11 Top 25, 3 SCIAC teams were ranked. CMS had the 3rd-most points amongst unranked teams in the poll. Region 10 was well-respected by the national voters this season, IMO.