2013 West Regional - Austin Tx

[Ron Boerger]

Haddeland has to be the regional MVP - he was the difference maker all tournament. 

[D O.C.]

A fine mess you got me in Ollie!

You guys all get to banter about the West Regional and I believed the LINFIELD home site that said the final game is tomorrow (Sunday) and took a nap.

[Ralph Turner]

A fine mess you got me in Ollie!

You guys all get to banter about the West Regional and I believed the LINFIELD home site that said the final game is tomorrow (Sunday) and took a nap.

A Willamette ex hacked the website.   

[Ron Boerger]

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

Nick Boggan (California Lutheran)
Jake Beam (Texas-Tyler)
Cayden Canniff (Texas-Tyler)
Pat Hirschberg (Trinity)
Ryan Lucero (Trinity)
Connor Moore (Trinity)
Nick Fisher (Linfield)
Chris Haddeland (Linfield)                  ***Most Outstanding Player***
Michael Hopp (Linfield)
Aaron Thomassen (Linfield)
Tim Wilson (Linfield)

[wildcat11]

Great Regional and Go 'Cats!

[108 Stitches]

That was a very competitive regional. For all the discussion about who should have been there (or not) the teams were pretty closely matched and competitive.

The facilities and management of the site was excellent, thanks to Concordia for an excellent venue. There were plenty of hotels, restaurants, and other services available, really can't think of a better place to have one.

I was surprised how few runs were scored overall, with the wind blowing out to left most of the tournament, there were surprisingly few home runs. Pitching overall in the tournament was excellent.

In the end Linfield was the better team. They got lucky in that they made quite a few errors and got away with them, but their pitching held just enough and their offense was the difference in the tournament for them IMO. They have some beasts on that team, 3-6 is a tough stretch any pitcher. Well run, good disciplined program. Congrats to them and best of luck in Appleton.

Trinity came up just short yet again, but this was a very very good team and played championship baseball all week. Pitching did everything expected of them and their defense was the best in the tournament IMO, in addition they made some spectacular plays. I think they only made 3 errors in 6 games, this was a huge improvement over earlier in the season. I think a real contributing factor for Trinity this year was their weak schedule, not that they could do much about it, but not facing tougher pitching and tighter games day in and day out makes a difference when it comes to offensive execution IMO. I don't have time to go into the stats but I am sure the numbers would not be good with men in scoring position, they just left too many men on base. Another great year for the program and while I know there are some disappointed Sr's, not many programs field teams this good year in and year out.

[NWBaseballFan10]

Big Storylines of the Tournament:

1) Chris Haddeland - 2-0, 1 SV, 16 IP, 0 Runs. Absolutely ridiculous numbers. Without a doubt the Most Oustanding Player in the tournament and a big reason why Linfield is heading to Appleton. BTW he season numbers are just as incredible and, at this point, the top candidate for National Pitcher of the Year.

2) Tremendous amount of balance and talent in this region - This was a fantastic regional to watch. Every game was decided by 2 runs or less (except Linfield's win over Pomona) and a lot of them were nerve-wracking all the way to the very end (especially Saturday's heavy weight bout between Linfield and Trinity). IMO every team showed they were deserving of being there (including TLU and P-P). TLU were competitive against two of the top teams and P-P probably should have won their opener against UT-Tyler.

3) Pitching dominance - Let's face it, there were some excellent pitching performances throughout the weekend. Haddeland started and finished the tournament with a bang. Lucero vs. Peterson was an excellent pitcher's duel as well (tough loss for Peterson and unfortunate draw for Cal Lu as the #2 seed). Trinity had a number of other great performances as well that included Speer (150+ pitch effort to beat Tyler), Walker (7+ IP relief effort to give them a chance against Linfield), and Bogese (went CG and allowed only 1 run in an elimination game). Something should also be said about Linfield's staff as a whole. For the tournament they sported a fine 1.60 ERA that included solid starts from Thomassen, Brandon, and Stevick (especially Stevick's who came in with an ERA of 7+ and had limited innings all year).

[108 Stitches]

I agree with you NWBB. I did not believe going into this Linfield had enough pitching to go two games on Saturday, which is why I thought TU had the advantage, but throwing 16 innings made up the difference. Frankly knowing what I know about pitching and injuries I would not be too happy if my son threw 16 innings in 4 days, but there is no question he was a difference maker for Linfield.

Best of luck to Linfield at Appleton, I will be sure to watch their first game.

[CrashDavisD3]

Pitch counts, inning pitched and rest days mean nothing in playoff baseball.

[tigerfan_2001]

Pitch counts, inning pitched and rest days mean nothing in playoff baseball.

i bet he will be able to lift that trophy with ease, no matter how many pitches he throws this weekend

[dp643]

Pitch counts, inning pitched and rest days mean nothing in playoff baseball.

I agree...but +/- 200 pitches over 4 days isn't very smart.

[tigerfan_2001]

Pitch counts, inning pitched and rest days mean nothing in playoff baseball.

I agree...but +/- 200 pitches over 4 days isn't very smart.

who's to say he wasn't begging Brosius for the ball? If I am the coach and my stud wants the ball and can be effective, which he obviously was, I am giving it to him every time.

[Just_Some_Guy]

Pitch counts, inning pitched and rest days mean nothing in playoff baseball.

Not that it's necessarily a fair comparison, but ask Scott Hyde if he feels the same way.

If he asked for the ball (and most big game guys do), I'd have given it to him too, but there's plenty of cases of overworked guys that were never the same.

[forheavendial4999]

Hyde pitched as a pro that summer, started 10 more games. That was probably foolish on the Mets' part. He threw 175 innings in total that year.

Not sure you can link a workload over 2 weeks to an injury that happened the next year.

[infielddad]

Hyde pitched as a pro that summer, started 10 more games. That was probably foolish on the Mets' part. He threw 175 innings in total that year.

Not sure you can link a workload over 2 weeks to an injury that happened the next year.

Just about everything written by Dr Andrews, ASMI and most others on overuse would certainly link what happened with throwing 35-36 innings, all high stress innings, over about 12 days as playing an important role in what happened. Couple  the innings, number of pitches and the fact his very best pitch was a hard slider(really good one) and the linkage becomes even stronger.  When we add that the 10 starts were for a total of 50 innings over 2 months, trying to argue those 50 innings as opposed to the arm stress/fatigue of what occurred from the start of the West Region to the Championship game in Appleton  makes little sense to me.