2014 West Regional - McMinnville, OR

[108 Stitches]

+1 What a great post!

See you tomorrow!!! (hopefully in the TU/CLU match up on Thursday)

[Jack Parkman]

Long time reader, two time poster... I am back in the mix to support the Graple any way I can. It's great to be able to watch the alma mater play in meaningful games, before the 2009 tourney in Oregon, it had been 18 years since I had seen a meaningful game, and not much seeing because I caught the final out in that game – May 4th, 1991 – back in a time when the "Kingsmen Surprise" was in play, the Slim-mobile was the preferred mode of transportation, and Van Wars on the 118 to the 210 to the 10 were a road trip must – but I digress, now just a short 5 years later to watch some meaningful baseball is good for me... making the 3 ½ hour trip tomorrow from Puyallup to make the game (hopefully a win), driving back after and to do it all over again Thursday and hopefully Friday – gonna log some serious miles – hopefully we are still playing Saturday – will make it all worthwhile... and lucky me, I won't get accosted by Chapman fans for walking my kids to the bathroom...

On to the task at hand – my prediction - Linfield, Cal-Lu, Trinity.... I am really hoping to see that Cal-Lu/Trinity rematch... Last year, watched it from work (while not supposed to) and it was a classic... things I noticed from last year was the depth of pitching the Trinity had, used like 12 different pitchers in the tourney??? And I don't think they went to their ace from game one the rest of the tourney... Cal-Lu had the hitting depth but the pitching was in questions – this year, it is the opposite... ain't nothing better than college baseball!!!

I will be sporting the Graple jersey, hat (now old school), and spitting seeds (hopefully reliving some of the past with DC) – and watch out, if we make it to Friday evening, my daughters will be sporting the "authentic, game worn" graple jerseys – yep, they will be taken out of school eeeaaarrrlllyyy to make the trip...

One last point of note – CLU Coaching Legacies –
---1989 CLU Assistant Coach – Lindsay Meggs – University of Washington Head Coach – ranked as high as 5th in the nation now and 2 time D-2 World Series Winner at Chico State. Founder of the moniker "LuDawgs"
---1989 CLU Assistant Coach – Dave Taylor – Chico State University Head Coach – Currently Ranked #6 in Division 2; two time D-2 World Series winner (with Meggs) –
---1990-93 CLU Assistant Coach – Marty Slimak – well, we all know about Slim...
---1988-93 CLU Head Coach – Rich Hill – the ring leader – current Head Coach at University of San Diego – Numerous WCC titles...
Just imagine – UW, Chico State, and CLU national titles this year – ESPN should do a 30 on 30 special about that!!!

See y'all tomorrow!!!

LuDawg6

Seriously one of the best posts ever and so many things on there to give me flashbacks.  Graples, love it but nothing beats the Slim-Mobile.

[Colorado]

Agreed. His love of the game and Cal Lu are self evident (although not sure about the comment re Chapman fans who's congeniality toward rival teams remains a monument to civility). My picks for tomorrow are Linfield, Cal Lu  and Trinity. Anything can happen but I'm not convinced that a team with 18 losses can succeed in this particular regional. 

[dp643]

I am going against my brain here and changing a pick. I am picking LeTourneau, Trinity, and CLU.

[ludawg6]

Read my post from page 34 on the 2009 McMinnville Regional right after the Chapman/CLU game... or ask me in person, it was classic but fences were mended the next day so all was good...

Thanks also for the props on the comment... I make no excuses for the fact that I bleed the graple and gold (not Violet, BTW) and have for so many years... many things happened the late 80's/early 90's that shaped the program into what it is today, proud to say that I played a part in that and will continue my support for many years, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Rich as well as Meggs, Taylor, Bernie Kyman, etc... and special mention to Slim for my last two years... that being said, wipe the tears away and cut the cord... to quote a nike commercial from 1991 "now its time to play"... (man I miss talking in vague generalities and using ambiguous quotes from yesteryear...)

Just hope Slim remembers my shirt and hat - don't know how I feel about the "new" CLU logo - I am, of course, old school...

[CAK72B]

This regional is going to be a very interesting one. It features some very interesting matchups in these opening games. I expect it to be a very entertaining and hope it to feature as many close games as there were last year.

Linfield vs LeTourneau: A first time participant vs the defending national champion on their home turf seems to be as big of a mismatch as you could get. Linfield has continued to do what they do and that's winning games. LeTourneau comes out of a seemingly down ASC this year but it is playoff time so anything can happen.

Cal Lu vs Illinois Wesleyan: Cal Lu comes in as the champion of the SCIAC with the powerhouse offense that they have been known for over the past couple of years. The question will be if the offense decides to show up in comparison to the performance they had last year. Illinois Wesleyan just a few years ago had their magical run to win the National Championship so they know what to do to move on.

Trinity vs UW-Stevens Point: This game I believe will be the best of the first round. Stevens Point made the World Series and finish in a respectable 4th place there. I doubt that being unexpectedly shipped out to the West will influence how they play. They are a team that has been here many times and will be a tough out the whole way. Trinity heads to their 5th straight regional looking to finally get over the hump and win a regional after losing the last game back to back years. They will have a chip on their shoulder wanting to show that they can finally get to a World Series.

This will be very competitive but I see someone from the group of Linfield, Trinity, or Stevens Point being the one moving on the Appleton.

[Texas Leaguer]

ILVBB is spot on. I am thinking that Trinity will not have any trouble next year getting the ASC teams filling in their Tuesday night games.  They did the right thing this year going to Hendrix and Millsaps, plus their regular home/away with Chapman. Chapman actually has a better chance by going independent again.

Yes, scheduling Milsaps, Hendrix and Chapman was nice, but despite all that, Trinity's SOS was still 197.  Chapman was 203.  The highest ranked West team this year was George Fox at 92nd.  It seems like the West Region teams can play any combination of games amongst themselves and it will not solve the SOS issue regarding at-large bids.  It looks like teams need to somehow get out of region for games, way out of region.  The OAC placed 4 teams in 3 different regionals this year.  The NESCAC placed 3 teams into 3 different regionals.  1/8th of the total field is from those two conferences.

I'd love to see teams be able to get out to Florida, or the mid-west or East Coast, but the realities of that are very difficult.

It is difficult, but all of the northern schools do it. They find a way to put their teams into contention despite the disadvantage of the weather.

Big Poppa, I respect you as much as any poster on this board but this post bothers me. D3 baseball is all about regional competition and bringing the best of the eight regions together for a World Series. A balance between the focus on athletics and academics is why D3 exists. Just because the northern schools see traveling south to Florida as the best way to build their schedule, doesn't mean the West schools should be forced to burden their student-athletes unnecessarily or be punished otherwise because of low "SOS" numbers.
The better weather and ability to play games earlier should be seen as an advantage to promoting true "student-athletes" and minimizing the burden on the players an universities instead of being used as an excuse on why a West team was left out.  The West doesn't have the benefit of having weak neighboring conferences to beat up on to build their own conference SOS numbers although it sure was nice when Trinity got to thump a mediocre Desales team 4 times one year and then watch them rack up wins in a weak conference. Sure there will be years when a region is down and doesn't deserve all 6 but only 4 West schools getting in on all pool A bids twice in the recent past begs the question if the D3 brain trust is really practicing what the preach.
Anyone saying a West team "needs to" travel to Florida to have a better chance at making the West regional is missing the entire point of D3 athletics and should go focus on BCS football.  Hoping for some good, competitive games this week.

[tigerfan_2001]

Looking forward to watching Speer v Seidl matchup

[Spence]

ILVBB is spot on. I am thinking that Trinity will not have any trouble next year getting the ASC teams filling in their Tuesday night games.  They did the right thing this year going to Hendrix and Millsaps, plus their regular home/away with Chapman. Chapman actually has a better chance by going independent again.

Yes, scheduling Milsaps, Hendrix and Chapman was nice, but despite all that, Trinity's SOS was still 197.  Chapman was 203.  The highest ranked West team this year was George Fox at 92nd.  It seems like the West Region teams can play any combination of games amongst themselves and it will not solve the SOS issue regarding at-large bids.  It looks like teams need to somehow get out of region for games, way out of region.  The OAC placed 4 teams in 3 different regionals this year.  The NESCAC placed 3 teams into 3 different regionals.  1/8th of the total field is from those two conferences.

I'd love to see teams be able to get out to Florida, or the mid-west or East Coast, but the realities of that are very difficult.

It is difficult, but all of the northern schools do it. They find a way to put their teams into contention despite the disadvantage of the weather.

Big Poppa, I respect you as much as any poster on this board but this post bothers me. D3 baseball is all about regional competition and bringing the best of the eight regions together for a World Series. A balance between the focus on athletics and academics is why D3 exists. Just because the northern schools see traveling south to Florida as the best way to build their schedule, doesn't mean the West schools should be forced to burden their student-athletes unnecessarily or be punished otherwise because of low "SOS" numbers.
The better weather and ability to play games earlier should be seen as an advantage to promoting true "student-athletes" and minimizing the burden on the players an universities instead of being used as an excuse on why a West team was left out.  The West doesn't have the benefit of having weak neighboring conferences to beat up on to build their own conference SOS numbers although it sure was nice when Trinity got to thump a mediocre Desales team 4 times one year and then watch them rack up wins in a weak conference. Sure there will be years when a region is down and doesn't deserve all 6 but only 4 West schools getting in on all pool A bids twice in the recent past begs the question if the D3 brain trust is really practicing what the preach.
Anyone saying a West team "needs to" travel to Florida to have a better chance at making the West regional is missing the entire point of D3 athletics and should go focus on BCS football.  Hoping for some good, competitive games this week.

So let me get this straight. You want the advantage of the weather, but then you want a pass when other schools do more to try to play a strong schedule than you.

LOL to borrow a phrase, "go play intramurals." The northern schools don't go south to build a schedule; they go south to be able to complete one and the schools concerned about their schedule seek out strong opponents to play during their trip. Some still don't manage to get their 40 games in. They dodge rain all spring as well. Several Midwestern schools traveled to Oklahoma for a *weekend*, not a week. Case Western traveled to play in southern West Virginia (nearly 6 hour drive for Case in good weather) and nearly got snowed in. One year Marietta went to Salisbury (450 miles or so) for 3 games played in near-gale force winds. Montclair has come to Ohio.

Heck, there's only one D3 school within 2 hours driving time of Marietta, so any road trip is a 4 hour+ round trip, sometimes on a weekday. So anywhere but Muskingum and they have 12 hours or more in playing a DH.

And if you go back to the "West schools are promoting true student-athletes" line then we're going to have a problem because out the other side of your mouth you're saying that northern schools that do all this are hurting their players' academics, and that's just not so. A look at academic honors lists will tell you that. Time management is the key.

Necessity is the mother of invention. You get a spring break, too, right? Use it like the northern schools do, or just complain when things don't go your way. Your choice. It's not like there's some secret to how to build a stronger SOS; play better teams more often and worse teams less often. How you do it, well that's up to you. And if you don't do it, that is also up to you.

I was sympathetic to what some were saying about the way scheduling is considered by the committee, but posts like yours make me less so. When criteria is applied to you the same as it is everyone else, that's not "being punished" and if you were to take a West team and play a tougher schedule, that wouldn't be punishment either. Heck, players would probably be happy to not be playing the same bunch of oil cans all the time.

You're not forced to do anything. Western schools are perfectly free to keep doing what they've been doing and their fans can complain as much as they want when the result is the same.

[CAK72B]

ILVBB is spot on. I am thinking that Trinity will not have any trouble next year getting the ASC teams filling in their Tuesday night games.  They did the right thing this year going to Hendrix and Millsaps, plus their regular home/away with Chapman. Chapman actually has a better chance by going independent again.

Yes, scheduling Milsaps, Hendrix and Chapman was nice, but despite all that, Trinity's SOS was still 197.  Chapman was 203.  The highest ranked West team this year was George Fox at 92nd.  It seems like the West Region teams can play any combination of games amongst themselves and it will not solve the SOS issue regarding at-large bids.  It looks like teams need to somehow get out of region for games, way out of region.  The OAC placed 4 teams in 3 different regionals this year.  The NESCAC placed 3 teams into 3 different regionals.  1/8th of the total field is from those two conferences.

I'd love to see teams be able to get out to Florida, or the mid-west or East Coast, but the realities of that are very difficult.

It is difficult, but all of the northern schools do it. They find a way to put their teams into contention despite the disadvantage of the weather.

Big Poppa, I respect you as much as any poster on this board but this post bothers me. D3 baseball is all about regional competition and bringing the best of the eight regions together for a World Series. A balance between the focus on athletics and academics is why D3 exists. Just because the northern schools see traveling south to Florida as the best way to build their schedule, doesn't mean the West schools should be forced to burden their student-athletes unnecessarily or be punished otherwise because of low "SOS" numbers.
The better weather and ability to play games earlier should be seen as an advantage to promoting true "student-athletes" and minimizing the burden on the players an universities instead of being used as an excuse on why a West team was left out.  The West doesn't have the benefit of having weak neighboring conferences to beat up on to build their own conference SOS numbers although it sure was nice when Trinity got to thump a mediocre Desales team 4 times one year and then watch them rack up wins in a weak conference. Sure there will be years when a region is down and doesn't deserve all 6 but only 4 West schools getting in on all pool A bids twice in the recent past begs the question if the D3 brain trust is really practicing what the preach.
Anyone saying a West team "needs to" travel to Florida to have a better chance at making the West regional is missing the entire point of D3 athletics and should go focus on BCS football.  Hoping for some good, competitive games this week.

So let me get this straight. You want the advantage of the weather, but then you want a pass when other schools do more to try to play a strong schedule than you.

LOL to borrow a phrase, "go play intramurals." The northern schools don't go south to build a schedule; they go south to be able to complete one and the schools concerned about their schedule seek out strong opponents to play during their trip. Some still don't manage to get their 40 games in. They dodge rain all spring as well. Several Midwestern schools traveled to Oklahoma for a *weekend*, not a week. Case Western traveled to play in southern West Virginia (nearly 6 hour drive for Case in good weather) and nearly got snowed in. One year Marietta went to Salisbury (450 miles or so) for 3 games played in near-gale force winds. Montclair has come to Ohio.

Heck, there's only one D3 school within 2 hours driving time of Marietta, so any road trip is a 4 hour+ round trip, sometimes on a weekday. So anywhere but Muskingum and they have 12 hours or more in playing a DH.

And if you go back to the "West schools are promoting true student-athletes" line then we're going to have a problem because out the other side of your mouth you're saying that northern schools that do all this are hurting their players' academics, and that's just not so. A look at academic honors lists will tell you that. Time management is the key.

Necessity is the mother of invention. You get a spring break, too, right? Use it like the northern schools do, or just complain when things don't go your way. Your choice. It's not like there's some secret to how to build a stronger SOS; play better teams more often and worse teams less often. How you do it, well that's up to you. And if you don't do it, that is also up to you.

I was sympathetic to what some were saying about the way scheduling is considered by the committee, but posts like yours make me less so. When criteria is applied to you the same as it is everyone else, that's not "being punished" and if you were to take a West team and play a tougher schedule, that wouldn't be punishment either. Heck, players would probably be happy to not be playing the same bunch of oil cans all the time.

You're not forced to do anything. Western schools are perfectly free to keep doing what they've been doing and their fans can complain as much as they want when the result is the same.

Spence more often than not the scheduling is out of the team's hands and is in the control of the school. In the case of Marietta, the school probably knows that to play games they have to travel and thus will spend the money for them to do so. The school is in a spot where they do not have a choice which benefits the team as they can pick schools to play. A Texas team has other schools around so the administration would prefer to have the team play other schools near them to save the money, regardless of the quality of the opponent. This also applies to spring break where a lot of schools are willing to come down to the warm weather to play teams. This saves these West schools money. From a financial standpoint this benefits the school as they do not have to pay to travel. However, this as a result hurts the teams (unless they convince better teams to come play them). I see this weak SOS for the West as a possible wake up call for the athletic departments of schools who believe they can compete at a high level to maybe budget out an extra trip in order to get some higher quality opponents on the schedule. With the schools in cold weather it is a necessity to have to travel and get games in. With many of the issues that surround D3 sports it comes back to the money. The more the SOS becomes an issue for the West schools, the more I would like to think that the athletic departments have to make a change in order for the teams to be in the best possible situation to succeed.

[Spence]

In Marietta, the college has very little to do with it. The baseball program supports itself. By that I don't mean it doesn't have a school budget, but it isn't what the program gets from "big MC" that makes Etta Express baseball what it is.

Believe me, Marietta College administrators like to save money as well. Schaly Stadium is aptly named not only because of the success Don Schaly had there, but because older parts of the stadium he literally built -- laid the block for the dugouts, for example. Obviously he didn't build the 3-story media building, but the program (with a lot of help from Kent Tekulve, whose name is on the building) did. Another fundraising effort seeded by Terry Mulholland resulted in the outstanding lighting system. The College didn't do any of that. I'm hearing word of a couple of new projects and I'm sure the College isn't funding those either.

I'm not saying that it's easy to do what Marietta has done. Heck, if it was that easy, everyone would do it. I'm just saying that your idea of "the school" and its involvement is pretty far wrong.

If so many schools are willing to go to Texas (like Marietta used to) then why is there a problem? Just play the better teams that do that...oh that is the problem, there aren't enough of them because everyone is going to Florida.

You could be right about the "wake up call". But I doubt it's going to loosen many purse strings. It's not as if many schools are going to get a lot of added value from being in the regional in terms of brand awareness or something. A lot of spring trips are internally funded.

[Ralph Turner]

Part of the expense factor for the ASC schools is that they make 5-6 overnight road trips in conference alone.

(General information question.  Do OAC schools spend the night in the opponent's city for weekend series?)

Many of the trips are 4-6 hours one way, or may even 8-10 hours if Ozarks,  Louisiana College, (formerly) Mississippi College, (and now) Belhaven or Sul Ross. That eats up the travel budgets for conference in all sports!

[bzzboyz]

Has anyone noticed that we could copy and paste this discussion every year at this time. Just insert different team names as needed.

[mideastfan2]

^^^^ Ralph, to answer your question.....from a Marietta perspective.  I'm not sure how Coach Brewer does it now, but when Coach Schaly ran things, we would only spend the night (the night before), on certain OAC road trips.  At the most it was 2 per year.  We also would randomly play weekend 4 or 6 game series with a few different schools at a single site, and spend the night for those (at Frostburg, Piedmont, or some other location).

And the OAC only plays a single double header for league games, so it's easy to drive to the site in the morning, and return home that evening after the games.

[Westside]

As fun as this chat is, it's game say.

Forecast is calling for 91 and sunny. Just drove by the field and it looks absolutely gorgeous. The warm weather schools should feel right at home!

Here is to a great day of baseball.