My early look at ranking the Central Region's top teams for 2012. I went out on a limb a bit this year, but I really like North Park and WashU. Thoughts? How'd I do?
1. North Park- The Vikes return 24 wins on the mound and all of their saves from a very solid 2011 squad. They have constantly hung around the top-tier of CCIW teams since Luke Johnson’s arrival and I see this as they year it finally comes together for North Park. They tied for the regular season CCIW title last year and return a boatload of talented and versatile players.
2. Washington University (WashU)- return Central Region Player of the Year, Brandon Rogalski, second team all region UTL Kyle Billig, and third team all region P Stephan Bonser. A full season of recruiting and off-season programs under coach Steve Duncan is only going to solidify what I think is a team that is on the verge of a national breakthrough.
3. Carthage- The Redmen return most of their pitching staff from a team that was very young on the mound last year. They also return all-region P Danny Dahm as well as 1B Joey Aiello, in addition a very productive gang of outfielders that battled for time last year and will finally get their shot after some graduations.
4. Buena Vista- I know many people are very high on BV this year, but I am not certain they can replace all that they lost to graduation. They lost their #1 pitcher, catcher, shortstop and closer. Those are four positions that are leaned on heavily as the games wear on. I’ll be surprised if they find replacements as talented as the four they lost. Third team All- region P James Stone returns to anchor their pitching staff.
5. Webster- returns entire starting pitching staff. This bodes well for a team that has pounded the SLIAC opponents for the past few seasons and should put them back in position to do some damage in the NCAA post-season. They are traditionally hamstrung by the weak SoS that the SLIAC provides so how they fare in non-league games vs St. Norbert, Hendrix, Wheaton, Ripon, and WashU may determine their fate if they stumble in the SLIAC tourney. It may be left to all-region arm David Mueller to try to knock off a few regional big dogs in the process to bolster their SoS.
6. Illinois Wesleyan- They really need to find some pitching to match their potent offense this year. They return four all–region players in Kevin Callahan, Bobby Czarnowski, AJ Nathan and Jonathon Erickson as well as All-region P Nick Mehn. Still, they have very little depth on the mound to back the run-scoring offense they will trot out on a daily basis. That is a recipe for disaster at tourney time.
7. Coe- P Wade Morris (1st team all-regional) and OF Nick Stein (1st team all-region) anchor a team that could be the surprise of the region. If they can find production from other players and pitchers, they could be a team to contend with this season.
On the outside looking in at the top-tier: North Central, Augustana, Luther, St. Norbert, Ripon. I think all five of these teams are close but need to be much more consistent than they have been in the past if they want to jump from the middle-tier of the region to the top-tier.
