Congrats to Whitworth, they will represent the West well. Strong offensive team, not sure about the pitching beyond Scheibe, but it was good enough to get them through, and they will score a lot of runs. Very young team that will be even scarier in the coming years.
Trinity overcame staggering injuries to get within three innings of Wisconsin. They lost two of the three starting pitchers; their slugging first basemen, and their SS had a severely sprained ankle that left him at 50% at best.
Their biggest issue IMO is their hitting. IMO they should have jumped all over some of the pitchers they faced and struggled stringing together hits against mediocre late tournament pitching. They only lose 1 position player and their DH and have seasoned players ready to step in plus everyone should get better by next year so I would expect an offensive improvement next year. Defensively they are solid and will be even better next year as they only lose one OFer and have more speed to replace him.
From what I saw they had by far the best pitching rotation there and are set for next year even loosing Klimesh and Lucero. They have 10 capable pitchers returning who will be fighting for the top three starting positions, not including any freshmen. From what I heard they have a very strong recruiting class coming in.
It would not surprise me one bit to see this match up next year in the Regionals, the NWC conference will be dealing with Whitworth for a number of years and they will not be a Cinderella story any more.
Congrats to them and looking forward to see how they do.
