With Conference Tournaments kicking off and automatic bids being earned, seems like a good time to get this thread started.
For teams needing an at-large berth, an NPI number inside the Top 40 will likely be needed if it's like last year.
Jim Dixon and I sat down with the Division III baseball national committee chair to talk about a wide range of topics related to the playoffs and World Series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEyptctISRw
We discuss the use of the NCAA Power Index (NPI) and what tweaks might be coming for the formula in the future, attempts being made to bring more fans out to the World Series in the final year it is being hosted in Eastlake, Ohio, the work being done to keep conferences teams from having to play each other early in the bracket, the importance of filing to host the early rounds of the NCAA postseason, the challenges of the World Series format, where the World Series is going next, could it ever be played on turf, and why the event hasn't found a long-term home since leaving Appleton, Wisconsin, coming up on a decade ago.
Concordia TX earns the Pool A for the SCAC. I do not anticipate a "Pool C" (at-large) bid for the conference.
Quote from: Ralph Turner on May 04, 2026, 04:35:00 PMConcordia TX earns the Pool A for the SCAC. I do not anticipate a "Pool C" (at-large) bid for the conference.
The term "Pool C" is no longer used.
Quote from: Ralph Turner on May 04, 2026, 04:35:00 PMConcordia TX earns the Pool A for the SCAC. I do not anticipate a "Pool C" (at-large) bid for the conference.
I would agree with the the SCAC not being in line for any "at-large' bids with Texas Lutheran having the best NPI number and that still being #102 after the completion of yesterday's games.
I was thinking the same for the SAA (only one) but Rhodes looks likely to receeive at an at-large (currently 30) if they don't win this weekend. Trinity at 45 might need to get to the championship round to stay there (which is surprising, I guess those early season wins against UW-W are still doing some work). Berry at 58 might be bubble-out but could improve their standing with several Ws (as could Centre at 59).
Quote from: Ron Boerger on May 05, 2026, 10:54:05 AMI was thinking the same for the SAA (only one) but Rhodes looks likely to receeive at an at-large (currently 30) if they don't win this weekend. Trinity at 45 might need to get to the championship round to stay there (which is surprising, I guess those early season wins against UW-W are still doing some work). Berry at 58 might be bubble-out but could improve their standing with several Ws (as could Centre at 59).
With Whitewater currently riding a 35 game win streak, Trinity winning three times in four games against the Warhawks is doing some MAJOR heavy lifting!
The interesting part, the guy that threw the most against Trinity in those four games (Malkow-4.2 IP/86 Pitches) hasn't stepped foot back on the mound since. Guys like Lee and Taschner (who both have ERA's under 1.50) either barely threw or didn't throw at all.
I could be wrong, but I think if those two squads faced off again in a four game series right now, the outcome would look much different this time around?
No doubt. Trinity has definitely struggled the back half of the season and I haven't been following closely enough to understand why.
I did a quick and dirty run thru the NPI, assigning the Pool A to the highest ranked team from a Conference and assigning the 21 at-large bids, in sequence.
Number 21 on the 05/03/2026 calculations is #50 is Gettysburg.
Last 4 in:
Trinity TX #45
Amherst #47
Ramapo #49
Gettysburg #50
Please remember most "Pool C's" will have lost 2 more games in post-season play.
Next 4 in line:
St John Fisher #52
Wooster #53
Stevens #54
Misericordia #55
Whitewater in jeopardy of dropping the opener of the WIAC Tournament for the second straight season as they trail River Falls 7-2 after five innings of play. That being said, Whitewater went onto win 14 out of the next 15 games on their way to the National Championship last year. (The only loss was to UWO in the middle game of Super Regionals.)
EDIT-Make it 12-4 after 7 innings 12-4 and it ends in a 13-4 final....
With Trinity(TX) dropping a 4-3 decision yesterday, today's elimination game against Berry is very possibly a must-win to stay in the hunt for a post-season bid (the NCAA has yet to update NPI with yesterday's results but should shortly).
Quote from: Ron Boerger on May 08, 2026, 08:31:54 AMWith Trinity(TX) dropping a 4-3 decision yesterday, today's elimination game against Berry is very possibly a must-win to stay in the hunt for a post-season bid (the NCAA has yet to update NPI with yesterday's results but should shortly).
Trinity (TX) checks in at #49 this morning...
Koenig cruises through the first two innings going 6 up, 6 down as Whitewater jumps out to a quick 4-0 lead. Eau Claire roughs up Koenig in the 3rd and 4th innings to take a 7-6 lead in the WIAC elimination game.
Whitewater scores with one out in the 9th to avoid elimination as they knock off Eau Claire 9-8.
With all of the bubble bursting that will happen this weekend, I think that TrinityTX needs to make the tourney finals.
La Crosse advances to Championship Saturday with a 13-7 victory over River Falls.
The Eagles will have two chances to win one game and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Whitewater knocks off River Falls 7-1 to advance to the WIAC Championship. They'll need to knock off La Crosse twice tomorrow to claim the Championship.
That being said, the match-up should prevent any bubbles getting busted regardless of who wins tomorrow. I think both Whitewater and La Crosse are likely in the Top 40 of the NPI rankings when its all said and done.
Trinity(TX) stays alive with a 16-6 run-rule (six 1/2 inning) win over Berry and a 6-4 come-from-behind victory against Oglethorpe, scoring four unearned in the bottom of the eighth for the eventual winning margin. They will play Rhodes in the final elimination game with the winner having to defeat suddenly hot Centre twice for the SAA championship.
ETBU is #19 in the NPI this morning. I still think that they will host a regional for TLU, Belhaven and Trinity because of plane flights and geographical proximity.
Another quick and dirty, assuming the highest team in the ranking holds onto the Pool A.
Gettysburg at #53 looks to be the 23rd Pool C. Wheaton MA at #54 is 1st one out, followed by St John Fisher at #55.
(Corrections appreciated.)
Whitewater knocks off La Crosse this morning 11-7, to force the "if necessary" game...
And Rhodes gets past Trinity(TX) 3-2, very possibly putting an end to the Tigers' most challenging season in many years (it would be the first time since 2018 they don't make the postseason).
A little SCIAC trivia. The games this weekend are being played at Azusa Pacific. They will not be a SCIAC member until 2026-2027.
Quote from: cubs on May 09, 2026, 02:51:33 PMWhitewater knocks off La Crosse this morning 11-7, to force the "if necessary" game...
Whitewater tops La Crosse in the WIAC Championship game, this time 11-9 to earn the automatic bid.
This marks the second straight season that Whitewater dropped the opening game of the WIAC Tournament only to rattle off four straight victories enroute to the WIAC Tournament Championship.
La Crosse was at #37 in the NPI Rankings entering today, so I'd think they should still be in line for an at-large did despite a pair of losses to the #4 ranked NPI team today.
Quote from: Gray Fox on May 09, 2026, 05:58:46 PMA little SCIAC trivia. The games this weekend are being played at Azusa Pacific. They will not be a SCIAC member until 2026-2027.
A little bit of good will from Azusa to their future conference.
Gray Fox, is it an above average venue for the SCIAC?
Quote from: Ralph Turner on May 09, 2026, 08:06:35 PMQuote from: Gray Fox on May 09, 2026, 05:58:46 PMA little SCIAC trivia. The games this weekend are being played at Azusa Pacific. They will not be a SCIAC member until 2026-2027.
A little bit of good will from Azusa to their future conference.
Gray Fox, is it an above average venue for the SCIAC?
I would assume so since they have been playing at D2 level.
So far, I have these bubble-bursters going by May 8 NPI numbers.
Rhodes at #14
C-M-S at #17
Luther at #19
Hobart (NPI #44) at #22
Trinity Tx (NPI #45)is #23.
Ramapo (NPI #48) is #24.
Bethel (NPI #49) {?? #25) went 2 and BBQ in the tourney
Next up:
Amherst is #52
Gettysburg is #53
Wheaton MA is #54.
Corrections appreciated.
To be determined:
OAC Ohio Northern vs Baldwin-Wallace at #9.
NESCAC Trinity CT #31, Tufts #10 and Amherst #52 remain.
HCAC Rose-Hulman must win 2 over Transy #25.
UEC PSU-Harrisburg #47 must win one game versus PSU-Abingdon or Lancaster Bible
Trinity TX is more tenuous than I suspected.
Quote from: Ralph Turner on May 09, 2026, 11:49:01 PMTrinity TX is more tenuous than I suspected.
#49 as of this morning's update. 4-6 in last ten, five of those losses (three to Rhodes alone) by one run, did them no favors.
The lights are going out on Trinity's season. Now Coach Fregosi (recruiting coach) faces some heavy lifting this summer...but he's delivered before, so there's reason for optimism.
I see Piedmont going to Ohio.
I see ETBU (NPI #18) hosting TLU, Belhaven and a SCIAC.
Quote from: Ralph Turner on May 09, 2026, 08:06:35 PMQuote from: Gray Fox on May 09, 2026, 05:58:46 PMA little SCIAC trivia. The games this weekend are being played at Azusa Pacific. They will not be a SCIAC member until 2026-2027.
A little bit of good will from Azusa to their future conference.
Gray Fox, is it an above average venue for the SCIAC?
Azusa is not a great facility. Probably better than Occidental, but that's it. CMS has used it as their "home" field when available and will be moving into their brand new facility next year.
What an end-of-the-season choke!
NPI #3 Salve fell twice to NPI #55 Babson in the NEWMAC tourney. Salve's hosting is not likely gone, but a bubble did burst.
Baldwin Wallace holds off Ohio Northern (NPI #45) (OAC).
A bubble is preserved. ONU jumped from NPI #56 to 45 yesterday with 2 OAC tourney wins. Let's see what this loss does.
Endicott takes 2 from Western New England. A bubble holds.
The NPI is out!
By my assessment, Trinity TX at NPI #47 is the 1st one out.
Arguably, you can say that Babson at NPI #49, the NEWMAC AQ instead of Salve Regina at NPI#4, knocked Trinity TX out of the tourney.
The D3 baseball.com gurus are deferring to the Championship Committee chair and going with the top 16 teams by NPI. That means that there will be 7 flights, the 5 Region 10 teams plus Bridgewater VA and Salisbury.
https://d3baseball.com/playoffs/2026/projected-playoff-bracket
By the numbers, no Region 10 team will make it to Super Regionals.
So who is Adrian hosting in place of?
I had a post all set ready to go this afternoon with what I thought the Midwest/Central Region brackets might look like and I figured they would need to have Adrian host despite being #17 in NPI so that there were three area host (in addition to Whitewater and WashU.)
I saw a mock earlier that had Pomona hosting JHU, CMS, and Aurora. While I don't think it's realistic, it sure would be fun to see those teams hit a bunch of bombs out of Pomona's short right field.
Errata: Ny bad! I forget that Concordia TX (CTX) won the SCAC AQ in the post-season tourney.
Nevertheless, they create a "no-flight" bracket around NPI #18 ETBU.
The nice thing about that is that is a drive-able trip for all 3 opponents. The travel hassle for a cross-country plane flight is avoided at this round of the playoffs.
I like it.
No top 16 in that pod but it has 18 and 19 -- it's not terrible at all.
Quote from: Ron Boerger on May 05, 2026, 11:11:00 AMNo doubt. Trinity has definitely struggled the back half of the season and I haven't been following closely enough to understand why.
Pitch control. The ball was always in the dirt.
Here's my conversation with NCAA committee chair Ben Cooprider from last night, where we tackled all sorts of questions about matchups and who didn't file to host.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXc1-N3ktPg
Quote from: Patrick Coleman on May 12, 2026, 10:25:43 AMHere's my conversation with NCAA committee chair Ben Cooprider from last night, where we tackled all sorts of questions about matchups and who didn't file to host.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXc1-N3ktPg
Great 32 minute interview!
Quote from: D3Navy on May 11, 2026, 05:55:56 PMQuote from: Ron Boerger on May 05, 2026, 11:11:00 AMNo doubt. Trinity has definitely struggled the back half of the season and I haven't been following closely enough to understand why.
Pitch control. The ball was always in the dirt.
Ball in the dirt is where you want it... if you have good catchers. Plus errors, and lack of situational hitting, not a good combination for success.
All teams have down years, but for Trinity to not be in the top 25 is pretty shocking.
They will reload, Coach Fregosi is one of the best recruiters in baseball.
Gives the coaching staff more time for recruiting. ;D
We're debuting a Confidence Pool over at d3challenge.com this year... giving it a test-run and you're all welcome to come over and help break it. Or make it better. Or just sit back and enjoy!
You seed each regional 1-4 in your most likely to win.
Then your top two from each regional goes to the super regional, and you seed those 1-4.
Then your top two from each super regional goes to the championship round -- and you pick those eight.
Then you choose your finalists and winner from those.
We're not doing tie-breakers right now but if it comes to it well reach out to each person who might end up tying to provide numeric answers to a few game-related questions about the final series.
Like all other d3challenge.com events this is free.
Head on over to fill your ballot out today!
https://d3challenge.com (https://d3challenge.com)
One of my favorite days of the College Baseball season!
Whitewater decides to roll with Koenig to start and removes him after 5.0 IP/74 Pitches with the Warhawks staked to an 7-3 lead. Coach Vodenlich then goes to Kirchner but pulls him after 1.0 IP/8 Pitches since the Warhawks had a five run sixth inning to take a 12-3 lead. Skyler Sievert then saves the bullpen and goes the remaining three innings on 32 Pitches as Whitewater cruises to a 13-4 win.
La Crosse makes it an undefeated day for the WIAC as they go down to Illinois and knock off the CCIW Champion and host school Millikin 7-2. Owen DePrez picked up where he left off in the regular season and was dominant for seven innings. Austin Olla closed down the final two innings as the Eagles advance to the Winner's Bracket final.
Fun day to be a Region 10 fan. Only Whitworth fell to Montclair St, and they play Husson in the Elimination bracket.
ETBU over CTX 9-6. ETBU will play Rhodes and CTX will play Belhaven.
PP beat Mary Washington 6-3 and play JHU tomorrow
CMS beat Kean 8-6 and will play Tufts.
Whitewater and La Crosse both fall in Winners Bracket final and will each need to now win three straight to advance to Super Regionals.
ETBU vs Concordia Tx for the Texas state championship! ETBU is 1 game away from SuperRegionals.
Whitewater gets off the deck and puts up 6 runs in the 8th inning to take a 7-6 lead, however Bethany Lutheran ties it in the bottom half 7-7.
Zero's all the way through to the 11th as BLU gets a SAC FLY to knock out the defending National Champions 8-7.
Whitewater batters went 0x11 witb two walks over the last 3.2 innings and never really put any pressure on BLU.
Baseball is a funny game.
https://youtu.be/pR_lq-8R9iM?si=jRfooDn7UEohflJL
Bit of controversy in Whitewater today during the Regional Championship game...
Quote from: cubs on May 17, 2026, 05:49:15 PMhttps://youtu.be/pR_lq-8R9iM?si=jRfooDn7UEohflJL
Bit of controversy in Whitewater today during the Regional Championship game...
Too much stick'um on the bat or what was he arguing about?
Quote from: mwunder on May 18, 2026, 10:54:42 AMQuote from: cubs on May 17, 2026, 05:49:15 PMhttps://youtu.be/pR_lq-8R9iM?si=jRfooDn7UEohflJL
Bit of controversy in Whitewater today during the Regional Championship game...
Too much stick'um on the bat or what was he arguing about?
Sticky substance was found on the barrel of the bat apparently in 9th inning of tie game? Batter was declared out, but allowed to remain in game. Coach was ejected after using some magic words while he voiced his displeasure in the ruling.
Quote from: cubs on May 18, 2026, 11:40:48 AMQuote from: mwunder on May 18, 2026, 10:54:42 AMQuote from: cubs on May 17, 2026, 05:49:15 PMhttps://youtu.be/pR_lq-8R9iM?si=jRfooDn7UEohflJL
Bit of controversy in Whitewater today during the Regional Championship game...
Too much stick'um on the bat or what was he arguing about?
Sticky substance was found on the barrel of the bat apparently in 9th inning of tie game? Batter was declared out, but allowed to remain in game. Coach was ejected after using some magic words while he voiced his displeasure in the ruling.
I can't find anything in the rules regarding an ejection. Looks to me like the umps got it correct.
Strange ending in the ETBU Denison game.
With runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out in the bottom of the 9th, there is a grounder to short who throws to 2nd. The 2nd baseman touches the bag, hestiates on the throw to first and then is taken out by the advancing runner (in the meantime). 2nd base umpire calls runner interference for the 3rd out.
This is after the Denison pitcher is called for 3 balks in the top of the 9th contributing to 3 ETBU runs.
ETBU is victorious, 5-1, breaks the Denison 44 game win streak and advances to play Baldwin Wallace on Saturday.
ETBU beats Baldwin-Wallace 7-6.
BWC and Denison play for the Ohio State Championship and a chance to play ETBU for the bracket championship.
JHU has gone 2 and BBQ.
Salisbury and Rowan play in the Bracket 2 Elimination game.
Rowan 8 Salisbury 3.
First JHU, then Salisbury and Maryland is gone.
The stat that has impressed me the most is the performance by ETBU RHP Isaac Thornton against Denison.
His line read 12.2 IP, 7 hits, 4 runs all earned, 8 BB 12 K's ERA 2.84
ETBU won 5-1 in Game 1 (Thornton pitching 7.2 IP). Thornton left after 5 innings on 2 days rest ahead 6-3 in the "if necessary" game.
I disagree with the selection of the all-tournament pitchers. I believe that ETBU's Isaac Thornton had a better tourney than Austin Kreyenhagen -- 6.0 IP 4H 1R 1ER 5BB 8K and 27 batters faced.
QuoteHis line read 12.2 IP, 7 hits, 4 runs all earned, 8 BB 12 K's ERA 2.84 (and 53 batters faced).
ETBU won 5-1 in Game 1 (Thornton pitching 7.2 IP). Thornton left after 5 innings on 2 days rest ahead 6-3 in the "if necessary" game.
Thornton got the win that broke Denison's 44-game win streak. That defeat threw Denison into the consolation bracket. The extra games incurred almost broke the pitching staff.