If CMS wins the game that they are currently leading, there will be 4 regions with a west team in the final. It looks like RPI validates the level of competition in the west.

Nothing like picking a team that is exactly 500 miles from Marshall TX (Huntingdon is exactly 500 miles). They crafted a regional in Texas with no flights. Only the NCAA could do it.

There was no way to use San Antonio without either flying in two teams or having two SCAC teams.

The team from the west has won the World Series 5 of the last 15 years. What is interesting is that two of the teams (Linfield - 2013 and UT-Tyler - 2018) did not go through the west regional.

The NCAA will always do what is cheapest. This will lead to 2 SCAC teams in San Antonio and 2 SCIAC teams in La Verne. It isn't 2 flights it is 4 flights that the NCAA will save. Then you look at where the flights would need to go (LA is at minimum a 4 hour flight for almost all D3 teams and San Antonio requires almost all teams to change planes somewhere).

If the NCAA stuck to their stated competitive position you would likely see more years with 2 west teams in the World Series. This would not play well with the core D3 programs. Hence; it is easier for the NCAa to maintain the status quo and keep the LA teams in LA and the Texas teams in Texas.

Was todays win over Southwestern Tim Scannell's 800th win?

Ron:

The 2010 Trinity team had a BA of .376 (they had 3 players that batted over.400) and led the country in runs scored.

I remember my son's senior year playing baseball at Trinity (before the founding of the SAA). During the last four weeks of their season, they made three trips right before finals. They traveled to Conway (Hendrix) and Jackson (Millsaps) on back-to-back weekends, both 15-hour bus rides. Then two weeks later they flew to Memphis (Millington) for the conference championship. My son shared with me that it had an adverse impact on his schoolwork and grades.

When the SAA was created and the SCAC "scrambled" to reconstitute itself; I thought it was great for the kid's education and likely meant more financial resources for the baseball program (less travel).

Joining the SAA for Trinity and Southwestern is going to be very expensive. The closest schools for the two Texas teams are Millsaps and Hendrix, both of which are 15+ hour bus trips. To get to any of the other SAA schools you have to commit to flying. This will require a huge increase in budget. It will also likely force the programs to limit "participation" to a travel squad of say 25 players for baseball. This is a fundamental change from how these programs have operated for the past 10 years.

Now take this increased cost and apply it across all the sports that these schools sponsor. You could be looking at an increased travel budget for each school that could approach $300K-$500K per year.

I really liked the competition in the "old SCAC", however, will the kids get a better experience, and will the Texas schools benefit from committing to compete against schools that really can not be reached via weekend bus trips?

I really don't see this being good for the students and the universities; someone please explain it to me.

Interesting announcement today; Trinity and Southwestern will be joining the SAA in 2015. Effectively, this is the "old SCAC" with Berry and without Austin. It was a little over 10-years ago that the SAA schools broke off from the Texas schools to form the SAA. My recall was the SAA schools did not like all the travel to Texas. I wonder what changed?

It will be a color coded Saturday, the Burgundy game followed by the Yellow/Black game.

D3 Baseball finally named Tim Scannell coach of the year.

http://d3baseball.com/awards/all-americans/d3baseball-allamericans-2016

After watching Trinity for better than 10-years, I generally try not to get excited about the prospects of a "2-game series." For me it is has been easier to say "its kids playing baseball" and let it go at that.

However, when you look at the pitching that they have available, you have to get a little "excited."

Troy Nelson  (era 3.28, 63 K's in 46 innings)
Chris Tate (era 1.41, 47 K's in 32 innings)
Kevin Flores (era 0.00, 13 k's in 8 innings)
Plus 5-other pitchers that have yet to pitch at the regional with ERA's of less than 1.50.

I can not remember any team going into the finals with as much fresh, good pitchers available. Tim has done a great job of building a very deep team that is well prepared for tournament ball.

D3 is a hybrid system at best. Every year readers raise the same questions; mostly because they don't understand a system which for many doesn't make sense.

What we have is:

Regional Rankings (which ultimately mean nothing)
Pool C - National Rankings based upon Regional results.
Pool B – National Ranking based upon Regional results.

All of this which is built on SOS which is a National formula, that does not take into consideration the mathematical differences which result from either the "isolation" of the west or the "concentration" in the east.

Then you overlay it all with the "political" strength which results from the concentration of teams in the eastern portion of the country.

The result is you get a hybrid system for picking teams to play for a national championship. It took me 10-years to truly understand how it is likely to work (you never know because those that make the selections do it behind "closed" doors).

OK; I am confused. Tyler tournament website says all games have been moved to Friday. D3Baseball indicates Trinity/Millsaps will be played at 11pmEDT tonight. Accuweather indicated that it stopped raining at about 8:30CDT.

Does anyone know what the schedule is?

It doesn't look like they will get started soon. Check out the radar picture:

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/tyler-tx/75702/weather-radar/331126

They may be done for today. If so; could they call the current game after 5 innings?

Bishop:

I went to several AZ Fall games. Klimesh is being used exclusively in short relief.  Except for the AZ Fall All-star game he was used principally as a closer. I spoke with Ben during his stay in AZ and he didn't expect (he didn't know yet) to be invited to the MLB camp. He is very happy with his role and his progress.

It was interesting to see the changes that the Reds have made to his pitching motion; it is much more deceptive then when he was in college. His velocity was 92-94 with his splitter (at 88-91) being his out pitch.

It is interesting to note the number of schools participating in the 2014 regionals that made up the SCAC not too long ago. You don't have to go back to far to see all of these as part of the SCAC.

Rose-Hulman
DePauw
Rhodes
Birmingham-Southern
Trinity