BB: Top Teams in West Region

[DickWhitman]

Looking through the D3 baseball all region team, there are a few obvious "snubs" or players who should have probably been higher than others. A couple that stand out, CMS had a reliever who had a 1.77 ERA through 56 innings in the regular season to lead the conference by more than half a point and didn't make any of the all region teams, and a starter who had a 2.50 ERA that also didn't make any teams. The starter had a CG shutout and two other outings where he went 7 shutout innings against SCIAC tournament teams.

[Ralph Turner]

All-Region teams are nominated & voted by the SIDs. That is the 1st thing I consider.

[Pat Coleman]

We could definitely have used more pitcher nominations in Region 10.

[DickWhitman]

All-Region teams are nominated & voted by the SIDs. That is the 1st thing I consider.

Yep. That's why I put snubs in quotes. Most likely the SID either didn't advocate hard for them or left them off completely

[DickWhitman]

We could definitely have used more pitcher nominations in Region 10.

Do you think certain coaches didn't push for players with their SID, or the SID's just didn't push hard for those players? I imagine D3 baseball can't scour stats for every conference and then try to determine how good that competition was.

[Pat Coleman]

We could definitely have used more pitcher nominations in Region 10.

Do you think certain coaches didn't push for players with their SID, or the SID's just didn't push hard for those players? I imagine D3 baseball can't scour stats for every conference and then try to determine how good that competition was.

"Push hard" isn't something SIDs have to do, but they do have nominate the player. From there, Jim and our folks are usually pretty good at recognizing the right people.

[Ron Boerger]

Two fine (and one surprising) article on Trinity's road to the D3CWS this season:

(1) Riley Zayas did his usual great job for D3Baseball.com, "Hungry Tigers Ready for Series".  There's a great deal of insight from the players and Coach Scannell, and you don't get insight unless you are asking the right people the right questions.  Thank you, Riley and D3Baseball.com.

(2) Surprisingly, the local daily decided to put their D1 writer, Greg Luca, on the case, and they should allow him to write about Trinity more often.  Trinity baseball set for fourth trip to Division III world series is unfortunately paywalled ("SALE! 25¢ for 3 Months" proclaims the site) but among other things contains the observation that this year's team (and Coach Scannell) considers last year's team to be more talented and expected this year to be a rebuilding one. 

Central to both stories is this year's leadership taking charge, demanding more time in the weight room and pushing the team to be better.   

[Ron Boerger]

Two and 'cue for the boys from Texas.  The pitching losses from last season finally caught up with my Tigers, who overachieved to get to the CWS in the first place.  But if there's some place you need lots of quality on the mound, it's the CWS. 

[DickWhitman]

Hate seeing the last Region X team knocked out. I felt like most of the Region X tournament teams had the makeup to get to the CWS. At this point in the season it just takes one team to get hot and another to cool off.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out in the offseason. Lots of huge impact seniors exhausting eligibility and some impact guys already in the transfer portal. For the SCIAC,LV is losing a ton of seniors including their top two starting pitchers. CMS loses the best hitter in the country but has the remainder of their lineup returning along with most of their pitching. Redlands loses a couple key pieces but they look poised to make the NCAA next year. CLU loses quite a bit of pitching and possibly some key pieces in their lineup. PP loses an all American and a couple other hitters, but they return some great hitters and most of their pitching production from this year.

[Ralph Turner]

As with Jackson Teer from TUTx and the portal in 2024, one wonders about the surprises in Region X from the portal.

Congrats to Scott Winterburn at La Verne on Region X COTY. My choice was Josh Lee at McM for sweeping its Regional in only his 3rd season as Head Coach. He went from 14-26 & a last place 8-19 in the 2023 ASC standings to 35-13 & 22-8 and 3rd place in the SCAC.

[DickWhitman]

I felt the PP coach did a better job considering he lost arguably 2 of the top 10 arms in the country before the season and still made the NCAA. I also thought the Redlands coach did a phenomenal job. Like you said as well, the McM coach was also very deserving.