Holy Trinity Batman, Tigers favored
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Kyle Felix and the rest of the Trinity Tigers are
back in action with opening day set for Feb. 4 at home against
Schreiner. |
By D3baseball.com staff
The West region is perennially one of the strongest in Division
III. In the last decade, the Region produced 2 champions (Chapman
2003 and George Fox 2004) and has sent exports which won other
regionals as when Linfield made the final round out of the Rock
Island Regional in 2008. The region should be strong again in 2011.
The D3baseball.com voters put more teams from the West Region (6)
into the preseason Top 25 than any other region. The surprising
thing about that fact is that the West Region is so deep in talent
that another 3-4 teams in the region have strong chances of earning
a playoff bid. Chapman and Linfield are re-loading and Trinity
(Texas) seems to be back on top. Add in the ASC contenders in
Mississippi College and Texas-Tyler and you have a region deep with
talent looking for a champion. The outlook is as confusing as ever
but our pick to come out of all this confusion is Trinity
(Texas).
New Faces: James Rise, Austin: James Rise has been named the new head coach of Austin coming over from Occidental, where he served as an assistant coach for two seasons. "I am extremely excited and optimistic about our future as a program and look to build on the existing foundation," said Rise. "I am eager to get to Sherman to get things started."
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James Rise was selected to take over the 'Roos when
Carl Iwasaki left for D-I Northern Colorado. |
Derek Dunaway, Mary Hardin-Baylor: Derek Dunaway was named interim head coach for the 2011 season after five seasons as an assistant coach for Mary Hardin-Baylor. A 2001 graduate of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Dunaway still holds Mary Hardin-Baylor career records for victories and innings pitched.
American Southwest Conference (ASC): This
15-team, 2-division conference will determine its Pool A bid with a
two-weekend post-season tournament by taking the top 4 teams from
each division in best-of-3 crossover series hosted by the top 2
teams in each division, followed by a four-team double elimination
tournament, to be hosted by the number one seed in the East.
American Southwest Conference, East Division: 2010 Regional
tournament participant Mississippi College (39-11) came in #15 in
the preseason Top 25 and counts on three senior starting pitchers
and outfielder Stuart McGee (.401, 7 HR, 42 RBI), outfielder Andy
Smith (.350, 32 RBI, 12 SB) and first baseman Shane Bennett (.342,
13 2B, 40 RBI) to repeat their trip the NCAA tournament. Key
non-division games for Mississippi College include series against
Millsaps, Rhodes and an ASC crossover series against McMurry in
Abilene. The East championship will likely be determined at
Texas-Tyler in mid April. The #22 Texas-Tyler Patriots will be led
by new head coach Paul Wyczaski. He takes over a NCAA West Region
Playoff team that went 36-12. Preseason honorable mention
All-American Matt Schimpf (5-0, 4 saves, 1.82 ERA) should lead the
Patriots on the mound. Also contending for ASC playoff slots are
Texas-Dallas (14-25) and University of the Ozarks (14-25).
Texas-Dallas has two transfers players that are expected to crack
the starting order in outfielder Chase Brown (Blinn JC) and pitcher
Derek Dallas (Cisco JC). The team in the Ozarks will be young
with five incoming players making an immediate impact.
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Jake Mullin helped McMurry to its seventh-straight
ASC Tournament appearance and set school records for batting
average (.462) and on-base percentage (.570) in 2010. |
American Southwest Conference, West Division: The ASC-West is always a very balanced race. Texas Lutheran (32-13) edged out Mary-Hardin Baylor (22-19), Hardin-Simmons (23-21) and McMurry (21-21) to win the West division in 2010. All-American pitcher Brad Orosey (10-1, 3.15 ERA, 104 SO) will lead the Bulldogs again in 2011. New interim head coach Derek Dunaway takes over at Mary Hardin-Baylor, which finished in a three way tie for second in the ASC-West in 2010. Hardin-Simmons brings in righty Trevor Stringer from NAIA Wayland Baptist to join left-hander Sam Walker (7-3, 5.15 ERA, 59 SO). Hardin Simmons will have second baseman Austin Cantwell back after missing all of last season with a back injury to go along with seniors 3B Taylor Berlin (.411, 5 HR, 44 RBI) and OF LeJuan Edwards (.405, 1 HR, 31 RBI). ASC fans will see what the new baseball bats do for the Cowboys who play at Hunter Field, historically a hitters’ park. McMurry hosts the West Regional in May, but has a hard task ahead if it wants to play there. Fortunately for McMurry, Jake Mullin (.462, 9 HR, 46 RBI) will finish rehabing a shoulder injury on the gridiron by the time the first conference game is played. The Former major leaguer Tommy Boggs is now in his second season as head coach at Concordia-Texas (15-24) and will take the Tornados to the Arizona Classic in February. The 2011 Tornados anticipate playing the full 2011 season in their new home, Tornado Field, on their new campus in northwest Austin.
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NWC all-star outfielder Zach Boskovich returns for his
junior season at Linfield. |
Northwest Conference (NWC): The NWC does not
have a post-season tournament, so its Pool A bid is determined by
regular season play. The conference has also cut back to 3-game
series among the nine conference members
Linfield is the solid favorite to repeat as the NWC champion.
Linfield alumnus, head coach and former major leaguer Scott Brosius
has a record of 100-38, two NWC titles and two trips to Wisconsin
since taking over the head coaching job. The Wildcats (37-13) will
be lead by preseason All-American Zach Boscovich (.407, 17 HR, 72
RBI), NWC Pitcher of the Year Ryan Larson (12-4, 3.02 ERA, 67 SO),
and closer Robert Vaughn (2-1, 2 saves, 2.19 ERA). Pacific
Lutheran (30-10) also was noticed by the Top 25 voters. Led by
Coach Geoff Loomis, the Lutes return eight starters and two
starting pitchers with their closer. Senior centerfielder Ryan
Aratani (.398, 49 R, 35 RBI) is within range of setting Lute career
records for runs, RBI and batting average. George Fox’s Marty
Hunter has gone 87-41 in his first three seasons at George Fox
(23-16) and win 100 should occur in mid-season. The Bruins are
young and should be building for 2012 and 2013. Williamette (16-22)
is led by Mitchell Rowan (.403, 12 HR, 42 RBI) and the Bearcats are
expected to join the big three at the top of the conference. Puget
Sound (19-21) senior second baseman Dakota Resnik (.340, 40 RBI, 15
SB) is set to become one of the most successful hitters in program
history.
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David Colvin earned a spot on the first team
All-SCIAC team in 2010. |
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC): Like the NWC, the SCIAC does not have a conference tournament and the regular season champion receives an automatic playoff bid. The eyes of D-III will be on southern California in mid-March when Carleton, Denison, Ithaca, Johns Hopkins, Kean, Rutgers-Newark and Wabash take Horace Greeley's advice to go west for spring training.
Pomona-Pitzer (31-11), the preseason #18 pick, graduated "All-Decade" player James Kang, but All-American senior pitcher David Colvin (10-3, 2.82 ERA 107 SO) should lead the Sagehens to a third straight SCIAC Championship in 2011. Marty Slimak’s Cal Lutheran Kingsmen (27-13) finished second in 2010, but return preseason All-American designated hitter K.C. Judge (.453, 33 RBI, 17 SB) and four other starters including defensive strength up the middle for 2011. We get an early assessment of Cal Lutheran when they travel to Anthem, AZ in February to face the top of the NWC at the Arizona Desert Classic. Redlands (29-11) tied Cal Lutheran for second in the SCIAC. Their workhorse and ace of the pitching staff, Derek Johnson (12-2, 3.04 ERA, 78 SO) is back and can be found on the D3baseball.com preseason All-American team. Occidental (14-25) returns strong pitching headed by Cory Popham (3-2, 2.92 ERA). Occidental and ASC members Texas-Dallas and Concordia-Texas will also play in the Arizona Desert Classic.
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Brian Rauh's perfect record of 11-0 is second only
to Devin Drag’s 16-0 season in 2007 in Chapman baseball
history. |
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC): When we last saw Trinity (32-9), the Tigers were losing a couple of heartbreakers in the 2010 NCAA West Regional, first 4-3 to Chapman and then 5-4 in 11 innings to Mississippi College. With Birmingham-Southern in its last year of provisional status, the Tigers are favored to sweep through the SCAC post-season tournament again. Junior Kyle Felix (.426, 6 HR, 41 RBI in 26 games) and Evan Jones (.480, .865 SLG%) are strong candidates to contend for All-American honors. Millsaps is likely be the second team to make the SCAC postseason tournament from the SCAC-West with seven all-SCAC players returning for the 2011 season. Expect to see seniors Will Hawkins (.353, 40 RBI), Jake Mills (.407, 38 RBI), and Aaron Williams (7-0, 4.74 ERA) near the top of many statistical categories. Austin (19-20) hopes its new head coach leads them back to the SCAC tournament. James Rise, formerly assistant at Occidental, takes over from Carl Iwasaki, who returned to his alma mater at Northern Colorado.
Independents: The West Region used to be full of independents, but Cal State East Bay is in second year of its transition to Division II, Menlo has moved to the NAIA and La Sierra never made it out of provisional status for D-III. With the University of Dallas (14-25) moving to the SCAC in 2011-12, that only leaves No. 11 Chapman (31-11). Coach Tom Tereschuk (282-90) starts his ninth season for the Chapman Panthers with All-American starting pitcher Brian Rauh (11-0, 4 saves, 2.38 ERA, 100 SO) and veteran Jordan Sigman (8-5, 3.00 ERA) to anchor his pitching staff. As an independent, Chapman will be aiming for a Pool B (at-large) bid to make it to the NCAA post-season for the ninth consecutive season.
