The MIT Engineers will play the Babson Beavers in an elimination game on Sunday. The winner advances to take on Wheaton, and if necessary, a second championship contest will be played immediately following.

In other action on Saturday, junior righthander Louie Bernardini pitched into the ninth with zero earned runs and five hits allowed while sophomore Robert Foote went 3-for-4 with two RBI, leading top seed Wheaton College to a 6-1 baseball victory against third-seeded Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Saturday afternoon's New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament semifinal round at Sidell Stadium.

Earlier, Wheaton posted a 2-0 opening game victory over Babson, while MIT advanced in the winner's bracket by outslugging Coast Guard 15-12. The Beavers eliminated the Bears 5-4 in 10 innings for the right to square off with MIT in an elimination round contest.

In the opening round on Thursday, third-seeded MIT, fourth-seeded Babson and seventh-seeded Coast Guard all advanced to the double elimination portion of the 2007 NEWMAC Baseball Championships by posting first round single elimination victories during play on Thursday afternoon. The Engineers shutout sixth-seeded Springfield 3-0, while the Beavers notched a 9-6 triumph over fifth-seeded Clark. The Bears pulled off the upset of the day by ousting second-seeded WPI by a 3-1 margin.

The Denison Big Red rallied from a 4-2 deficit by scoring two runs in the bottom of the eighth and two more in the ninth en route to a 6-5 victory over the No. 1 ranked team in NCAA Division III baseball, Wooster.

With the score tied 4-4 heading into the top half of the ninth, Wooster took back the lead when pinch-hitter Josh Keller reached base on an error by Andrew Pakla which scored Shaun Swearingen with the go-ahead run. Denison reliever Park Smith would get out of the inning without any more damage, setting the stage for some ninth inning Big Red heroics.

Junior Tim LaBolt led off the bottom of the ninth with a double to deep left-center field and after Wooster's Mark Miller retired Denison's Chris Day. Aidan Lucas followed with a base hit that moved LaBolt over to third base. Smith followed with an infield single that loaded the bases with one out and Justin Held at the plate. Swinging on the first pitch, Held sent a bouncer up the middle that was fielded by Wooster shortstop John Quimby who stepped on second to retire Smith and followed with a hurried throw to first base that sailed high and down the first base line, past first baseman Sheldon Steiner. The errant throw would bring LaBolt and pinch runner Mason Rose around with the game-winning run.

While the late inning rally stole the show, the real story of the game was the Denison pitching staff. Eight pitchers combined to allow just four earned runs to a team which entered the night collectively batting .348. JD Wyborny, James Clear, Mike Hundley, Troy Testerman, Mike Hudson, Erik Fargo and Luke Gelber all worked one inning apiece. Smith entered in the eighth and closed out the final two frames to earn his third victory of the season.

Smith also did the most damage at the plate, going 3-for-5 with one RBI and one run scored. Andy Johnson was 2-for-4, including a two-out RBI single in the eighth which tied the game at 4-4. LaBolt and Lucas also posted multi-hit games for the Big Red.

The loss was tagged to Wooster's Miller who worked 1.2 innings and allowed two earned runs off six hits. Swearingen was 5-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored to lead the Fighting Scots.

In other action: Adam Enloe struck out nine and Jake Kaase delivered four hits and the game-winning RBI in the eighth inning to lift the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs to a 6-5 win over Mississippi College, Friday afternoon in game one of the American Southwest Conference playoff series.

Northwestern picked up its 20th win of the season with a 15-8 victory at the University of Minnesota-Morris. The Eagles scored six runs in the top of the ninth to claim the victory. Northwestern currently stands at 20-12 overall and 10-6 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC). The Cougars fell to 4-16 overall and 3-8 in the UMAC.

Senior third baseman Shaun Pfeil collected two hits, including the 200th of his career, and drove in two runs to lift 23rd-ranked Washington and Jefferson past Grove City, 6-2, in Presidents' Athletic Conference baseball action on Friday afternoon at Ross Memorial Park.

More of Friday's press releases.

MIT, Babson And Coast Guard Post Triumphs In Opening Round Single Elimination Play In 2007 NEWMAC Baseball Championships

Third-seeded MIT, fourth-seeded Babson and seventh-seeded Coast Guard all advanced to the double elimination portion of the 2007 NEWMAC Baseball Championships by posting first round single elimination victories during play on Thursday afternoon.

The Engineers shutout sixth-seeded Springfield 3-0 in Cambridge, Mass., while the Beavers notched a 9-6 triumph over fifth-seeded Clark in Babson Park, Mass. The Bears pulled off the upset of the day by ousting second-seeded WPI by a 3-1 margin in Worcester, Mass.

The double elimination portion of the championship begins on Saturday morning with competition to take place on the Wheaton and Babson campuses. Top-seeded Wheaton will square off with Babson in the first game at 11:00 a.m. in Norton, Mass., while MIT and Coast Guard will meet in Babson Park at 11:00 a.m. The two winners will play in Norton, while the two losers will meet in Babson Park, with both contests set to begin at 2:30 p.m.

Sunday's action will all take place at Wheaton, with a second elimination game set for 11:00 a.m. before the 2007 NEWMAC Baseball championship round begins at 1:30 p.m, with a second contest to be played if necessary at 4:00 p.m.

Using both a solid pitching performance and timely hitting, the Wentworth baseball team snapped a 13-game losing streak to Endicott by defeating the Gulls, 7-1, in the opening game of a Commonwealth Coast Conference doubleheader. The win was Wentworth's first over Endicott since April 7, 2001.

Endicott looked like it was going to jump out early in the game as senior Erik Fields hit a one-out single up the middle and went to third when sophomore Brian Andersen hit a double down the left field line. However, the threat would end when senior Joe Orlando struck out and was thrown out trying to advance on the dropped third strike. On the throw, Fields broke for home, but was thrown out by freshman Chris Carbone.

The Leopards would get all of the offense they needed in the second inning when sophomore Phil Costello led off with a walk and went to second when Chris Carbone walked. Junior Jarrett Ament laid down a sacrifice bunt, but the throw to first was wild, scoring Costello and placing Chris Carbone on third and Ament on second. After freshman Mo Gardner walked to load the bases, classmate Matt Dannenhoffer stroked a double down the right field line, which would clear the bases. Senior starter Ian Parkinson would get the next two batters out, but freshman Anthony Carbone would reach on a two-base error, which plated Dannenhoffer and gave Wentworth a 5-0 advantage. Sophomore Nick Cunningham drove in Anthony Carbone with a single before a flyout ended the inning.

Wentworth would add another run in the third inning when Chris Carbone would reach on an infield single and move to second on a wild pitch. After two outs were recorded Dannenhoffer drove in his fourth run of the day with a single up the middle and increased the lead to 7-0.

Endicott tallied its lone run of the game in the fourth inning after Orlando drew a one-out walk and would score after the Leopards committed back-to-back errors. However, sophomore starter Aaron LaPlante got an inning-ending double play before any further damage could be done. The Gulls would leave a pair of runners in scoring position in the fifth inning, but could not produce any runs.

LaPlante improved to 5-1 on the season as he pitched five innings, allowing one unearned run on four hits, walking two, and striking out two. Freshman Matt Vezina set down all six batters he faced over the final two innings. Offensively, Dannenhoffer was 2-for-3 with four RBI, while Chris Carbone was 2-for-2 with a pair of runs scored.

Parkinson took the loss for the Gulls, falling to 3-2. He allowed seven runs (four earned) on five hits, while walking three and striking out five. Four different players recorded hits for Endicott, with Orlando scoring the lone run.

Wentworth completed the sweep with a 4-3 win. Wentworth improves to 12-16 overall and 9-9 in CCC play. The Leopards close out the regular season at Salve Regina Saturday afternoon. Endicott falls to 13-17 (9-8) and hosts Roger Williams tomorrow.

In other action:

Junior first baseman Rob Ritterson ripped a two-out, two-strike, two-run double into the left field corner in the top of the ninth inning, lifting the Rowan to a 4-3 victory over Rutgers-Camden in a New Jersey Athletic Conference game Thursday at Campbell's Field.

Southern Maine used single runs in the fifth, sixth, and ninth innings to defeat the Saint Joseph's College Monks 3-0 in non-conference action at Mahaney Diamond on Thursday. With the loss, St. Joseph's drops to 25-6 on the season, while the Huskies move to 21-7, and sweep the regular season series (3-0).

New Jersey City junior shortstop Jose Fulgencio broke the school record by extending his hitting streak to 24 consecutive games, but it wasn't enough as the Gothic Knights fell to Montclair State University, 8-1, in a NJAC game at Yogi Berra Stadium. MSU, fourth in the league standings, improves to 18-15, 10-5 in the NJAC, while the Gothic Knights fall to 15-19 and 3-12. MSU swept the season series from NJCU, also winning on April 6.

More of Thursday's press releases.

Designated hitter Jimmy Fernandez of Allegheny College was almost perfect at the plate, and Tim Kiely of Trinity College (Conn.) WAS perfect on the mound as the two earned NCAA Division III National Hitter and Pitcher of the Week honors for April 16-22 in voting by representatives of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Fernandez, a senior from Niagara Falls, N.Y., paced the Gators' offensive output last week by going 14-for-16 (.875) in four games, with three doubles and a three-run home run, earning 20 total bases for a slugging percentage of 1.250. He also walked three times, taking his on-base percentage to .895. He tied for the team lead with 11 runs scored, and also drove in 14 runs. He had three four-hit games, including a 4-for-4 with a double, four runs and four RBI vs. Pittsburgh-Bradford, a 4-for-5 with a double, two runs and three RBI vs. Oberlin, and a 4-for-5 with a home run, four runs and five RBI vs. Oberlin again. Fernandez was the North Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Week.

Kiely, a junior right-hander from Swampscott, Mass., pitched the 13th perfect game in NCAA Division III history, striking out nine while allowing just two balls to leave the infield in a 4-0 win over Tufts on Saturday. He struck out six of the first nine hitters he faced, and threw only 79 pitches in the seven-inning gem. It was the first perfect game in Trinity's 139-year history and the first no-hitter for the Bantams since 2002. Kiely, the New England Small College Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week, is now 3-0 on the season with a 2.14 ERA and 22 strikeouts and only 5 walks in 21 innings.

Honorable Mention Hitters: Tom Salemy (Colby) - .565 (13-23), 3 2b, 2 hr, 10 runs, 11 RBI, .956 slg pct.; Nick Pecora (Wheaton MA) - .647 (11-17), 2 2b, 8 RBI, .765 slg pct.; Jake Jackson (Texas-Dallas) - .846 (11-13), 2 2b, 5 RBI, 1.000 slg pct.; David Bachofner (Linfield) - .643 (9-14), 2 2b, 1 3b, 6 runs, 9 RBI, .929 slg pct.; Kyle Schroeder (Luther) - .533 (8-15), 1 2b, 2 hr, 5 runs, 11 RBI, 1.000 slg pct.; Trey Johnson (SUNY-Fredonia) - .682 (15-22), 2 2b, 1 hr, 5 runs, 7 RBI, 4 sb, .909 slg pct.; Mike Graziano (Scranton) - .526 (10-19), 4 2b, 2 hr, 7 runs, 13 RBI, 1.053 slg pct.; Ross Bennett (Wisconsin-Platteville) - .522 (12-23), 4 2b, 1 3b, 2 hr, 11 runs, 11 RBI, 1.043 slg pct.; Tim Kay (Bluffton) - .667 (16-24), 3 2b, 2 3b, 6 runs, 6 RBI, 5 sb, .958 slg pct.; Jose Fulgencio (New Jersey City) - .529 (9-17), 1 2b, 2 3b, 1 hr, 2 runs, 5 RBI, 1.000 slg pct.

Honorable Mention Pitchers: Riley Bosch (St. Thomas MN) - 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 7.0 ip, 5 hits, 6 strikeouts; Chris McDonough (Wheaton MA) - 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 9.0 ip, 2 hits, 7 strikeouts; Kevin Kangas (Lawrence) - 2-0, 3.86 ERA, 14.0 ip, 14 hits, 12 strikeouts; Jordan Zimmerman (Wisconsin-Stevens Point) - 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 9.0 ip, 2 hits, 11 strikeouts; Tyler Brooks (Louisiana College) - 1-0, 1.50 ERA, 6.0 ip, 2 hits, 4 strikeouts; Bryan Brainer (Salisbury) - 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 9.0 ip, 5 hits, 12 strikeouts; Kael Fisher (Pacific Lutheran) - 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 9.0 ip, 4 h, 12 strikeouts; Dan VandeVerde (William Paterson) - 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 9.0 ip, 5 hits, 4 strikeouts.

Founded in 1962, the NCBWA is dedicated to the advancement of college baseball. Membership is open to writers, broadcasters and publicists of the sport. Members receive a membership card, directory, newsletter updates and official votes in the Howser Award Player of the Year, Regional Player of the Year and NCBWA All-America voting. The NCBWA also sponsors preseason All-America awards, publication and writing contests.

2007 Winners:

Feb. 26-Mar. 4 - Hitter of the Week: Jake Shandri (Wartburg)
Pitcher of the Week: Bill Dictus (Edgewood

Mar. 5-11 - Hitter of the Week: Pete Moore (Moravian)
Pitcher of the Week: Lee Boyse (Coe)

Mar. 12-18 - Hitter of the Week: Rob Sumner (New Jersey City)
Pitcher of the Week: Jake Dennstedt (SUNY-Brockport)

Mar. 19-25 - Hitter of the Week: Jake Shandri (Wartburg)
Pitcher of the Week: Xander Jones (Ohio Wesleyan)

Mar. 26-Apr. 1 - Co-Hitter of the Week: Richard Hurd (Rhodes)
Co-Hitter of the Week: Don Reinertsen (William Paterson)
Co-Hitter of the Week: Kyle Sherman (Ohio Wesleyan)
Pitcher of the Week: Kyle Wewe (Thomas More)

Apr. 2-8 - Hitter of the Week: Josh Cardoso (Rhode Island College)
Pitcher of the Week: Bob Buskett (College of New Jersey)

Apr. 9-15 - Hitter of the Week: Adam Evanoff (Wisconsin-Stevens Point)
Co-Pitcher of the Week: Sam Heaps (Elizabethtown)
Co-Pitcher of the Week: Brad Mountain (Eastern Nazarene)

Apr. 16-22 - Hitter of the Week: Jimmy Fernandez (Allegheny)
Pitcher of the Week: Tim Kiely (Trinity CT)

For just the second time in the last eight years UW-Whitewater will not win the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference baseball championship, with a split at UW-Oshkosh Wednesday ending the Warhawks chance at another league title. Whitewater won game one 12-4, with Oshkosh winning game two 10-5.

Whitewater (15-12-1, 8-7-1) will have to concentrate on holding on to the number three seed in the league tournament, May 11-12 in Wisconsin Rapids. Oshkosh (24-6, 18-2) will travel to second place UW-Stevens Point for doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday to decide the league title.

Whitewater opened game one with a three run first inning. Billy Johnson singling home two runs. The third run was manufactured from a fielder's choice, a wild pitch and a walk. Bryan Schwebke homered in the bottom half of the inning to make it 3-1.

Whitewater broke the game open with seven runs in the third inning. The Warhawks sent eleven men to the plate, collecting five hits. Two wild pitches and an error contributed helped UW-W's cause. Greg Harder's two run single was the big hit in an inning of small ball.

The scoring concluded with single runs by the Warhawks in the eighth and ninth, the latter on Ben Prather's first home run of the year. Oshkosh scored once in the eight and twice in the ninth.

Mike Jacobson, 5-2, pitched the first eight and a third for UW-W. He allowed twelve hits, three earned runs, walked two and struck out seven. Johnson and Jordan Stine went 3x5 for UW-W, with Thomas Corcoran having a 3x4 game. Johnson led the Warahwks with three runs batted in. Adam Bretl, 5-2, went the first three innings to take the loss for the Titans. Schwebke was 3x4 with a pair of runs scored.

Whitewater got off quickly again in game two, with Stine hitting a two run homer in the first. The Titans made it 2-1 in the third, but Whitewater got that run back in the top of the fourth to make it 3-1.

Like the first game, game two turned on one half inning. In this case it was the bottom of the fourth, where UW-Oshkosh scored five runs on just three hits. A hit batter, a walk and a UW-W error figured in the scoring. The key hit was a two run double by Jason Fosler (RF, sophomore, DeForest).

Whitewater cut the margin to 6-5 with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth, but the Titans regained that in the bottom of the inning and tacked on single runs in the seventh and eighth.

Adam Dominick, the first of three Warhawk pitchers, took the loss to move his record to 1-4. Johnson added to his productive day at the plate, going 3x4 with two RBI's. Oshkosh starter Adam Roos improved to 4-0 with five innings of work. Brad Demmin and Mickey Fadness had three hits apiece for the Titans. They also combined for five runs batted in and four runs scored.

More of Wednesday's press releases.

By Ralph Turner
D3baseball.com

The NCAA has released the Division III Baseball Championships Handbook. For the real Division III baseball nerds, combing this tome for playoff minutiae is the real beginning of the playoffs. The playoffs can be summed up in two rules.

Rule No. 1: Read the handbook.

Rule No. 2: I said, "Read the handbook!"

Rule No. 3: While I am waiting for you read the handbook, here is a quick opinion into the way that I think that the playoffs work.

Division III is about equal access. The NCAA is a voluntary association, and so its members have voted on "equal access" after study by the various NCAA Committees. It has done this through the Pool system. Certainly there are some inequities in the Pool system, but the championships committee has worked to refine the process every year. Officially recognized conferences have had at least four core members and seven total full members (core plus any affiliate members) for more than two years. There are 33 conferences this year. These conferences individually determine how they will award their respective automatic bids, also called a Pool A bid. Those who are not in conferences with automatic bids can qualify through Pool B, which we'll talk more about later.

How the number of bids are determined.

The current NCAA Division I men's basketball television contract provides funding for the Division III playoffs in all sports, from baseball to women's hockey, including the recent expansion. In 2005, we had 42 total bids (33 Pool A bids, 6 Pool B bids and 3 Pool C bids.) In 2007, we have 53 bids (33 Pool A bids, 5 Pool B bids and 15 Pool C bids.)

Each conference with at least seven participating members gets a Pool A bid (also known as an automatic bid, or AQ, automatic qualifier). The conferences that do not field seven full member teams and the independents and comprise Pool B. Some notable members in Pool B include the Capital Athletic Conference schools such as Salisbury and Mary Washington, the new Northern Athletics Conference (which should earn its Pool A bid in 2009), the University Athletic Association, the Presidents' Athletic Conference (which should earn its Pool A bid in 2008) and the Empire 8 schools.

These schools are competing for Pool B bids against independents such a Chapman and Cal State-East Bay (formerly known as Cal State-Hayward) and members of unofficial conferences such as the Great South AC and the Upper Midwest AC.

After these bids have been allocated, the remaining teams in the country are trying for the remaining Pool C bids. The very specific criteria for Pool C bids are listed in the Handbook.

Pool C bids are the at-large bids that everyone knows from Division I basketball and from other Division III sports. This year, D3 has 15 Pool C bids. If you did not win your conference's Pool A bid, or you were a Pool B school and did not earn a bid in the first cut, then you fall to Pool C.

Please note the primary criteria that the Division III baseball committee uses to select at-large teams do not include games against non-Division III schools, the recent playoff history of the conference, the reputation of the coach or the defending national champion.

These are the primary criteria that are used to rank the Pool C teams:
• Win-loss percentage against regional opponents
• Quality of Wins Index: only contests versus regional competition
• In- region head-to-head competition.
• In-region results vs. common regional opponents.
• In-region results vs. regionally ranked teams
• Ranked opponents are defined as those teams ranked at the time of the ranking/selection process only.
• Conference post-season contests are included.
• Contests versus provisional members in their third and fourth years shall count in the primary criteria. Provisional members shall remain ineligible for rankings and selection.

If the evaluation of the primary criteria does not result in a decision by the committee, the following Secondary Criteria (for ranking and selections) will be evaluated:
• Out-of region head-to-head competition.
• Overall Division III won-loss percentage
• Results versus common non Division III opponents
• Results versus Division III teams ranked in other regions
• Overall win-loss percentage
• Results versus common out-of region opponents
• Overall Division III Quality of Wins.

As the conference tourneys are played, we can get an idea of which regular-season champions who lost the conference tourney are likely to get a Pool C bid. A good place to look at the better candidates for Pool C comes from the NCAA Regional Rankings that will be released on the next three weeks. The final ranking is not released, but serves as the final rankings. Unofficially, from the experience that D-III followers on these sites have gained from the football and basketball, we can applaud the committee for looking at the data. Bloggers and posters on the D3football.com and D3baseball.com sites can usually predict all but 1-2 Pool C bid earners correctly. The selection criteria have been refined over the last 5-6 years and have taken much of the subjectivity out of the process. The expansion in the number of playoff bids has made the process more equitable. One can see that the quibbling over the "16th Pool C candidate" sitting at home in 2007 is not as contentious as the "4th Pool C candidate" in 2005.

We shall be blogging about Pool B and Pool C bids over the next three weeks. It is time to enjoy the best part of the season.

Wooster remains No. 1 team in the latest American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division III Baseball Poll. The Scots received seven first place votes. Second place Chapman gathered the only other first place vote.

While Wooster and Chapman continue to hold onto the top two slots in the ABCA/CB Top 30 for the third straight poll, the biggest mover upwards was Wisconsin-Oshkosh, which moved up to No. 12 after not being ranked in the previous poll. The only changes in the top ten teams were Cortland State and Emory swapping places, the College of New Jersey moving into a tie with No. 9 Salisbury and Washington (Mo.) dropping to No. 12.

Along with Wisconsin-Oshkosh, new to the top 30 are Texas-Dallas, Illinois Wesleyan, Southern Maine, St Scholastica, and George Fox.

The regional leaders were unchanged since the last poll and are: No. 7 Wheaton, Mass., (23-9), No. 3 Cortland State (28-3), No. 5 Kean (24-6), No. 1 Wooster (33-1), No. 4 Emory (30-7), No. 6 St. Olaf (21-2), No. 12 Washington U. (24-8) and No. 2 Chapman (30-5). The remainder of the Top 10 is No. 8 Texas Lutheran (30-7-1) ninth-ranked Salisbury (26-7), and ninth-ranked College of New Jersey (23-8).

The ABCA's regional rankings have no bearing on NCAA playoff selection.

Texas-Tyler (37-1), which is in the last year of its four-year provisional membership in Division III, is not eligible for the NCAA playoffs and is not ranked. The full Top 30.