Unless something strange happens, this will be my last post on Northern Sun Baseball.  It was a good run.  I enjoyed learning about blogging and am grateful for the response from readers and coaches.  While my son had a very good summer playing baseball (starting pitcher in Townball CCVL vs. CVL All-Star game) I believe his desire to play college baseball is over and with it ends any desire I have to continue blogging about the Northern Sun Baseball Conference. 

So I’m taking my ball and leaving the baseball blogging world.  I’ll get my writing fix by continuing to blog about real estate and life in Dakota County Minnesota here – http://www.dakotacountyproperties.com/

Thanks one last time to the regulars who made it hard to leave last year.  Your continued patronage was appreciated.

Best wishes and may your love of baseball continue.

Bill Wallace

Northern Sun Baseball Blog

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m leaving this thread up if any Northern Sun or D2 College Baseball fans want to use the comments to chat about developments leading up to the 2011 season.

Have a great summer & fall!

As was reported this past January, I’ve been operating this blog the past 2 seasons with the anticipation that my son would be playing in the Northern Sun Conference in 2010.  That didn’t happen but I kept the blog running for another year to see how it played out.  While he’s making noise about playing competitively next year it won’t be in the Northern Sun.

The June – December time period is extremely slow in college baseball anyway but this blogger will be taking a complete break for the time being.  The 2011 season and beyond for this blog is definitely in doubt as well.  I guess we will see what my thoughts are come January.

I do want to thank those readers that have provided positive feedback and encouragement over the past 2 years.  That response was certainly a big reason for staying on this year and helped me reach a goal of 100,000 visits.  Thank You for your support!

Finally, I will be making 1 last post as a place for Northern Sun fans to place comments if they want to communicate or share banter during the offseason.

My contact information can be found in the About page if anyone really wants to reach me.

Best regards – Bill Wallace

The University of Southern Indiana won its first ever Division 2 Baseball Title today with a 6-4 win over #1 ranked UC – San Diego.  The Screaming Eagles were led at the plate by Brad Vance and Todd Martin (the 8 & 9 batters) who combined for 5 RBI’s and pitcher Taylor Dennis who won his 2nd game at the College World Series and was named Most Outstanding Player.  D2 Championship Recap

All-Tournament Team
Taylor Dennis, Southern Indiana – Most Outstanding Player
Richard Pirkle, Georgia College & State
Brad Vance, Southern Indiana
Wes Fink, Southern Indiana
Derek Ingui, Franklin Pierce
Vance Albitz, UC San Diego
Wandy Rosario, Southern Indiana
Aaron Bauman, UC San Diego
Justin Blinn, Southern Indiana
Kyle Saul, UC San Diego
Todd Martin, Southern Indiana
Matt Rossman, UC San Diego

The 2011 D2 College World Series will be hosted once again in Cary, NC for the 3rd straight year.

It will be #1 ranked UC – San Diego against #9 Southern Indiana in today’s scheduled 2010 NCAA Division 2 Baseball Championship Game in Cary, NC.   Both teams are making their first ever appearance in the Final.

San Diego got there by winning the minimum 3 games over the past 8 days while Southern Indiana has had to play 4 games in the past 7 days as they started a day later and lost one along the way.  Therefore, the Tritons pitching staff should be a lot fresher.  That said, I’m sure the Screaming Eagles will have almost everyone pitch until their arms fall off if they have to.

The game will be played at 12:07pm Eastern and can be watched live here – Watch Championship Game Live

D2 Championship Website

UC-San Diego Baseball

Southern Indiana Baseball

The Minnesota State Mavericks lost their 2nd straight game at the 2010 NCAA Division 2 College World Series yesterday and have been eliminated from the Tournament.  While it was a disappointing way to end their season, the 6-2 loss to #13 Franklin Pierce doesn’t diminish what was a very successful season.  The Mavs finished the year with a 44-16 record, the most wins in school history.  They also won the Northern Sun Regular Season Title, the Northern Sun Postseason Tournament and the Central Region Tournament. 

Other Games

In other games yesterday, Southern Indiana beat Kutztown 7-1 in a Bracket 2 battle of unbeatens and now is 1 game away from the Championship Game.  Kutztown will face Franklin Pierce today for the opportunity to try and beat Southern Indiana twice. 

Today’s other game will feature a Bracket 1 elimination game between Central Missouri and Georgia College.

Three days are complete in the 2010 NCAA Division 2 College World Series and so far the #1 ranked team, UC – San Diego, is living up to its ranking.  The Tritons have won 2 straight games, first beating #4 ranked Georgia College 3-2 on Saturday and yesterday beating #3 ranked Central Missouri 2-1 in 11 innings.  With that win they advance to the Bracket 1 Championship game and need to win just 1 of their next 2 games to make the overall Title Game.

Tomorrow, Georgia College will play Central Missouri for the right to play on again against San Diego.  2nd ranked Tampa was the first team eliminated from the College World Series.

In Bracket 2, Sunday’s winners, Kutztown and Southern Indiana play while Franklin Pierce faces off against Minnesota State in an elimination game.

All-American Teams

The Division 2 All-American Teams have been announced –

• The Rawlings/ABCA All-American Team includes 2 Augustana players, Deryk Marks and Nate Baumann, on the 2nd team along with Wayne State’s Nick Bidroski, St. Cloud State’s Jordan Smith (the only Freshman) and Minnesota State’s Blake Schwartz on the 3rd team.
• The Rawlings/ABCA Gold Glove Team featured no players from the Northern Sun Conference
• The Daktronics All-American Team featured Marks & Baumann again on the 2nd team with St. Cloud State’s Jordan Smith & David Deminsky and Minnesota Duluth’s Tyler Erickson being named Honorable Mention.

Minnesota State Update

The Mavericks were forced by the weather to play a weird, late game on Sunday which they lost 8-6.  The game didn’t start until 11:02pm because of rain delays and didn’t finish until 2:28am on Monday morning.  The game wasn’t really as close as the score seemed to indicate as the team scored 5 late runs in the 9th inning.

One interesting note, Minnesota State’s coaches don’t seem to agree with the award givers.  Blake Schwartz won every Central Region & Conference award as the Pitcher of the Year.  He was even named 3rd team All-American (see above).  That said, for the 3rd straight weekend he’s been designated the #3 starter as the Mavericks went with Bret Mitchell in game #1 and Patrick Lenton in today’s game.  If they lose today he won’t have even pitched in the College World Series. 

The 2010 NCAA D2 College World Series kicks off on Saturday May 22nd in Cary, NC.  Eight teams will compete in a double elimination format tournament with a final Championship Game scheduled for Saturday May 29th.  The interactive bracket above will be updated here – NCAA Interactive Bracket

You can also watch many of the games live online by going to the bracket (via the link above) clicking on a game, and then clicking on the little camera icon.

Rankings

College Baseball News has released their updated rankings heading into the College World Series –

Bracket 1 is made up of the top 4 ranked teams while Bracket 2 contains teams ranked #6,9,11 and 13.  The winner of Bracket 1 will have a grueling road to the Championship Game and should be favored to win it but anything can happen in a 1 game, winner take all format.  NCAA Division 1 baseball uses a similar double elimination bracket structure but then pits the final 2 teams in a best of 3 series which seems like a little better system to identify the best team.

Following The Tournament

Mount Olive is the host institution for the D2 College World Series and therefore their website is hosting all of the material to follow along.  At their site you can find –

• Links to each team including how they got there, history at the Tournament and links back to their school websites
• Brackets
• Live Stats
• Information about attending the event and visitor information

College World Series Main Information Site

Minnesota State Update

The Minnesota State Mavericks will be representing the Northern Sun Conference and have been a team we’ve been covering all season.  They’ve been on quite a roll. 

As well as they’ve done, the main storyline for their potential success might very well be around their pitching.  While they won the Central Region Tournament, they did so with strong hitting.  They actually won 3 of 4 games while giving up 39 runs in those last 4 games to advance.  Most importantly, their star pitcher all year, Blake Schwartz, has suddenly become very hittable.  Schwartz won every Central Region & NSIC award as Pitcher of the Year during the regular season with a 10-1 record and a 2.69 ERA.  During his 2 postseason appearances he’s 0-1 with a 12.60 ERA. 

The athletic department will be updating a Mavericks College World Series Blog several times a day – Maverick CWS Blog

You can find their Postseason Media Guide here -  Postseason Media Guide

Minnesota State lost their first chance to clinch a spot in the 2010 NCAA Division 2 College World Series when they lost to St. Cloud State by a score of 16-6.  They came back with a vengeance in the final game, beating the Huskies 20-6 and advance to be among D2’s final 8 teams in Cary, NC.  This will be their 5th time at the Championship Tournament as they also advanced there in 1971, 1979, 1980 (3rd place) & 1986.

Season To Remember

With this win, the Mavericks have run the table so far on the 2010 season and won every important title –

• Northern Sun Regular Season Champions
• Northern Sun Tournament Champions
• NCAA Central Region Champions

They will enter the D2 College World Series as decided underdogs to the power programs from the South and West but the 19th ranked team will try to make it a clean sweep and they do have by far the easiest bracket to get to the final.

Central Region All-Tournament Team

Minnesota State and St. Cloud State were well represented on the Central Region All-Tournament Team picking up 9 of the 11 spots.

Catcher: PHILLIP RODRIGUEZ NMHU
First Base: JOEY BENKE * SCSU
Second Base: TRAVIS CARIVEAU SCSU
Third Base: KOSUKE HATTORI* MSU
Shortstop: STEVE RINDELAUB SCSU
Outfield: JORDAN SMITH* SCSU
Outfield: BEN KINCAID MSU
Outfield: DANNY MILLER MSU
Designated Hitter: BRAD MORGAN NMHU
Pitcher: BRETT MITCHELL MSU
Pitcher: DAVID DEMINSKY SCSU
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: DANNY MILLER MSU

NCAA D2 College World Series Bracket

7 of the 8 teams advancing to the NCAA Division 2 College World Series have been identified as Tampa won the South Region.  The South Central will be decided today with undefeated Central Missouri facing off against 1 loss Abilene Christian.

As you can see, Bracket 1 is decidedly harder than Bracket 2.  Assuming Central Missouri advances, that bracket will have the #1 ranked team in UC-San Diego, #2 Tampa & #3 Central Missouri in addition to #9 Georgia College.

Bracket 2 contains #12 Kutztown, #12 Southern Indiana, #19 Minnesota State and #22 Franklin Pierce. 

The teams in Bracket 1 will be cursing their bad draw this year and whichever team makes it out of that Bracket should be the favorite to win the Championship Game but you never know in a 1 game, winner take all format.

The Northern Sun Conference will have a team represented at the 2010 NCAA Division 2 College World Series this year as Minnesota State will face off against St. Cloud State in the Central Region Championship Game.  The Mavericks hold the advantage as they are undefeated and just need to win once while the St. Cloud State Huskies must win 2 straight games.  In addition, St. Cloud had to play an extra game to get to this spot so they have used up more pitching.

The 2 teams played yesterday morning in the winners bracket and the Mavericks pulled out a 11-10 victory by scoring 4 runs in the top of the 9th inning.  All of their offense came with 2 outs.  Mavericks Score 4 in Ninth

The Huskies came back late yesterday with a 12-8 win over the Regions top ranked team, New Mexico Highlands.  St. Cloud’s Joey Benke and Jordan Smith, the #3 & 4 hitters, continue to destroy all pitching.  For the Tournament Benke is 10-17 with 10 runs scored & 5 RBI’s.  Smith is 12-18 with 5 runs scored and 8 RBI’s including 4 doubles, a triple and a homer. Huskies To Play on Sunday

Around The NCAA Regionals

The other NCAA Regional Tournaments are also narrowing to the final teams:

Atlantic – #2 Seed, West Chester, is undefeated and #1 seed Kutztown must beat them twice in the Championship Game.

East – #1 Seed, Southern Connecticut State is in the Championship Game and will face a 1 loss Franklin Pierce, the #2 seed.

Midwest – Yet another 1/2 matchup in the final as #2 Grand Valley State came through the winners bracket and #1 Southern Indiana must beat them twice.

South – Nationally ranked #2, Tampa, beat Southern Arkansas in the winners bracket and advances to the Championship Game.  This Regional won’t be final until Monday as the 8 team format adds a day.  The Rollins/Florida Southern winner will face Southern Arkansas to make it back to face Tampa on Monday.

Southeast – #3 seed, Georgia College, advances without a loss to the Championship Game and will play the Regionals #1 seed, Francis Marion. 

South Central – The first weather issues impacted a Regional where all of Saturday’s games were washed out and will be played today.

West – In this 4 team Regional, UC – San Diego, the nations #1 ranked team, has qualified for the Division 2 College World Series for the 2nd straight year.