The 2012 D-III season is going into its fourth weekend with about 70 teams already getting some action in the early part of the season. More teams will have their openers as northern teams start making trips south. The hottest competition could be in Arizona as there are a number of teams piling up some early in-region wins playing in the Arizona sun.

It will be a tough weekend in Arizona for the Tornados.  They play 5-1 Cal Lutheran on Friday and two  days later it is 6-1 La Verne.  Needless to say these games will be important in April when folks start looking at the regional rankings. Linfield is also in Arizona and their toughest contest will be the Kingsmen from Cal Lutheran.

Looking easy of Arizona and you see undefeated Dallas and Austin playing a three game set.  With the longest current winning streak in 2012, the Crusaders could find themselves 9-0 heading into a key contest with Texas-Dallas.

Moving out to the east coast, there is good baseball where the best contest might be CNU and Cortland State. With both favored to capture regional titles, this could be a match-up we could see in Appleton on the final weekend of play. Another weekend game, CNU and Bridgewater (Va.), will match the favored team in both the USA South and ODAC.

Not to be overlooked is 5-0 Methodist. Three games against Frostburg State, Birmingham-Southern, and Lynchburg will go a long way to announcing the resurgence of the Monarchs. Methodist head coach Tom Austin is looking for his 1000th career win and it could be achieved in early March.

Speaking of 1000th wins, it was Salisbury that got their program’s 1000th win this week.  The Sea Gulls are now 1000-638-17 over 49 seasons. Salisbury will see Gallaudet before a game against Cortland this weekend.

Mary Hardin-Baylor’s Taylor Burrow had quite a week with the season’s first no-hitter. UMHB is 3-0 against D-III competition with their only losses coming against NAIA Texas Wesleyan.  They will have a better gauge on how good a team they have when they meet Trinity (Texas) later next week.

No tags

The 2012 D-III baseball season is already two weeks old and teams across the South through Texas to the West Coast have seen action.

Three teams in the Top 25 have played a game.  No. 2   Chapman is 3-1 with a loss to the Whittier Poets.  Last year they lost two to Whittier and ended with a second place finish. “Fear the Beard” was a refrain when Christian Maietta took the mound in the Championship series but it was not to be last Sunday when Maietta took a hard loss.

No. 7 Christopher Newport used a pitching staff by committee in their first game, dealing 2-0 Hampden-Sydney their first loss of the season.  It was the offense that ruled the day with preseason All-American Connor Madden getting the big hit, a grand slam, among his four on the day.

No. 22 Trinity (Texas) is 2-0 with a sweep of Schreiner.  Ben Klimesh showed that he is going to defend his pitcher of the year award with a dominating effort on Sunday. Nick Pappas was the game 2 star.

Concordia (Texas)  3-0 record against Southwestern looks better than U Dallas’ three wins against East Baptist but both teams are off to great starts with key in-region wins. We will know more what Concordia (Texas) has when they face Trinity (Texas) this weekend.  Dallas should be 9-0 when they meet Texas-Dallas and then Trinity (Texas) at the end of February.

Methodist, a 3-0 starter against Roanoke but should see stiff competition this weekend with LaGrange.  The big early game for Methodist is Birmingham-Southern on Feb 18. I have that game circled on my watch list.

Cal Lutheran and Pomona-Pitzer have no losses and they are both expected at the top of the SCIAC race with 0-0 Redlands. Cal Lu and Pomona meet at the end of the week but the Kingsmen have a more difficult road with games against Concordia (Texas) and Linfield before a SCIAC showdown with the Sagehens.

The early part of the season is ripe for upsets but nothing can be further than the truth.  In all but a few cases, the teams expected to win have put the wins on the board.  Although the season is young, these early in-region wins will become more important in late April when they show up in the regional rankings.

Get outside and see some baseball.  Way up north it is feeling much like spring and nobody cannot be thinking about our national pastime.  After all, pitchers and catchers report in about a week as MLB spring training gets started in Florida and Arizona.

No tags