Marietta unanimous No. 1 in D3baseball.com Preseason Poll

Fresh off its fifth National Championship, Marietta College is the unanimous No. 1 team in the country in the annual D3baseball.com Preseason Poll. The Pioneers received all 25 first-place votes in the poll and 625 points overall. Chapman, Kean, Linfield and Cortland St. round out the top five.

Four teams from New England are ranked in the initial poll of 2012, with Eastern Connecticut receiving the highest ranking, clocking in at 13th. Last year’s New England Regional champion Western New England is ranked 15th, Wheaton is 18th and Tufts is 24th.

Southern Maine (8), MIT (7), Amherst (5), Bridgewater St. (4), Endicott (1) and Rhode Island College (1) all received votes in the poll.

2012 D3baseball.com Preseason Poll

Amherst duo profiled

As I was doing some research for my New England preview I came across a nice article on the Amherst athletics website about seniors Kevin Heller and Mike Samela. Both are two-sport athletes in football and baseball and, according to the article, have caught the interest of some Major League teams. Samela was named the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Player of the Year, the first Lord Jeff to earn that distinction.

Click here to read the whole story on the Amherst athletics website.

Three named Preseason All-Americans

A trio of New England region players were recognized as D3baseball.com Preseason All-Americans, announced today by D3baseball.com.

Wheaton College senior third baseman Dan Haugh was selected to the first team and Western New England teammates, senior Mike Lawlor and junior Mike Rubino earned second team and honorable mention status, respectively. The honors are the first preseason honors for all three players.

Haugh returns to Norton for his final season with the Lyons and has developed into one of the best players in program history and in New England. Last season, Haugh hit .398 with 22 doubles, four home runs and 61 RBI. His 22 doubles set a school record and ranked fifth in the country. He earned First Team All-New England honors from the NEIBA and Second Team All-American honors from both D3baseball.com and the ABCA.

Lawlor and Rubino enjoyed excellent seasons in 2011, helping the Golden Bears advance to their first Division III National Championship tournament. Lawlor has emerged as one of New England’s premier closers, saving 17 games over the past two seasons. Last spring, he went 3-1 with 10 saves and a 1.58 ERA in 28 appearances. Lawlor threw 40 innings, striking out 54 and walking just six.

In just his second year with Western New England, Rubino put together one of the most impressive seasons in program history. As the Golden Bears starting third baseman in all 53 games, Rubino hit .412 with a school-record 82 hits. He had 11 doubles, drove in 42 runs and scored 45.

2012 D3baseball.com Preseason All-Americans 

Conference Realignment in New England?

Happy New Year to everyone who follows the blog! I apologize for not posting very much over the last eight months.

With all of the realignment going on in big-time college football over the past year and a half, it was only a matter of time until Division III athletics in New England did the same thing right? Well it has happened in New England but not with the force of other conference realignment. In fact, only two teams find themselves in different conferences for the 2012 baseball season. Those two teams are New England College and Anna Maria College. NEC has joined the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) and the AMCATS are now members of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC).

Looking at this in a competitive light, I think the move is great for both schools not only in baseball, but in all sports. In baseball terms, I think both the Pilgrims and the AMCATS will find their new conferences quite friendly, and we could see both making an immediate impact in postseason play. This is most certainly the case for an Anna Maria team that has finished within the middle of the pack in TCCC standings the last two years. The AMCATS will challenge St. Joseph’s (ME) and Suffolk for supremacy in the GNAC right off the bat.

The Pilgrims will also find themselves in a conference that provides a much more competitive balance. While Castleton St. and Husson have dominated the landscape over the last several years, the NAC as a whole isn’t as dominant throughout as TCCC is. NEC should do very well in this conference and I can see them challenging for the opportunity to compete for a conference championships in the coming years.

What are your thoughts?

Conference Call: Tickets Punched

Tristan Hobbes

Five teams have punched their ticket to the 2011 NCAA tournament over the past two weekends and three more will do it this week.  It’s no wonder this is the most exciting time of the year for these kids.  We have already seen one unbelievable ending and one more could be in the books on Wednesday.  So far, the GNAC, MASCAC, NAC/NEAC, NEWMAC and TCCC have crowned their champions and the NECC, LEC and NESCAC winners will be decided by this weekend.

It seems like just yesterday the season was just starting and now here we are in the final push.  The NCAA tournament starts next week and their will be more than a few anxious moments over the course of the next six days.

Let’s see who has punched their ticket to the dance:

Conference Call: Playoff Time!

Tristan Hobbes

Two automatic bids to the 2011 NCAA tournament will be decided this weekend in New England.  The NEWMAC and GNAC conference tournaments take place and the NAC will provide its winner for the NAC/NEAC crossover to take place next weekend.

Will it be Wheaton again the NEWMAC or will Babson and MIT have other plans?  Will St. Joe’s make a return to the regionals or can Johnson & Wales punch their ticket?  Sunday will give us those answers.

Needless to say, there is a lot on the line over the course of this weekend and next.

Conference Call: Surprise Rises around New England

Tristan Hobbes

There are still a few weekends left in the regular season for most teams around New England and the results so far have been some what expected.  There are, however, some surprises around the region.  Not that its a surprise to the teams that are having the successful season, but a good surprise for us that follow baseball in New England.

And let’s not forget that the NEWMAC tournament is already underway with first round games being played on Wednesday.  MIT scored five in the ninth to beat Babson and Wheaton came back to beat Coast Guard.  That sets up an MIT-Wheaton winners bracket game and a Babson-Coast Guard losers bracket game today.

Conference Call: Conference battles heat up

Tristan Hobbes

It’s hard to believe but the NEWMAC regular season is already coming to an end.   Babson has already finished their conference play and has earned at least a share of the regular season title.  MIT and Wheaton finish up this weekend and with wins could force a three-way tie atop the standings, which would go to MIT because the Engineers won the season series against both Wheaton and Babson.

In the rest of New England teams are trying to secure playoff positioning or pull away from the pack and earn the right to host the conference tournament.

Field Pass: Eastern Sweeps Southern Maine

Tristan Hobbes

Two rivals met last weekend in Mansfield as Eastern Connecticut hosted Southern Maine for a LEC doubleheader.  It was gorgeous weather for baseball as the two teams played on a sun-splashed field with temperatures in the 60′s.  The Warriors cruised in both games, 15-5 and 15-8, moving to 4-0 in the conference.

My thoughts on the games and some interviews with both coaches and players.

Conference Call 4-7-11: Let the race begin

Tristan Hobbes

I have to start off this post with an apology for not updating more frequently.  It’s been a crazy week and I finally have some time to get you guys back up to date.

Conference play has begun across the region, two regional polls have been announced and the season is almost halfway over!  Four weekends remain in the month of April and the importance and urgency will continue to heighten as the days dwindle down into May.

Here’s a look around the region’s eight conferences.