The Dreaded Losers Bracket

Lander University pitching spotted Southern Indiana a 5-0 lead by issuing five walks and hit three batters before Lander's come back fell short.  Former Gryphon  Thomas Berry went 0-4 but his final at bat he hit a fly ball caught at the right field wall which allowed base runners on first and second to advance to third and second.  Those two runners were the tying run on third and the lead run on second but Lander failed to push either run across.

Lander falls into the losers bracket game Wednesday at 3pm against Tampa who knocked out Chico State 14-6.  Tampa came into the World Series as the top ranked team in the nation who lead D2 baseball in  scoring.  Lander who came in ranked second in the nation.  The winner will get a shot at Southern Indiana Thursday and if they win that game will have to beat Southern Indiana again Friday before the National Championship on Saturday.

The Tarheels are in along with Campbell but State, ECU and Duke are out of the NCAA D1 baseball tournament which starts Friday.  Carolina heads to Gainesville Florida for a Friday afternoon game against Long Beach St.  Campbell making their first playoff appearance since 1990 plays South Carolina at 7pm Friday night.  Both games can be seen on ESPN3.

How close was it for Carolina?  During the aftermath gossip Carolina was team number 63 of 64 picked while an NC State was four teams short of making the field.

Duke won their 3rd National Championship in Lacrosse in four years beating conference foe Notre Dame 11-9. Duke just six years ago was in the middle of a major scandal but now is the premier lacrosse team in the country.

Thursday night Coleman Pitt Post 58 will open up their baseball schedule for the summer as they host Wayne County Post 11 .  Hank Jones will be the head coach again this season with his top aids being Cameron Ramsey and Colin Cuthrell.  Game time is 7pm at Legion Field on Howell Street.

A Year Late

One year to the day Campbell Baseball had won the regular season Big South with if I remember like a 48-12 season.  During the Big South Tournament they went undefeated until the championship game. The Big South Tournament winner  gets the automatic bid and the Big South tournament regardless of how many losses you have the once beaten team plays the undefeated team in a winner take all final game.  Campbell loss that game and with it went and NCAA bid.

This year as the three seed Campbell lost their first game in the tournament but fought their way to take on the host school Winthrop, Who was the undefeated team this year in the Tournament and Campell turned the trick that killed them last year is sending them to the NCAA tournament this year.

Duke, State, ECU and others are sitting on the edge of their seats today waiting on the NCAA selection show at noon on ESPNU.  A dagger for all teams hoping to get in is that in the Horizon League's Youngtown State who was the sixth seed in a six team tournament and wins the Horizon League bid.  Their record 16-36.  They RPI is near 200 but what their getting in does for any team with 64 or less RPI and  that includes all of the fore mentioned teams just means one less bubble team to get in the tourney.

We now need to start keeping up with the X Man 's stats as the Frontier League opened their season last weekend and Xavier Macklin is playing for the Gateway Grizzlies.  Eight games in X is batting 233 with a home run.

The Frontier League is an Independent league which means all players are playing for themselves not being paid  by a Major League team.  The league pays the players all the same and if any player stands out then they can be scooped up by any team.

Hobbs Johnson lost his latest start for Brevard in the Florida State league and his record stands at 4-5 with 46 strikeouts in 49 innings in 9 appearances.  His ERA is still under Three at 2.94.  His won loss record is not impressive but his performance otherwise is.

Brian Goodwin is hitting 222 in Syracuse for the AAA Chiefs.  It is still early enough that a 0-4 night can drop his average ten points  where a two hit night can make it go up 15 points.

Cousin Lauren Doughtie finished in 56th spot this week which is the third Futures tour tournament in a row where she has cashed a check.  She needs one or two that are top ten money.

Tonight at 5pm Thomas Berry and his teammates at Lander University play in a winners bracket game at the USA Baseball Complex in the NCAA DII World Series. The game is being streamed on NCAA.com.  Look for DII on front page and it should bring up the game.