DII Report: New Field of 56; Random DII baseball thoughts
The latest DII baseball tournament field projections, plus a look at the new Power 10 and some thoughts.
While the DII men’s and women’s basketball seasons are heading to the DII Elite Eight (luck for you, you can read a preview on each right HERE for men’s and HERE for women’s), the DII baseball world still turns.
Before you jump into my bracket projections, don’t forget the latest Power 10 rankings are out and there has been some chance. You can read them here.
Here is the latest field of 56. Just to clarify one thing I was asked a couple of times: These are MY projections. I do not work for the NCAA (I never have), I am merely a journalist for WBD Sports (or Turner Sports, whatever you are comfortable with). These are nowhere close to official. All you had to do was look at my men’s bracket predictions to see how much I know about a bracket (but I did do well on the women’s side!).
A quick refresh about the field of 56. As I said last week: The DII baseball bracket, like all DII sports, is built on pre-determined metrics and filled by the selection committee based on those. This projection certainly takes those metrics (in-region play, strength of schedule, wins against ranked opponents for example) into consideration but it doesn’t base it solely on that. This is more of a projection of how the field will look come May, not necessarily complying with how it looks metrically right now.
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The DII Report Field of 56 for 2023 (Games through Sunday, March 10)
Atlantic (7)
Millersville
East Stroudsburg
West Chester
Charleston (WV)
Slippery Rock
Shippensburg
Cal (PA)
First out: Shepherd (I think Mercyhurst may be a deeper team, but Shepherd has been impressive against the 50th toughest SOS).
East (7)
SNHU
New Haven
Molloy
Franklin Pierce
Goldey-Beacom
Southern Connecticut State
Pace
First out: Le Moyne
Central (8)
Missouri Southern
Southern Arkansas
Arkansas Tech
Central Missouri
Minnesota State
Central Oklahoma
Augustana (SD)
Harding
First out: St. Cloud State
Midwest (7)
Quincy
Illinois-Springfield
UIndy
Wayne State (MI)
Ashland
Grand Valley State
Northwood
Maryville
First out: Drury (Remember this is a projection. Right now, Northwood’s metrics don’t match Drury’s. However, based on the depth of talent and Drury’s future SOS going up while Northwood’s SOS going down, I feel that Northwood figures it out. Maryville is the real wild card here to be honest, but I like what they are doing so far).
South (8)
Tampa
Montevallo
Rollins
West Georgia
Florida Southern
Valdosta State
Albany State
Lee
First out: Barry (the Bucs schedule and SOS is about to get silly strong though).
South Central (6)
Angelo State
St. Edward’s
UT Tyler
Colorado Mesa
West Texas A&M
MSU Denver
First out: Lubbock Christian (REMINDER, this region is so unfair with only six entries making it and soooo many good teams. Texas A&M-Kingsville is very strong early, so don’t sleep on the Javs).
Southeast (7)
North Greenville
Columbus State
Lenoir-Rhyne
Mount Olive
Wingate
USC Aiken
UNC Pembroke
First out: Newberry
West (6)
Cal State San Bernardino
Hawaii Hilo
Point Loma
Azusa Pacific
Cal Poly Pomona
Northwest Nazarene
First out: Cal State Monterey Bay (another very tough region, especially when you add in there are THREE conference champions getting in with an automatic bid).
DII baseball random thoughts
Lenoir-Rhyne’s Blake Bean has homered in five-straight games, two of which were multi-homer games. The DIII All-American has been a welcome addition.
There is some serious baseball this weekend. Each of the following series have regional implications now that we are entering conference play. What I’ll be watching:
Tampa at Florida Southern
Wingate at Lenoir-Rhyne
USC Aiken at Columbus State
Missouri Southern at Washburn
Rollins at Florida Tech
SNHU at Goldey-Beacom
Lee at West Alabama
Le Moyne at Seton Hill
Missouri S&T at Quincy
Mount Olive at Belmont Abbey
I got to watch Columbus State this past weekend. I saw a completed no-hitter from Noah Windhorst and an 11-strikeout performance from Colton Joyner.
Joyner:
Windhorst:
Both were extremely effective and filled the strike zone. Neither threw particularly hard, so their fearless aggressiveness was nice to see. Joyner took a tough luck 3-2 loss, but he also allowed two runs to score on two wild pitches. He will be able to dominate some of the PBC lineups now that they are in conference play.