Your weekly recap of Division II action is here! My apologies for being a day or so late. Today's post will be a recap of this past week's action, while this week's "preview" will take place on Wednesday or Thursday. I would like to see what kind of rankings Nick Herfordt at Perfectgame.org puts out this week. It will be the first weekly rankings now that a few more teams are starting to hit the diamond. That will probably be the usual schedule going forward. A recap early in the week and a preview after the newest rankings are released.
With that said, here we go in an eventful weekend in the Division II world.
#1 Tampa took on the defending champions, #5 Southern Indiana, and although Tampa was handed their first loss of the season as USI took the last game of the series, they were still impressive in the first two games to take the series. They began the weekend with 8-2 and 5-2 victories before USI grabbed a 9-7 win in the final game. Tampa proved they are the best in the country, and USI proved that they will still be a contender going forward. Taking even one against a team like Tampa means you have a pretty legitimate team, and that pattern will hold all year long, I think.
#3 Columbus State ran in to the buzzsaw that is UNC Pembroke. Goodness gracious, the Braves are looking like a top five team early on. It will be interesting to see where they land in the first updated rankings. UNC-P kept hitting, as they have done all year, to the tune of a 13-9, 16-15, 5-2 sweep. The Braves have scored double digits in eight (!) of their ten games so far and are now 10-0. They are hitting .400 as a team. As. A. Team. They have one starter hitting .222 and another hitting .294. Everyone else who has started is over .350. Silly. Collins Cuthrell already has seven (!!!) home runs and 21 RBI in 10 games. As a team, they have 17 home runs. A product of the lower-seamed balls this year? A product of weak competition in the first seven games? A combination of both? A product of a very talented team? Probably a combination of all. They will certainly have opportunities to prove themselves later in the year. They will probably keep rolling through Montevallo and Barton, hit a mild speed bump in Shippensburg, and roll up until a murderous schedule in April when they take on USC Aiken, Catawba and Lander in a stretch of about two weeks.
#4 Mount Olive did what they had to do against #13 Florida Southern. The Trojans took two of three from the Mocs, winning 16-7 and 13-5 before FSC took the final game, 14-6. They will roll this weekend through Southern Wesleyan.
#6 Southern Arkansas had a "meh" week. They piled in the games, playing five games last week, going 3-2, including a split with Central Missouri. Sitting at 8-5 on the year, their schedule gets significantly easier going forward in to conference play.
I warned of this in my preview last week, and #7 Chico State experienced it in person themselves. Up-and-comer Fresno Pacific took two of three from the perennial contenders, albeit with all three games going in to extra innings. Fresno Pacific won 2-1 in 10 and 3-2 in 14 before Chico State grabbed a 6-5 win in 10 innings to close the weekend out. Obviously, a couple evenly-matched teams, but Fresno Pacific is now 6-2 and will be another team to watch out for as the season goes on. Wilson Ashford dominated Chico State in the opener, allowing only three hits and one walk with an unearned run in eight innings, striking out nine.
#8 Emporia State did their job in beating Bemidji State over the weekend, 8-1. They are 4-0 on the year after a sweep of Metro State earlier this month. They'll face Missouri Western four times this week before a big four-game set with Central Missouri at the end of the month.
#10 Alabama-Huntsville took two of three from West Georgia, but that one they lost was a 17-5 shelling. They'll face Miles in a mid-week contest before taking on Lee for a three-game series this weekend. Lee has been impressive so far this year, sitting at 9-0, although they have all been pretty easy games. It will be a good test to see if the Flames are legitimate this year.
I recapped #13 Florida Southern earlier in their games with #4 Mount Olive, but they also dropped a mid-week game to Saint Leo, 10-9 in 10 innings. FSC is off to a pretty pedestrian 4-5 start, but they have also probably had the toughest schedule in D-II baseball to begin the season.
#14 Colorado Mesa did what they should have against #21 Dixie State, taking three of four from the Red Storm. They'll face California Baptist in four games this weekend before getting in to RMAC play, where Mesa should dominate.
I am starting to think we can write off #15 Trevecca Nazarene going forward until they prove otherwise. They dropped two of three to a Maryville team that should have been handled much easier. TNU will have a chance to get on track this weekend with three against Walsh, but sitting at 1-5 already, things are not going to get much easier after that until conference play. Their scheduled is stacked with the likes of North Alabama, Wayne State (Mich.), Southern Indiana, Grand Valley State and Alabama-Huntsville before conference play begins.
#16 USC Aiken started the year 6-0, but dropped all four games last week, one to Florida Tech (11-4) and all three against Armstrong Atlantic State (7-6, 11-10, 11-9). A disappointing week that isn't going to get any easier, as they face Lander in a three-game series this weekend.
#17 St. Mary's had a 2-2 week last week, but one of those wins was against an over-matched Houston-Victoria squad. They dropped two of three to Tarleton State, a good team, but considering the Rattlers' ranking, that should have been flipped. They should get back on track this weekend with four against Mary.
#18 Lander is another team we may see fall out of the rankings this week, as they now sit at 5-5 on the year after dropping three of four last week. They beat Claflin 16-0, but got beat up by Flagler, 7-5, 11-3 and 8-7 in conference play. They will take on USC Aiken, another high-ranking, struggling team, in a three-game series this weekend.
#19 UC San Diego began the year 4-0 with a sweep of Western Oregon earlier this month, a series which I mistakenly said went 3-1 in the Tritons' favor. Since then, they dropped a pair of 2-0 games to Colorado Mesa, but took three of four against San Francisco State last week to move to 7-3. They'll have a mid-week game with Point Loma Nazarene before taking on Cal State Dominguez Hills in a four game series this weekend with a chance to possibly move in to the top 10 with the under-whelming teams in front of them.
#20 St. Edward's took two of three from Missouri S&T, a Midwest regional tournament contender, and will continue their Midwest opponent schedule with four against Drury this weekend, a good measuring stick.
#21 Dixie State is another team who has most likely been disappointed in their results so far this year. They are now 1-7 after dropping three of four to #14 Colorado Mesa. They would be well-served to sweep their games this upcoming week, when they take on Montana State-Billings three times and Minot State three times, with the last two games coming on Monday.
#25 Catawba dominated Stillman, 11-2, 10-1 and 20-5 over the weekend in what should probably have just been considered exhibitions. They had a game scheduled with Mount Olive this week, but that has been postponed. They will take on Brevard in a three-game series this weekend.
Some notable team performances outside of the pre-season top 25...there are plenty of teams who have already played their way in to this week's updated rankings. UNC Pembroke (10-0) will certainly be there, as well as Nova Southeastern (9-0), West Florida (7-2), Cal Poly Pomona (5-1), Armstrong Atlantic State (8-1), Lenoir-Rhyne (10-0), Angelo State (7-1) and Saint Leo (9-1). Other teams that will threaten to break in to the rankings will be West Texas A&M (7-2), Henderson State (6-1), Lynn (6-2), Flagler (7-1) and Florida Tech (9-0). Out of those teams, I believe that UNC Pembroke could realistically already find themselves in the top five, while I think Nova Southeastern and Saint Leo could break the top 15, with West Florida, Armstrong Atlantic and Lenoir-Rhyne threatening the top 20. L-R has yet to face a tough team outside of a season-opening game against Francis Marion, and will be challenged next against Mount Olive in early March.
Many of the top teams who have yet to play will be hitting the diamond this weekend, while the remainder of the top 25 will get started in early March on their spring break trips.
Thanks for reading! Look for a weekend preview post early Thursday.
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