A Lot of Bubbles Ready to Burst This Weekend

We have a special conference and regional tournament preview for this week, as we look at all of the new regional rankings and how they could be impacted by the conference tournaments taking place this weekend. We give an overview of some of the regions as a whole and preview each of the conference tournaments that will be getting under way.


Atlantic Region
Regional Ranking:
#1 Mercyhurst
#2 Millersville*
#3 Seton Hill
#4 Winston-Salem State*
#5 Shepherd
#6 West Chester
#7 East Stroudsburg
#8 West Virginia State

* - already in via conference tournament win

2015 MEC Baseball Tournament (May 7-10)
Seeds: #1 Shepherd (#5 A), #2 West Virginia State (#8 A), #3 Notre Dame (Ohio), #4 West Liberty, #5 Concord, #6 W.V. Wesleyan

Any team besides Shepherd winning this conference tournament would most likely eliminate West Chester from the top six in the Atlantic region. For the MEC, any team winning besides Shepherd would probably be better, as it would most likely get them two teams in as long as Shepherd doesn't go 0-2, but for the rest of the Atlantic region (and particularly West Chester), they are rooting for a Shepherd victory here.

2015 CIAA Baseball Tournament (Apr. 30-May 2)
Champion: Winston-Salem State (#4 Atlantic Region)

2015 PSAC Baseball Tournament (Apr. 29-May 2)
Champion: Millersville (#2 Atlantic Region)

Central Region
Regional Rankings:
#1 St. Cloud State
#2 Minnesota State
#3 Missouri Southern State
#4 Emporia State
#5 Southern Arkansas*
#6 Henderson State
#7 Ouachita Baptist
#8 Minnesota-Duluth

* - already in via conference tournament win

2015 NSIC Baseball Tournament (May 6-9)
Seeds: #1 St. Cloud State (#1 C), #2 Minnesota State (#2 C), #3 Augustana, #4 Minnesota-Duluth (#8 C), #5 Wayne State, #6 Concordia-St. Paul, #7 Winona State, #8 Northern State

An SCSU or MSU victory here and everything should stay pretty calm. Anyone else winning this tournament, including UMD, would eliminate an at-large spot here, most likely. UMD has an outside chance of climbing in to the top six if they can advance to the title game, because it would include at least one victory over SCSU, giving them a pretty big bump in their numbers.

2015 MIAA Baseball Tournament (Apr. 30-May 2, May 7-9)
Seeds Remaining: #1 Missouri Southern (#3 C), #2 Emporia State (#4 C), #3 Central Missouri, #5 Washburn

If MSSU or ESU claims a victory here, everything should sit status quo in the region. Central Missouri is a dangerous team here, and so is Washburn for that matter. If you remember, Washburn was one of the top teams to start the year, but ran in to some trouble in MIAA play. They have shown they can reel off victories, though. If either of those two schools win, there will be an at-large bid lost in the region.

2015 GAC Baseball Tournament (May 2-5)
Champion: Southern Arkansas (#5 Central Region)

East Region
Regional Ranking:
#1 Franklin Pierce
#2 Southern New Hampshire
#3 Stonehill
#4 Dowling
#5 Wilmington
#6 Merrimack
#7 Pace
#8 St. Thomas Aquinas

2015 CACC Baseball Tournament (May 2, 7-9)
Remaining Seeds: #1 Wilmington (#5 E), #2 Post, #3 Chestnut Hill, #4 Dominican

The CACC Tournament began over the weekend with a pair of games. Wilmington and Post earned byes to the semifinals, and in Saturday's action, Chestnut Hill beat #6 Felician and Dominican beat #5 Concordia. Any champion here besides Wilmington would be a pretty big upset. Wilmington went 18-2 in the conference, while Chestnut Hill and Post were both 15-5 and Dominican was 12-9. Wilmington is the only team ranked in the region this week, so the rest of the region is hoping for a Wilmington victory this weekend.

2015 ECC Baseball Tournament (May 7-9)
Seeds: #1 Dowling (#4 E), #2 Bridgeport, #3 St. Thomas Aquinas (#8 E), #4 LIU Post

Another case where anyone outside the top seed winning would eliminate an at-large bid. Dowling should be the big favorite here, but STA is the two-time defending champion in the conference tournament and was last year's East Region Champions. STA took three of four from Bridgeport to end the regular season, so they are a serious threat to at least advance to the title game. If Dowling falters, it will open up the door for a plethora of teams.

2015 NE-10 Baseball Tournament (May 5, 7-9)
Remaining Seeds: #1 NE Franklin Pierce (#1 A), #3 NE Stonehill (#3 E), #3 SW New Haven, #4 SW Adelphi

The NE-10 Tournament got started on Tuesday with first round action, and it included some pretty big upsets. Pace (#1 SW, #7 A) got upset by Adelphi and Southern New Hampshire (#2 NE, #2 A) got upset by Stonehill. That opens the door for a number of teams from the other conferences in this region, especially since it would be a big surprise if Franklin Pierce doesn't run away with this tournament over the weekend. Even if they are upset, I think the Ravens have the regional hosting duties wrapped up, and if Stonehill isn't the winner after that, an at-large spot will disappear, as neither New Haven or Adelphi were in this week's regional rankings and probably wouldn't move up without winning the title.

Midwest Region
Regional Ranking:
#1 Quincy
#2 William Jewell
#3 Truman State
#4 Grand Valley State
#5 Drury
#6 Ashland
#7 Trevecca Nazarene
#T8 Missouri-St. Louis
#T8 Southern Indiana

2015 GLIAC Baseball Tournament (May 7-10)
Seeds: #1 Ashland (#6 MW), #2 Grand Valley State (#4 MW), #3 Northwood, #4 Ohio Dominican, #5 Malone, #6 Wayne State

Yet another situation where anyone outside of the top two seeds winning would result in a lost at-large bid. And it is quite possible that that happens. The GLIAC has been a mess all year in terms of not having any teams break free from the rest of the pack. The top five seeds in this tournament were separated by only three games in the standings, and the sixth team, Wayne State, has talent every year and is always a threat to reel off a string of victories. This tournament, along with the GLVC Tournament, will be interesting ones to watch as both are up for grabs outside of the top seeds.

2015 GLVC Baseball Tournament (May 7-10)
Seeds: #1 Quincy (#1 MW), #2 Indianapolis, #3 William Jewell (#2 MW), #4 Truman State (#3 MW), #5 Southern Indiana (#T8 MW), #6 Bellarmine, #7 Drury (#5 MW), E8 Missouri S&T

Talk about a busy tournament. Out of the eight seeds, five of them are in this week's regional rankings. Quincy is obviously the favorite based on rankings, but this is really up for grabs for anyone. Indianapolis, the #2 seed, isn't even part of the regional rankings right now. Then you have the defending national champion, USI, sitting there in the #5 spot for the conference. The Screaming Eagles came out of the gates extremely slow, but have been playing more to their talent level in the last couple weeks, making a late surge in both the conference and regional rankings. I would not be surprised in the least if the winner here comes out of the bottom half of the seeds.

2015 G-MAC Baseball Tournament (May 6-9)
Seeds: #1 Trevecca Nazarene (#7 MW), #2 Alderson Broaddus, #3 Kentucky Wesleyan, #4 Cedarville, #5 Ohio Valley, #6 Salem International

This tournament actually got started a little earlier on Wednesday, with TNU defeating Salem International and Alderson Broaddus falling to Ohio Valley, which probably eliminates any chance the Battlers had at getting back in to the regional rankings. The G-MAC is a conference whose winner does NOT carry an automatic bid in to the regional tournament, so in this case, it is all or nothing for Trevecca. The Trojans need to roll through here and hope that Ashland or Drury take a quick tumble in their respective conference tournaments to open up the door and get in to the regional. On the flip side, if anyone but Ashland or GVSU win the GLIAC Tournament or if anyone besides Quincy, WJU, Truman or Drury win the GLVC Tournament, TNU will probably be on the outside looking in as an at-large bid disappears.

South Region
Regional Ranking:
#1 West Alabama*
#2 Nova Southeastern*
#3 Tampa
#4 Florida Tech
#5 Lynn
#6 Alabama-Huntsville
#7 West Georgia
#8 Saint Leo
Albany State*

* - already in via conference tournament win or conference champion

This region is pretty much already set. UWA is already in via a victory in the GSC Tournament, while NSU claimed the regular season title in the SSC, which does not have a conference tournament. Throwing a wrench in to the system here is Albany State, which earned an automatic bid with an upset victory in the SIAC Tournament, landing them the #6 spot in the regional tournament. That leaves the top five spots to get the remainder of the teams in. Tampa and Florida Tech should be safe, while the battle is most likely down to Lynn and UAH. Lynn had a doubleheader scheduled today with Florida Southern, and the Fighting Knights won both games. So they will have to see if that is enough to keep them at the #5 slot, which I would think it is since UAH did not play after bowing out of the GSC Tournament. I would anticipate this top five remains the same Sunday night with Albany State claiming the #6 spot, meaning that the SSC will end up claiming four of the six spots, as it probably should be.

2015 SSC Baseball
Regular Season Champion: Nova Southeastern (#2 Southeast Region)

2015 GSC Baseball Tournament (May 2-5)
Champion: West Alabama (#1 Southeast Region)

2015 SIAC Baseball Tournament (Apr. 23-28)
Champion: Albany State

South Central Region
Regional Ranking:
#1 Colorado Mesa
#2 St. Edward's
#3 Colorado State-Pueblo
#4 West Texas A&M
#5 Angelo State
#6 St. Mary's
#7 Texas A&M-Kingsville
#8 Texas-Permian Basin

2015 Heartland Conference Baseball Tournament (May 7-9)
Seeds: #1 St. Mary's (#6 SC), #2 St. Edward's (#2 SC), #3 Texas-Permian Basin (#8 SC), #4 Arkansas-Fort Smith

St. Mary's seems to be a little puzzling here, as they are not getting much love from the NCAA regional rankings despite a comparable record to SEU, who is comfortably in the field at the #2 spot right now. If either St. Mary's or SEU claims the title, things should hold steady, but a victory by either UTPB or UAFS will eliminate an at-large bid in the region, most likely. Then again, if UTPB can claim the title, they might just take St. Mary's spot in the rankings, anyway.

2015 LSC Baseball Tournament (May 7-9)
Seeds: #1 Texas A&M-Kingsville (#7 SC), #2 West Texas A&M (#4 SC), #3 Angelo State (#5 SC), #4 Tarleton State

Last week, all four of these teams landed in the regional rankings, but Tarleton has since dropped out. It is interesting that TAMU-K is the top seed, but only #7 in the region, making for a mess of a tournament when compared to the regional rankings. The #4 through #7 spots in the regional rankings are extremely interesting, as you could probably argue that they might all deserve to be ahead of CSU-Pueblo, but that just isn't how things have shaken out, which means it is going to be a free-for-all to claim those bottom three spots.

2015 RMAC Baseball Tournament (May 7-9)
Seeds: #1 Colorado Mesa (#1 SC), #2 Colorado State-Pueblo (#3 SC), #3 Metro State, #4 Adams State

This is obviously CMU's tournament to lose. They are the overwhelming favorite after running through the RMAC with a 35-4 record in the conference. It appears that CSU-P is safely in the regional tournament, as well, meaning victories by the bottom two seeds in this tournament would throw a huge wrench in to the system. I highly anticipate that not being the case, but you never know at this time of year.

Southeast Region
Regional Ranking:
#1 Catawba
#2 North Georgia
#3 Columbus State
#4 UNC Pembroke
#5 Mount Olive
#6 Armstrong State
#7 USC Aiken
#8 Newberry
North Greenville*
Wingate*

* - already in via conference tournament win

The Southeast is the most intriguing region this weekend in terms of the spots available. With North Greenville and Wingate already claiming automatic bids by virtue of conference tournament upsets, that means only four spots are available going in to this weekend, where one of those will be taken by the Peach Belt Conference champion. That puts Mt. Olive in a very tough spot. Arguably a top 10 team in the country in talent, and they may draw the short end of the stick if they don't get some help from Columbus State or UNC Pembroke this weekend.

2015 PBC Baseball Tournament (May 9-10)
Seeds: #1 North Georgia (#2 SE), #2 Armstrong State (#6 SE), #3 UNC Pembroke (#4 SE), #4 Flagler, #5 USC Aiken (#7 SE), #6 Columbus State (#3 SE), #7 Francis Marion, #8 Georgia College

Five of the eight teams are currently ranked in the region, with four of those teams inside the top six, although with NGU and WU finding their way in to the tournament, that means needing to be in the top four to get a bid in to the regional tournament, putting Armstrong on the outside looking in right now. There are a lot of dangerous teams here, including the 7-seed in Francis Marion, another very talented team. This whole conference is a buzz saw, and if it turns out they do land four teams in the top six come Sunday night, it probably won't be argued very much.

2015 Conference Carolinas Baseball Tournament (Apr. 23-26)
Champion: North Greenville

2015 SAC Baseball Tournament (Apr. 23-27)
Champion: Wingate

West Region
Regional Ranking:
#1 Cal Poly Pomona
#2 Azusa Pacific
#3 California Baptist
#4 Dixie State
#5 UC San Diego
#6 Point Loma
#7 Cal State-Monterey Bay
#8 Cal State-Dominguez Hills

2015 CCAA Baseball Tournament (May 7-9)
Seeds: #1 Cal Poly Pomona (#1 W), #2 UC San Diego (#5 W), #3 Cal State-Monterey Bay (#7 W), #4 Cal State-Dominguez Hills (#8 W)

All four teams appear in this week's regional rankings, but it would be an upset if it is one of the bottom two seeds claiming the crown. There are five at-large bids open here by way of neither the GNAC or PacWest being automatic qualifiers. The PacWest is making a strong showing here, however. With the CCAA teams being the only ones in action this weekend, they pretty much all are in charge of their own destiny. CPP is safely in, while UCSD probably is with at least one win. Point Loma is the team that needs to look out, as a strong showing by either CSMB or CSDH could supplant them from that final spot in the tournament.

2015 GNAC Baseball Tournament (May 7-8)
Seeds: #1 Montana State-Billings, #2 Western Oregon, #3 Northwest Nazarene

This is not an automatic bid league, and none of the teams competing will be threatening for a spot in the regional tournament.

2015 PacWest Baseball
Regular Season Champion: Dixie State (#4 West Region)