2016 Draftees First Professional Seasons

The 2016 First-Year Player Draft was a banner year for Division II baseball, with 92 players drafted across baseball in 40 rounds of picks. With our last bit of acknowledging the 2016 Division II baseball players, we take a look at what each of those 92 draft picks went ahead and did in their first professional seasons between the draft and the end of the year. Below is a look at how every one of those players did, including a couple all-star performances and quick moves up the ladder.

2016 MLB Draft Division II Recap

An underrated, yet very important part of the Division II baseball season has just concluded, and that is the MLB Draft. The returns are good for Division II, as the overall number of draftees went up this year, from 84 in 2015 to 92 in 2016. Although there were no draft picks higher than the fourth round, the landscape certainly shifted this year. Below, we have a multitude of breakdowns when it comes to the Division II field that was drafted.

2016 Division II MLB Draft Preview

The 2016 MLB First Year Player Draft begins on Thursday (June 9) with the opening two rounds at 6 p.m. Eastern, while Friday (June 10) is rounds 3-10 at 1 p.m. Eastern and Saturday (June 11) concludes the draft with rounds 11-40 at noon Eastern. Thursday's action can be seen on MLB Network, while the final two days will be available on MLB.com. In this post, we preview the 58 Division II players who are included in the MLB's draft prospects list.

Nova Southeastern Wins 2016 National Championship

The if necessary game turned out to be entirely unnecessary on Saturday, as the Sharks of Nova Southeastern University weathered an early 3-0 hole and came back to win, 8-6 over Millersville, to claim the program's first national championship.

2016 Finals Friday Recap, Saturday Preview

One game down, one, possibly two, to go. The national championship series got started on Friday with game one of a possible three, and it was the South representative, Nova Southeastern, inching one step closer to a national championship, claiming a hard-fought 2-1 victory in the title series opener.

2016 Day Five Recap, Championship Series Preview

There wasn't much drama to be had on Thursday heading in to the weekend. The two teams which entered Thursday's pair of games undefeated so far in the tournament went on to victory, allowing the championship series to get under way on Friday rather than any winner-take-all games on Friday.

2016 Day Four Recap, Day Five Preview

We are down to the final four! We lost two more teams on Wednesday's elimination day, and that leaves us with four teams remaining to claim the title of the top baseball program in 2016. Pitching made a strong comeback on Wednesday, and Thursday is looking like a wonderful day for fans of Division II baseball.

2016 Day Three Recap, Day Four Preview

We lost one more very worthy team, and sent another on to the final four on Tuesday, as Franklin Pierce was eliminated in an elimination game and Nova Southeastern continued their tournament with a shelling of Lander to move on to Thursday's action.

2016 Day Two Recap, Day Three Preview

Monday brought us our first elimination game of the 2016 tournament, and also brought our first game that was decided by more than one run, which is to say the first five games of this tournament have been incredible. Inside, we recap day two's action and give you a short preview of day three's contests on Tuesday.

2016 Day One Recap, Day Two Preview

What a way to kick off the 2016 NCAA Division II Baseball National Finals. The eight regional champions took to the field for day one of competition on Saturday, and they did not disappoint. Four one-run games, three walk-off wins, two extra-inning affairs, and one incredible day of baseball opened up national finals play.

Previewing Day One in Cary

Recently, day one of the 2016 NCAA Division II Baseball National Finals got a lot more fun, as worries over a tropical disturbance heading for Cary on Sunday afternoon moved both of Sunday's first round games up to Saturday. Now, all eight teams will play on opening day, and inside we have a small preview of each game for you to take in and get yourself ready for a jam-packed day of action at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.

Looking at the 2016 National Finals Field

It is finally here! Eight spectacular baseball teams are on their way to Cary, North Carolina for the 2016 NCAA Division II Baseball National Finals, where a champion is going to be crowned by the end of next weekend. It has been a long road to get there, but we are finally down to the final eight, and inside we take a short look at each team, compare some numbers, and give some opinions on the field.

2016 Regional Tournament Preview - Part Two

This is part two of our regional preview capsules before tournament play begins on Thursday. In this second post, we give a very short preview for each team in the remaining four of the eight regions, as we cover the Central, Midwest, South Central and West regions before play begins tomorrow on the road to Cary, N.C.

2016 Regional Tournament Preview - Part One

This is part one of our regional preview capsules before tournament play begins on Thursday. In this first post, we give a very short preview for each team in four of the eight regions, beginning with the Atlantic, East, South and Southeast regions.

2016 Conference Tournament Review

Tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern, we find out the field for the 2016 NCAA Division II Baseball Tournament. You can view the selection show at NCAA.com by clicking here. In this post, our "pre-selection show" post, we list every conference champion and the implications it will have on the regional tournament field. We take a look at how we think the regional fields may shake out, although nothing on our uneducated end should be considered official in any way.

2016 Conference Tournament-Palooza!

Here we are! Conference tournament weekend! Come Sunday evening, every conference in the country will have crowned a champion. A fair amount of regional tournament spots are already accounted for thanks to early conference tournaments, regular season champions in conferences without tournaments, and some teams already being so far on top of their region it won't matter what happens this weekend. However, there are a spectacular amount of games taking place this weekend that should entertain every D-II  baseball fan in the country. Below you'll find the conference tournament line-ups (or already-crowned champions) with links to their respective tournament pages, as well as some small previews of the regions.

Last Weekend of Regular Season on the Docket

We roll on to yet another weekend of both regular season play and conference tournament action. With four conference tournament champions already crowned, three more conferences begin their tournaments this weekend, while the rest of the country will begin their conference tournaments in the middle or end of next week. Additionally, we had our first national awards name their semifinalists as we head towards the big hardware being handed out.

Wrapping Up Regular Season Play, Conference Tournaments Starting

It is turning in to our favorite time of the year! The season's first official NCAA Division II regional rankings were released earlier this week, clearing up what was a foggy regional picture. In addition to that, we have conference tournament play already this weekend! Conference Carolinas, South Atlantic Conference and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference are already staging their conference tournaments, and the first two both include a couple teams that can be found in the Southeast regional rankings. For the SIAC, it will mean a regional bid that eliminates one of the auto-bids from the South region as none of the SIAC schools are close to being ranked in the region.

Down the Stretch They Come! Conference Races Heat Up

We are hitting the home stretch of the Division II baseball season, as a couple conferences finish up league play this weekend and others follow suit in the next few weeks. Conference races are tight around the country with only a couple runaways, and that has narrowed down our choices for some of the top series' in the nation as we focus on those which will have the biggest impacts in the conference races. On top of that, we have even *more* no-hitters to share with you.

Lander Sets D-II Record, Non-Conference Series Rules the Weekend

A couple impressive feats took place over the last week, as one team twirled its second no-hitter of the season and another set an NCAA Division II record. On the docket this week? How 'bout three match-ups between Top 25 squads and a host of very important conference series' that will have a big effect on both conference title races and regional positioning? It was an eventful week and will be another eventful week coming up as we dive in to the most recent week of Division II baseball.

SCSU Remains Perfect, Back-To-Back No-Hitters, and a Monster GSC Series

We've been keeping track of no-hitters this year in Division II for the most part, and this past week we had three of them take place. That isn't overly exciting until you consider that two of them were from the same team in back-to-back games. In addition to that news for you, we have our only undefeated continuing to be undefeated, the usual suspects continuing to dominate, and a host of very important series coming up this weekend around the country.

Top-15 Showdown Looms to Begin April

Well, we are in the dog days of...spring? Conference play has started across the country officially, some contenders are breaking out from the pack, and some pretenders are being shown as such. The race for the championship favorite is as convoluted as ever, and I think it will just become more cloudy as we move forward. This week, we are combining the recap and preview post in to one mega post for everyone to enjoy. Below, we also highlight our Marquee Match-Up of the Week, even though we are a day late on it...

Staying Out West for the Marquee Match-Up of the Week

It is getting hard to break out of the Pacific time zone lately for our Marquee Match-Ups of the Week, and it appears to be that way again this week. We have another spectacular series coming your way from the CCAA that is the highlight of the Division II docket, and we have quite a few contests coming up this week that feature teams on the cusp of regional tournament contention battling it out against each other.

Millersville Runs To 19 Straight Wins, Tampa With Surprising Setbacks

We are running a little bit late this week, so I'm only going to recap last week's Top 25 teams (plus a few outsiders looking to make their way in to the rankings) in this post so we can get on to this weekend's preview post! The top teams continued to roll last week, including Millersville pushing their impressive winning streak out to 19 games. Tusculum's Placido Torres put up yet another double-digit strikeout game, fanning 12 Cobras against Coker, and leads the universe in strikeouts with 92 in 54 innings. On the offensive side, UMD's Wojciechowski's lead the nation in batting, with Tyler second in batting average (.571) and Alex first in home runs per game and RBI per game (and fourth in slugging percentage) so far.

Top 25 Teams Ratchet Up the Competition This Weekend

This could be our biggest week yet across the Division II baseball landscape. Half of the PerfectGame.org Top 25 will be taking on quality competition, and we are bound to have some shake-ups somewhere along the way with this many high-quality teams facing off in one week. We have a pair of series' this week that feature Top 25 teams squaring off against each other, but our Marquee Match-Up of the Week heads in to the Southeast for a key conference series between two of the top teams in the nation, record-wise, early on in the season:

First Perfecto Thrown and One Perfect Team Left

It looks like the top teams will remain much the same this week after a bevy of dominating, high-scoring, great-pitched performances from some of the best teams in the nation. St. Cloud State stands alone as the final undefeated team in Division II baseball as they push their record to 15-0, and Maryville's Robbie Gordon threw D-II's first perfect game of the year in a 2-0 victory over Hillsdale. Gordon struck out nine in the contest, and accomplished the feat for the first time in Maryville program history.

Marquee Match-Up of the Week Heads to the MIAA

It is that time of week again! Inside, we preview the top series in the world of Division II baseball this weekend as well as giving you all the pertinent links to the rest of the top series' around the nation. Our Marquee Match-Up of the Week finally starts moving a little bit East across the plains, and finds itself in...

Pitching Leading the Way Across D-II

California Baptist made themselves the PacWest favorite (already) in our Marquee Match-Up of the Week, many of the top teams kept gliding along in non-conference play, and conference play is already turning in to a mess around the country in terms of determining who the favorites are.

Marquee Match-Up of the Week Heads Out West Again!

Yet another weekend of some fun-filled match-ups on the docket in the world of Division II baseball! We are now at the point where every single school in the nation should have at least one game played by the end of the weekend, and we are starting to get in to the spring break trips for the northern schools, so it is a busy week for many schools across the country. While none of those schools will be featured in our preview posts for the next couple weeks for only single-game match-ups, there are still some interesting tilts taking place.

Below, take a look at our Marquee Match-Up of the Week, as well as some of the most important series' from around the world of Division II baseball.

A Pair of 15-K, No-Hit Gems, Top Teams Continue Hot Starts

It took a couple weeks to get our first no-hitter of the season, but they seem to be coming at a quick pace, now. After Northwest Nazarene's Colton Loomis threw the first of the season, Southern New Hampshire's Ben Criscuolo saw that effort and raised by a significant amount, striking out 15 in a nine-inning no-no against Nyack this past weekend. Additionally, Paine's Evan Krenz twirled a seven inning no-hitter against Lincoln University, striking out 15 with only one walk allowed in an 8-0 victory. The top teams in the country continued their hot starts to the year, while a few other teams put up some more incredible offensive numbers (hint hint, East Stroudsburg) over the weekend.

Below, we take a look at the results from last week's Perfect Game Top 25, plus a few other teams who may get a chance to break in to the rankings soon.

CCAA Showdown Highlights Week Five Action

Our Marquee Match-Up of the Week for this weekend heads out to the west coast, and we have yet another jam-packed schedule on the docket. Although there are no series' this week between a pair of ranked teams, we do have an awful lot of match-ups that consist of some lofty early-season win-loss records. Additionally, we are getting in to the swing of conference play in the west and south, which is going to create some favorites going forward for the next couple weeks.

Without further explanation, our week five Marquee Match-Up of the Week is...

First No-No of the Season on the Board in Week Four

Some huge performances highlighted week four in Division II baseball. We had our first no-hitter of the season thrown, a plethora of home runs hit, and some outrageous team performances (ahem, Nova Southeastern and Chico State). Below, we highlight the Top 25's performance over the last week and some games of note that took place.

First New PG Rankings Released, Let's Preview Week Four With Them!

The first in-season Perfect Game rankings have been released, and while it wasn't a major shake-up, you can already see the landscape beginning to take place. The south and west are continuing to produce a plethora of solid teams, while the usual suspects from the other regions are still hanging around as they get their seasons started. Inside, we preview this weekend's action for the top 25 and point out some of the best match-ups to watch for around the country, including our Marquee Match-Up of the Week.

Reviewing Week Three of the 2016 Season

Another week in the books for Division II baseball, and another week or two until we have every team in the country out on the field.  We review this past weekend's results and highlight a plethora of teams that have gotten off to some impressive starts on the season and could find themselves breaking through in the top 25 sooner rather than later.

Preparing for Week Three in D-II Baseball

A couple more schools throw their hat in to the ring this weekend in the world of Division II baseball, and non-conference match-ups still rule, although a couple conferences are already getting in to conference play, as well. Inside, we will point out a couple competitive match-ups this weekend for everyone to look out for, and provide ways to follow them for all you D-II baseball fans out there! Included inside? Our Marquee Match-Up of the Week!

Defending Champions Rolling Already, Ranking Shake-Ups Coming

We are starting to get in to the full swing of the Division II baseball season! A little more than half of the pre-season Top 25 schools have been on the field for meaningful baseball games at this point. From here on out, I'll be giving a review of each weekend based on the previous week's PerfectGame.org Top 25 early in the week, and then previewing the next weekend's action after the new rankings are released. We'll break up the monotony with some different pieces here and there as we go.

With all that said, here is our first full review of Top 25 Division II baseball action. Additionally, I throw in a few teams who are unranked but have gotten off to a good start, and I explain this year's new NCAA Division II baseball tournament bracket, which has been upped to 56 teams.

Recapping Opening Weekend; Previewing Week Two

The first week of 2016 Division II play is in the books, and it was an eventful week to say the least. I had anticipated that it will be tough to do weekly rankings this year, and that proved to be pretty accurate. If the first week of play is any indication, there will be a lot of interchangeable teams as the season trucks on. Anyone appears to be able to beat anyone. The coming weeks will weed some teams out and bring the contenders to the forefront, but in the meantime, we will enjoy the craziness and parity of the D-II baseball landscape.

Read on to check out some interesting tidbits from the opening weekend and a short preview of this upcoming weekend's action.

Previewing the 2016 Season, Region-by-Region

It is Christmas day in the world of Division II baseball, as 23 schools begin the 2016 season today in 14 different games. The first games of the season begin at 2 p.m. Eastern, as Davis & Elkins takes on Erskine and Holy Names faces CSU-Monterey Bay in the first game of a doubleheader today. That is one of two DH's today, with CSU-Stanislaus taking on William Jessup in a doubleheader at 4 p.m. Eastern. The lone conference game of the day begins at 6 p.m. with Palm Beach Atlantic against Embry-Riddle in SSC play. Unfortunately, one game has already been rescheduled, as Chico State's season-opener against Menlo has been moved to Saturday.

Before we kick off the 2016 season, let's take a look at how each of the eight regions is stacking up, as we preview the landscape of Division II baseball this year.

2015 Division II First-Year Player Draft Season Recap

I know I promised this post a long time ago shortly after the actual baseball season ended, but life got in the way and here it is right before we get started in to 2016. I wanted to put a bow on the 2015 season by recapping what the 2015 Division II First-Year Player Draft acquisitions did in their rookie campaigns as professionals. In here, you'll find a statistical breakdown of every Division II player who was picked in the 2015 draft, their stats across all levels they reached, and any awards or accolades they collected.