Episode 70: 2021 Mid-Atlantic Region Preview - a podcast by Cespedes Family BBQ

from 2021-03-10T00:29:48

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Welcome to Episode 70 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. This is our fourth of eight regional preview pods -- this one covers the Mid-Atlantic region and its eight conferences. First, we give some thoughts on the past weekend in D-III, WashU opening their season 3-0, and the new Top 25 poll. Then, we put on our swim trunks and head into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean...or something like that.

  • AEC (at 7:30)
    • Cabrini seemed like the team to beat but now it appears Marymount is the team that can make some real noise. Most importantly, we think they have an AQ. 
  • Centennial (at 9:50)
    • Conference-only is understandable...but conference-only with only 14 games??? Uh........this could get weird
    • Johns Hopkins won the D-III offseason with several high-profile transfers and some big-time returners. On paper, they should dominate. 
    • We are extremely bummed that Swarthmore will not be competing
    • Other teams such as Franklin & Marshall and Washington (MD) will need a lot of things to go right to contend for the conference title
  • Landmark (at 21:40)
    • Susquehanna showed well in the 2019 postseason last year, and will look to defend its Landmark title but Catholic will likely be in the conversation as well
  • MAC Freedom (at 25:40)
    • Misericordia is going for its 10th straight conference title and is always an extremely good D-III baseball team
    • Our thoughts are with DeSales after a recent tragedy within their program
  • MAC Commonwealth (at 30:30)
    • Alvernia has been the gold standard in this conference in recent years but Hood may finally be ready to challenge them
  • NEAC (at 33:00)
    • We are still salty about how this conference ended Toby Welk's career but now all we care about is whether Bret Williams is back and how many homers he's gonna hit for PSU-Harrisburg
  • NJAC (at 36:55) -- once again, before talking about the teams, we bask in the glory of this reality show conference
    • TCNJ is always reliably Very Good but do not have nearly as much talent returning as some of their biggest conference foes
    • Kean, on the other hand, does have some big 5th year guys coming back and look like they might be the best team heading into the season
    • Rowan essentially graduated a D-III All-Star team in 2019 so they don't quite have the same elite depth but still have some big time returners
    • Ramapo is always good but they still haven't posted a roster so how are we supposed to talk about them? SMH. 
    • William Paterson has elevated into the top tier of NJAC competition but 
  • CSAC (at 47:00)
    • Keystone is obviously gonna be good but will be harder to gauge this year with less non-conference competition on the schedule

We concluded (at 49:00) with a few other notable player shout outs , our player and pitcher of the year picks for the region, and our teams to beat. Then we say goodbye. Thanks for listening!

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