Division III now down to just IV teams
Wisconsin Whitewater sends one school into extinction. And the top seed goes home too.
There were just two games played today in the Division III Baseball Championship in Eastlake, Ohio. They were both elimination games and one ended up being a complete and total elimination game.
The first game of the day was between top seed Endicott of Beverly, Massachusetts against fifth seed Misericordia of Dallas, Pennsylvania. In a sloppy game where the teams combined to make eight errors, the Cougars routed the Gulls 12-4.
Misericordia broke the game open with a 5-run fifth inning, that had four hits, two walks, a hit batter, a stolen base, and one error. The game was already out of hand when Endicott closer Evan Scully came in to pitch the eighth with a runner on and one out. Scully got a strikeout, but the next batter reached on a bunt that Scully threw away and that let one run in. Then, Scully made an errant pickoff toss to move the runner up. And then he gave up a 2-run homer.
The second game matched the Walking Dead of Birmingham-Southern against Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The Panthers (their actual nickname) took a 10-5 lead over the Warhawks of Whitewater (UWWW) after six innings and things looked good for Birmingham-Southern to literally exist for another day.
In the 7th, a Birmingham-Southern error set up a 2-RBI double to make the score 10-7. Then one inning later, a Mike Scolan RBI double and a 2-run homer by Eli Frank tied the game at 10-10.
The Panthers went out in order in the top of the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth, Sam Paden of Whitewater homered on the first pitch to walk it off for the Warhawks.
And with that Birmingham-Southern disappeared. Presumably in some sort of mystical and magical fashion.
[Digression starting]
My wife and I visited Birmingham, Alabama last year. We mainly went there because I wanted to cross Alabama off my list of states visited.
We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant in the Birmingham Airport Holiday Inn. The server welcomed us to “The Magic City.” I really thought that Birmingham was really selling itself hard with that nickname.
As it turns out, the nickname came to promote the fact that Birmingham had three necessary ingredients (coal, iron ore, and limestone), all close to the city. This helped Birmingham become one of the South’s first industrial centers.
Despite staying at an airport hotel, the staff seemed to think that we were staying in Birmingham for a long time. Even with me asking where to get gas for our rental car. That I told them I was returning. Because we were flying home the next day.
[Digression ending]
Birmingham-Southern traces its roots back to 1856 when Southern University opened in Birmingham. That Southern University1 merged with Birmingham University (which opened in 1898) in 1918. It was a Methodist college that ran into serious financial troubles and couldn’t get money to bail it out from the Alabama state government.
Monday’s games will determine the two teams that will play in the final series starting on Wednesday. Misericordia will play defending champion Lynchburg. After that, Wisconsin-Whitewater will face Salve Regina. Lynchburg and Salve Regina need just one win to make the final. Misericordia and Wisconsin-Whitewater will have to win twice. The last team to win two games in this round to make the final was Chapman College in 2019, who beat Birmingham-Southern to win the championship.
Of the remaining four teams, Lynchburg has won 2 NCAA Championships (baseball and women’s soccer along with the last three equestrian championships, which is a different organization). Wisconsin-Whitewater has 17, including two in baseball and six in football. Misericordia and Salve Regina have not won any NCAA Championships so far. No school from Pennsylvania or Rhode Island has won a Division III baseball championship.
There is another Southern University, which is an HBCU, located in Baton Rouge.