phrustrated philly phan

As I have mentioned, I play baseball for Winthrop University. In response to some questions, I am going to briefly explain how college baseball works as many people from the north do not follow closely (I know because I didn't until I started playing college baseball). College baseball has three divisions. Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3 with the differences sometimes barely visible. Some division 2's are better than division 1 schools unlike in college football or basketball. Baseball programs only have a maximum of 11.7 scholarship for upwards of 30 players so also unlike football and basketball, full scholarships are rare in baseball. Division 3's are not permitted to give athletic scholarships and division 2's can give them only if their school funds them. Obviously the better division 2's have a well-funded scholarship program. Many teams, especially the southern schools, play upwards of 50 games a year. For example last year, Winthrop played Miami, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida State (all made the regionals) in addition to our conferance schedule. We play in the Big South with our main rival being Coastal Carolina also a nationally competitive team. The main power conferances in baseball are the ACC, SEC, Big 12, and Pac 10. The other two football power conferances, Big 10 and Big East, struggle in baseball because many of their schools are in the north. Each conferance has a conferance tournament at the end of the season and the winners are guanteed a spot in the NCAA Regionals. After that wild card berths are given out. Last year, UNC Asheville won the Big South conferance tournament and we were a wild card berth. 64 teams make the regionals broken down into 16 groups of 4 teams each. These four teams play a down elimination tournament. Last year, we played in the North Carolina Regional. We eventually lost two games to North Carolina to end our season. The winners of each Regional move on to the Super Regionals which is a three game series between two teams. The winner of the 8 super regionals move on to the College World Series at Omaha, Nebraska where another double elimination is held to decide the college champion. Last year Oregon State won. College baseball is a year around commitment with lifting and conditioning during the fall and winter. This year, we will be traveling to the Dominican Republic over Thanksgiving to play some games. Check out our website http://www.winthropeagles.com/default.asp?section=1 for updates and the 2007 schedule should be posted shortly.

Last June, we had four players get drafted. Heath Rollins was drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 11th round. Ironically the Phillies drafted two players, LF/1B Jacob Dempsey in the 21st round and C Alan Robbins in the 32nd round. Our shortstop, Matt Repec, was drafted in the 27th round by the Colorado Rockies. Also my roommate from last year, Alex Wilson, was named the Freshman Pitcher of the Year by Collegiate Baseball. Hope that helps and lets beat those muts again tonight.