Episode 56: 2020 West Region Preview

Welcome to Episode 56 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. The 2020 season has hilariously already begun, despite most D-III schools being in places where it is way too cold to play baseball right now. Thanks, Texas! This is our first of eight regional preview pods, and we are indeed beginning out West. After the usual caveats (0:00-5:45), we cover the four conferences in the West region. Topics include: ASC Concordia (Texas) (at 5:45) is loaded with an incredible 1-2 punch in the rotation and some experienced talent in the lineup East Texas Baptist (at 10:30) is never boring but will have to replace some big bats Other contenders (at 12:45) -- Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne...the Mary Hardin-Baylor Fightin' Stawskis???  SCAC Trinity (Texas) (at 14:15) is primed to be excellent again, hopefully lead by #SeniorYearRafe Texas Lutheran (at 17:15) can always be trusted to contend, but will need some arms to step up Southwestern (at 19:40) has some really exciting talent...are these Pirates gonna be better than the Pittsburgh Pirates? Centenary (at 23:40) is usually pretty good too -- go Gents! SCIAC Chapman (at 25:25) graduated over 300 innings, but they just won the National Championship and may have the best pitcher in the country so they'll probably still be pretty damn good! La Verne (at 32:15) -- why the Leopards might be ready to be the next breakout SCIAC team Occidental (at 34:50) has an elite arm in Nolan McCarthy and a formidable lineup Other contenders (at 37:30) -- Cal Lutheran, Pomona-Pitzer, and Redlands maybe?  NWC (at 38:50) This conference is probably underrated but also a mess so we talked about basically all the teams while also explaining why we think Whitman is the favorite We concluded with a few other notable player shout outs (at 43:30), our teams to beat (at 44:20), and our player and pitcher of the year picks for the region (at 45:50). Then we say goodbye. Thanks for listening! Follow us on Twitter @d3baseballpod (DMs are open if you want to reach us there) and @CespedesBBQ.  Send us your best D-III stories or any other comments or questions to [email protected] Subscribe + rate/review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-about-division-iii-baseball/id1342691759