Episode 60: 2020 New England Region Preview

Welcome to Episode 60 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. This is our fifth of eight regional preview pods -- this one covers the New England region and its seven conferences. Topics include: CCC Salve Regina (at 2:00) is the class of this conference and boasts two of the best strikeout pitchers in the region atop their rotation Teams (at 4:50) like Endicott, Roger Williams, Western New England, and Nichols will need to have a lot go right to compete with the Seahawks GNAC (at 5:50) The last 12 titles have gone to either St. Joseph's (Maine) or Suffolk...maybe this is the year a team like Johnson & Wales could break the streak? LEC Southern Maine (at 9:15) lost a ton of All-Region talent and still is star-studded as ever; such is life as the Huskies UMass-Boston (at 15:00) has a whole lot of offense to replace but a deep pitching staff could still take them far Rhode Island (at 20:05) has emerged as a legit sleeper in this powerhouse conference UMass-Dartmouth (at 22:30) has some studs and Eastern Connecticut will certainly hang around MASCAC Westfield State (at 23:10) will probably continue to run the show but there is some room for a team like Fitchburg State, Worcester State, or Salem State to contend NECC Mitchell (at 25:25) returns most of their best players and are primed to regain control of this conference New England College (at 28:25) will need to replace a huge chunk of the squad that went on the amazing run to the super regional in 2019  NESCAC Tufts (at 32:30) has enough to defend their title, but a weak schedule means they'll have to win it again to get in Trinity (Conn.) (at 34:05) made us believers last year and might have one of the best players in the country Middlebury (at 37:30) and Williams should be solid NEWMAC Babson (at 39:10) is losing some key contributors but should remain an excellent team playing an impressively insane schedule Wheaton (Mass.) (at 42:45) continues to be a Damn Good Baseball Team™ and has some exciting young talent on both sides of the ball MIT (at 47:10) cannot be slept on as the defending champs, and they have similarly elite talent to matchup with their NEWMAC rivals We concluded (at 50:30) 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! 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