Episode 71: 2021 Mideast Region Preview

Welcome to Episode 71 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. This is our fifth of eight regional preview pods -- this one covers the Mideast region and its five conferences. Before we begin, we quickly discuss the weekend that was in D3, the status of the SCIAC, and shoutout North Central (IL) for their no-no. Then we get down to business: AMCC (at 7:00) La Roche has their longtime head coach back and plenty of talent as always, but will need some young pitching to step up if they want to dominate this conference as usual HCAC (at 11:25) Franklin has proved capable of competing against better teams and appear primed to win this conference again The HCAC is probably a bit underrated, with Anderson, Transylvania, Rose-Hulman, and Earlham all capable of having strong seasons MIAA (at 17:00) Adrian has almost all of their seniors back for #Year5 and two of the best pitchers in the entire country; is this the year they finally go on a super deep run? There is Hope...for the Dutchmen to make some noise in this conference as well NCAC (at 26:00) Wooster still has plenty of top-tier talent but enters the season with far more inexperience than normal Denison has some key players back for #Year5 and a fearsome lineup, but will need some of the younger pitching to step up DePauw and Wittenberg could definitely make some noise as well OAC (at 40:30) Heidelberg has some of their 2019 World Series contributors back for #Year5, which should help them continue to contend Baldwin Wallace looks to have a pretty loaded lineup but a very young pitching staff Otterbein, John Carroll, Mount Union, Ohio Northern will surely all be in the mix as well Uh oh...is Marietta back? PAC (at 59:10) Washington & Jefferson shouldn't have any trouble in this conference -- we'll see if they can make another World Series run UAA (at 1:04:05) Case Western won't be able to play their usual insanely tough schedule but are still making the most of the difficult and unique situation We concluded (at 1:08:00) 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! 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