Episode 86: 2022 Central Region (Region 8) Preview

Welcome to Episode 86 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. First (at 1:00) we shoutout Pacific Lutheran as the standouts of the opening weekend. Next (at 2:15) we make a very important announcement -- er, clarification -- about our "D-III College Gameday" idea that we tweeted about. Then (at 5:00) it's time to talk about the Central and the changes to the region from last season before previewing all the favorites by conference. In order: CCIW (at 7:00) North Central (IL) got screwed last year being left out of the postseason and are now super duper loaded and ready to come back better than ever Augustana had maybe the quietest 35-win season in D-III history and should be very good again Millikin actually won this conference last year and have a good amount back to defend their title HCAC (at 23:20) Transylvania has an elite two-way player in Trent Youngblood but has a ton of other offense to replace Franklin used to hit a bajillion homers a year but those guys are gone now Rose-Hulman is gonna be trending back up soon with new head coach Adam Rosen NACC (at 32:00) Let's talk about Aurora for 10 minutes because we have A LOT OF THOUGHTS Benedictine could definitely challenge the Spartans, though We'd love to see Concordia-Chicago get back in the mix SLIAC (at 45:55) Webster looks strong as always but will have to replace the legendary Matt Mulhearn on the bump; their SOS is completely ridiculous, mad respect UAA (at 58:18) Jake's WashU Bears are definitely going to be good again but most of the World Series team is gone so there are going to be a ton of new faces We conclude (at 1:06:20) with our player and pitcher of the year picks, and our teams to beat. Then we say goodbye.  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