Is It September or November?

There was a noticeable difference in climate change when myself and the other 70 or so members of ETBU's football contingent stepped off the plane yesterday in Minneapolis. What had been a typical humid, muggy morning back in Texas just a couple of hours earlier had turned into a brisk, windy, cloudy and chilly midday up here in the land of 1,000 lakes.

Lunch followed at a nice little place just outside Minneapolis, Old World Pizza, where the business stayed open late after lunch to serve the Tigers, well, old-fashioned style pizza. You wouldn't think a place could serve up enough pizza and mozzerella to a bunch of large, hungry college football players, but we were in and out of the place with guts busting in about an hour. Hats off to Old World.

Then it was a two-hour bus ride to La Crosse, just across the southeast Minnesota border in Wisconsin. Straight to the stadium, a crisp hour-long walk-through, then back to the hotel for supper catered by Olive Garden. The guys had a team meeting -- first with coaches, then closed-door players only -- before shutting it down for our first night on the road in 2010.

Woke up this morning to 45 degree temperatures. Yes, it is September but it definitely feels like late November back home. Funny thing is most people up here say this is very normal for this time of year in the land of cheese curds. Having seen highlights of games played on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field in Green Bay -- which is less than a couple of hours northeast from La Crosse -- I really don't doubt the locals.

I don't know how the Tigers will play Saturday night. This program has lost eight straight season openers, and digging out of an annual 0-1 hole has become more than tiresome. There is a huge monkey on the backs of these Tigers, and without any added motivation I can tell you this particular group of players is weary of carrying that particular weight and would love to shed it tonight. We will see.

It's been a great trip so far. It would become downright nice as a Texas sunset with a victory on the way home. Go Tigers!

Leader-Telegram Outshines Them All

Just wanted to share the lead from this morning's coverage story of the national championship game from the Leader-Telegram in Eau Claire. From one journalist to another, I think the Leader-Telegram's Justin Harings hit this one out of the park.

Sixth in the conference.
Fourth in the region.
First in the nation.
The East Texas Baptist softball team finally had to quit fighting, but only because there was nobody left to play...

That just about sums it up. Go Tigers!

Field of Dreams

It's still just a little less than 24 hours after the fact but it's tough to believe it ever happened. ETBU's softball team is the best in the nation. Officially.

The team struggled to just make its own conference tournament, for crying out loud. The dark days in late April leading up to that final regular season day at Taylor Field seem so, so long ago now. The disappointment of being ousted from the conference tournament a full day before Louisiana College was eventually crowned champion is now not even a memory, it's been erased completely. There was even a long week's wait between the conference tourney and the announcement of NCAA regional bids, a week that made it seem like the season was already over because there were no games being played.

Then suddenly, it what seemed like a blink of an eye, the Tigers were dogpiling in Eau Claire, Wisc., on a sweltering Monday afternoon.

Huh? Yes, it's a little bit unbelievable, in every sense of the word.

You sit back as a sports fan and you watch on TV as teams find a way to get it going at the right time, get hot for a few days during a championship and create pure magic. But you never ever dream it's going to happen to your team.

Tiger fans, it happened. Your lady Tigers are national champions and will forever be listed in the NCAA record books. Deal with it.

There are so many storylines to this team, still, that you will almost certainly miss one if you tried to capture any single, given moment. This is a team that, over a seven-day span, knocked off the top-ranked team in the land, a longtime rival that had dominated the series between the two teams on its home field for years. They then came from behind to win three of their four World Series games, including two against one of the most powerful teams in the NCAA, longtime playoff nemesis Linfield.

They did it by coming from three runs down in the final three innings, after leaving the bases loaded not once but twice, and by getting the luckiest of all bad hops on the final play of the season.

It was fitting that the championship was won on that play. The ball was just bouncing our way over the last eight games of the year.

Congratulations go to every member of the ETBU team, coaches, players, parents, trainers, students, faculty, staff, the plain-old every day fan. You find out during runs like this just how big your bandwagon is, and just how easy it is to welcome people aboard, no matter how fast you are flying by.

National champions. The first-ever from our conference and from our school as a NCAA member. Dreams sometimes do not die, after all.

Don't Stop Believing

No matter what happens Monday at the NCAA Division III Softball World Series, the 2010 ETBU Tigers have put their names in the history books.

By all accounts the Tigers have become the darlings of Eau Claire, the little engine that could, this year's team of destiny. It could all end, of course, still, as the Tigers have one more win to get in 2010 to claim ETBU's first NCAA national championship. But no one will ever forget the Tigers' first trip to the World Series.

If you are a Tiger fan you have to like the vibe coming out of Eau Claire. There are those moments in sports when a team can just "feel it," or as a lot of athletes like to say, can "smell it." ETBU has that look. You cannot explain it, it's just there.

How else do you explain Lauryn McCurry? Here is a young freshman who started most of the second half of the regular season at first base but has been in a slump that saw her drop to the ninth spot in the batting order and eventually out of the starting lineup altogether entering the NCAA Tournament.

Since the start of the NFCA Leadoff Classic back in March, Lauryn had started 31 games while playing in 39. Over that time she was hitting just .250, with 18 hits in 72 at-bats. None of those hits had gone for extra bases -- 18 singles since March.

She hadn't been in the starting lineup since the ASC Tournament on April 30, as Coach Janae Shirley had gone with Brooke Martin at first base and a combination of Shelbee Young and Ashton Brey in right. That strategy had worked wonders through the first eight games of the NCAA Tournament for ETBU, going into Sunday.

But Janae had a hunch, I guess, against Linfield. She inserted Lauryn back into the starting lineup Sunday, with Martin moving back to right. And as fate would have it, there was McCurry in the batter's box in the most crucial moment of the championship tournament for ETBU to this point.

It had the makings of a grand slam. I mean, what else would you have expected from what this team has given us over the last week?

Whoever comes out of the elimination bracket Monday will be a tough opponent for the Tigers. The thing that scares you most as the team in the winner's bracket is that the team you face is going to be coming at you with some momentum after a win or two, and they are going to have the underdog role. Can't say they have nothing to lose, but...the pressure will be on ETBU to win Monday. You don't want this to go into Tuesday if you are a Tiger.

One more to go. ETBU could be NCAA national champions Monday night. What a way to end the year. What a way to kick-start the summer.

Can you smell it?

Go Tigers!

Day 1 Thoughts

Some thoughts concerning Friday's first round of games at the NCAA Division III Softball Championship Finals:

• For our own ETBU Tigers, this team is very confident in its ability to score big and score late. There was no sign of panic when Moravian jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead Friday, maybe a few nerves and jitters, but certainly no panic. When Meghan Fisher's home run left the yard in the fourth, you could almost hear a big exhale from everyone on ETBU's side. From that point the Tigers outscored the Greyhounds 6-1.
• The two ETBU pitchers, Ayrika Henderson and Alicia Wright, have each other's backs. If you remember if was Wright who came in Monday's game late and saved the regional championship in a game Henderson gutted out for five innings. The big senior righty returned the favor Friday night, taking the ball from Wright over the final two-plus innings and allowing just one hit while fanning four.
• ETBU seniors Adrienne Meier and Stacy Havner were a combined 5 for 8 with 5 RBI Friday night. Anyone who tells you senior leadership is overrated, is most likely staying at home this weekend.
• Linfield is a scary, scary team. The team that handed ETBU its final loss to the 2009 season, a heartbreaking 2-1 come-from-behind win at the Taylor Field regional last May, leads the nation in homers and blasted three more (giving them a D-III record 77 in 2010) in rallying past a very good Luther team earlier Friday.
• After coughing up its lead to ETBU Friday night, Moravian could get the unlucky chore of facing Eastern Connecticut State ace Molly Rathbun Saturday. Rathbun missed ECSU's 8-0 loss to Christopher Newport Friday, remaining at the hotel while fighting the flu. She is only 27-1 with a nation-best 0.61 ERA entering the World Series.
• Don't let the Tigers' 4-2 win over Christopher Newport back in March fool you. The Captains were one of the best teams at the Leadoff Classic and outside of Louisiana College beating ETBU in the finals of that tournament, gave the Tigers their biggest challenge of the weekend. They are a good, fundamentally-sound softball team and will be a tough out Saturday.

On to day two. Go Tigers!

World Series Coverage

In case you missed it, ETBU's Softball team is currently in Eau Claire, Wis., with a little bit of extended time to the 2010 softball season.

Unless you are one of the select few who either a) traveled with the team on the NCAA's dime to the upper Midwest, or b) were lucky enough to find a hotel room in the Eau Claire area, or, apparently, anywhere within a two-mile radius of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, or c) will be trekking overnight on a special charter bus for Tiger fans, which pulls out of Marshall at 8 Thursday night -- you will most likely be left to watching ETBU go for history this weekend right here on the vast expanse known as the Internet.

There are several ways being provided fans who can't make the trip for keeping up with the action. Below is a checklist of the areas you can use to follow the coverage. Pay attention, there will be at test at the end --

• Go ahead and bookmark our Softball page here at etbu.edu, if you haven't already. We will be updating the site throughout the World Series with game action, photos (hopefully) and other information.
• Our Director of Public Relations, Mike Midkiff, is with the team in Eau Claire and is busy with a very entertaining blog at the following link: http://www.etbu.edu/php/ladytigersoftball/. Mike will be penning his thoughts while traveling with the team and will focus more on the team's travels and off the field activities.
• Our Sports Information Blog (here) will focus more on game action and events.
• There are two different ways to watch or listen to all the ETBU action. First, for audio only, you may follow our tireless broadcaster, Mr. Charlie Chitwood, at www.audiosportsonline.net. Charlie called last week's regional and apparently is a very good good luck charm. He will be calling the games with a local touch and insight to the Tigers.
• The NCAA Fan Website for the championship is state of the art. Go to http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-softbl/champpage/w-softbl-div3-index.html. At this site you may watch live, streaming video of all the games at the tournament, with professional game commentary. Game Tracker will be providing live play-by-play via live stats. Postgame press conferences and interviews will also be streamed live on video. Your most in-depth coverage of the entire tournament is right here at this site.
• ETBU's Twitter page. Follow ETBU_Tigers and get in-game, inning-by-inning updates of the score from the Tiger games. This is good for those who might be away from their computer but have Internet access on cell phones.

I certainly hope we haven't missed anything. And don't worry, no test.

Go Tigers!

NCAA: Never get Caught Assuming Anything

Okay, found out late Wednesday that all this promotion that we are the top seed at the national softball finals this week is completely false.

Officially the Tigers are the No. 7 seed, out of eight. That makes them an underdog Friday night against the No. 2 seed Moravian Greyhounds -- a team which ETBU thumped 15-3 back in March at the NFCA Leadoff Classic.

The highest-ranked team at the tournament -- No. 4 Luther -- is playing the next-highest ranked team -- No. 8 Linfield -- in the first round. Luther is seeded fourth while Linfield is seeded fifth.

The top seed at the tournament officially Ithaca College (33-13), which finished the regular season as the 24th-ranked team in the country.

Huh?

The lesson here is that one should never get caught assuming anything when it comes to the NCAA -- in fact, that's the acronym I've come up with. Never get Caught Assuming Anything. It was my personal thinking based on past experience that World Series seeding was based on the original regional seedings -- meaning, since Louisiana College was the top-ranked and top-seeded team in the nation entering the postseason, the winner of the Pineville Regional was to assume the No. 1 seed at the tournament.

That's the way things were back in 2004, when ETBU entered the West Regional in Orange, Ca., at Chapman. The Tigers were the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and would have been seeded No. 1 at the World Series had they advanced. Instead, Chapman -- the No. 2 seed at the regional -- won and went to the championship. They were declared the top seed at the World Series because they played in the "top seed regional."

So my apologies to anyone who was confused by the last two days' references to ETBU as the top seed. In the end it doesn't really matter once the games start -- all eight teams are regional championship winners and arguably members of the Division III Softball "Elite Eight." And the NCAA, in fairness, cautions everyone before the regionals that those bids are not issued based on any national rankings other than the NCAA's. And the top 25 is put out by the NFCA.

I'm not quite sure how these "seedings" were done, honestly, but it doesn't really matter. You play your first round game and you move on from there.

Go Tigers!