In case you care, after Southern Connecticut State was eliminated from the DII World Series on Thursday night, West Florida defeated Winona State to win the title on Saturday 12-2.
West Florida defeated SCSU in the tourney opener earlier in the week 13-0. Southern fell to Winona State on Thursday setting the stage for Saturday's title game.

Here are the details of the finale at Cary, N.C.:

Greg Pron lost 32 games during his 2008 freshman season at West Florida. The idea of him ever celebrating a national championship on a June afternoon in North Carolina seemed as likely as finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

But when closer Shane Waller threw strike three over the plate against Winona State’s Seth McMullen in the bottom of the ninth inning of the NCAA Division II national championship game Saturday, Pron joined his teammates on the mound in a frenzied celebration, a 12-2 win in the books, hats scattered across the field and those 32 losses a distant memory.

The senior right fielder only had one hit in the game in six trips to the plate, but it didn’t matter on this sun-kissed day at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.

Pron, who hit .322 as a freshman and ended up as one of the top hitters in program history, had a trophy in his hands and that was worth more than any hit.

“As we got near the end of the game waiting for that last out, you could feel the excitement,” Pron said. “It’s amazing to win it. I’ve experienced both extremes. We were the worst team around. We took it to heart and look where it got us. It got us a national championship.”

The national championship is the first for West Florida (52-9), which cranked out 15 hits and never looked back after jumping in front 4-0 in the first inning.

The fourth-ranked Argonauts became the fifth team from the Sunshine State in the last seven years to win a title.

Head coach Mike Jeffcoat remembers what it was like to watch the team struggle during the 2008 season. But like his players, he never lost hope. He always believed that life would get better and that a day like Saturday would eventually materialize.

“Some of the freshman from that team didn’t come back, but we had a good core of players and that season was a great learning experience,” Jeffcoat said. “We stayed the course and believed in our vision of winning a championship. We talked about winning one all the time and it feels good to make it happen.”

A big first inning was all the Argonauts needed to put the No. 16 Warriors (42-18) on their heels. Taye Larry led off the game with a hit and eventually scored when Josh Huggins beat out the throw for a single and gave the speedy Larry time to race around the base paths and score for a 1-0 lead.

Leo Lamarche drilled a single to left to drive in a run and Zach Taylor smacked a two-run hit to centerfield to push the West Florida advantage to 4-0. Taylor’s hit was the dagger in an inning where the five through nine hitters in the Argonauts lineup combined for three hits and four RBI.

“It was big to have those guys step up,” Jeffcoat said. “The four-run inning really took the pressure off. You don’t expect that in a championship game. We were excited right out of the gate.”

Yet, Winona State wasn’t going to give up its championship dream without a fight. The Warriors trailed 4-0 in the first inning of their victory against Southern Connecticut on Thursday night, so they were confident they could put together another rally.

The bottom of the first started off well. Tony Mueller and Nate Van Roekel both tallied singles but hope would fade fast for the Warriors against Daniel Vargas-Vila (16-1), who gave up 10 hits on the day and struck out seven in eight innings of work.

Mueller, who has been an offensive star all season for the Warriors, hitting .388 with 33 RBI, talked about the frustration of not being able to get the offense clicking against the Argonauts.

“We’ve been in that situation before, down four runs, and we weren’t too worried,” Mueller said. “We got those first two hits and felt like we could get something going. We just couldn’t put it together today.”

The Warriors scored their only two runs in the eighth when Cody Strang ripped a triple to center to drive in two runs and give the Winona State fans something to cheer about, if only for a moment.

Still, finishing second to a West Florida team that won 22 consecutive games earlier this year and even held the No. 1 ranking is nothing to feel bad about.

Warriors head coach Kyle Poock had to fight back tears as he talked about the season coming to an end after such a remarkable run. Keep in mind that the Warriors didn’t even win the regular season Northern Sun Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship.

“It’s been a goal of our program to get to this level and compete,” Poock said. “We have been very successful and had a great year. I’m proud of my guys. We had our chances but West Florida is a great baseball team.”

Mueller finished with three hits to pace the Warriors. Van Roekel and Adam Gemuenden came through with two hits apiece.

Kodey Simon (8-3) took the loss. He lasted four innings and gave up seven runs on nine hits. He recorded two strikeouts as well.

West Florida scored 10 or more runs for the second time in the national tourney. Larry, Huggins and Brandon Brewer, another player on that 2008 team, all had three hits in the win.

“I struggled with my location and got behind a lot,” Simon said. “You can’t do that against a good hitting team.”

As music blared over the speakers and the West Florida fans danced in the stands as they watched their team savor the special moment, Pron reflected on this remarkable journey, a journey that seemed unlikely a few years earlier.

“It’s awesome,” Pron said. “Words can’t describe it. We’ve worked so hard for this and it’s great to see that hard work pay off.”

Southern Connecticut was eliminated from the Division II World Series on Thursday night. The Owls end the season with a remarkable 45-9-1 mark.

Five different players registered multiple hits, but the No. 8 nationally ranked Southern Connecticut State University baseball team was defeated by No. 16 nationally ranked Winona State on Thursday evening, 7-5. The Owls had the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth but couldn’t connect.

Winona State (42-17) advances to Saturday’s championship game against West Florida.

It was a contrast for the Owls, who had to come-from-behind to win its last two games in the College World Series. On this night, Southern Connecticut jumped out with four runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 4-0 lead.

Kyle Cummings (Hamden, Conn.) singled to start the inning and move to second base one out later on a single by Kyle Rosadino (Berwyn, Pa.). Ryan Geffert (Plymouth, Pa.) followed with another single that loaded the bases. A.J. Rouleau (Westborough, Mass.) then singled up the middle to drive in two runs. Bryan Dorsey (Cheshire, Conn.) followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0 before T.K. Kiernan (Wallingford, Conn.) singled home Rouleau to make it 4-0.

However, Winona State scored four times in the top of the second to even the score. Three of those runs were unearned.

Southern Connecticut regained the lead with a run in the third. Rouleau, Dorsey and Michael Cleary (West Boylston, Mass.) all singled to load the bases with two outs. T.J. Shea (Hamden, Conn.) then bounded a ball to shortstop to allowed Rouleau to score.

Winona State countered with three runs in the fifth inning, all of which came with two outs, to take a 7-5 lead.

From there, the Owls had the tying run at the plate in the sixth and eighth inning, and a pair of hit batsmen in the ninth put the winning run at the plate.

Rouleau, Rosadino, Kiernan, Cleary and Shea all finished with two hits apiece for the Owls.

Here's what our reporter down south had to offer on Southern's NCAA win today:

CARY, N.C. — Nearly a week after arriving in North Carolina for the Division II College World Series, Southern Connecticut State’s bats finally showed up, too.
The Owls rebounded from a lopsided shutout loss in their opener to pound out 14 hits in an 8-6 win over Grand Valley State in an elimination game Tuesday at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.
The victory extended SCSU’s season and sent the nation’s top-ranked team home after just two games in the double-elimination tournament.
The Owls will try to continue their run through the loser’s bracket against either West Florida or Sonoma State today at 7 p.m.
“Whether you get beat by 13 runs or you get beat by one, it’s still a loss. And three other teams had losses,” coach Tim Shea said of his team’s 13-0 drubbing at the hands of West Florida in its tournament opener Sunday. “It’s just a matter of going back out the next day, being confident and taking care of business, which is what we did
See SCSU, E2
Continued from C1
today. I’ve got to give credit to them. A lot of teams would have folded.”
SCSU (44-8-1) wasted little time showing that things would be different with three hits in the first two innings against previously unbeaten Grand Valley ace Kyle Schepel.
That was one fewer hit than the Owls mustered in the opener.
Even though they didn’t score in either inning and fell behind 3-0 in the bottom of the third, third baseman A.J. Rouleau was anything but discouraged about his team’s start.
“In the first game, we hit the ball well. We just hit it right at people,” Rouleau said. “I think we’re still getting used to the metal bats. We just felt like (the hits) would start falling for us.”
They finally did in the top of the fourth.
Ryan Geffert started the rally with a double into the gap in left center, followed by a walk to Rouleau and run-scoring singles by Bryan Dorsey and T.K. Kiernan. Leadoff man Kyle Cummings put the finishing touches on the four-run outburst with a two-run single — the first of his three hits and three RBIs.
“Whenever a team puts up runs, all year we’ve come right away and try to answer,” Cummings said. “It was big for us mentally and physically to get back into the game. We were good from there.”
The Owls’ confidence showed again after Grand Valley (53-5) tied the game with a run in the bottom of the fourth.
This time they took advantage of the Lakers’ inability to turn a potential inning-ending double play and scored three runs in a decisive sixth inning. Cummings was again the catalyst, starting things off with a single before Rosadino and Rouleau delivered the runs to give SCSU a 7-4 lead.
Grand Valley, which entered the tournament on a 32-game winning streak, tried to rally by scoring twice in the sixth, then putting two runners on with two out in the eighth. But closer Mike Johnston struck out Giancarlo Brugnoni looking to end the threat.
The Owls tacked on an insurance run to put the game away in their final at bat.
“That was two teams fighting to survive,” Shea said. “As I told our guys before the game, it’s going to come down to the team that wanted it the most. We were able to hang on with our pitching staff and we pieced it together against a good club.”

NEW HAVEN — Tim Shea cracked open several boxes containing new bats and one by one the members of the Southern Connecticut State baseball grabbed them like kids on Christmas morning. The bats brought smiles to the faces of power hitters like A.J. Rouleau and Ryan Geffert for a couple of minutes.
Then Shea, Southern’s veteran coach, ordered his team to begin stretching and it was back to business for the Owls (43-7-1) as they prepare to play in the NCAA Division II College World Series at Cary, N.C.
Southern, the winners of the East Regional, will meet the University of West Florida (48-9) in their first game on Sunday at 5 p.m. West Florida won the South Regional. Southern will play again on Tuesday against a team to be determined in the double-elimination tournament.
SCSU paid for the new bats the team first used in Tuesday’s practice. Geffert and Rouleau, two of the top hitters on the Owls, haven’t swung an aluminum bat in a few years. Southern plays in the Northeast-10 Conference which plays all its games with wood bats while most other conferences around the nation still use metal bats.
“I see myself as a completely different hitter now,” Rouleau said. “When I was with the aluminum I had a lot more power and I hit a lot of home runs. To tell you the truth I like wood better. It’s better for everybody, the pitchers, the infielders and it’s a truer game.”
This season the NCAA mandated a new type of aluminum bat designated which it feels more resembles wooden bats. Shea said the flight of the ball is a bit more restricted than it was last year and overall home runs are down on all the levels. Still, aluminum bats are a different animal.
“When we saw who we were playing we went to their team Web site and checked them out,” said Geffert, who is batting .311 with six homers and 49 RBIs. “We saw they’ve got inflated numbers. They’re hitting .350 as a team and we’re only hitting .275.
“But we feel that we have become good hitters with the wooden bats. When you switch to a metal bat there are certain pitches you can swing at that you wouldn’t swing at with a wooden bat.
“If you swing at an inside pitch with a wooden bat you’ll probably break it. If you hit it with a metal bat you could fist a single over the infield. It makes a difference.”
Rouleau isn’t worried about an adjustment period at the plate or in the field. Playing third base he doesn’t expect he’ll play deeper than he usually does. He only felt that outfielders will have to adjust because the sound off the bat is always the same with a metal bat and they won’t be able to use it to judge the distance of the hit.
“Coming into Southern I had never used wood so it was kind of a longer transition for me to get used to it,” Rouleau said. “Any part of the metal bat you could hit it and it still could go out. It’s a lot more forgiving than the wooden bat.
”I think it’s going to be a lot easier transition going back to the metal.”
Rouleau said the pitchers may not like it but it really won’t make a difference.
“We just have to play like we’ve been playing,” he said. “We have to get used to the surroundings, get used to the bats. We’ll get more power back but we still have to get the pitching that we’ve been getting this year and we’ll be OK.”
West Florida had 37 home runs during the season while SCSU hit 20.

Here are some video highlights from SCSU's East Regional title game of the NCAA Division II baseball tournament.

Here is the final out of the tournament:




Coach Shea:



The team jumps in Pearley Pond after the victory:



SCSU celebrates after the final out:



SCSU gets the championship plaque:

The SCSU baseball team continued its march toward a possible NCAA Division II East Regional title and a berth in the World Series with a 9-2 win over host Franklin Pierce Friday night.
The Owls improve to a program-best 40-6-1.
No. 8 Southern jumped out early in the second with a two-RBI single by Matt Pessy (Greenwich, Conn.). Southern added five runs in the fifth and sixth innings with a RBI single from Ryan Geffert (Plymouth, Pa.) and a sacrifice groundout by A.J. Rouleau (Westborough, Mass.) in the fifth and three bases loaded walks in the sixth. The Owls put the game out of reach in the eighth with a two-RBI single by Michael Cleary (West Boylston, Mass.).

Steve Landell (Higganum, Conn.) started for the Owls going seven innings giving up two runs on seven hits and striking out four batters. A.J. Turnier (Waterford, Conn.) relieved Landell in the eighth and went the final two innings and allowed no hits. The offenses for the Owls were powered by Cleary who went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBI. Kyle Rosadino (Berwyn, Pa.), T.K. Kiernan (Wallingford, Conn.) and Pessy also collected two hits on the day.

The No. 8 nationally ranked Southern Connecticut State University Owls defeats Wilmington (Del.) Thursday, 2-1 in the first round of the NCAA East Regional.

The Owls broke through in the eighth inning with two runs on a RBI single by Kyle Rosadino and a sacrifice flyout by A.J. Rouleau.

Kevin Pettine started for the Owls giving up no runs, on four hits, two walks and struck out three batters through eight innings of work. Closer Michael Johnston came in for the ninth inning and allowed one run to notch the save.
Nick DeProspo led the club going 2-for-3 with two doubles in the game. T.K. Kiernan also collected two hits on the day. Both Rosadino and Rouleau each collected a RBI.

Southern improves to 39-6-1 on the season. The Owls next game will be Friday at 7p.m. where they will play against second seed, Franklin Pierce.

Franklin Pierce rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat UMass-Lowell 4-3 in the first round of the NCAA Division II East Regional Tournament Thursday at Pappas Field in Rindge, N.H.
Earlier in the day Adelphi scored two runs in the first inning and made them hold up on the way to a 2-0 win over Dowling.
With the win, Adelphi advanced to the winner’s bracket of the regional and will play at 3 p.m. on Friday versus the loser of Thursday night’s Wilmington/Southern Connecticut State game.
Dowling heads to the loser’s bracket and will face UMass-Lowell on Friday morning at 11 a.m. in an elimination game.
Southern plays Wilmington, Del., Thursday night at 7 p.m.

NEW HAVEN — From Shelton’s James Tate and the prom dilemma that became a national debate, to Milford’s Max Pelloth and the lacrosse debacle, the list of intriguing area story lines continues to mount.

Now add the astounding tale of the Southern Connecticut State baseball team to the growing list of head-scratchers.

On Sunday night the SCSU baseball team eagerly awaited word on its destination in the NCAA Division II East Regional tournament. After finishing the season 38-6-1, which included a record-breaking 22-game winning streak to start the season, the Owls felt certain they had done enough to host the regional at Yale Field this week.

Southern was ranked as high as fifth in the nation and entered the last weekend of the season ranked eighth nationally and, more importantly, No. 1 in the East.

But, when the pairings were announced late Sunday night on NCAA.com, Southern was not only denied the first seed but had inexplicably fallen all the way to No. 4. To make matters worse, Franklin Pierce (38-12), which finished third in the conference standings and didn’t win the postseason tournament, was given the No. 2 seed. With it came the right to host the NCAA tournament.

The decision left Southern coach Tim Shea shaking his head in disbelief.

“The only answer I got was Franklin Pierce’s body of work was better than ours,” Shea said. “I don’t understand it. We went from the one seed to the three seed and back to the one seed late in the season. If we went into the final weekend as the three seed and fell to the four then that would be understandable, but that wasn’t the case.”

Shea was told that the selections were based on nine different factors.

“I went through the list of criteria and we finished ahead of Franklin Pierce in five of them,” he said. “The rest were supposedly subjective.”

Adelphi (33-12-2) was seeded No. 1 in the region. Adelphi finished second in the Northeast-10 Conference regular-season standings and won the NE-10 conference tournament on basis of the best tournament record after its championship game against Franklin Pierce was canceled due to rain. Continued...

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Shea said he didn’t have a huge problem with Adelphi being seeded No. 1 — even though Southern won the NE-10 regular-season crown — but still felt his team had a better season than the Panthers. Adelphi also didn’t apply to host the NCAA regional so it didn’t matter what seed it was given.

Southern had more wins, a better win percentage, won the conference regular-season title, had a better record against common opponents and a better road record than Franklin Pierce, all listed as defining criteria.

“We felt that we clearly had the criteria over Franklin Pierce, and when I crunched the numbers I found out that we did,” Shea said. “We’re extremely disappointed. All I got were really vague answers.

“What it comes down to is one day. We lost two games, both on the same day, and I find it hard to believe we can drop from one to four in one day. I clearly felt we were going to be the one or the two seed and because Adelphi didn’t put in to host the event, and we did, we were going to host it.”

And from a baseball standpoint, when Franklin Pierce was named host, it affected the landscape of the tournament. Franklin Pierce, located in Rindge, N.H., has a small field and has built its team around power hitters.

Franklin Pierce was 16-1 at the cozy confines of Pappas Field this season.

“It certainly makes a difference,” Shea said. “They’re used to the dimensions, the speed of the field, and they have some good hitters. Playing there where a 350-foot fly ball is a home run is a lot different than playing at Yale where it’s an out.

“We played there in the conference tournament last year and there were 10 home runs hit. Virtually the same teams came to Yale a week later in the NCAA and there were no home runs hit.”

Conspiracy theorists might add another factor to the debate. Franklin Pierce coach Jayson King serves on the NCAA selection board.

“I’m not even going there,” Shea said. “There is a certain subjectivity to the selection process. I guess it’s a bigger factor than they let on.” Continued...

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Jason Trufant, the chair of the East Regional, said he had been instructed by the NCAA not to comment on the selection process.

When asked why the chair of the NCAA Division I basketball selection committee fields questions from CBS after the announcement of the pairings, Trufant also refused to comment. And he would not answer whether Franklin Pierce coach King was involved when the committee discussed his team.

When the NCAA basketball pairings are being discussed, any member of a school whose team is about to be evaluated is asked to leave the room for the duration of talks about that team.

Shea was most disappointed by the NCAA’s lack of reasoning.

“Our kids were disappointed and shocked,” he said. “They wanted the chance to play in front of their parents and friends and host the tourney. They weren’t slamming things. They’re a very mature group and they’ll be ready.

“They’ll use it as motivation, but what it’s really going to come down to is how we play. I told them, ‘It is what it is and we’ve got to go there with the right frame of mind. The bottom line is we had to win a game over the weekend, and we didn’t. But if we play like we can, we can still get to the World Series.”

While there could have been other explanations given as to why SCSU was not selected as a host, Shea heard nothing. A couple of weeks ago, when it looked as though SCSU was a virtual lock to host the tourney, the school received a letter about the “playability” of Yale Field.

“They were worried about the infield and our school addressed the issue,” Shea said.

Also, rain is expected to stick around the state for virtually the entire week and Franklin Pierce has a turf field. But neither issue was given to Shea as a reason for the seeding.

“All they kept saying was ‘body of work’ and no other team around the region has the body of work that we have. There’s no question about it,” he said. Continued...

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The Owls will meet No. 3 Wilmington (Del.) in the opening round on Thursday night at 7 p.m.

“They’re a good team and they’ve been near the top of the region all year long,” Shea said. “But I’m glad we’re playing someone from outside of our conference. We’ve played UMass Lowell twice at the end of the season and then again in the tournament.

“The key to our success is our starting pitching,” Shea added. “In the two games we lost in the tournament we didn’t pitch well and we made some uncharacteristic errors. If we pitch well we’ll manage a way to score some runs like we’ve done 38 times this season.”

Franklin Pierce won the NCAA East Regional last year at Yale Field and advanced to the Division II World Series.

SCSU has reached the NCAAs six times, including the past two seasons.

Call Bill at 203-789-5653. Follow Bill on Twitter @BillCloutier.

Coming tomorrow in the Register, and later on this blog check out how the SCSU baseball got royally robbed by the NCAA selection committee.
It defies explanation.

Southern Connecticut State will meet Wilmington (Del.) in the opening round of the NCAA Division II East regional on Thursday night at 7 p.m.
The Owls, the No. 4 seed, enter the tournament with a 38-6-1 mark overall. All games of the regional will be played on the campus of Franklin Pierce University at Rindge, N.H.
BASEBALL
UConn 4, Rhode Island 1: Doug Elliot went 2-for-4 as the 15th-ranked Huskies beat the Rams in Kingston, R.I., posting their seventh straight win over a non-conference opponent.
UConn improved to 37-14-1. Rhode Island is 29-18.
Bob Van Woert (4-0) struck out four in 5 innings before Will Jolin came out of the bullpen to record the final out of the sixth with the bases loaded.
Jolin struck out three in 2 innings.
Rhode Island’s Mike LeBel accounted for the Rams only run with a home run in the eighth.
Kevin Vance recorded his 11th save for UConn.
Canisius 1, Fairfield 0: At Buffalo, N.Y., Brian Burton led the bottom of the second inning with a walk and later came around to score on a one-out single by Chris Gruarin to lead Canisius to its Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference win.
Fairfield right hander Scott Gussaroff scattered five hits over eight innings of work while striking out six.
Fairfield falls to 19-25, 10-11 while Canisius improves to 22-28, 10-9.

What happened when the NCAA East regional pairings were announced is anyone's guess.
The Southern Connecticut State baseball team was seeded fourth in the region and will open play against third-seeded Wilmington (Del.) on Thursday at Rindge, N.H. The game is tentatively slated for 7 p.m.
How the selection committee came up with a 4-seed for Southern is hard to believe. Southern has been ranked No. 1 in the East region virtually all season long. They are ranked eighth in the country but only half as high in their own region.
The Owls (38-6-1) are making their sixth appearance in the NCAA tournament and second straight. Southern had hoped to host the tournament at Yale Field but Adelphi earned the No. 1 seed in the East after winning the Northeast-10 Conference tournament on Sunday. Adelphi will face No. 6 Dowling in the first round.
No. 2 seed Franklin Pierce will serve as the host and will face No. 5 UMass-Lowell in the first round.
SCSU defeated UMass-Lowell at this weekend’s NE-10 Tournament, but lost to Adelphi and Franklin Pierce. Southern has the most wins and best winning percentage of any team in the region.
Adelphi could not host the regional becuase it does not have the proper facilities. Franklin Pierce relishes the chance to host the regional and went to the DII World Series last year.