Episode 86: 2022 Central Region (Region 8) Preview

The Podcast About Division-III Baseball

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.

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