Emporia State will play Lynn (Fla.) for the NCAA Division II national title in a winner-take-all game Saturday. This one’s going to be on TV, CBS College Sports, Cox Channel 260 at 11 a.m. The two teams have never played each other before and its the first national championship appearance on the DII level for either school. Here’s where you can listen online.
Now here’s the skinny on where the watch parties are going to be, the one in Emporia might not be a bad place to be if the Hornets win, and Player’s is never a bad place to be on a Saturday afternoon. Josh Wood wants to go to the Ark City Pizza Hut :
Sunflower Slate hustled and got ESU hero Kellen Lane on the phone Thursday night (thanks to a little help from Josh Slaughter) after his dramatic, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth sent the Hornets to Saturday’s NCAA Division II College World Series title game in Cary, N.C. Lane, a senior from Borger, Texas, played junior-college ball at Odessa (Texas) College before coming to Emporia.
FINAL UPDATE: ESU SENIOR KELLEN LANE HITS TWO-RUN HR IN BOTTOM OF THE NINTH TO SEND HORNETS INTO NATIONAL TITLE GAME….THUS ENDING SUNFLOWER SLATE’S FIRST-EVEN RUNNING GAME BLOG. READ FRIDAY’S EAGLE FOR ALL THE JUICY DETAILS.
Thought I’d update as the game goes along — check out my feature on Kapaun Mount Carmel product and ESU freshman pitcher Dominic King here. And here’s the link to the ESU blog from Cary.
ESU ace Colby Killian gets the nod today for the Hornets. Opportunity knocks. The Hornets win this one and they’re in the NCAA DII CWS championship game for the first time, ever. A la, the deepest postseason run in school history.
Cowley’s season came to an end today at the NJCAA College World Series via a 10-7 loss to Spartanburg (S.C.) Methodist in Grand Junction, Colo., on Tuesday. Great season for the Tigers. Our story on the game is below. Gotta love Coach Burroughs — class act.
In other news …. Emporia State senior outfielder Conner Crumbliss was named a second-team NCAA Division II All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association and the Daktronics Division II Sports Information Directors.The Ark City product and MIAA player of the year batted .403 with 54 RBIs and led the league with 89 runs. Good for CC. Could a guy like this play for the Wingnuts, or even have a shot at affiliated ball? I’ll have to consult with Jeff Lutz on that one. Think they’ll have him cover the Raven Symone concert this summer? Man I hope so.
Here’s the story that I put together (box scores compliments of Gary Karr) for Tuesday’s Eagle on ESU advancing to the NCAA D2 College World Series semifinals and Cowley losing at the NJCAA World Series. ESU coach Bob Fornelli is in the Final 4 with his second team after leading Fort Hays to a runner-up finish in 2000. Caleb Williamson delivered the game-winning hit in this one and man … I love it when my Red Ravens deliver in the clutch. Look for the Tigers to bounce back Tuesday against Spartburg (S.C.) Community College.
Props to Bethel’s Paige McKinney — the tennis standout from Newton HS was named a first-team NAIA All-American earlier this week. That’s nothing to sneeze at in a sport dominated by warm weather schools, i.e. Cali and the South. McKinney was the only KCAC player to make the team after leading the Threshers to the KCAC Tournament title and the NAIA National Tournament.
You’ll see the Bethel Web Site lists her as a junior but the KCAC and the NAIA both have her as a senior. By my math this should be her junior year … I found a story from September 2004 by yours truly in his Eagle correspondent days that said she was a junior so that would have made her Class of 2006. Just wondering.
Here’s a crazy fact — out of the 16 first-teamers this year, they represent 14 different countries.
This is the Update Saturday I promised — I’ll keep scores and results rolling on this post until they’re all said and done.
First up is the No. 17 Emporia State baseball team No. 13 Grand Valley State 3-0 at the NCAA Division II World Series in Cary, N.C. Second baseman Jacob White his his first career home run in the fifth inning to give ESU a 1-0 lead and the Hornets tacked on runs in the seventh and ninth to finish things off. Pitcher Colby Killian — the regional tournament MVP — scattered
three hits over seven innings for the win. Kapaun product Dominik King pitched a scoreless eighth and Diego Soto took over in the ninth for the save.
Cowley defeated Seminole State 11-8 in the first round of the NJCAA College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. — no stats yet from the JuCo honks but when I get something I’ll roll with it.
Here’s what I got on NJCAA Track & Field from Hutch, compliments of Carp: Barton County finished second in both the men’s and women’s standings at the NJCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Hutchinson.
South Plains (Texas) won both the men’s and women’s titles, with the men edging Barton by 4.5 points. Alonso Edward led the Barton men, winning the 200 meters with a time of 20.34 seconds. Barton also won titles in the 1600 relay and in the 110 hurdles behind Ryan Brathwaite.
Andrea Sutherland led the Barton women with a title in the 400 hurdles and the Cougars also took first in the 1600 relay. Butler finished fifth in the men’s team standings and eighth in the women’s.
Both Emporia State and Cowley get started with College World Series action Saturday — the Hornets at the NCAA Division II event in Cary, N.C., and the Tigers at the NJCAA in Grand Junction, Colo. And get this — both teams have already faced their first-round opponents this season.
No. 17-ranked ESU faced No. 13 Grand Valley State and lost 12-11 in Pittsburg — but good news — MIAA MVP Conner Crumbliss went 3 for 4 with three runs in the loss. Here’s a link to the full package of CWS preview stuff from the ESU sports info department. They play at 4 p.m. Saturday and you can get live stats through www.ncaa.com and audio through www.kcove.com. If they don’t work, remember, I’m not on the hook. But let me know.
Feel free to weigh in on this … but the NAIA All-American teams came out today without a single KCAC player. That means that Friends, with a national ranking, with a win at the NAIA Tournament, and with KCAC player of the year Megan VinZant and pitcher of the year Brandi Leeker, didn’t get a spot. One or the other would have been great, but nothing. How did this happen? I’ve got a theory — the KCAC, as a league, gets zero respect on the national level in almost all sports they compete in. The exception is probably women’s basketball. Is this fair? Not really, but it usually derives from performance at national tournaments. In that aspect, the KCAC comes up short. The amount of teams waters down the competition level and doesn’t prepare them adequately for the national tournaments in most sports — although there are some exceptions, like I said. Not many.
But as far as VinZant and Leeker … they got robbed. I had one of them pegged as a first team picked and the other as an honorable mention. I’m not saying which. Here’s a link to their stats. Feel free to peruse and let me know what you think.
