Baseball Adds Game vs. Notre Dame

[jetz]

In an effort to try and recover some cancelled games, Valpo has added a game against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame in South Bend tomorrow, March 26th.  This is in addition to the originally scheduled game at ND on April 1st.  The game tomorrow IS NOT on campus at ND.  It will be played at Four Winds Stadium in South Bend, home of a minor league team.  The place used to be called Coveleski Stadium before undergoing some upgrades, including turf.  The address is 501 W. South Street, South Bend, IN 46601.  First pitch will be at 4:35 CDT/5:35 EDT.

The weather looks cold, but no precipitation.  Game time temp will be around 35 degrees at decrease to about 30 by the time the game ends.  Ellis Foreman will get the start.

The Oakland series this weekend looks bad for field conditions and weather.  Plan on changes.  Keep checking the Valpo site for the most up to date information.

GO SPRING!!

[valpotx]

This conference season is shaping up to need an asterisk for Valpo!  We lose out on playing 3 home games against Milwaukee, and now 3 more easily winnable games at Oakland...

[jetz]

Asterisks all around...Wright State has used their turf and relative southern locale to get in six HL games, while a couple of league teams haven't played any yet.  UWM's Hank Aaron (city) Park is unplayable again this season.  UWM won the regular season last year, and I think they had one home series.  Equality in the HL in baseball is impossible this year with the weather.  I'm starting to question whether the tournament seeding can even be made fairly.  You're going to see some team have nine fewer games in conference than others.  I think they should look at midweek conference games, maybe at a neutral site with turf if fields aren't playable.  Yes, that means you'll have to start different pitchers, but this year that might have to be considered as defining the best overall team...

[valporun]

Does the NCAA require a specific number of conference games have to be played for your conference tournament to count for an NCAA automatic bid? I mean if the league doesn't get enough games in, what good is the tournament then?

[valpotx]

There wouldn't be any such requirement, since it is all based on the conference tournament anyways. 

[valporun]

I only ask because I know a lot of high school associations are having this same issue with getting teams enough games to qualify for postseason play, if they are in areas hit heavily by the snow this winter, and don't have any domed fields they can rent or field turf at their facilities. I would think the NCAA would have some kind of requirement, even if getting into the NCAA tourney is contingent on winning your conference tournament. This winter has just been crazy on many spring sports, and coaches are tearing out hair trying to find open dates on calendars to get missed games in.