Tournament Web Site

ABILENE, Texas - McMurry University, the pre-determined site for the 2008 NCAA Division III West Region Baseball Championships, was awarded a six-team tournament field late Sunday night. The tournament will feature the No. 1 team in the nation in Chapman University along with California State University-East Bay, George Fox University, La Verne University, the hosts McMurry University, and Trinity University.

All six teams are representatives of the west region, but a seventh west region team, Linfield (Ore.), was shipped to the Central Region Tournament site in Rock Island, Ill. The double elimination tournament begins Wednesday at Noon.

The No. 1 seed Chapman will face La Verne at Noon at Walt Driggers Field. George Fox will be the home team as the No. 2 seed against Trinity at 3:30 p.m. and the hosts, McMurry, will serve as the home team as the No. 3 seed against Cal State-East Bay beginning at 7 p.m.

Chapman finished the regular season with a 35-3 record and has been the No. 1 ranked team in the nation for all 11 weeks of the regular season by the D3baseball.com/NCBWA poll. Chapman competes as an independent division III team from Orange, Calif. The Panthers hold a combined 9-1 record this season against other teams in the west region tournament with its only blemish coming against McMurry Feb. 8 in a 5-2 loss.

Chapman’s Mike Vass and Kurt Yacko lead the team offensively. Vass hit .395 with 11 homers and 42 RBI through the regular season and Yacko hit .356 with 10 home runs and 45 RBI. Yacko is the team’s top reliving pitcher as well with a 0.78 ERA and 12 saves in 20 appearances. Wayde Kitchens holds a 7-0 record on the mound with a microscopic 0.31 ERA in nine starts.

George Fox University (Newberg, Ore.) carries a 28-12 record into the tournament as a member of the Northwest Conference. The Bruins enter as a Pool C at-large selection. GFU finished second to Linfield (Ore.) in the NWC, but the Bruins’ strong in-region record and strength of schedule propelled them to a No. 2 seed in the regional tournament.

The Bruins will be making their third-straight appearance in the NCAA playoffs in 2008 and are led offensively by Ryan Fobert. Fobert hit .389 in the regular season with two homers and 37 RBI. On the mound, GFU has four starters with at least five wins, however, Mark Putney leads the staff with a 6-1 record and a 2.77 ERA in 48.1 innings of work.

McMurry (Abilene, Texas), the No. 3 seed, carries one of the most powerful offenses in NCAA Division III into the tournament. The team finished with a 29-17 record in the regular season and won its first American Southwest Conference title since 2004 by defeating Concordia-Texas May 4.

Derek David, the nation’s leader in home runs (26), RBI (73) and runs scored (78) leads an offense that is No. 1 in the nation with 75 homers and hit .347 as a team in the regular season. Cody Curry posted a 9-1 record on the mound to lead McMurry’s pitching staff and has a 3.88 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 72 innings of work.

Cal State-East Bay (Hayward, Calif.), the tournament’s No. 4 seed, finished the regular season with a 26-14 record as a division III independent. The Pioneers took two of three from GFU earlier in the season, were swept by Chapman in a 3-game set, took two of three from La Verne, and also took two of three from Linfield. CSEB’s strong record against powerful in-region teams earned the team the bid.

Lamonte Toney leads the CSEB with a .415 batting average through the regular season and led the Pioneers with 10 homers and 39 RBI. On the mound, Cody Hazen is the team’s closer and had 10 saves in 17 appearances for the season while starter Matt Vieira had a 9-2 record with a 3.75 ERA in the regular season.

Trinity University out of San Antonio enters as the No. 5 seed and an automatic qualifier after the Tigers won the Southern Collegiate Athletic Title April 27 with a win over Millsaps College. Trinity posted a 32-13 record in the regular season and had an impressive 10-3 record in road games in 2008.

Evan Jones leads the Tiger offense with a .405 average, seven homers and a team-high 63 RBI on the year. Kyle Felix also adds run production as he finished with eight homers and 47 RBI for the regular season. Evan Bronson (8-3) and Brian Oates (7-2) combined for 15 wins on the mound this season and both hurlers kept their respective ERA’s under 2.60 for the year.

La Verne University (La Verne, Calif.) won the automatic qualifier for the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and had a 25-14-1 record on the season. The Leopards have eight players hitting above the .300 mark through the regular season and are hitting .327 as a team.

Scott Marcus leads the Leopard offense with a .375 average, 13 homers and 62 RBI for the year. La Verne’s bullpen has proven to be its strength on the mound as the top four pitchers are not regular starters. Jimmy Wilfong has a 2.05 ERA in 44 innings with only three starts in 20 appearances while Allen Komori, Rich Johnson all have ERA’s under 3.65 out of the pen.

Fans can buy daily ticket passes for $4 at the student price and $6 at the adult price. No tournament passes will be sold but all tickets are good for an entire day. Fans can also follow all the tournament action with live stats, recaps, box scores, full statistics and photos on the tournament web site.

McMurry and Walt Driggers Field will be playing host to the regional tournament for the fourth time. McMurry hosted the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 1998, 2001 and 2004 prior to this season.