Not Over Yet

Concord baseball coach Kevin Garrett has described the last month or so as a "roller-coaster ride."
In that month, the Mountain Lions:
> Stumbled through losing three out of four games in an important series against West Virginia State, which ultimately cost Concord a chance at the WVIAC Southern Division title....
> Recovered to win nine straight games, secure a spot in the conference tournament and put themselves firmly in the running for, at the very least, an NCAA tournament at-large bid....
> Saw their league-leading offense fall silent while going two-and-out at the WVIAC tournament, putting themselves back on the NCAA bubble.

But Garrett's roller-coaster ride has yet to stop. In fact, it just got a lot more exciting.
The Mountain Lions found out late Sunday night that they had earned the sixth and final spot in the NCAA Atlantic Region tournament, which starts Thursday, May 14, in West Lawn, Pennsylvania.
"We sat around all week, not knowing if we were in or not," Garrett said of the long week between the end of the WVIAC tournament May 3 and the announcement of the NCAA bids. "That's the worst part, not knowing. So we practiced like we were in. Everybody on our team was extremely excited (when the bids came out)."

It's typical for college baseball teams to play 50 or more games in a season. But soggy weather this spring has limited Concord to only 40.
The Mountain Lions' 27-13 record, on the surface, isn't as impressive as some other teams in the Atlantic Region. Fellow WVIAC teams Seton Hill and Pitt-Johnstown didn't get a bid, despite respective records of 30-17 and 29-15. Slippery Rock, of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, is also left out despite finishing 36-15.
So how did Concord get in?
"Strength of schedule was the number one thing for us," said Garrett, who makes a point of scheduling tough opponents, "and our in-region record against ranked opponents."
Highlighting Concord's in-region performance this season: A three-game sweep at eventual WVIAC champion Shepherd April 4-5, and a doubleheader sweep of Seton Hill in Athens on the final day of the regular season.
Concord also enhanced its NCAA chances by splitting two games with Wayne State (Nebraska), which is 42-13 and the #3 seed in the Central Region, and by playing two games at Armstrong Atlantic State during spring break. While the Mountain Lions lost both games to AASU, the Pirates went 38-18 this season, a number that surely helped Concord's strength-of-schedule.

So the roller-coaster ride continues.

Which presents a particular series of challenges and a greater workload at what is already a very busy time of year -- it's finals week on the Campus Beautiful.
"Their finals are the number one priority right now," Garrett said of his players on Monday. "Since we are leaving on Wednesday (May 13), they need to reschedule their finals for today and Tuesday."
But Garrett acknowledges that's a nice problem to have for a team who could just as easily be spending today packing up its equipment and going through end-of-the-season interviews with an eye on 2010.
Instead, it's on to the Regional, and a meeting with top seed West Chester. The Golden Rams are 42-10, won the PSAC East Division by five games and clubbed West Division winner Mercyhurst 16-2 in the conference championship game last Thursday.
"They are a very good baseball team," Garrett says of West Chester. "Depending on what national poll you look at, they are as high as second. (They are) the number one seed in the region (and) have held that number one spot pretty much the whole season. Once you reach this level, there are no weak teams."

The regional may as well be called "The 2009 WVIAC-PSAC Challenge." Besides the Concord-West Chester matchup, other first round games have Shepherd against Mercyhurst and WVIAC runner-up West Virginia State meeting Kutztown, which finished second in PSAC East.
"It gives us a 50% chance to advance a team from the WVIAC to the (Division II) World Series," Garret said of the weekend ahead. "It’s a nice feeling to say that you are one of 48 teams in the nation practicing right now."

Let the roller-coaster ride keep rolling.