Monmouth wins MWC title, advances to NCAA Regionals
Release Date: May 10, 2002
The Monmouth College Fighting Scots baseball team
was named the winner of the 2002 Midwest Conference Championship Tournament and the
league’s automatic representative for the NCAA Division III tournament after rain
cancelled the second and final day of action Saturday.
In what was to be a double-elimination tournament, Monmouth
emerged as the only undefeated team, defeating St. Norbert 5-3 and Knox 8-4 in Friday’s
action. In order for Saturday’s action to be the determining factor, all games would
have had to be played, starting with a loser’s bracket matchup of Knox vs. Ripon,
followed by that winner defeating Monmouth not once, but twice. When it was determined
in mid-morning that the field wouldn’t be in playing shape until mid-afternoon at the
earliest, the entire slate was cancelled, and the Scots claimed their first MWC title
since 1993 and their first NCAA berth since 1983. The MWC title is the first in coach
Roger Sander’s nine-year baseball career at Monmouth.
Monmouth will learn where it’s headed for the May 15-18 Midwest
Regional late Sunday afternoon at the earliest. There is a chance that the Fighting
Scots’ Glasgow Field will be the site of the double-elimination event. UW-Whitewater has
also been mentioned as a possible host. The regional winner will make the nation’s Elite
Eight.
With one more victory, the Fighting Scots (24-11) will break the
team record for wins, which was matched by the 1989 squad (24-3).
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