Mount Olive - National Champions

Congrats to Coach Lancaster and his Trojans. They are the National Champions.

What a year for baseball in our state.

 

Damn good pickles too....

 

Pickels

I'm not sure that people understand how special this is. Mt. Olive went 58-6 on the season. They are without question the best DII team that I have ever seen. Not only were they extremely talented, but they work like a well oiled machine.

I think this also says a lot for DII baseball in the state of North Carolina right now. A lot of people want to talk about DI and other things going on in this state... With the exception of Wake in the 60's has there ever been another national champion in the state at the NCAA level???

A lot of credit goes to Lancaster, Aiken, and Watt. These guys do a marvelous job preparing their team to play.

 

Yep, plus it says that you guys are capable of "stepping up". There was not a lot of difference in the quality of players and based on your recruiting class, it appears to have narrowed.

I'm not taking anything away from what the Trojans have accomplished. I have congratulated them in the "next level" forum. But it is exciting to be able to compete with the #1 team in the nation.

 

Caution: Self-serving post

Ty & I watched Elon play UNC Wilmington last Friday in Cary. Both teams threw their All Americans, so we got to see their best. Also Ty has played w/ & is friends w/ several starters on both teams. Add to this we played D1 Naval Academy in Annapolis this Spring. And Ty has faced a ton of pitchers (like Alex White) who are D1 stars.

So we have a foundation for our conclusion: We both believe that Mt Olive would win a short series w/ either team. That's right...we believe Mt Olive was capable of qualifying for the D1 Regionals.

That may be naive on our part, but that's how talented MOC was this year. They had no weaknesses (1-9 all took incredible approaches at the plate). In the D2 title game on TV, Hodges 'cruised' @ 88-90 for 8 innings...no drop-off ever. And Schlecht hit 92-93. Everybody talks about Sherrer & Lovett (CC POY past 2 seasons), but their best hitter is Alex Vertcnik who will play-for-pay sometime soon. Etc Etc Etc

All this to say: That makes Belmont Abbey's past season more satisfying. We set a school record winning 41 games...& yet we played Mt Olive 6 times, Columbus St 2, Erskine 5, Carson Newman 4, Concord, & Catawba (all Regional qualifiers). We played D1 Naval Academy. And we opened the season (before our young kids had adjusted) getting swept 3 games in Miami, Fl by Barry U.

Kermit & Chris really are building a powerhouse. I'm glad Ty got to be part of the growth spurt...because I'm not certain he would have been on their recruiting radar 3 years ago!

 

I think D2 baseball is underrated and would really stick it to a lot of D1 schools in NC. Parents think their son has to go D1 and they ride the bench but the SAC and CVAC that could make a lot of people realize that D2 ball is about par with a lot of D1 schools in NC/SC.

 

LCLefty04, I agree with your post 100%.

I remember the talent level of D2 JUCO ball in the World Series back in '04. A lot of people think "D2 JUCO? That's barely better than Varsity HS ball"... yea right.

I laugh at those people who think they HAVE to go D1. There is VERY good baseball played on all levels. I would love to see MOC go up against some D1 schools.

I've seen MOC play a few times and what they have down there is very special. It all starts at the top with Coach Lancaster.

 

Yea they have somethign really good. We played them this in year in our first series and went 1-2 against them. Everyone thought they would have a down year this year but they were better this year than last year.

Had some guys that went to my JUCO on MOC team, so i'm especially happy for them.

 

If

you get out and watch some games then you know. It is outstanding baseball with alot of guys that can play anywhere. The people that think that and say that have never even seen a D-2 or JUCO game.