Bloggers Channel Jeremiah McElwain Bulldogs World Series Bound
Bulldogs World Series Bound
NAIA World Series
The NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing, the MLB season is well underway, and the Cumberland Bulldogs are in Lewiston Idaho. All is right in the world of sports. The Bulldogs finished the season 53-9, the most wins of any team in the nation, NAIA, NCAA DI, DII, or DIII. This Bulldogs team also has the most wins of any Cumberland team, and will also finish with the fewest losses of any previous Cumberland team. They have only lost back-to-back games once this season, and ended the regular season on a 17-game win streak.
Expectations are high as the Bulldogs enter the NAIA World Series as the number two seed after finishing the season ranked behind only Lewis-Clark State (47-3).
Cumberland punched their ticket to the World Series by first winning the TranSouth Conference, finishing with a 17-2 record in the TSC. The Bulldogs then entered the TSC tournament as the number one seed, defeating Union University 9-5 in the championship for Cumberland’s sixth straight year of winning either the regular season championship or tournament championship, and twenty-one straight years that the Bulldogs have won either a regular season or tournament championship (CU previously played in the Mid-South Conference as well as the Tennessee Collegiate Athletic Conference).
The Bulldogs followed the TSC tournament by winning a National Championship Opening Round tournament, the second year the NAIA has used this format. Cumberland defeated Campbellsville 3-0 in the tournament finale to make their first trip to the World Series since 2007.
Cumberland has dominated nearly all season, outscoring their opponents 554-253 on the season. The Bulldogs have hit 126 homeruns on the season, led by Matt Greener’s 25 and Chris Miller’s 23. CU has seven players with at least 11 homeruns. The Bulldogs pitching staff hasn’t been too shabby either. Lead by Shawn Schaefer (13-0 2.71 era) and Aaron Wilkerson (12-1 2.13 era), the Bulldogs have a team era of 3.77 and have thrown eleven shutouts on the season.
Cumberland also dominated in the TranSouth awards this season. Cumberland won 13 of a possible 22 TranSouth Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week awards with Matt Greener and Shawn Schaefer winning four each. The Bulldogs also had eight players named to the TranSouth All-Conference First Team including David Fanshawe (C), Greg Appleton (1B), Sam Kikla (SS), Matt Greener (3B), Troy Frazier (OF), Kris Miller (OF), Shawn Schaefer (SP) and Aaron Wilkerson (SP). Matt Greener was also named Player of the Year, and Coach Woody Hunt was named Coach of the Year.
The Bulldogs will be making their 11th NAIA World Series appearance. As the number two seed in the World Series, Cumberland earned a bye in the first round, and will take on some familiar faces in the second round taking on number seven seed Embry-Riddle University. Brothers Randy (head coach) and Chuck Stegall (assistant coach) are former Cumberland Bulldogs. Cumberland and Embry-Riddle will play Saturday at 5 pm central time. Shawn Schaefer will likely take the mound in game one, with Aaron Wilkerson, and Adam Sprague pitching games two and three respectively later on in the tournament.
Statistics courtesy of www.cumberland.edu and www.transouth.org
Photo courtesy of Jason Frost
Last modified on Saturday, 29 May 2010 09:36
Jeremiah McElwain
Jeremiah is the resident sports guru at HobNobWilson. He graduated from Cumberland University in May 2010 with a bachelor's degree in English. While at Cumberland, Jeremiah was a four-year member of the Bulldogs baseball team. He graduated from Harpursville High School in upstate New York, where he earned 10 varsity letters in four sports, five letters in baseball alone. Jeremiah has covered sports for the Lebanon Democrat and the Cumberland Chronicle and has also interned in the sports information department at Cumberland University. In addition, he's served as the General Manager of the Cumberland University radio station for the past four years. Jeremiah enjoys watching Major League Baseball, the NFL, college football, college basketball and has run every sports category he's ever seen on Jeopardy. He and his wife, Donna, have been Lebanon residents for almost five years and just welcome daughter Lillian May to the family this past November.
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