Mark Brew is happy for Billy Berry and Berry's Tennessee Wesleyan College baseball team, but the Lee University coach has his own team to direct at the NAIA World Series.
Lee is there for the fourth year in a row, making Brew 4-for-4 in that regard in his years as head coach at the Cleveland school, and Berry's Bulldogs from Athens also are among the 10 teams in Lewiston, Idaho. So is Cumberland University from Lebanon, Tenn., seeded No. 2 behind host Lewis-Clark State College.
"You throw in Chattanooga State in the Juco World Series (in Colorado), and that's four teams from this same general area -- three in about a 45-mile span. It says a lot about our level of baseball in this area," said Brew, whose Flames were among three Southern States Athletic Conference programs in last year's NAIA series.
"I think having three teams out of 10 speaks volumes for the talent of NAIA baseball in Tennessee," Berry said. "Lee has been a mainstay the last four years, and Cumberland has been there a bunch of times (11). And with us going too, there's obviously a lot of talent in Tennessee."
Wesleyan was in the same Opening Round as Lee last year, with only one advancing, and the Bulldogs have almost made it in the past. Sometimes Cumberland got in their way.
"We're excited and looking forward to it," Berry said. "We've had a program 35 years, and this has been the goal the whole time. Now that we've reached it, we're going to enjoy the experience."
His 10th-seeded Bulldogs (46-16) open the Idaho tournament at 11:30 EDT this morning against seventh seed Embry-Riddle (44-17) from Daytona Beach, Fla. Their winner faces Cumberland (53-9) at 6 p.m. EDT Saturday.
"I'm glad for Billy. We're good friends and they've had some near misses," Brew said. "But I'm only going to be excited for them when they're not in the other dugout."
Fourth-seeded Lee (49-11), which finished second and third the last two years, plays at 6 this evening against fifth-seeded Lubbock Christian (46-14), the Texas team that won the championship last year. The loser between those two plays at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, but the winner waits until 10 p.m. Monday against whoever wins Saturday night between Lewis-Clark State (47-3) and the winner of today's game between Belhaven (Miss.) and Point Loma (Calif.) Nazarene.
Lewis-Clark State is 117-33 in 28 previous World Series appearances and has won the championship 16 times, including 2007 and '08. Brew's Flames appeared to have that 2008 title won before the Warriors wrenched it from them.
"It definitely helps that we've been there and competed," Brew said. "We've been talking to our guys all week, saying, 'Why not us?' We're totally healthy and I think we'll show well.
"But everybody out there is good, and there are a lot of great coaches out there -- some legends. It's kind of neat to stack your team up against them."
One of those coaches he cited was longtime Cumberland boss Woody Hunt, whose team won the 2004 championship.
Wesleyan also is at full strength, Berry said.
"And I think we're a talented team," he added. "But I think our biggest strength is our attitude. We got in the losers bracket the first day (of the Columbus, Ga., opening round) and won five straight games. Our kids are battle-tested.
"We had to beat LSU-Shreveport and Southern Poly (twice), two teams that could've gone to Lewiston and been successful."
Wesleyan's Cody Gaskill leads the NAIA in RBIs with 94, and he's batting .403 with 21 home runs, 26 doubles, two triples and 68 runs scored. Fellow junior infielder Jonathan Smith is hitting .413 with 27 extra-base hits, 37 walks, 31 stolen bases (in 37 tries), 74 runs and 61 RBIs. Max Loveland, Brad Pippa, Ryan Santos, Rafael Carlot and C.J. McElroy are batting .377, .367, .347, .337 and .317.
Loveland has 49 steals (third most in the NAIA, one spot behind Lee's JJ Costantino) in 55 tries and also has scored 74 runs, and he has 12 saves as a pitcher. Hamilton Bennett, the Bulldogs' starting pitcher this morning, is 7-2 with a 3.86 earned run average and 91 strikeouts with only eight walks in 77 innings, while Daniel Wood is 9-0 with a 3.70 ERA and Justin Crowell is 9-4 with a team-high 81 innings.
Lee has two 10-0 starters, Matthew Gilson and Scott Swinson, to throw in its first two games, and nine regulars batting between .310 and .390.
"Lubbock and Lewis-Clark have won the last three championships, so we've got a huge challenge," Brew said. "But at the same time, we'll be ready. There's no good draw at this point. You've got to be ready to play every day."
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