EMORY UNIVERSITY LOOKING FOR RARE
UAA CHAMPIONSHIP "THREE-PEAT"

MThis year marks the 20th anniversary of the University Athletic Association Baseball Championship Tournament.  From the inaugural championship tournament hosted by Emory University in 1989  (on the campus of Georgia Tech) to its present location of Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium, the annual rite of spring has produced plenty of outstanding performances from some of the top teams in NCAA Division III.

MLast year’s championship came down to the final day of competition, with Emory University scoring a victory to win their second consecutive UAA title and eighth championship overall. The Eagles went on to finish as the runner-up in the NCAA Division III championship, the highest finish by an Association team.

MEmory, which entered 2008 ranked fifth in the country in the D3Baseball.com preseason poll, will be the favorite to win a third straight Association title.  Historically, once play begins, the term “favorite” is lost amid the fierce competition. No team has won the Association championship three consecutive seasons.  Johns Hopkins University (no longer a member of the Association) captured UAA titles in 1989 and ‘90, but won the third in 1992 after inclement weather shortened the tournament the year before, producing no champion.

MEmory has claimed back-to-back titles, either shared or outright, on three occasions (1994-95, 2003-04, and its current two-year run) but were stopped short of the three-peat courtesy of mother nature in 1996, Brandeis University in 1997, and Washington University in 2005.

MExpect those two, along with the University of Rochester, and Case Western Reserve University, to try and be the monkey wrench in Emory title run this week. Rochester's closest run to a UAA title came in 2004 with a 5-1 mark, finishing runner-up to the Eagles, while Case is looking for it's best finish in UAA play since the 1995 championship tournament, when a 4-2 record was good for a third-place showing.

MTournament Preview Upcoming

FINAL STANDINGS
(Click on team name for tournament stats)

Tuesday, March 11
MBrandeis 12, Case 2
MBrandeis 10, Rochester 7
MEmory 6, Washington 5

Friday, March 14
MWashington 8, Emory 7
MWashington 10, Brandeis 4
MCase 4, Rochester 3

Wednesday, March 12
MRochester 11, Case 5
MWashington 10, Case 6
MEmory 7, Brandeis 5

Saturday, March 15
MBrandeis 10, Emory 7
MEmory 10, Case 0
MRochester 20, Washington 4

Thursday, March 13
MRochester 2, Washington 0
MEmory 15, Rochester 11
MBrandeis 11, Case 0

M
MM